John 10:1-21
The Shepherd and His Flock
1"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
7Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep 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 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. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
19At these words the Jews were again divided. 20Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"
21But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
This Shepherd symbolizes God, the Old Testament caretaker and protector of His people...God in Scripture was the Shepherd of Israel...The Shepherd personally takes care of His sheep...Jesus tells us and teaches us that we are His personal sheep...Jesus uses this analogy of being the Good Shepherd, which would resonant in His time...The people of His time would understand this better than we do today, because the number of those tending sheep has dropped show much...
But, these verses were personal then and are still personal today...Sometimes I think we forget this...We forget that God is our Maker, our Father and is personal...Jesus makes this clear that He is the Good Shepherd...He makes it clear that He will lay down His life for His sheep, His people...The reason God loves His Son, is that Jesus will and does lay down His own life for His people, His followers -only to take it up again...In fact, He does lay down His life for each one of us, and each one of our sins...
To the point of God being a personal God, we are two thousand years removed from Jesus walking the earth, but He still lives...He did this through the resurrection and He took up His life again...Having a personal God, means we are not alone...God is with us, since Jesus was born (Matthew 1:23)...St. Paul tells us that God is not far from any of us (Acts 17:27)...And if you believe as I do that our God is a personal God, then not only is He with us, and near us, but He loves us...For God is Love (1 John 4:8)...He is a personal God, because He put the Holy Spirit in us and that shows His love...And by putting the Holy Spirit in each of us, we naturally want to follow the two Greatest Commandments and love our Father (in return) and love each of our neighbors (Matthew 22:34-40)...
But in this loving of God and neighbor, we still have to seek Him...If we seek God with all our hearts we will find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29)...Some people will seek Him daily, and others will seek Him in times of trouble, and others may seek Him less often...I personally think that the more seeking we do the closer we get to Him, and then realize how perfect, and infinite He is...The Great Saints know and knew this...The Great Saints practiced seeking His ways each and everyday, day after day...As we seek Him, and we find God in our minds and our thoughts...The more we sin the more He hides...The Psalmist even asks God to hide His face from our sins (Psalm 51:9)...The less we sin and do His will, the closer we get to Him in our hearts...
I think there are a small number of times we meet, our personal God, in our lives...But, in my opinion, we meet only a part of Him, a slice of Him...These are special, mystique type moments in our lives...I think if we would actually meet Him and found Him today, we couldn't imagine or comprehend His greatness, wisdom, and knowledge...And He is so much more than a great, wise, and knowledgeable Spirit...When the people of Israel, and the Gentiles met Jesus, they met are part of God...Yet, some did not seem to be shocked, awed, or see things differently (the way I read the gospels)...I think there were people who knew Jesus existed around Israel and did the same daily things before He was there...Some just did not seek Him...I think these people may have thought He was a nice man, a doctor of sorts, a wise man, a good Teacher, and maybe even a Prophet... I think there are many who feel and have these attitudes about Him today...They just do not feel for whatever reason to seek Him...
God's style is not to tell each one of us, in a mysterious way, on a daily basis that He loves us...It is not to do something that we would view as a miracle each and everyday, or even one each decade...He seems not wanted to be noticed (or maybe it is that we are still just early Christians, too young in the intelligence process to see Him)...To me He is more like, I AM going to give you a choice to believe in me and love me...This is how He defines our faith -not in mysterious miracles, but in this faith...And when we completely love Him, and can do His will (instead of our will) then we will be reborn...But to know our personal God, we must realize that He is the One that is always near us and with us...He is the One who shows us how to love...He is the One who does show up and helps us in our times of troubles....He is sort of like the air, it is there but we have a hard time seeing it and realizing it is all around us (all the time)...He is the One allowing me to choose all of the things I do each and everyday...He is a God who is my Father and who knows me...He sees what I do each day...He helps me when I am in trouble, ill, and is listening to my prayers each day...He uses His own wisdom (and not mine) to help me get through my life...He does these very things, all without me and many even noticing He is the One doing all these things...This is another sign of His great powers...He is Almighty...