Part 17a – John 10

Jesus continues in John 10:1 by telling a story in answer to the Pharisees question in John 9:40 “Are we blind also?” The story goes like this “if you haven’t entered into the sheepfold by using the door then you are a thief and a robber and you have no chance of discerning the shepherd’s voice, when the gatekeeper opens the gate of the fold to the shepherd who then calls His own sheep by name in order to lead them out to pasture.”

What Jesus is saying is the sheepfold is a place of safety and the way out is through the gate or door. The door is only opened to the shepherd because he is known by the gatekeeper and when the door is opened the shepherd calls his sheep out, in order that he can lead them to pasture so that they can get food.

What I like about this little section is that Jesus wants us all to have the freedom to go out and come into the sheepfold in the knowledge that there is complete safety when the shepherd is there leading the sheep. Those sheep that know the shepherd have nothing to fear as they graze freely in open pasture, content in the security that is provided by the presence of the shepherd.

As a farmer at heart I can really appreciate this story. What we know about sheep is that they are quite stupid and nervous by nature, they are not like cattle which generally by nature are far more inquisitive and less nervous.

For example if you entered a field of sheep they instinctively will head in the other direction and huddle together and try to escape from you no matter what, unless of course, you are the shepherd who they know, and who has come into the field rattling a bucket of nuts and calling them to himself, they will come running towards him or her because they know them and have security in their presence.

Jesus is saying that is what it is like, my sheep know my voice because they have been led into the fold, through the door by me and through me. It is I that have come to lead them out the same way that they entered. Anyone else who tries to lead my sheep out by some other route is a thief and a robber.

Jesus says in John 10:16 “I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also so they can hear my voice…” The door is the way in and the way out of this fold which Jesus says has one shepherd and also says is one fold and there is only one door, the door thT He became through His death and resurrection.

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