Jesus · c. AD 29
Chapter 40
The Good Shepherd
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
For parents
Near the end of the chapter the Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus and try to seize him, and he gets away from them (John 10:31–39). It is told in a few plain words.
had opened the eyes of a man who was born blind. Some of the who were with Jesus had asked him, “Are we blind too?” He answered them, and he went on speaking.
“I tell you for certain, if someone doesn’t go into the by the door, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But whoever goes in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
“When he brings out his own sheep, he walks in front of them. The sheep know his voice, so they follow him. They’ll never follow a stranger. They’ll run from him, because they don’t know strangers’ voices.”
Jesus told them this , but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again. “I tell you for certain, I am the sheep’s door. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
“I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy. I came so that they may have life, and more than enough of it.”
“I am the good shepherd,” Jesus said. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired hand isn’t a shepherd, and the sheep aren’t his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs off. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. The hired hand runs off because he is a hired hand, and the sheep don’t matter to him.
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
“I have other sheep too, which are not from this fold. I must bring them as well, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.
“This is why the Father loves me: I lay down my life to take it again. No one takes it away from me. I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this command from my Father.”
Because of these words, the Jews were divided again.
Many of them said, “He has a , and he’s insane! Why do you listen to him?”
Others said, “These aren’t the sayings of someone who has a demon. A demon can’t open the eyes of the blind, can it?”
It was the time of the at . It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in .
The Jews gathered around him. “How much longer will you keep us guessing?” they asked. “If you are the , tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name are my witnesses. But you don’t believe, because you aren’t my sheep, as I told you.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
At this, the Jews picked up stones once more to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. Which of those works are you stoning me for?”
“It isn’t for a good work that we’re stoning you,” the Jews answered. “It’s for , because you, a man, make yourself God.”
Jesus answered, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? He called the people the word of God came to ‘gods,’ and the Scripture can’t be broken. Then what about the one the Father has set apart and sent into the world? Do you tell him, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
“If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, believe the works even if you don’t believe me, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
They tried again to take hold of him, but he got away from them.
He went away again to the other side of , to the place where had been baptizing at first, and he stayed there.
Many people came to him. “John never did a ,” they said, “but everything John said about this man is true.”
And many believed in him there.