10
“I AM the Good Shepherd”
1 “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: If someone doesn’t go through the gate to get into the sheepfold, but climbs into it from some other place, he is a thief and a bandit.
2 The one who goes in through the gate, however, is the sheep’s shepherd.
3 To him the gatekeeper permits entry, and the sheep hear his summons;+ it is his own sheep that he summons by name, and he leads them out.+
4 After he has brought all his own sheep out, he goes ahead of them,+ and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his summons.+
5 A stranger, however, they will most certainly not follow; no, they will flee from him, because they don’t recognize a stranger’s summons.”
6 This parable Jesus told them, but they didn’t understand what he meant.+
7 Jesus, therefore, said again, “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: I AM+ the gate for the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves, I say, and bandits, but the sheep didn’t listen+ to them.+
9 I AM the gate. If it is through me that someone enters, he will be rescued from harm+ and come in and go out and find pasture.
10 A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I am here to give them life, and to give it in rich abundance.+
11 I AM the good shepherd.+ The good shepherd is prepared to lay down, for the sake of the sheep, his very life.
12 A hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, flees when he sees a wolf coming and abandons the sheep, and as a result the wolf seizes them and causes them to scatter.
13 He abandons the sheep because he is only a hired worker and doesn’t really care about them.+
14 I AM the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and my own sheep know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I am prepared to lay down, for the sake of the sheep, my very life.
16 I have, too, other sheep, which do not come from this sheepfold. Those sheep, too, it is God’s will for me to lead,+ and my summons+ they will surely hear.+ And those sheep and the sheep from this sheepfold+ will become one flock, with one shepherd.+
17 This is why the Father delights in+ me: I am ready to lay down my life, only to take it back up again.+
18 No one is going to take it from me, but I will lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back up again. This command I have received from my Father.”
19 The Jewish authorities+ were again sharply divided because of these words.+
20 “He has a demon and has lost his mind!” many of them were saying. “Why in the world do ᵖyou pay any attention to him?”
21 “These aren’t the words of a demonized man!” others said. “A demon can’t open the eyes of the blind, can it? Of course not!”
“I and the Father Are One”
22 The time came for the Festival of Hanukkah at Jerusalem.
23 It was winter, and Jesus was walking around in the temple area, in the roofed walkway adorned with pillars called Solomon’s Colonnade.+
24 So the Jewish authorities+ gathered around him and said, “Exactly how long are you planning to keep us in suspense?+ If you yourself are the Messiah, tell us plainly!”
25 “I’ve already told ᵖyou,+ but you refuse to believe,” replied Jesus. “The miraculous deeds that I have been doing in the name of my Father, these give testimony on my behalf.
26 Yet ᵖyou refuse to believe, because you aren’t part of my flock.
27 My sheep listen+ to my summons;+ I know them, and they follow me.
28 I, indeed, give them the life of the age to come;+ they will not die eternally, and no one can seize them from my hand.+
29 My Father, who has entrusted them to my care, is indeed more powerful than any other,+ and no one is able to seize them from the Father’s hand.+
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jewish authorities+ again picked up some stones, intending to stone him to death.
32 “I have shown ᵖyou at my Father’s command+ so many good deeds,” Jesus said to them in response. “For exactly which one of these deeds do ᵖyou wish to stone me?”
33 “It isn’t because of a good deed that we’re going to stone you,” answered the Jewish authorities,+ “but because of your blasphemy; because you, although you’re nothing but a mere man, are claiming to be God!”
34 Jesus replied to them, “Is it not written in ᵖyour Scriptures,+ ‘I said, “ᵖyou are gods” ’+?
35 If God+ called even those beings+ ‘gods,’ to whom came the word of God—and the Scripture cannot be revoked+—
36 how can ᵖyou bring charges of blasphemy against the very one whom the Father set apart for his special work and sent into the world,+ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
37 If I am not doing the powerful deeds of my Father, don’t believe me.
38 If I am doing them, however, then even if ᵖyou don’t believe me, at least believe the testimony that they themselves give,+ so that you may know and truly understand+ that the Father is united with me, and I united with the Father.”
39 They again tried to take him into custody, but he escaped from them.+
40 Jesus+ went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing previously, and he remained there.+
41 And many, many people came to him. “John performed not one miraculous sign,” they said. “Everything that John said about this man, however, has proven very true!”
42 And many, many people placed their faith in him there.