First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: John 10:11-18

[Each week, as I study and prepare for the following weekend's worship celebrations, I share some of what I'm learning, re-learning, and thinking about with regard to the Biblical text around which worship will be built. This is the first "pass" at this weekend's lesson.]

The Lesson: John 10:11-18

11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The 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. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I 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. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No 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.”

Some General Comments:
(1) This is part of a longer section in which Jesus uses the shepherd metaphor. But He does so without using the term in an entirely consistent manner.

(2) As Chris Haslam points out, John 10:11-18 represents a change in the metaphor. He notes that, "In the ancient world, shifting metaphors was common."

(3) Brian Stoffregen notes "the varied associations connected to...shepherd" in John's Gospel, as catalogued by scholar Craig Koester:

• "First, the broadest level was life experiences." Shepherds could commonly be seen throughout the Mediterranean basin in those days. The term might suggest "a figure with a weather-beaten face, dressed in coarse homespun clothing..."
• "Second, associations might come from a reader's particular ethnic and religious heritage." The shepherd, of course, played an important role in Biblical history: Abel, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David, to name a few, were all shepherds. Other first-century groups would have identified with this image. "The Greek classics," writes Koester, "...used shepherd as a metaphor for leaders like Agamemnon the king. Philosophers and orators often compared the art of governing a people to the art of shepherding a flock."
• "Third, the Gospel [of John] itself establishes a certain cluster of associations around the word..." shepherd. In John (a) The shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them; (b) The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; (c) We're told that no one can take the sheep out of the strong hands of the shepherd; (d) and in John 21, Jesus passes the shepherd mantle onto Peter.

I hope to present more specific comments on the passage in a later post.