The Good Shepherd - John 10:1-7

Assuming that Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees and other people surrounding Him, He begins another metaphor with Himself as the Good Shepherd. The IM interestingly notes that “Jesus’ declaration that He was the Good Shepherd should be understood against the backdrop of the Old Testament concept that Jehovah was the Shepherd of Israel, the divine caretaker of His people. By declaring Himself to be the Good Shepherd, Jesus was testifying again that He was Jehovah- the fulfillment of messianic prophecies.” That was something that I hadn’t considered. This analogy might be more difficult to understand for us because most of us haven’t really dealt with sheep very much in our lifetime, so there’s really not a lot where I can apply my own personal experience.

Jesus begins the analogy saying, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” I’m reminded of Jesus teaching of the strait and narrow gate by which we enter into the kingdom of God. I actually had a conversation with some guys last week about why we need to be baptized, and I basically told them that I believed the kingdom of God to be a place of order and that Jesus had every right to dictate how we came into his kingdom. They disagreed saying that people don’t have to get baptized, they only have to humble themselves and accept Jesus into their hearts to be saved. That’s definitely part of it, but the Savior commanded that we be baptized and so in order to be obedient to Him, we need to be baptized in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, or “be saved.” Even though there are at least two different interpretations for this metaphor, it’s compelling to use this as an illustration that we must conform to God’s law and be willing to take part in what he requires of us in order to enter his kingdom. Those who try to come into the kingdom in “some other way,” they cannot be accepted as His disciples because they want to come in on their own terms, they don’t want to be obedient in the simple way that He tells them to. They are still trying to dictate the terms of their entrance.

Jesus continues explaining the Shepherd-sheep relationship, the sheep will “hear his voice” and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out… and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.” When we try our best to obey the Savior and serve Him, the Holy Ghost is with us, and we grow closer to Jesus. The closer we get to the Savior, the more we understand who he is and what he does, the more we know who we are and feel his love for us. These insights, the personal growth towards God that comes with that obedience and desire, allows us to experience life with a new filter. We can more easily discern what is of God and what is not. That is one way to view the concept of “strangers” here. We can know and understand God and as we do, the voices of iniquity become more offensive and obscure to us, and that’s how we can know who to follow, what to do, and how to act and think. Do I know Jesus’ voice? I would like to think that I’m getting there. This isn’t a cut and dry concept though, so it’s understandable that the people who heard this analogy first hand “understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.”

As the Good Shepherd, Jesus says that “I am the door of the sheep.” The IM explains, “Shepherd in Israel stood at the entrance of a sheepfold and inspected each sheep as it entered, treating injuries as needed. After the sheep were gathered in the enclosure for the night, the shepherd would lie down to sleep in the entrance, barring the way so predators or thieves could not hurt the sheep. The Savior’s statement, ‘I am the door,’ makes clear that he was willing to ‘lay down (His) life for the sheep,’ and that He ultimately will decide who will enter the kingdom of heaven. Using an image similar to a door, the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob declared that ‘the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel’ and that ‘he employeth no servant there.’” This was a difficult concept for me to understand when I first started my study of the scriptures in depth. I remember getting to that part of 2 Nephi when Jacob says this and not knowing Jesus like I do now, I thought about how intimidating that felt, to know that in order to get into heaven, I would have to come face to face with Jesus and plead my case. I remember thinking, “he wants to turn everyone away personally.” But while reading and studying that section, there was something that I read that said something like, “Jesus stands at the gate himself because he wants to personally welcome us into the kingdom. He loves us so much he wouldn’t miss the chance to meet us at the gate himself with open arms hoping for a hug.” That was a very powerful statement for me, I realized that I was wrong about Jesus and who he was.

Naturally, the door of the pen would be the naturally vulnerable point where it would be easiest to get in with the sheep. Jesus says that he personally will protect the sheep inside, and will die for them if he must. I think that sheep in such an interesting concept because looking at a sheep, you can’t help but feel how completely vulnerable they are. They don’t really have any defenses, no spiky horns, no sharp teeth, no pointy hooves, they really are at the mercy of whoever wants to take advantage of them. As much as we try to be tough and think that we don’t need anyone else and can take care of ourselves, we really are just as vulnerable spiritually. We will make mistakes and for that reason we can’t return to Heavenly Father, and there’s nothing that we can do about that. Even if we try our best to be righteous all the time, we probably committed our first sin right after we were baptized as kids. Jesus guarding us and allowing us the opportunity to grow spiritually gives us the gift of protection from justice, if we will accept his mercy.