The Shepherd Of The Sheep

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
[John 10:1-5 NKJV]

At first reading, it is a little difficult to identify who is what and what is what in this parable. No wonder verse 6 says ‘they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.’ Some images are clear immediately — the shepherd is Jesus Himself — but who is the doorkeeper?

Well, the doorkeeper seems to allude to the church. If that is so, then the rest of the message makes sense, because ‘to Him the doorkeeper opens’, although Him is shown as him. Even so, some of the words do not make sense to the rational mind of today. Sheepfolds have gates not doors (although gate would translate readily), and why would you need to ‘climb up’ to the door whether you be a robber or a saint ... or a sheep, come to that?

I confess that I have no ready answer to this conundrum, except to say that thieves and robbers will always have to climb up out of the pit to gain anything, and that whether the sheepfold has a gate or a door, our Lord leads His captive flock to freedom in Him. Hallelujah!

What is clear from this is that with the Holy Spirit, we will without fail recognise our Lord and Master — the Shepherd of the Sheep; for we know that ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’.

Saturday 29th May 2021

The look of Jesus will mean a heart broken forever from allegiance to any other person or thing.
Has Jesus ever looked at you?
The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are ‘soft’ with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
[from ‘Called of God’]