A Study of John 10:7-21

“So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?””

John 10:7–21 ESV

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

Speaking to a group of Jews, Jesus told them he is the door of the sheep. Everyone who came before Him was a thief and a robber, so the sheep did not listen to them. Jesus is the door, whoever enters by Him will be saved and will be able to go in and out to find pasture. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give abundant life.

Jesus is also the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. A hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, runs away when he sees the wolf coming because he does not care for the sheep. Then the wolf comes and scatters the sheep. But Jesus is the good shepherd. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him, just as Jesus knows God the Father, and Jesus lays down His life for the sheep.

Jesus also has other sheep from a different sheepfold. He will bring them and they will listen to His voice so that there will be one flock under one shepherd. The Father loves Jesus because He lays down His life for the sheep that He may take it up again. No one can take Jesus’ life from Him. He has the authority to lay His life down and to take it up again. Jesus received this charge from His Father.

At this point there was a division among the Jews again. Many said Jesus was insane or had a demon and questioned why He should be listened to. But others said these were not the words of a demon possessed person. And they also asked, “Can a demon open the eyes of the  blind?”. 

Textual Analysis and Implication (what is being said and what does this mean?):

In the first verses of this chapter, Jesus described the difference between the way He selflessly leads people, like a shepherd who cares for his sheep, with the way the political/religious hypocrites and false messiahs led the people, like thieves and robbers who steal from and brutalize the sheep. The people did not understand what Jesus meant by this figure of speech though, so Jesus provided further explanation.

In verses 7-8 Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” In Jesus’ day sheepfolds were constructed with one entrance where the shepherd would lay down at night to keep the sheep in and wild animals or intruders out. In this way, the shepherd was the door to the sheepfold. In verses 1-5, Jesus used the metaphor of a sheepfold with multiple flocks inside and a watchman set in place, but here He changed it up a little bit by describing a sheepfold with a single shepherd and his flock. In the previous analogy, Jesus still contrasted the shepherd with the thieves and robbers, but here He changed the analogy a bit to focus on the selflessness of the shepherd in using his own body as a door to guard the sheepfold.

Jesus is the shepherd who makes His own body the door to protect the sheep, while the thieves and robbers selfishly come to ravage the flock for their own gain. Jesus is the ultimate shepherd, who leads and protects the sheep (people) selflessly. But the hypocritical political and religious leaders, who used and abused the sheep under their care for their own selfish gain are the thieves and robbers. This is probably also a reference to the many false messiahs who had come before Jesus, but instead of leading the people to abundant life and freedom, they only led them to war, suffering and enslavement. While large crowds may have been swayed by such people in the past, the sheep who belong to Jesus did not and will not listen to them.

In verse 9 Jesus repeated the phrase, “I am the door…”, continuing on to say that if anyone enters by Him, they will go in and out and find pasture. While verses 1-5 focused on the concept of Jesus calling out His sheep from a mixed herd, here the focus remains on Him as the door through which the sheep may come into the safety of the fold and go out to find nourishing pasture. This statement also brings to mind Jesus’ words from John 14:6 where He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It is likely that the man born blind who Jesus healed (John 9) was still present to listen to this discourse. After he had been excommunicated from the synagogue by the Pharisees for truthfully proclaiming that Jesus had healed him by the power of God, this news that Jesus Himself is the door by which we enter into restored relationship with God would have been magnificent to hear.

Continuing on, in verse 10 Jesus went on to say the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but He (Jesus) comes so that people may have life and have it abundantly. By saying this, Jesus explained there is only one way to obtain eternal life. The only way to know God and receive the ultimate spiritual satisfaction we all crave is by believing in Jesus as Messiah and God in the flesh. The world still seeks for its saviors in fallen, sinful people; leaders and tyrants whose rule only results in theft, death and destruction (they steal, kill and destroy), but Jesus is the leader (the Good Shepherd) our hearts crave.

While the world balks and guffaws at the claims of Christ, the doctrine of salvation via humanist utopia is the real delusion. The “abundant” life Jesus speaks of refers to not only an eternal length of time, but also of life lived in abundant and overflowing pleasure. Jesus, the one true God who created everything, offers those who trust in Him abundant life, meaning eternal life, wherein contentment, joy and peace abound forever. Jesus is the door to such a life and He is surely the fulfillment of prophetic passages such as Psalm 118:20 (LEB) which says, “This is the gate of Yahweh, the righteous shall enter through it.”

Next, switching from the door analogy, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” In our present day, industrialized, western world, most of us think of shepherds as soft, gentle types who spend their days cuddling lambs, but this could not be further from the truth. Shepherding, in the 1st century Near East and today, is an exhausting, dirty and sometimes dangerous job. Shepherds brave the elements along with their flocks, spend time with them out in the fields and protect them from dangerous animals.

Interestingly, the Greek word “kalos”, which is translated as “good,” can also be understood as “noble.” So, as Jesus tells us He is the “good” shepherd, we can understand Him to be describing Himself to be the ultimate, best or ideal shepherd who lays down even His own life for His sheep, as opposed to the thieves and robbers who ravage the sheep, or hired hands who care nothing for the sheep and are only present to collect their wages. While most shepherds would brave dangers to save their sheep, most would probably not intentionally die for their sheep. But Jesus, moving beyond the metaphorical explanation, is the good shepherd who willingly laid down His life, in submission to the Father’s will, to save us, His sheep, from real, mortal peril. And with His death and resurrection, He has delivered us from danger and drawn us to Himself.

In verses 12-13 Jesus described the difference between Him and a hired hand. The person who is a hired hand and not the shepherd, runs away when they see a wolf coming. Then the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because they do not care about the sheep. The thieves and robbers mentioned earlier in the passage are the wicked, but the hired hand is not necessarily actively wicked. The hired hand is merely a person far more concerned with their own safety instead of the sheep’s safety. This kind of selfishness could be called wicked, especially when we are actually talking about the welfare of people, not sheep, but still, the hired hand describes people with a sort of passive indifference towards the sheep, instead of the active malice of the thieves and robbers. Neither group is good, and both describe different types of people.

The hired hand is happy enough to care for the flock when things are going well, but when the situation gets dangerous or difficult (when they see the wolf coming), they leave the sheep to their fate and save their own skin. This is because they are a hired hand “who cares nothing for the sheep.” The “hired hand” might be a description of religious leaders who are happy to perform their duties when things are going well, as long as they are paid, but who then fail to care for the sheep when things get dangerous. Such hired hands are only happy to care for the sheep when it enriches them or advances their career and social standing. This description of the hired hand, which follows the thieves and robbers, will provide a good contrast in the following verses as Jesus explains more about what the good shepherd is like.

Next, Jesus declared again, “I am the good shepherd.” and He continued on to say, “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” By repeating, “I am the good shepherd.”, Jesus is not only calling special attention to the theme of sacrifice on the part of the shepherd for the sheep, but also to the special relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. While Jesus, unlike the hired hands who are bad, selfish shepherds, lays down His own life for His sheep, He also knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. This kind of mutual, relational knowledge between Jesus and His sheep is comparable to the even greater mutual, relational knowledge that exists between Jesus and the Father.

Just as Jesus has a special relationship with the Father (they are One) wherein He trusts the Father and does all that He tells Him, Jesus has a special relationship with His sheep wherein we trust Him, listen to Him and obey Him. This intimate, loving relationship between Shepherd and sheep (Jesus and His followers) is built on the intimate, loving relationship between Jesus and the Father (God the Son and God the Father). Although, what is different about the Shepherd/sheep relationship is that the sheep truly have existed in mortal, eternal peril, and Jesus has become the ultimate and eternal Savior for His sheep.

As He spoke to a group of Jewish people, Jesus also said something else that was astonishing, which is, He has other sheep who are not of this fold who He must also bring in. These sheep from another fold will listen to Jesus’ voice when He calls so that there will be one flock from sheep of different folds under one shepherd. The sheep from different folds describes Gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus. A “fold” is one sub-group within a larger group. So while “flock” describes all those who follow Jesus, the different “folds” describe the many Gentile believers from all over the world. Jesus came to the Jews first, but He did not come only for the Jews. He came for people from every tribe and tongue. He came to save the world (John 3:16). At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus began this discourse by saying He would call people out of  the Jewish sheepfold into His own flock, and now He has expanded on that, saying He will also call people out from all the various Gentile folds into His one, unified flock.

In verse 17 Jesus said the Father loves Him because He lays His life down in order to take it up again. Jesus brought this up after explaining the similarities between the loving Shepherd/sheep relationship and the loving Father/Son relationship within the Godhead. And it is this love of God that makes salvation for the world a possibility. After explaining the unique loving relationship He has with the Father, in this verse Jesus explains why the Father loves Him. It is not that the Father withheld love from Jesus until He was willing to obediently sacrifice His own life and rise again. Rather, the Father’s love for the Son is eternally connected to Jesus’ willingness to obey the Father no matter what and to entirely rely on the Father even to the point of submitting to death on a cross, bearing the sin and shame of the whole world, before rising again.

And lastly for verse 17, the words that Jesus lays down His life so that He might “take it up again,” provide a purpose clause. Jesus did not recklessly or suicidally lay down His life in some desperate, half-baked attempt to save us. He laid down His life with the full knowledge that after sacrificing Himself, He would rise again and accomplish salvation for His sheep. He willingly died so that He could rise again and raise others from the dead too.

Next, there is an incredibly important clarification made by Jesus in verse 18. No one can take His life from Him. Jesus willingly laid down His life, allowing Himself to be brutally executed in a loving act of self sacrifice. And He has the authority, or power, to “take it up again,” or in other words, raise Himself back to life. This was precisely the charge given to Him by the Father. It is true the enemies of Christ plotted against Him and eventually killed Him, but they were only able to do so because He allowed them to at the time appointed by the Father. In fact, when they came to arrest Him in Gethsemane, Jesus spoke and the entire arresting party fell to the ground (John 18). This exhibited the total control Jesus had over the entire situation before He humbly allowed them to arrest Him. No part of the arrest, crucifixion and death of Jesus, leading up to the resurrection, was outside of God’s plan. This was God’s plan for the redemption of humanity from eternity past.

This is a crucial point of doctrine for Christians to understand. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, willingly gave His own life for us, His sheep. And His death was not an accident or tragic surprise that required the Father’s intervention to correct with the resurrection. The crucifixion was always a part of God’s plan to save us. And Jesus willingly obeyed the Father in this plan with full knowledge of what it would entail. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit acted in perfect unity of will in this.

Finally, for this section of the passage, as Jesus concluded this discourse, John the gospel writer tells us that there was a division among the Jews in response to Jesus’ teaching. The “Jews” here likely refers to a crowd representing a broad range of Jewish society, both leaders and common people. Many of the people said Jesus had a demon and was insane so he shouldn’t be listened to. This is how they responded to hearing Jesus claim to be the Messianic Shepherd who would  lay down His life for His sheep. But others said Jesus did not speak like an insane person oppressed by a demon, and they also asked, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”. Yet again Jesus’ words caused a division among the people who heard it. No one ever had a neutral response to Jesus. He is the great dividing line for humanity. People either accept Him or they reject Him as their Lord God and Savior. In this case many called Him an insane demoniac, while others rightly questioned, “Have you ever seen an insane or demonized person speak this way or do these miraculous things?”.

Importantly Jesus’ miracles must be viewed in light of His teaching which is faithful to the word of God already revealed in the Old Testament. Miracles alone do not confirm someone is from God. In Matthew 24 Jesus warned of a time when false Christs would arise performing miracles, and lead people astray from the truth. Also, 2 Thesalonians 2, along with other passages, warns of false prophets and teachers who will arise in the last days and perform miracles to deceive people and lead them astray. With this in mind, the people were right to take notice of the miracles Jesus performed, but they and we also need to look at the words of Jesus. Jesus came full of grace and truth, performing the works of God and speaking the words of God. If anyone shows up performing miracles but also teaching doctrine contrary to the word of God, we must not listen to them. Miraculous signs alone do not confirm a prophet or teacher is from God. Signs must be accompanied by truth. 

Response (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

This passage should cause us to think of Jesus as the ultimate shepherd, and of we who trust in Him as His sheep. Jesus is not a selfish or brutal shepherd. He is the shepherd who calls us, protects us, rescues us from danger, and even lays down His own life to save ours. Jesus is the God who made us to uphold and sustain us in an intimate, loving relationship for all eternity .We severed this relationship with our sin, but Jesus willingly died to pay the penalty for our sin and then rose to life again. Now, anyone who confesses they are a sinner who can not save themselves, and trusts in Jesus as their Lord God and Savior who died and rose again will be welcomed into the flock of Jesus and will dwell in overflowing joy and pleasure forever in a restored relationship with God.

Many madmen have claimed to be God or the Messiah before, but did any of them speak like Jesus, perform miracles like Jesus or rise from the dead? Did any of them fulfill hundreds of Old Testament prophecies? No. There is no one like Jesus. Surely He is the Messiah, the Son of God, Yahweh incarnate. Blessed be His glorious name.

Self Reflection:

1. Have I been looking to anyone or anything else as my shepherd (provider/sustainer) besides Jesus?
2. False messiahs and lunatics of various types have risen up throughout human history. Some have toppled governments and some live on street corners, but have any of them conquered death like Jesus has?
3. What does Jesus’ willingness to lay down His own life to save the world tell me about His character? As I follow Him, what does this tell me about how I should care for others?