Narrative Lectionary for Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Narrative Lectionary for Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Lectionary Scriptures:

John 10:1 “Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 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. 4 Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

7 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd.[a] The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them. 13 The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15 even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.[b] I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life,[c] that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

Footnotes:

a. John 10:11 Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:11-12,15,22

b. John 10:16 Isaiah 56:8

c. John 10:17 Isaiah 53:7-8

Psalm 23: A Psalm by David.

1 Yahweh is my shepherd:

    I shall lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.

    He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul.

    He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

    I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

    My cup runs over.

6 Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life,

    and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever.

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Commentary on John 10:1-18 by Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman

The Gospel of John is the culmination of a couple of generations of recitation and reflection on the words and deeds of Jesus.

They have been examined from multiple perspectives and studied with respect to Scripture. What starts out as a historical recollection gets filtered through the community’s experiences, and the result is a two-level reading that interweaves Jesus’ story with that of the Johannine community.

It makes for theological depth, but it often seems that the text is going around in circles. A better description, however, would be that the passage is spiraling upward, repeatedly touching on previous thoughts or themes but always progressing to some new insight or conclusion.

For the text at hand, John 10:1 seems to be a beginning of a new unit, and verses 1-18 breaks into three parts with a response to Jesus words in verses 19-21. With verse 21, however, we see that this unit is actually part of a larger reflection referring back to the healing of the blind man in chapter 9. Physical sight and spiritual insight were the motivating issues there.

In chapter 10, hearing, which results in following and knowing Jesus, becomes the theme. Verses 1-18 are the spiraling preamble that leads to Jesus’ stunning statement in verse 30, “The Father and I are one.”

Jesus does not make any claim about himself in the initial “figure of speech” (verse 6). He simply describes a gatekeeper at the gate of a sheepfold, probably some kind of walled, stone structure. The antagonists in verse 1 are thieves who operate by stealth and bandits who use violence.

The key character introduced here is the shepherd. He has the proper relationship with the sheep because they hear (akouo) and know his voice and will follow him, in contrast to strangers from whom the sheep flee. On the surface, this is a quite unremarkable observation. It should not be a surprise that “they” -- apparently the Pharisees mentioned in 9:40f. -- do not understand what he is talking about.

Jesus makes it personal in the next section: “I am the gate.” The previously mentioned thieves and bandits reappear and initially the issue is that the sheep do not listen (akouo) to them. The comparison then shifts to how entering the gate is the way to be saved and have access to pastures in contrast to the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Such violence leads to the next contrast (verse 10b) where Jesus says he came so that the sheep may have abundant life, and this thought leads to Jesus’ most memorable claim in this section, “I am the good shepherd [who] lays down his life for the sheep.”

Such a good shepherd stands in contrast to a hired hand who fails to care for the sheep and flees when the wolf comes. To continue the contrast, Jesus repeats the thought of “knowing” introduced in verses 3-5 to speak of the close relationship between shepherd and sheep. This mutuality then leads to verse 15 and the dramatic comparison to how “the Father knows me, and I know the Father.”

Verse 15b reintroduces from verse 11 the theme of laying down one’s life, a theme that receives full exposition in verses 17-18 where it is extended to Jesus’ choosing to lay down his life and his ability to take it up again. Such power, Jesus says, is part of his commission from the Father.

Inserted between that discussion is verse 16 where the picture of the sheepfold from verse 1 is evoked and how the sheep will listen (akouo again) to his voice. The result is the alliterative assertion that “there will be one flock (poimne), one shepherd (poimen), a reference perhaps to future conversion of pagans but more likely to the unity of dispersed Christian communities.

What started out as a simple pastoral image has resulted in significant theological claims played out with a large cast of characters. On the negative side, there are thieves, bandits, strangers, hired hands, and wolves. In contrast, it is the sheepfold with its gate and the shepherd that protects the sheep from those destructive forces.

In John’s two-level reading, the antagonists in Jesus’ time are the chief priests and Pharisees who seek to stone him (verse 31) and arrest him (verse 39) and are complicit in Jesus’ final arrest (18:3) and crucifixion (19:16). In John’s community, they are the “Jews,” specifically the Jewish authorities, who are harassing Jewish Christians and expelling them from the synagogues (8:22; 12:42).

In opposition to the hostile forces, Jesus is the gate and good shepherd on both levels. This understanding is informed by references to shepherds and sheep in the Old Testament, particularly Ezekiel 34:11-16, 23; 37:24.

In these verses, the worthless caretakers of God’s people are set aside and God personally assumes the role of shepherd or assigns it to his Davidic Messiah. It is reasonable for the Jewish authorities to be divided in their opinions (verses 19-21), and it is a logical extension for Jesus to claim in verse 30, “The Father and I are one.”

Note, however, that the role of shepherd was not one of power or status, especially in Jesus’ time. Rather, the emphasis on Jesus’ laying down of his life demonstrates the close relationship he has with the sheep and that he is truly a good shepherd. As Jesus himself says in 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

If a non-Christian were to read this text, I suspect Jesus’ mundane analogy about shepherding that initiates the extended reflection sounds like what Chance the gardener says in the Peter Sellers’ movie, Being There. Chance is a complete simpleton who only knows about gardening. He falls into the highest circles of economic and political power where his gardening tips are interpreted as profound and insightful allegories.

Chance succeeds because others misunderstand him. Jesus’ “success” is due to his followers listening to his voice and knowing the truth that he did in fact lay down his life and take it up again. In the midst of a world filled with all sorts of threats and dangers -- and for Christians in some parts of the world, it is an actual matter of life and death -- we long for the fulfillment of Jesus promise that there will be one flock, one shepherd.

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John Wesley’s Notes-Commentary:

John 10:1-18

Verse 1. He that entereth not by the door - By Christ. He is the only lawful entrance. Into the sheepfold - The Church. He is a thief and a robber - In God's account. Such were all those teachers, to whom our Lord had just been speaking.

Verse 3. To him the door keeper openeth - Christ is considered as the shepherd, ver. 11. As the door in the first and following verses. And as it is not unworthy of Christ to be styled the door, by which both the sheep and the true pastor enter, so neither is it unworthy of God the Father to be styled the door keeper. See Acts xiv, 27; Colossians iv, 3; Rev. iii, 8; Acts xvi, 14. And the sheep hear his voice - The circumstances that follow, exactly agree with the customs of the ancient eastern shepherds. They called their sheep by name, went before them and the sheep followed them. So real Christians hear, listen to, understand, and obey the voice of the shepherd whom Christ hath sent. And he counteth them his own, dearer than any friend or brother: calleth, advises, directs each by name, and leadeth them out, in the paths of righteousness, beside the waters of comfort.

Verse 4. He goeth before them - In all the ways of God, teaching them in every point, by example as well as by precept; and the sheep follow him - They tread in his steps: for they know his voice - Having the witness in themselves that his words are the wisdom and the power of God. Reader, art thou a shepherd of souls? Then answer to God. Is it thus with thee and thy flock?

Verse 5. They will not follow a stranger - One whom Christ hath not sent, who doth not answer the preceding description. Him they will not follow - And who can constrain them to it? But will flee from him - As from the plague. For they know not the voice of strangers - They cannot relish it; it is harsh and grating to them. They find nothing of God therein.

Verse 6. They - The Pharisees, to whom our Lord more immediately spake, as appears from the close of the foregoing chapter.

Verse 7. I am the door - Christ is both the Door and the Shepherd, and all things.

Verse 8. Whosoever are come - Independently of me, assuming any part of my character, pretending, like your elders and rabbis, to a power over the consciences of men, attempting to make laws in the Church, and to teach their own traditions as the way of salvation: all those prophets and expounders of God's word, that enter not by the door of the sheepfold, but run before I have sent them by my Spirit. Our Lord seems in particular to speak of those that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry, are thieves -Stealing temporal profit to themselves, and robbers - Plundering and murdering the sheep.

Verse 9. If any one - As a sheep, enter in by me - Through faith, he shall be safe - From the wolf, and from those murdering shepherds. And shall go in and out - Shall continually attend on the shepherds whom I have sent; and shall find pasture - Food for his soul in all circumstances.

Verse 10. The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy - That is, nothing else can be the consequence of a shepherd's coming, who does not enter in by me.

Verse 12. But the hireling - It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the work: the working for the sake of the hire. He is a hireling, who would not work, were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great (if not only) motive of working. O God! If a man who works only for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all? The wolf - signifies any enemy who, by force or fraud, attacks the Christian's faith, liberty, or life. So the wolf seizeth and scattereth the flock - He seizeth some, and scattereth the rest; the two ways of hurting the flock of Christ.

Verse 13. The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling - Because he loves the hire, not the sheep.

Verse 14. I know my sheep - With a tender regard and special care: and am known of mine - With a holy confidence and affection.

Verse 15. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father - With such a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a going unto death.

Verse 16. I have also other sheep - Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles. I must bring them likewise - Into my Church, the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven. And there shall be one flock - (Not one fold, a plain false print) no corrupt or divided flocks remaining. And one shepherd - Who laid down his life for the sheep, and will leave no hireling among them. The unity both of the flock and the shepherd shall be completed in its season. The shepherd shall bring all into one flock: and the whole flock shall hear the one shepherd.

Verse 17. I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.

Verse 18. I lay it down of myself - By my own free act and deed. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again - I have an original power and right of myself, both to lay it down as a ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the sins of the whole world. This commission have I received of my Father - Which I readily execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in him self, as having an original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission. But this commission was the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He did it in obedience to his Father.

Psalm 23

PS 23 David extolls the goodness of God as his shepherd, and expresses his confidence in him, ver. 1-6. A psalm of David.

Verse 2. Lie down - To repose myself at noon, as the manner was in those hot countries. Green - Where there is both delight and plenty of provisions.

Verse 3. Restoreth - Hebrew. He bringeth it back; from its errors and wandering. For - Not for any worth in me, but for the glory of his justice, and faithfulness, and goodness.

Verse 4. Thy rod and thy staff - Two words denoting the same thing, and both designing God's pastoral care over him.

Verse 5. A table - Thou furnishest me with plenty of provisions and comforts. Oil - With aromatic ointments, which were then used at great feasts; thy comforts delight my soul. Runneth over - Thou hast given me a plentiful portions, signified by the cup, given to the guests by the master of the feast.

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