This next section of Scripture stood out to me for a number of reasons. A particularly well-known verse across churches can be found in John 10:10:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 NKJV
As someone who is against taking Bible verses out of context, this is one of those occasions where it’s essentially impossible to do so. That said, my curiosity was piqued when reading through John 9, and everything that occurred, leading Jesus to then debrief with His disciples in the next chapter. Although the context in which Jesus stated the above-mentioned famous statement, the immediate context was in referring to Himself as the Good Shepherd. But even more interesting to me this go around where the events that preceded this, as described in chapter 9:
“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”
John 9:1-7 NKJV
After the man had received his sight, he went back to his neighborhood where folks noticed that he was no longer blind, but seeing. They grilled him on what happened and Who caused him to be able to see again, and when he couldn’t produce a satisfactory answer, they took him to the Pharisees. Now, I don’t really know why the neighbors escalated this to the Pharisees, except the possibility that this might have been customary, as evidenced by Jesus’s statement when He had healed somebody else sometime prior:
“And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.””
Matthew 8:4 NKJV
Nonetheless, the Pharisees assumed that by interrogating this man who’d had his sight restored, they might be able to not only worm out the Person responsible for breaking the Sabbath, but also to deal with Him as they saw fit.
“They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.”
John 9:13-18 NKJV
The man’s parents, when grilled by the Pharisees, pass on responding to their question, instead deflecting it back to their son, who was an adult.
“So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?” Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.”
John 9:24-34 NKJV
The guy wasn’t even professing Jesus as Lord! All he was doing was challenging the loopholes and assumptions that the Pharisees were making, by telling them the truth: Jesus healed him.
Later Jesus sought him out:
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.”
John 9:35-38 NKJV
The now-seeing man who was healed didn’t know at first that it was the Son of God who had healed him. And yet his heart had already been opened, which Jesus would’ve been able to see. During this time, I thought it was intriguing the progression of the man’s perspective on Jesus. As described by Tara-Leigh Cobble on her recap of this passage:
It’s interesting that the more this man has to tell the story about Jesus and what He did, the more his faith seems to increase. His descriptions of Jesus go from: “the Man called Jesus,” to “He’s a prophet,” to “He is from God,” to “He is God in the flesh” over the course of the story.
The chapter closes out thusly:
“And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”
John 9:39-41 NKJV
We get to chapter 10, and it is with the backdrop of what transpired between the man whose sight was restored versus the Pharisees, that Jesus illustrated about being the Good Shepherd.
““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.””
John 10:1-5 NKJV
Considering that by this point, Jesus had had a number of run-ins with the Pharisees, plus of course being able to read hearts (because He’s God), this was the perfect backdrop to illustrate His latest parable regarding why the Pharisees were truly evil. The formerly-blind man was one of the sheep. The Pharisees wanted to “gate-keep” deeds of goodness and mercy (and healing) to ensure that such things did not “transgress” the cultural laws that they had been enforcing. To them, the rules of the Sabbath superseded doing good, which Jesus rightly called out. But He wanted to make sure that His disciples understood this as well. By this point, He knew that His death (and resurrection) was coming quite soon, and so it was important that they would be ready to carry on the Gospel message once that happened. Once again, just like with the Parable of the Sower, He sensed that they weren’t quite grasping what He was telling them, so He explained it again, this time more plainly.
“Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.””
John 10:6-18 NKJV
It is here that the well known verse is said:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 NKJV
It is a universal truth: the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus comes so that we by believing upon Him we will have eternal life, and have abundant life. In its original context, and to repeat an earlier point, Jesus explains that it is indeed the Pharisees are the ones trying to step over the fence so as to bypass the shepherd and steal the sheep. And in a different chapter, Jesus called the Pharisees children of the devil:
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.”
John 8:44-45 NKJV
Earlier the folks He was talking to had stated this:
“They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.””
John 8:39-41 NKJV
(Transparently I really do not like how the verses were divided here. Although I know all Scripture is beneficial for instruction, sometimes I find that there are parts of verses that include phrases or sections that are a bit extraneous for the topic at hand. The focal point that I wanted to highlight is simply this: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.”)
The Pharisees were saying that Abraham was their father, which Jesus immediately challenged, because there’s no way they could legitimately be children of Abraham and deny Jesus at the same time. Additionally, the only one that any person could be the child of while denying Jesus is the devil, Satan himself.
Interestingly, I recently came across a YouTube video of an LGBTQ man challenging a Bible-believing man preaching the gospel on the streets. The LGBTQ man alleged: “nobody wants you here! Go away!” The Bible-believing man immediately refuted that and asked a few other nearby people if they wanted him here or not, and they cheered. The Bible-believing man went on to preach the Gospel to the LGBTQ man, letting him know that Jesus loves him and died for him and was willing to forgive his sins. The LGTBQ man flatly refused, saying that he would be willing to pay the price for his own sins. The video was titled something along the lines of: “LGBTQ man’s plan backfires”, which on the one hand I chuckle because his accusations fell flat:
“Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight.”
Proverbs 26:2 NKJV
…but at the same time, the record shows that the LGBTQ man doubled down on rejecting Jesus, even when he realized he was factually wrong.
This, as far as I’m concerned, is Exhibit A as to why “Lecture Culture” ultimately doesn’t work. You can win an argument, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ve won their heart. No matter how nice or how mean you are with expressing your factually correct point, it guarantees nothing. There’s a sense that, although salvation is indeed available for all, the surety of salvation seems to be reserved for only few. And I’m not only talking about this:
““Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV
I’m also talking about this:
“And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.””
John 9:39 NKJV
And I’m taking about this:
“He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.”
Luke 1:51-53 NKJV
To be clear, it’s not that Jesus plays favorites (He doesn’t). But it is that He reads, knows, and judges hearts. He is able to know that the formerly-blind man who had known nothing about Him, would be truly receptive to Him. And He is able to know that the majority of the Pharisees’ hearts were so hard (except for Nicodemus; his eyes were blind but his heart was open) that no argument or proof was going to change anything for them. He knew that they were going to take Him to ultimately be crucified, long before He ever came to earth as God made flesh. But He is also fiercely protective of His sheep:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
John 10:27-29 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.10.28-29.NKJV
““I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
John 10:11 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.10.11.NKJV
Praise God for that! Amen!
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