The Good Shepard.

John 10:14-15

The repetition of I am the good shepherd (cf. notes on v. 11) not only lays emphasis on the sacrificial theme already introduced and about to be enlarged upon (vv. 15, 17, 18), but signals to the reader that what immediately follows, the theme of the mutual knowledge of the shepherd and the sheep (vv. 14, 15), is also of great importance. This mutual recognition, or better, mutual knowledge, is clearly experiential, and is analogous to the mutual knowledge of the Father and the Son (v. 15). That the shepherd knows his sheep, and the sheep know their shepherd, is presupposed by vv. 3–4; this mutual knowledge is precisely what ensures that they follow their shepherd, and only him. But the intimacy of this relationship is mirrored on the intimacy between the Father and the Son (cf. also notes on 15:9–11); indeed, the intimacy of the sheep/shepherd relationship is grounded upon the intimacy between the Father and the Son (cf. notes on 17:21; cf. also Mt. 11:27). However clearly this Gospel portrays Jesus as the Saviour of the world (4:42), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29, 36), it insists no less emphatically that Jesus has a peculiar relation with those the Father has given him (6:37ff.), with those he has chosen out of the world (15:16, 19). So here: Jesus’ death is peculiarly for his sheep, just as we elsewhere read that ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Eph. 5:25).

Because of the clarity of the later passages (15:9–11; 17:21), not to mention the theme of sacrifice in this passage (‘I lay down my life for the sheep’ is repeated in v. 15), the intimacy envisaged here cannot legitimately be confused with the hellenistic mysticism of the magical papyri, still less with the vagaries of the modern ‘new age’ movement. p 388 John envisages no identification between God and the believer; ‘man is not deified but delivered’ (Barrett , p. 376).1

Barrett Barrett C. K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John: An Introduction with Commentary and notes on the Greek Text (SPCK, 21978).

1 Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 387–388). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.