“Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep, so when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flocks and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:11-13).
When our Lord Jesus Christ wallked on earth, those who should have been shepherds (The pharisees and the teachers of the law) of God’s sheep hated him without a cause.They themselves were like the shepherds mentioned in Ezekiel 34:1-10, who neglected the flock, so that when the Lord himself, the good shepherd came, his heart was moved with compasion, because he saw the people, “as sheep, having no shepherd.” In John 9, we see how these shepherds treated one who came to the good shepherd – they threw him out.”
In the tenth chapter the Lord at once goes on to show that he leads out his own sheep. They may be thrown out of the fold by men, but it is really he himself who put them there. In chapter 10:16, he says, “I have other sheep that are not of this pen. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
Nothing stirred the hatred of the false shepherds so much as to hear that he was turning a way from the fold of Judaism and calling Gentiles into the flock, and like Joseph’s brethren, they said, “We will not have this man regn over us.”.
Leave a Comment