Sheep-herders - John 10:9-16

After I wrote about Jesus being the Good Shepherd the other day, I looked out the window at work and across the little street was a field full of sheep. I immediately thought about what I had just learned about and thought that it was so interesting that there were a bunch of sheep standing right in front of me, when I hadn’t seen them there ever before. I pointed it out to the woman standing next to me, and she said that all the sheep will follow each other around in a line until they got to a ditch. Then they would stop and look at the ditch until one of them jumped over it and then turned around to the others like “look at me stupids, just jump over it.” I thought, “how could Jesus possibly compare us to sheep, yes, we are just as vulnerable, but sheep are so stupid, and we are so intelligent.” Then I remembered the teachings of the prophets that our knowledge and understanding of the gospel and universal and eternal truths is so minimal that we are no more than babe in our mother’s laps with what we comprehend in this life.

I imagined Jesus standing out in that field with the sheep and compared the understanding of each party involved. The sheep would be able to understand their needs to food and shelter, but they can’t comprehend how to navigate obstacles such as the ditch, they don’t understand how to get in or out of the enclosure that surrounds them. The sheep aren’t able to see above their own eye level to look for dangers or opportunities. Compared to the shepherd who can see above the grass, who has a larger world view, can move and warn the sheep of danger. I thought that in this way, we as flawed mortal beings were functioning on much the same level as the sheep were. We don’t remember where we came from, we don’t inherently know where we’re going, our main goal in life is really just to fulfill our basic needs such as food and shelter, and anything beyond that is considered remarkable. We really only see around our own eye level, but the shepherd sees more, and in Jesus’ case, sees all. So are we stupid like sheep? No, just in our circumstances right now, our knowledge is limited to the degree that the difference between our knowledge and God’s could be comparable to the difference between and human and a sheep.

The door of the of the sheep that Jesus ascribes to himself is the only authorized way in or out of the sheep pen. Jesus says that even though others will try to come through over the sides, the difference between those who sneak in and Himself, are their intentions. Jesus says, “the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”  There are a couple of different meanings that we can glean from this analogy, the first being those who try to dictate their entrance into heaven on their own terms. Those who want to get into heaven, but are not willing to go about their “salvation” in the terms set forth by the Savior are those who have not humbled themselves enough to be obedient. No judgment, I was the same way for most of my life, and in some ways I still am incredibly hostile to the commandments, so I’m speaking about myself in the same way. I’m not saying that those who won’t be baptized at all are murderers, I’m not saying that at all. What I am saying is that those who want to get into heaven so badly that they will try to go around the rules and find a “loophole” (climbing over the wall of the pen), have disobedience in their hearts. They don’t want to go to heaven because they love God and want to be with him, they want to go to heaven so that they can do it their own way and still reap the benefits. Kind of like the “something for nothing” attitude.

The other way that we can look at the “door” analogy is that the intruders, thieves, etc. are coming into the flock of sheep and trying to get them away from the shepherd. Literally, this would result in a physical altercation between the shepherd and the thief, but with this being a metaphoric situation, the choice between staying safe in the pen with the shepherd and being stolen away by the thief is up to the individual sheep to decide. Jesus indicates one way to decide who is of God and who is of the devil in this metaphor is their intentions, indicating that the intruder comes into the sheep pen, not out of curiosity or desire to help the sheep but only for use the sheep for his own personal gain, either through stealing and selling the sheep or just by hurting them because he’s crazy. On the other hand, the only reason that Jesus is in the pen with the sheep, Jesus tells us, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” He personally is not benefitted at all by helping us, Heavenly Father doesn’t give him any special gifts or privileges, he literally is only deprived of his time and energy by being the Good Shepherd, and if I had to choose to follow someone based on their intentions, the person who genuinely only wants what’s best for me will beat out the guy who only wants to use me for his own gain, every single time.

Additionally, it’s not just that Jesus gains nothing by caring for the sheep, but in a literal sense, being a shepherd is a very dangerous job. I don’t remember what book I was reading, but it was some kind of historical fiction about either Isaac or Jacob, one of them was a shepherd, I want to say it was Orson Scott Card’s book about Jacob’s life, but in that book there is an account of Jacob being made fun of because he was just a shepherd while Esau was a mighty hunter. The part I’m thinking of has Jacob either thinking or saying something to the effect of, “Just because I’m a shepherd doesn’t mean I’m safe, I had to kill a wolf with my bare hands to protect my sheep.” It just illustrated the unseen hazards of the job. In Jacob’s case, there must be a shepherd to protect the sheep in order for the family to have the sheep as an asset. In Jesus’ case, he doesn’t need to care for us to keep us as an asset. Like we said, he literally gains absolutely nothing by caring for us, our obedience or his atonement contributes nothing to his personal salvation. Jesus was sinless, and thereby will be exalted regardless of anything that anyone else does. Jesus didn’t have to die or to perform the atonement in order to save his own soul, unlike Jacob who had to care for the sheep in order to not starve to death himself.

Jesus says that he not only cares for the sheep out of pure desire for their happiness, but as the Good Shepherd, he will “giveth his life for the sheep.” This is like someone who doesn’t need the money, taking care of sheep. The sheep don’t contribute to his well being, and he derives no profit from them. It’s like someone who is independently wealthy leaving the comforts of home and going to Africa to care for orphans and knowing full well the whole time that they are probably going to be murdered trying to protect the children from kidnappers. The only motivation for those kind of actions are pure love, that’s the only feeling possible. I guess a modern day way of understanding this is an independently wealthy man who takes over an orphanage and feed, clothes, educates and protects all the children, verses a guy who takes over the orphanage who sell the kids to traffickers for large sums of money. That’s the difference between Jesus and Satan right there. Interesting.

Not only is there a difference between those who protect the sheep and those who try to kill the sheep, but there is also a difference between the types of people who protect the sheep. Jesus illustrates this point when he says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 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.” The shepherd will defend and protect the sheep whereas the “hireling” or sheep-herder I guess, is only there for the money, it’s just a job to him, and I guess that the main difference between a shepherd and a sheep-herder is their level of investment. Jesus, as the good shepherd, is highly invested in our success and happiness. The three different kinds of people interacting with the sheep are the guy who opens the orphanage, feeds, loves, and protects the kids, the other guy who is hired to work there, and then there is the crazy guy who comes to the orphanage to kidnap the children and sell them on the black market. When the crazy guy comes, the main guy defends the kids to his death while the hired guy runs away, what an interesting commentary.

Now we get to the part of Jesus’ sermon that becomes related to Mormonism. Jesus says, “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.” There is no explanation for who exactly Jesus is talking about here, and the Jews assumed he was referring to the gentiles, which would be interesting because the Jews at this time didn’t believe that the gentiles were worthy of or ever would receive the true word of God. I wonder if that was one of those after thoughts of, “well… I thought they were talking about someone else.” The IM quotes Elder Dallin H. Oaks as teaching, “In addition to (the Savior’s) ministry in what we now call the Middle East, the Book of Mormon records His appearance and teachings to the Nephites on the American continent. There He repeated that the Father had commanded him to visit the other sheep which were not of the land of Jerusalem. He also said that he would visit others ‘who (had) not as yet heard (His) voice.’ As prophesied centuries earlier, the Savior told His followers in the Americas that he was going ‘to show (Himself)’ to these ‘lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.” It is quite arrogant of us to assume that we know all the people and all the places in the world, especially back then when they had literally none of our technological advances. This verse went completely over the heads of the Jews at the time and many who want to defame Mormonism, but that’s ok, because we got it.