THE DOOR & THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Ancient shepherds would put up their sheep in stone-walled pens called sheep folds. It was also common for them to build these folds inside a cave or where there was a natural rock outcropping or overhang to provide protection from the elements. These pens didn’t necessarily have gates. The shepherd himself would lie down in the opening at night as a human gate. When Jesus says He is both the Good Shepherd AND the door or gate of the sheepfold, He’s not saying He is two things. The Shepherd IS the door.

Multiple shepherds might have more than one flock of sheep in one large “community fold” or in a shared pasture. Each flock would follow the call of its own shepherd.

I found this fun, 2-minute video on YouTube of a group experimenting to see if sheep will truly only respond to the voice of their shepherd. The farm is in Norway and the group of students were told the exact words that the shepherd used to call the flock. Three of them attempt to call the sheep. Watch how the sheep respond when they hear their shepherd’s voice. The reaction of the students at the end is delightful.

SHEEP VIDEO 👨🏻‍🌾🐏🐑🐑🐏🐑🐑🐑🐏🐏🐑

Jesus’ hearers weren’t quite picking up the clues He dropped in the opening parable, so He speaks more plainly. He is drawing on content that would’ve been familiar to this Jewish audience. Not only were they surrounded by sheep as an important part of their everyday lives, but Jesus is connecting back to the preaching of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and especially Ezekiel who used the metaphor of sheep and shepherds to confront Israel’s leadership.

If you have time to read all of Ezekiel 34, you’ll see how Jesus is in many ways repeating Himself to Israel. It’s a good idea to at least write “Ezek. 34” in the margin of John 10 for future reference. Here’s a sample:

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭34‬:‭7‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The LORD goes on to say how He will care for His sheep and punish the neglectful shepherds and even the “fat rams” who have trampled the fodder and muddied the stream.

In saying “I AM the good shepherd” Jesus is plainly putting Himself in the role of the Word of Yahweh. Jesus is not some lesser-divinity. He is THE I AM Who spoke to the OT prophets.

Look how He repeats to His audience what He said to the nation in Isaiah’s day:

“The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭56‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Now, if Jesus was not who He claimed to be, then these are wild claims. Insane even. And that’s what some of them concluded. But there was the inconvenient truth of all the miracles Jesus had done. Can madmen do miracles? Do demon-possessed people cast out demons?

The great 20th century thinker and author, C. S. Lewis set forth a challenge in his book Mere Christianity. It goes like this:

Since Jesus repeatedly made the claim to be Divine, people cannot simply dismiss Him as a great moral teacher. A moral man who was sound of mind would not go about claiming to be God because that would be a lie and he would know it to be a lie. The Pharisees suggested maybe then that He is mad. For a man to believe and proclaim himself to be God when he is not, in fact, God, would make him a raving lunatic. He would be lying but have no idea he is lying because he believes it to be true. But can madmen do miracles? Many, many miracles? With multiple, historically verifyable eyewitnesses? So “Lewis’s Trilemma” as it is sometimes called is this: That Jesus was either

• A Liar
• A Lunatic
• Or LORD

If He was either of the first two, why on earth does anyone follow Him? What has He to do with anyone’s life today? Are His cherished teachings the snake-oil sales pitch of a charlatan or the ramblings of a crazy man? No? Then enough with this nonsense of calling Jesus “a great moral teacher.” He was much more than that. He was and is the Divine Son of God.

THE HANUKKAH DEBATE 🕎

It’s now December. And in Judea they are celebrating the “Feast of Dedication” (the word Hanukkah means “dedication”). The festival was to commemorate the cleansing of the Temple after it was polluted by the wicked Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes. It was also a celebration of freedom from the horrible Seleucid rule. The holiday looked a lot different than today. There were no dreidels or latkes or jelly donuts.

😐 Aww man… No jelly donuts? Bummer. So what did they do? Read the Hanukkah story by candlelight?

Not that either. The Talmudic story of the oil lasting for 8 days hadn’t even been written down yet. It was mainly observed by going to the temple in Jerusalem, singing the Hallel Psalms and offering special thank offerings with prayers. No one had menorahs to light each night, but they would light at least one oil lamp (more if they could afford it) and set the lamps in windows or at the entrances of their homes. Josephus called it “the Festival of Lights

Jesus is in the temple during these celebrations and a group surrounds Him in Solomon’s portico…

Solomon’s porch or portico was a long colonnade on the eastern side of the temple. It was a large public area that will show up in future assemblies of the early church. It wasn’t built by Solomon, of course, but it was believed to have been built on top of stones that were originally laid by Solomon. It might’ve looked something like this…

“So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.””
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus has already told them plainly. “I Am the Fountain of Living Water.” “Before Abraham was, I Am.” He has done plenty of signs and miracles and they would not believe.

They think they need more evidence or a bolder revelation. What they actually need is humility. They don’t have an evidence problem. They have a heart problem.

They know exactly what Jesus is claiming when He says “I and the Father are one.” Jesus is saying, “I Am Divine.” And that’s why they want to stone Him.

And this is where Jesus quotes Psalm 82; that Psalm by Asaph we just read last week about the judgment on the sons of God who went rogue. If those beings were “sons of God” how much more does the Incarnate Word have a right to call Himself the Son of God? If Jesus claims to be anything BUT the Son of God He would be lying.

And for the 3rd time, Jesus disappears from a crowd trying to kill Him.

He doesn’t just leave the Temple. He leaves the region.

Jesus passes very close to Qumran. He may have even stopped there to stay for a day or two before crossing to Bethany. And I suspect that many of the faithful students of the scriptures who were in that community (made up mostly of the descendants of the High Priest Zadok) would’ve followed Him to Bethany to hear Him teach.

This is what Bethany looks like today:

While Jesus settles in for the coldest bit of winter, tomorrow we’re going to read some parables recorded only in Luke. They were probably given earlier in Jesus’ ministry but are quite appropriate for the calm before the storm.