Do the Word

The 2^nd century Christian writer Hegesippus gives one of the earliest detailed traditions about James the Just—Jesus’ brother. He wrote that the religious leaders brought James to the pinnacle of the temple during Passover and asked him to publicly deny Jesus or face death. The way they sought to make him deny Jesus was by asking him, “What is the door of Jesus?”

This question has to do with what Jesus claimed about himself in John 10:1-10.

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate 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 has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:1–10)

Here, Jesus claimed to be the “gate” or the “door”. In fact, John 10:6 tells us that even the people who heard it did not understand such that Jesus had to repeat it twice.

What does it mean when Jesus says, “I am the door”? Many preachers assume that when he says “door”, he is just using a general spiritual or religious metaphor to express that he is the only valid way by which we can have salvation and a restored relationship with God.

Jesus is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.” Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11–12)

While it is true that Jesus is the only name by which we may be saved, we can tell that Jesus is not just making a general claim about salvation because of what Jesus says at the beginning of his discourse in John 10. Jesus says:

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1)

This scripture is not a scripture about salvation addressed to the sheep. It is a scripture addressed to the religious leaders who claim to be shepherds of Israel but whom Jesus says are thieves and robbers.

Which of them are thieves and robbers? According to Jesus, everyone who came before him!

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. (John 10:8)

This claim is so potentially offensive that Bible commentators try to correct Jesus at this point by saying, “No, Jesus is only talking about the bad people. Other leaders like Samuel and David were good shepherds.  Or maybe he is talking about the religious leaders who kicked the blind man out of the synagogue in John 9”.

But, if Jesus meant to say any of those things, he would have said it. Instead, he said “all”. “All” means “all”. Jesus is never careless with his speech. He knows exactly what he is saying, and he always says what he means. The reason we and other people don’t understand what Jesus is saying is not because Jesus was unclear. In fact, it is because Jesus was too clear, and we simply have trouble believing that he means what he says.

In fact, Jesus’ secondary claim is also outrageous, that “the sheep have not listened to them”. Note that Jesus didn’t say, “All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep were misled by them”. He said that the sheep have not listened to them.

Who are the sheep? They are those who only listen to the voice of the shepherd and run away from all other voices.

Who is the shepherd? First, we must see what Jesus says about what the shepherd does. According to Jesus, the shepherd is the one who enters by the gate. The gatekeeper hears his voice, opens the door, and the shepherd leads the sheep out.

Then who is the door? Jesus is the door.

Again, this scripture is not just about salvation. It’s about sheep who are going in and out by the door between the sheep pen and the pasture. This is the normal daily life of sheep: Going in and coming out.

Whoever enters by the door, who is Jesus, will be saved. But this is not a one-time gathering into the sheep pen. Jesus says that “they will come in and go out, and find pasture”. This means that the sheep pass through Jesus daily, every day of their lives. This parable is about Jesus as the daily door.

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3)

The doorkeeper hears the shepherd’s voice and opens the door. Who is the doorkeeper? The doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit.

Here, in John 10, we see the relationship of the Son and the Holy Spirit in daily life in the form of a parable. But later Jesus reveals the relationship openly to his disciples.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)

Only the doorkeeper opens the door. Only the Holy Spirit opens Christ to the sheep. And the Holy Spirit opens only Christ to the sheep. Irenaeus described the Son and the Holy Spirit as the Father’s two hands.

We may be interested in whether the sheep pen is heaven, Israel, or the church, or something else. But, if Jesus doesn’t highlight something, we shouldn’t highlight it. If we are highlighting something that Jesus does not, it means that we are not focusing on what Jesus wants us to focus on, and we risk distorting his parable. Jesus wants us to focus on the door, the doorkeeper, the sheep, the thieves and robbers, and the shepherd. It is not important where the sheep are located, but what they are going through (the door), who opens it (the doorkeeper), and whose voice they hear (the shepherd’s).

Now we come to the central question: Who is the shepherd? According to Jesus, everyone who came before him is not the shepherd, but a thief and a robber. Instead, Jesus says:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

When we hear this, we may say, “But what about Jacob, Moses, or David? Surely they were good shepherds!”

But Jacob, Moses, and David never call themselves shepherds. And the Lord never called Jacob or Moses shepherds (we will come back to David).

Jacob called God his shepherd, not himself.

the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, (Genesis 48:15)

Moses is also not called a shepherd. He is called a servant in God’s house while God is called the shepherd.

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Psalm 77:20)

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. (Hebrews 3:5)

As for David, David called the Lord his shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1)

David was called a shepherd in Psalm 78.

from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them. (Psalm 78:71–72)

But this is only inasmuch as he foreshadows Jesus. In fact, in 2 Samuel 12:1-7, using a parable, Nathan calls David a sheep-stealer.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (John 10:16)

There is only one flock and one shepherd, who is Jesus.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. (Matthew 23:8–10)

This is extremely important because, as Jesus said in John 10, the Holy Spirit opens only to Christ.

These days in church we often call pastors or even small group leaders “shepherd” or “under-shepherd”. Sometimes, in the New Testament, people are encouraged to “shepherd” the flock of Christ, or are even called “pastor”. But the apostles always held up Christ as the shepherd or “chief shepherd” and called themselves servants and slaves of Christ. Even in 1 Peter 5:2, what is translated “be shepherds” is actually in the Greek a call to “shepherd”–shepherd here, in other words, is a verb, not a noun.

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; (1 Peter 5:2)

And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. (1 Peter 5:4)

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11–12)

How can Jesus be both the shepherd and the door? Because Jesus is both the teacher and the content of the teaching. And the sheep only respond to his voice. This means that church leaders are only authorized to pass on Christ’s teaching, not to create or deliver their own teaching, or the teaching of anyone else.

Christ never delegates his shepherding responsibilities to pastors or church leaders. For us, to shepherd means to point the sheep back to Christ, his words, and his teachings. We are meant to be more like sheep-dogs than shepherds.

In John 21, Jesus told Peter, “feed my sheep”. Feed them what? As he had told Peter and the other disciples earlier:

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)

What we feed the sheep is Christ.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t open the door to those who believe that they are authorized to speak on behalf of Jesus or speak in his name. This means that we are either passing on Christ’s teaching or we are thieves and robbers who are trying to reach the sheep by a means other than the door.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t open the door to “Christian teachings” about “Christian things” by ordained pastors “in the name of Christ”. The only thing we are authorized to administer to the sheep is Christ.

We understand that we are to lead people to Christ for their salvation. But, after that, because of our fallen nature, our teachings tend to lead people from Christ’s words to our own words. We even wrongly think that is what preaching is: moving from Christ’s words to our own stories, explanations, and opinions instead of leading the sheep more deeply into Christ’s words. In this way, Jesus becomes less like the one whom we feed to the sheep and more like a mascot or an inspiration, the one whose authority we claim, or merely the way we end our prayers. And, instead of Christ, we end up feeding ourselves to the sheep through our stories, experiences, thoughts, teachings, and doctrines.

Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t warn the sheep against us in John 10. He simply says that his sheep will not listen to any Christ-less interpretations. Jesus says his sheep will run away from anyone other than him. This means that our churches are filled with sheep, but they are not his sheep. They are our own sheep. They respond to the sound of our voice.

Why are there so many Christians who are not in churches? Because they will only listen to Jesus’ voice.

It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. (John 6:45)

Pastors may not be able to tell the difference between their teaching and his teaching. But, according to Jesus, his sheep can always tell the difference.

Jesus says he leads his sheep in and out. He even leads them out of the church. Look around. You can see it happening today. Don’t blame the sheep for that. Jesus doesn’t. Jesus knows that his sheep will follow him all the way to the cross. They just need to hear his voice.

Hegesippus wrote that the religious leaders said to James:

We entreat you, restrain the people, for they are gone astray in their opinions about Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat you to persuade all who have come here for the feast of the Passover concerning Jesus; for we all have confidence in you. For we and all the people testify to you that you are just and show partiality to none.

Persuade, therefore, the people not to be led astray concerning Jesus; for all the people and we also have confidence in you.

Take your stand, then, on the pinnacle of the temple, that from that lofty position you may be clearly seen, and your words may be plainly audible to all the people; for all the tribes have come together on account of the Passover, with some of the Gentiles also.

James answered:

Why do you ask me concerning Jesus the Son of Man? He himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the Great Power, and will come on the clouds of heaven.

Hegesippus continues:

And when many were fully convinced and gloried in the testimony of James, and said, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” then again the scribes and Pharisees said to one another, “We have done badly in supplying such testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, that they may be afraid and not believe him.”

And they cried out, saying, “Oh! oh! the Just himself is in error.”

And they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah, “Let us take away the just man, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.”

So they went up and threw down the Just. And they said to one another, “Let us stone James the Just.” And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall.

But he turned and knelt down and said, “I beseech you, Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

And while they were thus stoning him, one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, a son of the Rechabites, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out, saying, “Stop! What are you doing? The Just is praying for you.”

And one of them, a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the Just on the head.

And thus he suffered martyrdom.