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This was the contrast of the formerly blind man standing
before Jesus, and the Pharisees who refused to see the Light of Christ. They respond in verse 40 … “And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we
blind also?” This was a rhetorical
question in their minds, for from their perspective, no one had a better grasp
on scripture or the law than themselves.
They did not anticipate His answer in verse 41 … “Jesus said unto them,
If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your
sin remaineth.” It was NOT the lack of
knowledge that caused the Pharisees to remain in their sin. It was their arrogance in assuming they
needed no help with their sin from Christ.
In effect, the Pharisees were comfortable with the idea, that the forms
and traditions of their worship were enough to save them. They could basically save themselves. They needed no help from a Messiah. The help they were looking for was not of a
spiritual variety, it was of a political one.
They yearned for a strong leader who would blaze the trail of freedom
from their heathen Roman oppressors.
They did not think of themselves as blind to truth or salvation, instead
they thought they knew everything they needed to know about those topics. Christ could keep his spiritual ideas about
reliance solely on Him to Himself. Now
if He had had something to say on ousting the Romans, they would have been all
ears. But our ideas of God, and what we
want from Him, are often not what His ideas are, or what He wants for us. So to clarify the mission of the Messiah, and
dispense with the false leaders who had come before and would come again,
Christ decides to tell them in story, why He is there.
Jesus begins his sermon in verse 1 of chapter ten of John’s
account … Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber. [verse 2] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the
sheep.” Soon Jesus would identify
Himself as the door. In these passages
Jesus declares, that there is only one way in and out of the sheepfold. It is THROUGH Christ. Attempting to gain passage by another route,
say, by the strength of our own ideas, or by assuming our own “spirituality” or
“goodness” warrants a position in the flock absent Christ for example: these methods reveal only our own
motives. They do not entitle us to be in
the flock, they actually make us dangerous to others who are there. Those who enter by the strength of Christ are
those who “should” be in the number.
Jesus continues in verse 3 … “To him the porter openeth; and
the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth
them out. [verse 4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. [verse 5] And a
stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the
voice of strangers.” Jesus tries to show
the difference between Himself and those others who might “claim” to be the
Messiah. Those who seek truth, find it
in Jesus. They realize the only way
their tattered lives can ever be remade is through the power of Christ. As such, they only want Jesus to be their
shepherd, because they have found relief in no other way, including in trusting
their own abilities. Thus they crave the
voice of Jesus to lead them. When others
come and try to get these sheep to follow, the sheep realize there is no truth
in those voices, there is no redemption in them, and they wish only to follow
Christ. Here Christ is trying hard to
reveal to those there that He is THE method of their salvation.
And why choose sheep to represent us? A sheep is not a fierce some creature. They are not particularly bright. They make mistakes, get lost, and would
starve if not taken care of. They are
easy prey for wolves. From the
perspective of the wolf, it is easy to count sheep. To those Christians who believe it is their
right, and their duty, to defend themselves against the enemy, even if those
means include weapons and deadly force; I ask, are you the sheep, or the
wolf? We were not meant to combat
Satan. We are outmatched. It is no contest. It is ONLY our Shepherd who can defeat our
enemy. It is our trust in Him that sees
us delivered. It is not our making or
gathering of new sheep weapons that will save the day for us. Wolves will always defeat sheep if there is
no shepherd around to save them. This is
how evil works, in nature, and in us spiritually. Our enemy is superior to us, yet tells us, if
we just work hard enough, we can defeat him.
He tries to get the sheep to think they are strong enough, tough enough,
and determined enough to defeat the wolf by their sheer power of will. In this is the perversion of the gospel –
that we only need Christ to forgive us when we err, not save us from the
erring. Satan’s entire system of
deception is to get us to take our eyes and focus away from Jesus and put it on
ourselves. This is how the Pharisees
were blinded to Christ. They chose to
trust in their own understanding and not be humbled before God.
John notes in verse 6, that the audience there did not
understand what Christ was saying. I
would venture because our first response to being referred to as sheep is not a
pleasant one. If we are going to be
associated with animals we prefer a much more majestic or fierce creature. But sheep?
Ouch. So Jesus must try to
explain again, He continues in verse 7 … “Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. [verse 8] All that
ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. [verse
9] I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in
and out, and find pasture.” It is only
by Christ that we are provided for, both physically and spiritually. We are fed, both our daily bread, and our
daily spiritual growth, by following only Christ. It is only THROUGH Christ that we can enter
safely, and remain safely in the flock without being a danger to the others
there.
Imagine for a minute what heaven would be like to a rapist
who had never been reformed. All around
him are the most beautiful women, perfect in every way. All of them are loving, caring, attentive,
and eager to serve. None of them pose a
threat, none are violent, none have weapons of self-defense or need of
them. How hard it would be for the wolf
to roam the streets of heaven being tempted to defile every single woman he
comes across. Wondering if he could do
these acts of violence in secret, or in darkness, and remain undiscovered;
fearing that God might see him and cast him out. Heaven would not be heaven for such a man; it
would literally be a place of torture.
Forbidden fruit all around him, intense desire to dominate, but no
ability to execute and remain undiscovered for it; this is the situation
non-Christ centered religions and ideologies would have you accept. Those who do not accept that it is Christ who
remakes the rapist into a new creature who no longer wishes to ever hurt
another again, and wishes now only to serve and love all; offer no way to
achieve this transformation other than the power of their corrupted minds and
will. Muslins believe that God
forgives. But they offer no method of
transformation outside of the will of man.
Eastern religions teach that enlightenment is achieved through
introspection, not through submission to Christ. Atheism would have us believe that our
instinctive desire to preserve our social order could one day result in a
lessening of violence despite all the facts that point to the contrary. And even some Christians, cling to the ideas
that they need not submit to Christ to be remade, they can do it for
themselves. But for the rapist who knows
he cannot change himself, there is only one who can. The point of the story of Christ, is the
recognition of this need.
Then Jesus says something truly stunning as in verse 10 He
continues … “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly.” The unreformed lead a
tortured existence of pain and death.
They cannot help but to wish to please self. If this means they must steal to do it, then
so be it. How often have you taken
something, perhaps even something very small, that did not belong to you? How many rationalizations do you make to
“justify” your appropriation? We remove
a pen from the bank and say to ourselves, they are rich and can easily replace
a pen. Or if it is from an employer, we
just say to ourselves that this is simply part of our compensation for working
so hard. After all, the bank and our
employers wish us to write things down that they will use for their
benefit.
Or perhaps it is simply how we fill out our timesheets,
adding a few minutes here and there, or rounding things up just a bit to make a
little extra – rationalizing that we work harder than those around us in the
same amount of time and therefore “deserve” a bit more than they do. We get to a point, where we stop thinking
about what we take, as being a theft at all.
It is simply normal behavior for us, the right and wrong of it, have
long been decided in our favor. If evil
only stopped at thievery perhaps it would not be so bad. But evil does not stop at this kind of
rationalization. It is
degenerative. What I steal today, I must
protect tomorrow. If that requires
killing, so be it. If I cannot have it,
then nobody can, if I must destroy a good thing to keep others from enjoying
it, then so be it. And thus evil reveals
itself as nothing but pain and death, a tortured existence that is not truly
worth living, and would not be wanted if sentenced to be lived out in
immortality in this condition.
But contrast the nature of evil, with the desires and
mission of Christ where He says … “I am come that they might have life, and
have it more abundantly.” He is here to
make HOW we live, something more than it is today. A life in Christ is a life worth living. It is a life that does not cause pain to
others or to me. It is a life that lived
out in immortality would be worth living.
And this is NOT just a future promise.
It is an IMMEDIATE one. Our lives
can be made different today as we submit them to Jesus to be remade. The whole goal of God was eliminate the pain
and death that comes from evil from within us.
The pain we cause when we learn to steal and not even regard it as
stealing, is something we do not need to suffer from for yet another day. It is something we can bring to Jesus and
leave in His hands to be reformed. We do
not need to struggle every day pitting our knowledge of good and evil against
our inherent nature and desire to choose evil.
We need only submit to Christ, our desires, our will, and our decisions,
and allow Him to change HOW we think, WHAT we want, and then what we do will
follow. This is the Life that Christ
longs to introduce to us. He longs to
offer us a different life. Here and now,
not just in a place we call heaven; this offer was meant to be taken up on
today. We can be something more. We can be someone different than who we
were. We can be new creatures, if we but
let Christ re-create us as He wishes.
What a precious promise and reason for His visit to our world. He comes to offer us Life, a real life, not
this thing we have grown accustomed to, but something entirely different, new
and wonderful. This is the entire
mission of the Messiah.
Jesus continues in verse 11 … “I am the good shepherd: the
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
He is trying to warn those who hear Him there, that there will be a
personal cost to Him, to achieve our redemption. He must die, taking our place, in order that
the punishment of death we have embraced is met on our behalf. He does this willingly. This is how far Love will go, to save the
object of its affection. This is the
contrast between God and what it means to love others more than self; and Satan
who demonstrates where loving self first will lead. God, who is love, and has done nothing but
love us, will now go so far as to take on the punishment we deserve, so that we
will not suffer it. Forgiveness itself
is an act of love in the face of evil.
We do not deserve forgiveness we deserve punishment and retribution for
the pain we cause to others and ourselves, but forgiveness offers us no
punishment, it is love in the face of our evil.
This is the contrast between the nature of Love and the nature of
evil. Evil would demand evil for actions
it does not enjoy. Love offers love even
to those who have never earned it and will never deserve it.
As for these other pretender Messiah’s who may come
answering the desire of the people to be redeemed of Rome, but offering no way
of real redemption Jesus continues in verse 12 … “But he that is an hireling,
and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and
leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the
sheep. [verse 13] The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth
not for the sheep.” The Messiah the
Pharisees were looking for could never be the true one sent from God. For at the end of the day, those who seek
self first, seek to preserve self at all costs.
Political leaders have no problem having others die for their
cause. They have no problem keeping
themselves alive, even if others must die for them to do so. The contrast of those who seek only power,
and He who seeks only to offer us life are so outlined. He would lay down His life for us. Those other pretenders would be only all too happy
to avoid even the risk of losing their own lives, and if we lose ours, so be
it.
Jesus repeats his mission in verse 14 … “I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. [verse 15] As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.” He again states that despite what reputation
the devil would have us believe about God the Father, it is God the Father who
works in concert with Christ for our redemption and restoration. This is a mission of ALL of the Godhead. Our Father God is every bit as interested in
our redemption as is our Creator God His Son Jesus Christ. It is not the revelation of Jesus that all of
the sudden changes the mind of God His Father about our redemption. It is the revelation of Jesus that shows us
that our redemption was ALWAYS the first concern of His Father God and
Himself. Every story in scripture, even
every story in the Old Testament that we may not fully understand, was designed
to show us the redemptive desire of our God, not the image of a righteous
punisher in chief. Here is Christ on
earth, stating personally what He knows to be true, because He has heard it
first hand from the mouth of His Father, in conversation between them we would
never know. This is Jesus definitively
stating that His Father is consumed with our redemption and restoration. They work as one in this.
Then in verse 16 come perhaps the most beautiful words in
the New Testament for me personally, as I am not of Jewish decent, or was
present at the time of this sermon.
Jesus continues … “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one
fold, and one shepherd.” Praise God, the
mission of the Messiah was not just confined to the people He stood before on
that day. The mission was greater than for
just those of Jewish decent, and was greater than for just those who share my
particular doctrinal interpretations and values. His mission was to redeem and restore the
world. Jesus Christ would be the uniting
method of ALL of our salvation. There is
nothing to separate us from our home with Christ, except our stubborn
determination to reject the re-creation and new life He offers us. “One fold” not many. “One home” with Christ, not several. We are One family united in Christ, for only
through Christ might we become the new creations He intends. It is not our interpretation of scripture
that unites us, but instead the method of our salvation. “One Shepherd” not many. “One Shepherd” not his surrogates. We are not to follow other followers of
Christ, but to follow only the One Shepherd Himself. We do not find truth in each other; we find
it alone in Jesus. We can reflect the
love of Christ to each other as we allow Him to teach us how to love. But this does not mean that the source of
truth moves from Christ to His followers who have learned how to love. The source remains the source, it will always
be Jesus.
It is fine to notice and admire the sacrifice that some of the
great followers of Jesus have made to attempt to promote His love and His
faith. But these patriarchs from Adam,
to Noah, to Moses, to David, to Peter, to Martin Luther, to Billy Graham, to
your local pastor or spiritual teacher – all may have made contributions to the
kingdom, but none are to be your shepherd.
For there can be only one true Shepherd as there is only One fold or
home of His children. We are ALL to find
our salvation, our redemption, our re-creation, only in the person of Jesus
Christ. It is our distinct privilege
that John recorded these words, that the Lord preserved them, that we have a
Bible in which we can find them, and take them into our hearts. For it is “we” who are those sheep of another
fold; it is “we” who are to be included in His great number. No matter where we were born, or when, or how
we have been taught, salvation and life itself are ours for the taking through
the gift of Jesus Christ. It is not even
our pain and past that keeps Jesus away from us, He longs only to take away our
pain, and give us a real life in its place.
This text is a singular promise upon which we can have hope. For out of the mouth of God, came the words
directed at you, that you too, are to be saved under Christ.
Then Jesus states to the crowd the difference between
Himself, the true Messiah, and those who would claim that title as well in
verse 17 … “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that
I might take it again. [verse 18] No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father.”
Only Christ could both lay down His own life, and take it up again. Think of it, He was going to die, but here He
states none of us could actually kill Him.
He must lay down His own life. He
must give it up Himself, a free will offering, a free will gesture, in order
for us to be redeemed. Only God the
Father could give Jesus the power to both lay down His life, and having done
so, to take it up again. Others could
come claiming to be the Messiah, some might even be willing to die for their
cause. But none of the pretenders could
ever call themselves out of their own graves back to life again. Only the Son of God could do this, because
only He had received this commandment or ability from His Father; again showing
the unity of Father and Son in our work of redemption.
The response of the Pharisees in attendance was only a
continued blindness. They knew the
reality of our mortality. They knew that
no-one had ever come back from the dead to life again. So for Jesus to claim that this was something
He alone could do, was just crazy talk to them.
In verse 19 they responded … “There was a division therefore again among
the Jews for these sayings. [verse 20] And many of them said, He hath a devil,
and is mad; why hear ye him? [verse 21] Others said, These are not the words of
him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” The problem the Pharisees faced were not as
much the words of Christ, as the deeds of Christ. Jesus had made the blind man to see again, an
act of love the devil had never performed.
This miracle stood in the face of their ideas. It substantiated a connection between Christ
and God. At the very least, it made
Christ a prophet in the traditional sense.
But any connection to God, removed the power of the Pharisees over their
religious flock, and they meant to hold the role of shepherd for themselves. Do we offer the same response?
When Christ speaks to us that we cannot save ourselves; that
we must submit our will to Him, not just to fight harder not to sin on our own
– do we call it crazy talk? After all,
my nature is to express my sin, in whatever form it takes. The only reason why I do not sin more often
than I do today, is because of the small measure of self-control I exert over
it right? You are asking me to give up
fighting. If I do that, I will go
hog-wild on the sin thing without any restraint. Because, really, what is going to stop me, if
I give up trying to stop myself? But
Jesus asks us to trust Him, in spite of what we know about ourselves. He is not offering us an excuse to sin more;
He is offering us a way to sin NO more.
Submitting our desires to Him, allows Him to remake the things we
want. When we want something else, we
pursue that thing, not the old thing we used to want, and perhaps find we no
longer want. When we submit our
decisions to Him, we give Him the freedom to make other choices on our
behalf. Doors open and close and we
simply walk through them, instead of trying to pry ones open that should be
closed, or slam the ones that we were supposed to be entering in. When we submit our will to Christ, we
acknowledge that He alone can remake the “who” of who we are into what He
intends instead of what we have done with it.
We begin to think differently. We
begin to see truth. We begin to
understand. And most importantly, we
find we are no longer sinning that old sin, and cannot explain why, because we
did nothing to see it removed – Christ did.
Is this just crazy talk, or does
it work? Christ says it does, how will
you respond?
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