The Shepherd-King (10:22–30)
For centuries, Israel had been waiting for a shepherd. The prophet Ezekiel announced that God’s appointed shepherds had failed, scattering the flock across the nations (Ezek 34:1–6). In their place, God made a promise:
I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd (Ezek 34:23).
The coming shepherd would be a king from the line of David, someone who would gather the scattered sheep and lead them on behalf of God himself.
The scene in John 10:22–30 is unique to the Fourth Gospel. It is winter, and Jesus is walking in Solomon’s Portico. John takes care to tell us that it was “the Feast of Dedication” (10:22). Protestant and Jewish readers will search their Old Testaments in vain for this feast. The Feast of Dedication, known today as Hanukkah, commemorated the Maccabean rededication of the Jerusalem Temple in 164 BC, after Antiochus IV Epiphanes had desecrated it. Judas Maccabeus, “the Hammer,” led a military revolt, recaptured the temple mount, and restored Israel’s worship (1 Macc 4:36–59). He was, by any measure, the kind of shepherd-king Israel celebrated: a warrior who fought for his sheep.
It is in this theologically charged atmosphere that the crowd presses Jesus:
How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly (John 10:24).
They have heard him speak of the Good Shepherd. They understand what he is hinting at. If he is the shepherd, he is claiming to be the Christ, and they want him to say so clearly. What better time could there be than the Feast of Dedication for another Judas Maccabeus to reveal himself?
Jesus’s reply cuts to the heart of the misunderstanding:
I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep (John 10:25–26).
He is the Messiah, and he has shown them plainly. But his works tell a very different story from the one celebrated by the Feast of Dedication. In John’s Gospel, Jesus has already done what Judas did. He has already made his way to the temple and cleansed it. But where Judas went to drive out the pagans, Jesus drove out his fellow Judeans. Jesus will go again to Jerusalem, but this time he goes to lay down his life. Where the Maccabean shepherd took up the sword to bring political freedom, the Good Shepherd will stretch out his hands on a Roman cross to bring ultimate redemption. The feast celebrating military liberation has become the backdrop for a redefinition of what true liberation really looks like.
Ezekiel’s promised shepherd had come, but he was not the kind of shepherd Israel had expected. He was far better.
Other Sheep (10:11–18)
Since we are in the season of Epiphany, I want to consider what Jesus says in verse 16.
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 (John 10:16).
Jesus, among other roles, was a prophet to Israel. He is calling to them, and those who respond positively are his sheep, who hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow him. But the prophets had always hinted — actually, more than hinted — that God’s plan was not limited to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Part of God’s original promise to Abraham included the words, “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3).
What God was doing in and through Jesus was not just for Israel but for the whole world, so he has “other sheep that are not of this fold.” These sheep are those who respond positively to Jesus from every tongue, tribe, race, and people around the globe. I won’t delve into theories about the doctrine of election, but there’s something significant about the words “I have other sheep” and “I must bring them also.” Either way, the goal, as we see elsewhere in the New Testament, is to create one new humanity from these many sheep, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. I can’t help but think of the powerful scene from Revelation 5.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Rev 5:9–12).
We see here not just one nation, but representatives from all of humanity, united as one flock praising the one shepherd (who is the Lamb!) and our creator God, and to that I say, “Amen!”