No introductory comments necessary!
Read John 10:24-31.
In verse 24 the people press Jesus to speak openly, “When will you tell us who are you?”, and Jesus responds, “I have told you.”
How and when did Jesus already tell them? Well, look at verse 7 in this chapter, “I am the door”. And verse 9, “Whoever enters through me will be saved.” Verse 10: “I have come that they might have life”. Or verse 11: “I am the good shepherd.” And verse 15: “The Father knows me and I know the Father.” One more – verse 16: “They will hear my voice and they will be one flock with one shepherd.”
So tell me, has Jesus really been covering up the essence of his earthly mission? Not at all! He is openly declaring the meaning, promise and divine intention of his coming. Nevertheless, the people go on asking, “Who are you?” Jesus’ answer is “I have told you, but you do not believe.” And that, of course, is really what this is all about. Regardless of how many words the Lord says, if the people’s hearts are unready to receive, then, no matter what, their next question is still going to be “Who are you?” Because, not believing, they don’t hear. In that case, words become useless. Even miracles hardly help. Jesus says, (vv. 25b-26a), “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify of me (26) but you don’t believe”. So neither words nor signs seem to make any difference. Why? Jesus goes on: “you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep, as I have told you. (26b)”
“Not of my sheep” – there is the essence, the crux, the core of this issue. Over and over Jesus has spoken of this relationship, a relationship in which the sheep know the shepherd, know his voice. As in verse 3 (read), and verse 4 (read); likewise, verse 14 (read) and verse 16 (read). For those who “have ears to hear”, Jesus makes it clearer than day what he means. In front of the people stands not only a teacher, not only a prophet, indeed not only Christ as many anticipated “Christ”. Rather, before them stands Christ as he really is, in himself, and it turns out that the real Messiah, Christ, cannot be defined according to human understanding. It turns out that the critical element in Christ’s call isn’t whether or not he corresponds to our assumptions, but whether our hearts hear what he's saying, whether his words reveal truth and life to our hearts.
Jesus can’t tell the crowd, “Yes, I am everything you were waiting for”, because they could never have imagined the Messiah as he really turned out to be. In fact, Jesus does them a kindness by not saying, “Oh, yes, I’m the Messiah.” As we know, Jesus talked that way only on the rarest occasion. It’s interesting, by the way, to take a look at the moments when Jesus did speak so bluntly. As a rule, it wasn’t when the people or their leaders were demanding an answer. It was more often when a person whose faith was just coming to life needed assurance.
We see such a case, in fact, right in the preceding chapter, in 9:35-38 (read). This man had been blind all his life, and Jesus gave him sight. Imagine.... And this man refused to denounce Jesus for the healing, even though the Pharisees threatened to throw him out of the Temple forever. So, all in one day, this man received sight he had never had in his whole life, and he was exiled forever from the most sacred place of his religion. Again, imagine the emotional earthquake that day was for this man. And in the midst of this earthquake, Jesus comes to him and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The poor man answers in desperation, “Who is he, Lord, so I can believe in him?” And Jesus gives him the answer he wouldn’t give to the movers and shakers of society when they demanded his credentials. He says, “You’ve seen him; you’re talking to him.” Just as Jesus also said to a woman at a well one day in Samaria, a woman disgraced for her sin and shunned by society, a woman who, just starting to catch a faint glimmer of light, let the half-suspicious, half-hoping words slip out, “They sa-a-ay that... when the Messiah comes... he’ll make everything clear....” Jesus looks her straight in the eye and tells her, “The one talking with you right now is he.”
The key element in these cases was that the person’s heart was already starting to open to the deeper reality of Jesus. And wasn’t demanding or ordering Jesus to line up with some already formulated checklist for Messiah. Jesus offers God’s gift of life to those whose hearts receive him, just as he is, in the fullness of his glory, yielding to him in full faith. The ones who receive him like that, he receives, just as they are. “Just as I am, without one plea, but that the blood was shed, for me. Just as I am... I come, I come.”
But why didn’t the Pharisees and the crowds understand? It was because they didn’t believe. And why didn’t they believe? (read 10:26-27) But what makes a person not Christ’s sheep? It’s the absence of any desire to meet God, to have encounter with him, to know and love the Creator. It’s attachment to self that doesn’t admit the possibility of the life-change that God brings.
The sheep belongs to the shepherd; it is his, and it trusts totally. But the bystander, the stranger, doesn’t belong to him, and doesn’t want to belong. Do we desire encounter with God, are we willing to trust everything to Him? If so, God opens up truth to our hearts. Jesus said to the people, in John 7:17, “Whoever is willing to do [God’s] will, that one will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I’m just speaking for myself.” If a person has the desire, if he’s ready to receive, if he sincerely seeks, then the Lord will find him. While we’re in chapter seven, look at the next verse, verse 18. This verse sparked me to meditate further on these matters. I noticed a fascinating parallel. (Read 7:18)
Jesus says about himself that he is not seeking his own; rather, he seeks the glory of the one who sent him. We can make a parallel here to his followers, the shepherd’s sheep. The good shepherd’s sheep also don’t strive for their own, but for what will glorify God. In this way, they are like the good shepherd – maybe partially and imperfectly, but in their hearts resounds the summons of the one who desires above all the glory of the one who sent him. So this is what they want, too. They hear him and become like him. They follow him and he knows them. And he can say anything to them, and they’ll willingly receive it. He can say something like this to them: (read 10:28-30)
Here is Christ, just as he is. Who can receive such words, such a Christ who says such things as “I and the Father are one”? The nation insisted, “Tell us plainly!” So Jesus did: “I and the Father are one”. It was clear from the start, wasn’t it, that this is where it was all heading? Who else could be within his rights to say things like “I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved”, or “ I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me”, or “I have power to lay down my life and power to take it up again”? Only the one who is one with the Father. This is the one who promises eternal life and actually fulfills the promise, who holds the believer in his hand, in the hand of God, and keeps him from the enemy. Jesus didn’t come to line up with some definition of the word Christ, but to define in his very self what being the Christ of God is. By his words, by his works, by his love and grace and self-giving, and by his power and authority, he did define it – and it is everything he is.
But when Jesus Christ made it clearer than day who he was, the people who had been demanding that he do so, did what in response? Well, they didn’t say, “Thank you very kindly for that!” (read 10:31-33)
There is the difference between the good shepherd’s sheep and the “non-sheep”. You saw how the non-sheep reacted. But the true sheep hear, receive, contemplate and submit to his word. They look at the one who is saying these words and think: if such a one, such a Person, who does such miracles, whose words radiate such truth and grace – if such a one as this says such words, then they’re true. It is precisely in this Jesus that God Himself, the Lord who is our shepherd, has visited his people.
But those who were ready to do nothing but judge his words and refuse to know him, they, of course, picked up stones. Stones or faith – these are the two responses to the Good Shepherd’s self-disclosure. Stones or faith. Outrage or love. Rejection or embrace. The response we make will show whether or not we belong to the flock of the true Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his sheep. Who gave his life, and took it up again, not because that was what people expected, but because that’s who he is. “Tell us who you are!”, the people shouted. Well, look at Jesus, listen to him, with a heart for God... and you’ll know.
