John 10:1–6
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now to a passage that is beloved by many, the tender picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. But we must not allow the familiarity of the image to dull the razor's edge of what Jesus is actually doing here. This is not a gentle, pastoral poem recited in a meadow. This is a polemical broadside, a direct and confrontational attack on the religious authorities of Israel, delivered in the immediate aftermath of their corrupt and brutish handling of the man born blind. Jesus finds him, saves him, and then turns to the Pharisees and calls them blind. This discourse on shepherds and sheep is a continuation of that very same fight. Jesus is drawing a sharp, unyielding line in the sand. He is distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate spiritual authority. He is teaching His people how to tell the difference between a true shepherd who loves the sheep and a hireling, a thief, a robber, a strangler who is only in it for himself.