My Dear People,

Today Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and he introduces opposing parties: thieves and robbers against the shepherd. He first contrasts them in regard to entering the sheepfold, a pen constructed either from natural materials in the countryside or as part of a domestic dwelling place. The thief does not go in through the gate but climbs over elsewhere. The characterization of such a person as a “thief and robber” suggests a desire to exploit  the sheep for personal benefit. The term “robber” implies violence, for elsewhere it describes Barabbas the “revolutionary” (John 18:40) and the two criminals crucified with Jesus (Matt 27:38,44). This imagery also resonates with Ezekiel’s indictment of Judah’s leadership for their self-serving exploitation of God’s people (Ezek 34:2-8). Unlike the thief and robber, the one with proper access to the sheep, who enters through the gate, is the shepherd. The mention of sheep develops the theme of discipleship from John 9:28.

The gatekeeper opens the door for the shepherd. Although no real clue is given as to what the gatekeeper signifies, a tentative but plausible case can be made for the Father as the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper gives the shepherd access to the sheep, and it is the Father who has given the disciples to Jesus (10:29). The gatekeeper opens the gate through which the shepherd leads out his sheep to the pasture of eternal life (see 10:27-28), and it is the Father who has sent Jesus into the world to save it and give eternal life (3:16-17).

There are several elements in Jesus’ words that resonate with the theme of leaders and disciples. First, walks ahead and follow characterize the relationship of the teacher, who leads, and the disciples, who follow (John 13:36-37). 

Jesus says, the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.. A true disciple is one who hears and receives Jesus’ revelatory word: “Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God” (8:47). Similarly, Jesus tells Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (18:37). Fourth, Jesus calls his own sheep by name. In the Gospel, Jesus calls several disciples by name—Peter (1:42), Lazarus (11:43), Mary Magdalene (20:16)—who hear and respond positively to him. Similarly, the formerly blind man became a believer in Jesus after he saw Jesus and heard him “speaking” to him (9:27). The sheep have only one shepherd and are single minded. The ones who are his disciples (his sheep) do not listen to any other leader, because no other knows them as their shepherd does. 

Jesus now interprets the shepherd imagery introduced in 10:1-5 to teach about his identity as the good shepherd who was sent by the Father to lay down his life for the good of his sheep.

Beginning with another Amen, amen, I say to you (see 10:1), Jesus makes his third statement in the Gospel: I am the gate for the sheep. In the first part of the discourse, Jesus spoke of the open gate as the way by which the shepherd leads his sheep out (10:2-4). Now he develops this image: Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. Jesus is one door through which we enter into salvation and good pasture which he later identifies as “eternal life” (10:28). His claim to be the gate is very similar to his self-identification in 14:6, “I am the way…No one comes to the father except through me.”  But leading his sheep to the pasture of eternal life, Jesus performs the actions of the Lord in Ezek. 34. since the leadership of Judah failed his people, the Lord says, “I myself will search for my sheep . . . In good pastures I will pasture them” (Ezek. 34:11,14). 

Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Vincent Clemente