When you peal an onion, you discover layer after layer after layer – each a little different than both the former layer and the next layer – but all of it representing a revelation of taste and wonder and discovery. The same can be said of Chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. John, the chapter popularly known as the “Good Shepherd” chapter. As you read the verses of John chapter 10 you find one layer after another of meanings and insights and teachings of our Lord, all of it written in terms of some of the most beautiful imagery to be found anywhere in Scripture – the imagery of the shepherd and his sheep.
Throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, Almighty God is frequently described in terms of a shepherd – specifically, a good shepherd. All of us know the 23rd Psalm, of course, where King David identifies God as the shepherd who leads us and guards us and protects us and provides all of the nourishment that we could ever need. In Psalm 80 the writer – and this time it was someone other than David who did the writing – begins by calling on God as “the Shepherd of Israel.” The prophet Jeremiah speaks of gathering God’s people as a flock of sheep that has been scattered. The prophet Ezekiel wrote: “As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.”
John chapter 10 has so very much to say about Jesus the Good Shepherd – and about us, His beloved sheep – that our lectionary breaks it into three pieces that are used in succeeding years, always on this fourth Sunday of Easter. Next year on this day we will direct our attention to John 10:11-18, and two years from now our meditation will be based on John 10:22-30. So today we begin our three-year cycle by peeling down through the layers of the first 10 verses of John 10, the verses you heard minutes ago in the reading of the Holy Gospel.
But before we can begin, we need to have a basic understanding of what shepherds did and how and why they did what they did in ancient Israel. First, we need to understand that sheep were probably the most important domesticated animal in Israel for thousands of years. The milk produced by sheep could be used for drinking and for making cheeses. Sheep were shorn once a year, and the wool from that shearing was used to make warm clothing and blankets. Meat was far too expensive for most people to eat regularly, but on those few special occasions when meat was served it most often was either sheep or goat. As specifically commanded by God, a one-year-old lamb or goat without any blemish or imperfection of any kind was to be sacrificed and eaten on the night of the Passover, a tradition that was followed by Jesus and His disciples on the night of His betrayal. And, of course, the sheep was one of the living creatures specifically identified by God for use as sacrificial offerings on the altar of the Tabernacle and later on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Someone, of course, had to raise and take care of those sheep, and that was the job of the shepherd. During some months of the year the shepherd and his sheep actually moved from one grazing area to another. But during the cooler winter months, the sheep were kept inside a pen at night – a pen surrounded by high stone walls, protecting the flock from predators as well as from thieves and robbers who might want to steal them. This sheep pen had only one entrance – one door or one gate – and was carefully guarded at all times. In the morning the shepherd would call his sheep – often calling them by name – and since the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd, he was the only one that they would follow. At nightfall the shepherd would lead his sheep back to the safety of the pen. To make sure that none of the sheep wandered off at night – and that no predators or thieves entered the pen – the shepherd would actually lie down across the entrance, using his body, so to speak, as a human door or gate. It had to be a tough life – always watching, always protecting, always caring and feeding and watering – 24-hours-per-day, day after day after day. It was not a profession for the lazy or the faint-of-heart. It was a profession – a life – only for those willing to care for the sheep no matter what, even if the shepherd were to die protecting his flock.
In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, he described how John the Baptizer saw Jesus walking toward him, and John uttered these words repeated so many, many times by Christians throughout the past 2,000 years: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Not only are his words a direct reference to the Passover lamb, but they also echo the words of the Isaiah, who prophesied that the Messiah “was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
So here we have our first layer, the layer that we already know: Jesus clearly is the Lamb. And we immediately run into a second layer, for Jesus also makes it clear that He – the Lamb of God – is also the shepherd of the sheep. Our rational minds tell us that it is impossible to be both – no one can physically be a lamb and a shepherd – an animal and a human – both at the same time. But it’s all right there in the words that Jesus spoke. Granted, St. John does tell us in verse 6 that the listeners did not understand what He was saying to them – but from the comfort of Christianity some 2,000 years later, we understand the imagery and we know what Jesus was saying. And, of course, all you have to do is read verse 11 – the verse that immediately follows today’s Gospel lesson – and it’s as plain as the nose on your face. Jesus says in that verse: “I am the good shepherd.”
In Biblical languages, the word “good” meant a whole lot more than it means to us today. When we hear something called “good” we think that it is simply OK, but could be better. Remember the declension we learned as school children: good, better, best. In Biblical languages, “good” actually means things like “best” or “unsurpassed.” In Biblical languages, “good” means perfect and holy. When God created the heavens and the earth He declared His creation to be “good” – it was perfect, it was holy, it was totally unmarked and unstained and uncorrupted by sin. That same meaning applies to Jesus our good shepherd – the one and only man in all of history who truly was perfect, holy and unmarked by any sin.
Remember that the good shepherd is totally and absolutely responsible for the care and well-being of his sheep. Sheep are pretty helpless animals, and they need a lot of loving attention. And that’s what Jesus our good shepherd gives us. He cares for us. He gives us everything we need. He protects us. And not only was He willing to give His life for us, His sheep – He actually did give His life for us.
OK so far, but now we run into another layer, another statement that makes us stop and notice, stop and think. Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” We’re no longer dealing with an animal or a human being, but now He describes Himself in terms of an inanimate object – a door. But then we remember that the shepherd would lie down across the opening at night, creating that human door/gate that I mentioned before.
At first glance we might assume that Jesus is simply referring to Himself as a door since He serves the role of the shepherd by guarding His sheep from thieves and robbers. Guarding us from thieves and robbers like Satan, who continually seeks to draw us away from Christ into sin and damnation. And guarding us from thieves and robbers like false teachers, those who seek to pervert or change God’s Word, who seek to teach us to believe things other than God’s truth, who sometimes seek to draw us to other faiths and religions that worship false gods and not the Triune God. I’m thinking of people like the Michigan pastor whose best-selling book teaches that even if you don’t believe in Jesus, you will still go to heaven. I’m thinking of groups like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny the true God and replace Him with a god of man’s imagination. I’m thinking of groups like Islam, the religion that teaches that the Quran and not the Bible is the true revelation of God’s Word and that those of us who believe in the Triune God are infidels who are doomed.
And then we discover yet one more layer when we read the final two verses of today’s lesson, where Jesus says: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus is the door – the only door – to eternal life and the green pastures of heaven. Jesus knows His sheep and calls them – calls us – by name. He sends the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith. He personally leads us to everything that we need for our lives here on earth and for our even greater, eternal lives in heaven.
That’s why Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in that lowly stable in Bethlehem. That’s why He preached and healed and did all manner of miracles. That’s why He willingly went to the cross, giving His precious life for the hopelessly sinful sheep of His flock. And that’s why he conquered death and rose on the third day – all so that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” The Lamb who is the Shepherd who is the Door has purchased and won us by the shedding of His precious blood. We truly are His own. And thanks be to Him who is our Lamb and Shepherd and Door, we need never fear that any thief or robber will pull us from His tender care. We are His. And we shall live under Him, cradled in the loving arms of our Good Shepherd for all eternity. As Luther writes so often in his Small Catechism and as we here confess today: this is most certainly true.
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