The Good Shepherd (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD (Part II)

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, but he calls own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers".

Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. So again Jesus said to them, 'Truly truly, I tell you, I am the gate of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gater. Whoever enters by Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep" (Saint John 10:1-11).

Saint John Chrysostom, one of the great Holy Fathers of the Church, says the door/gate (Gk. Θύρα (Thyra) is the Word (Gk. λόγος τού Θεού) of God. The relationship between a shepherd and his flock is a close and affectionate one, and it is common for the shepherd to give each of his sheep a name by which he calls it. The sheep, moreover, know and understand only their own shepherd's voice, and "they will never answer to the voice of a stranger." In claiming to be "the shepherd of the sheep" (St. John 10:`-2), then, Jesus was, once more, identifying Himself as the Messiah and associating his ministry with the activity of God, He (the Shepherd) will call to the True people of God by name, and they (the flock), sharing and knowing His voice, will follow Him out of the sheepfold of the world and into the green pastures of heaven (10:3-5). The Lord was also clearly implying that those who did not hear and know His voice (for example the Pharisees) were not really members of God's flock (10:6).

When, as usual, the Pharisees did not (or would not) understand what He was saying, Jesus became more explicit: "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep...I am the door; if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture....[For] I came that they [My sheep] may have life, and have it abundantly" (St. John 10:7-10). In calling Himself "the door", Jesus remains "the shepherd of the sheep." For out in the pastures of Palestine, a shepherd would herd his flock at night into a wall-enclosed sheepfold. Such a sheepfold would have an opening through which the sheep could go in and out, but there was no door at the opening. The shepherd himself would lie down for the night across the opening in the wall in order to keep his flock in the sheepfold. "In the most literal sense the shepherd was the door; there was no access to the sheepfold except through him." Jesus is both the Shepherd and the Door of God's flock. Only through Him may we "go in and out" -- that is, move freely and securely -- in the pasture of our Heavenly Father.

Continuing His discourse, Jesus proclaimed that the good shepherd would "lay down His life for the sheep." He prophesied His impending death, through which His people were to be reconciled to God the Father. Emphasizing the loving unity between Himself and the Father, the Lord made it clear that His atoning death was to be voluntary on His part and that, by the power given him by his Father, He would be raised from the dead. He also made it clear that His death would be redemptively effective, not only for the remnant of Israel but also for those gentiles who turn to him in faith and obedience: the Good Shepherd's Flock will include the sheep of a faithful Israel as well as "other sheep" drawn from "the nations" (St. John 10:11-18).

The climax of the Good Shepherd discourse came in response to the criticisms and questions of the ever-hostile Pharisees. The Pharisees and other members of the Jewish religious establishment demanded to know in plain words whether Jesus was the Messiah or not (St. John 10:19-24). He indicated to them that He was, indeed, the Messiah (10:25-29); and then, duplicating the bold claim which He had made three months earlier at the Feast of Tabernacle, Jesus declared: "I and the Father are one" (10:30). In response to the inevitable charge of blasphemy (10:31-33), the Lord appealed to his accusers to try and view His claim to Divine Sonship both biblically and open-mindedly (10:34-38). "If I Am not doing the works of My Father," He said, "then do not believe Me; but I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe in the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father" (10:37-38). But His opponents would not listen to reason and tried, once more without success, to have Him arrested (10:39). (Source: The Message of the Bible, an Orthodox Perspective by George Cronk).

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George