Tuesday 2nd July
Read John 10:1-6
“‘Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 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. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.’ 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.” (NIVUK)
The shepherd is a familiar figure in the time of Jesus. Shepherds would all bring their sheep to a common enclosed sheepfold where they would be guarded overnight from wolves and other predators. The sheep are protected and secure. The mixing of many flocks together would normally make drafting them difficult except that the sheep know the voice of their shepherd, prick up their ears and follow him out when he arrives to collect them. They would not follow another shepherd, let alone a thief. That recognition of the shepherds’ voice is built on trust.
Perhaps that is why there is a long history of associating shepherds with leadership and care. When Moses was about to die, a shepherd himself for many years in the wilderness of Midian, he asked God to raise up another.
“Moses said to the Lord, 16 ‘May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” (Numbers 27:15-17).
When the people were lost and in need of relief later in their history, they prayed earnestly for godly leadership.
“Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who sit enthroned between the cherubim,
shine forth 2 before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Awaken your might;
come and save us.” (Psalm 80:1-2) (NIVUK)
Imagine then how this ‘parable’ from Jesus would have been heard by those around Him. Oppressed by the Romans and suffering in poverty and adversity, a new Shepherd has come whom the sheep will recognise! The contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees could not be more starkly put. Their blindness, and now deafness, makes it even clearer. But the Lord’s graciousness in coming as the prayed for Shepherd is a soothing balm for the oppressed and the poor.
