Title The Good Shepherd (John 10:1-21)
Contents
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus once said: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30). There are no middle or gray areas. Those who say, "I neither acknowledge nor deny Jesus as Savior" are also on the side of denying Jesus. Humans, whether they know it or not, are on one side. If you do not belong to Jesus, you belong to the devil, and you are a child of the devil. Ultimately, it is a matter of whether you deny yourself and acknowledge the Lord, or deny the Lord and acknowledge yourself. Who do we recognize and live by?
The word “shepherd” is widely used when referring to Jesus. There is a painting called Seonghwa (?), and there are many paintings with this as the background. It is a picture of a shepherd holding a sheep in his arms with a staff and leading it to a place where there is green grass and still water. Some people say that a certain young man like that shepherd is called Jesus, but I think it's nonsense. Please don't just associate Jesus with long hair and a bushy beard.
Anyway, I don't know if that's the effect of the picture, but in general, when believers say that Jesus is the shepherd, the immediate feelings they get are benevolence, guidance, protection and security, comfort, etc. So, when we read or recite the well-known Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not lack”, it is infinitely warm and feels like God will provide anything good as a shepherd. However, if you only have this feeling, you cannot say that you have properly understood the words of Psalm 23. Nor would it be possible to say that I understood correctly what Jesus declared to be the "Good Shepherd."
The Jews of that time were also divided into two groups regarding this declaration of Jesus. Many people have stumbled because of these words, while others have come to believe in Jesus because of these words. Many Jews thought that Jesus was possessed by a demon when He said, "I am the Good Shepherd." At least, this reaction came about because they judged Jesus based on their view of the Bible. When they put Jesus into their way of thinking, it didn't fit at all. In other words, the shepherd they knew was God.
As David confessed in Psalm 23, Jehovah is Israel's Shepherd. David's calling God a shepherd is an expression of his royal authority. In other words, it means that you are not the king of Israel, but the shepherd whose king is Jehovah God. The real King who gave David himself the office of king was to assume the role of shepherd for the people of Israel.
In this regard, God is calling Israel's leaders as shepherds through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 34 is a very sharp attack on the shepherd of Israel. In a word, all the leaders of Israel were shepherds for themselves. And this is what the prophet Ezekiel is presenting as the gospel. “I myself will shepherd my sheep, saith the Sovereign Lord, and let them lie down” (Ezekiel 34:15). It means that God Himself will come to this earth as a shepherd.
It is God who called the leaders of Israel as the shepherd, so what does it mean that He Himself comes as the shepherd? God's coming to this earth as shepherds means that He no longer sees the existing leaders of Israel as shepherds. Even though there is a shepherd, the coming of a shepherd means that the existing shepherd is not a shepherd. That is, it is distrust and condemnation of the leaders of Israel. They didn't do their job as shepherds properly.
So if someone declares himself a shepherd on this earth, he is one of them. If you're not crazy, you're God. The Jews treated Jesus as a madman with their Messianic crown (verse 20). But he revealed himself as the Good Shepherd. After all, when Jesus declared himself the “Good Shepherd,” he was saying that he was God. Then, how can we say that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and on what basis can we say that Jesus is God?
In verse 11, we see this passage. “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” In other words, whether you are a real good shepherd or not can be known by whether or not he lays down his life for the sheep. The prophet Zechariah had already prophesied that God would strike his shepherd himself (Zechariah 13:7).
Jesus came as the shepherd who fulfills the Old Testament, and because he had that in mind, he boldly revealed himself as the good shepherd even in the circumstances where he was looking for an opportunity to kill him. In verse 18, he says, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." He said, "I lay it down of myself." It was not that Jesus had no strength and was captured by the Jews and died on the cross. Jesus threw himself on the cross.
So, we need to understand why Jesus said he was the “good” shepherd and not just a shepherd. It implies that the existing Israel is not good. You must know that Jesus came to this earth by attacking human shepherds. God was not saying that by acknowledging human beings, adding a little more of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, could make us a good person and be saved. He completely denied the shepherd of the earth.
So Jesus is talking about what kind of workers are. “The wager is not a shepherd, and the sheep are not their own, but when they see a wolf coming, they leave the sheep and run away, and the wolves plunder and scatter them” (verse 12). This means that all those in the leadership ranks of Israel are wage earners. Because they do not recognize Jesus and do not follow Him (verses 4-5). Israel has completely failed to know the Lord. This is why Jesus came. It was a bit of a failure, and if there was a possibility that humans could achieve their own salvation, there would be no need for Jesus to come to this earth.
But Israel was not at all likely. The probability was 0%. That is why salvation can only be realized and God's promises can be fulfilled only when the real shepherd comes. Therefore, we have no hope unless we look to Jesus, the Good Shepherd. If you don't believe in Jesus, you can no longer speak of salvation or heaven in any way.
Therefore, we need to confirm once again why God himself came to this earth through the Word and condemned the existing human shepherds as wages. In addition, we must understand why the Lord Himself had to come to this earth and become a shepherd who lay down his life. It starts with knowing who we were.
We have to admit that we were not a shepherd who lacked God, a shepherd who could be of some help, but a wager who was not helpful at all, but rather a hindrance. It is the fact that Israel at the time of Jesus was like that, and today we are the wages. In this sense, faith is knowing who you are first. Faith is the discovery of one's true self. You must know that this is grace and blessing.
As I said at the outset, man is never in the middle ground. If you have not acknowledged the Lord as my Lord, please acknowledge that I am the one standing on the other side of you. I must also admit that even at this moment I have the potential to deny the Lord's shepherd.
Denying the Lord does not mean simply rejecting the Lord, but changing into another shepherd. As a human being who is doing well, I think we can do better if we add a little more to it, so the Lord comes as a shepherd and adds something to us as an image of a shepherd. But Jesus was not a shepherd who came to provide convenience to humans. He did not come to help us in need. You came as a shepherd who lay down his life for me.
The Lord comes to us today as the Good Shepherd and says this. "The things of the world cannot become still waters, nor can the things of men become green pastures! Am I myself, who laid down my life for you on the cross, is still water for you? Green pastures, just as I believed in me and sacrificed for you. Wouldn't you like to live a life of sacrifice for me?"