RCL reading for Sunday, May 3, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
John 10:11-18
11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’
STUDY GUIDE
What does the passage tell us about God?
What does the passage tell us about human beings and the relationships between people?
What does the passage say about the relationship between God and human beings?
How does the passage call us to change?
Adapted from “Theological Bible Study,” from In Dialogue with Scripture: An Episcopal Guide to Studying the Bible, ed. Linda L. Grenz (Episcopal Church Center, 1993), p. 96.
PARALLEL BIBLE COMMENTARIES via http://biblecommenter.com.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
10:10-18 Christ is a good Shepherd; many who were not thieves, yet were careless in their duty, and by their neglect the flock was much hurt. Bad principles are the root of bad practices. The Lord Jesus knows whom he has chosen, and is sure of them; they also know whom they have trusted, and are sure of Him. See here the grace of Christ; since none could demand his life of him, he laid it down of himself for our redemption. He offered himself to be the Saviour; Lo, I come. And the necessity of our case calling for it, he offered himself for the Sacrifice. He was both the offerer and the offering, so that his laying down his life was his offering up himself. From hence it is plain, that he died in the place and stead of men; to obtain their being set free from the punishment of sin, to obtain the pardon of their sin; and that his death should obtain that pardon. Our Lord laid not his life down for his doctrine, but for his sheep.
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At the end of his Succoth section in the book of signs and bridging to the Channuka section John brings up these two shepherd parables. The first precedes our reading and has been called the "gate" parable. Ours follows the assertion that, "I AM the good shepherd." The first two words are the assertion of divinity. Contrasted with the false shepherd he describes his self-sacrificing ownership/love for his sheep, his intimacy with flock who follows his voice. He then mentions other flocks, precipitating two thousand years of speculation on how the church should be organised.
ReplyDeleteThe language is emphatic reading literally, "I, myself,
ReplyDeleteam the shepherd, the good one". Leon Morris says "the I AM is the
language of deity. It is not the normal way people would say these things, but the way God would say them". The word for "good" here is KALOS referring to goodness reflected in form. We see it in "calligraphy" and "callisthenics's", beautiful writing and beuty in strength. Could we translate then, "I, myself, am the Shepherd, the beautiful, attractive One?