Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
Today’s lection, John 10:11-16, presents metaphors familiar to many since childhood. Jesus identifies himself as “the gate” of the sheepfold and the “good shepherd” of the sheep. Most of us have heard (or preached!) feel-good sermons that romanticize this text as a pastoral “love song” of the Good Shepherd to each of us, his sheep. In some circumstances—bereavement, perhaps–such a sermon may be in order. But if this is all we hear or preach, we are missing the powerful Christological and ecclesiological claims of this text. Closer attention to its narrative context can sharpen our hearing.
Chapter 10 is linked seamlessly to chapter 9, the story of the healing of the man born blind. Healed by Jesus, he is interrogated by the Pharisees about Jesus’ identity and authority. They dismiss the man’s testimony that Jesus must be “of God” and throw the man out of the synagogue (9:34). When Jesus seeks out the man, the Pharisees engage Jesus directly (9:40-41). Ch 10 presents Jesus’ response to his detractors. Thus, Chapters 9 and 10 form one of the several sign/discourse pairings that structure John’s gospel. The debate that prompts the Good Shepherd discourse does not conclude until 10:21.
Jesus takes up the Pharisees’ queries about his identity and authority by way of metaphors that resonate with their knowledge base. He announces his identity and mission by way of two metaphorical claims: “I am the gate” (v. 8) and “I am the good shepherd” (v. 11). These metaphors resonate with multiple OT allusions to God as Shepherd of Israel in Torah, Wisdom literature, and the prophets. Jesus’ mission is to gather God’s scattered sheep and protect them from those whose interests are either malevolent (“thieves and bandits,” v 8) or mercenary (“hired hand,” vv 12-13).
Today’s text inspired much 19th century hymnody. Jesus is celebrated as loving, protective shepherd; we are his humble, straying but beloved sheep—known, nourished, and safe. But read in its proper context, Jn 10:11-16 resists such domestication. In a tense stand-off with his critics, Jesus mobilizes the power of metaphor to open their blind eyes (9:40-41) to the intervention of the Shepherd-God of Israel taking place right in front of them. Jesus himself is the Shepherd who has begun gathering God’s flock; and it is larger and more diverse than they have ever dared to imagine. Jesus gathers the formerly blind man who has been cast out; he gathers the shunned Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4). Might she represent those “other sheep” to whom Jesus refers (10: 16)?
Jesus states no less than four times in our text that he “lays down” or “risks” his life for the sheep (vv 11, 15, 17, 18). Some commentators insist that Jesus’ repeated reference to “laying down” his life is strictly soteriological; but the underlying grammar does not force this limited interpretation. For whom does Jesus, the Good Shepherd, ask us to risk our lives or reputation? What might it look like to seek out “sheep” driven away from churches by neglect, abuse, or shaming? Who are the “other sheep” of “other folds” living next door to us, and what will it look like to befriend, defend, and honor them? Who are the vulnerable lambs of the Good Shepherd that we need to stand up and defend? Might they include thousands of children trapped at this hour in deadly war zones, slowly starving while bombs fall around them? If John 10 is a love song, surely it is for them. For us, it is a summons: When the wolf comes, stand between the lambs and danger. Lay down your life.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 