Shepherd

Understanding John 10

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

 Jesus says, "I am the Good shepherd (First week of December

We will need to look closely into this.

What does a shepherd do ?

He cares for his flock. But unlike the shepherd whom we see. Jesus says, the Good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. 

Few points to ponder.

Here the people, who are us. We are likened to a sheep and Jesus is the shepherd. We should first understand why we are likened to a sheep.

Firstly the sheep does not know anything at all. The only thing a sheep really needs to do is to pay attention to the shepherd and to obey his commands. Secondly the sheep blindly has to trust the shepherd to be safe.

This makes perfect sense, we all are indeed like sheep in the eyes of God. So what does God want of us really. The expectation is not much, just obey his commands, which we often fail to keep and so we stray away and then God comes seeking for us and rescues us time and again. Next, we often fail to trust God, that he will take good care of us. And we often think that we are going to achieve using our own strength. Just ask god for help and trust that he will work it out for us.

There is more to it. Jesus says, that he is the gate, and no one can enter the sheep pen without him. So if anyone claims to say that they will be able to get you the eternal life, then it is fake.

There is no other way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Life

Finally, I am actually, for the first time, talking about Life, which is the title of this very blog.

I often times wonder, why we inherently like good qualities in a person and detest the bad guy. For example, you watch a movie, it is a fight between good and evil, and every one of the audience support the Good, and very much wish that evil character would face a fateful end and good triumphs. Why is that? , what makes us all think the same way ?. We are all unanimous in that one accord.

 

To understand this, we have the answer right in the bible, so clearly outlined for us.

John 1: 1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

So there are may truths with this verse. For now we will just focus on the life aspect here.

For context, In all these verses we see that Jesus is the word, and he was there before the beginning of the world. And all these verses talks about God and the other co creator who is also the same God who is God in a different form, who took human likeness, who is Jesus. We will talk more about that in later posts. (Verse 9 - 13 gives more information on that)

For now lets focus on verse 4 : In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 

We all know what life is, how ? because we loose it when we die, so some may call it the spirit, the inner being, which dwells within the body. So the inner being within the body is life, which we all know, and it is this life within us which decides which is good an evil. and this inner life within each of us, came from God !. So the source is one, we are all derived from God. That explains why we all unanimously support Good, why we all have Love within us.

This life is light !. No wonder our life supports good, and our hearts align towards it. Our life (a part of God) is the light, and it shines in the darkness, meaning each of us is fighting against the darkness. Meaning, there is something other than the life (light) we see in this world which is the darkness. We need to be aware of this.

But there is one re assurance, we see in verse 5, "and the darkness has not overcome[a] it." The darkness has not overcome it. Even though our earthly life has battles with this supernatural darkness which is around us. The light has overcome it.

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Note :

Was it a co incidence, that the verse of the day in bible gateway, talks about the same verse i wanted to talk about ? and this verse was speaking to me over and over this week. God wants to communicate a profound truth to us.

About Success.

 There was a time in my life,  back inn 2007, when I graduated from college, I thought i was Sinless and believed that, I met the criteria to see God. Since the verse says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. 

This was total atrocity which i realize now. I was not sinless at that time, which i can clearly see now. Back then even though i claimed to be pure, I did not realize that I was giving more importance to academic excellence, over every thing else. Thought that was the most crucial thing for anyone. At a point i even told point blank to a good guy that i value all his goodness, but if only he had studied a bit differently like Engineering. I was repaid so badly for that sin of mine.

In 2024 I finally came to realize, what my sin was. It took a lot of beating up and I learnt it the very hard way. In the span of time, as i navigated through the rough terrain of life, I committed many sins, It is easier to be good in a good and safe atmosphere and very challenging in a challenging environment.

Now i know the following, The bible has clearly said this in many places.

for example

God says,

"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the lord do all these things.

Isaiah 45:7

So basically, it is not a persons academic excellence or any other factor that defines them or their life, it is way lot more than that. Simply put it is in Gods hands to decide what happens with ones life. And there is nothing else to it.

So, the bible says,

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.