Jesus said… ·‘…The one who does…come into the sheepfold through the gate… ·...is a shepherd…·The sheep pay attention to his voice…, ·When he has taken his sheep out…(they) follow him… ·I am the good shepherd; I know and am known by those who are mine— ·just as the Father knows me and I too know the Father... ·I have other sheep which are not of this sheepfold. Those I must also lead out when they pay attention to my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd. ·The Father loves me because I lay down my life... · No one takes it from me. Rather, I am laying it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. I received this command alongside my Father.’ ·Now a split occurred among the Judeans because of these words. ·Many of them said, ‘He has a demon or he is mad! Why listen to him!’ ·Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who is demonized. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?’ (John 9:41a; 10:1-2,3b,4,14-21 GH[i])

The time came for the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem.[ii]It was winter, ·and Jesus was walking in the Portico of Solomon in the temple courts. ·The Judeans surrounded him and said, ‘…If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ ·Jesus replied, ‘I have told YOU, but YOU do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name—these bear witness concerning me. ·…YOU do not believe because YOU are not from among my sheep. ·My sheep listen to my voice, and they follow me. ·I give them eternal life, and…they will never be lost, for no one shall snatch them out of my hand. ·My Father, the One who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch anything from the Father’s hand. ·I and the Father are one.’ (Jn.10:22-30)

The Judeans again picked up stones to stone him. To them Jesus responded, ‘I have shown YOU many good works from my Father. For which of these works are YOU stoning me?’ ·‘We are not stoning you with regards to a good work’ the Judeans answered, ‘but with regards to blasphemy—because you, a human being, are making yourself to be God.’ ·Jesus replied, ‘In YOUR Law it is written: “I said, YOU are gods, [sons of the Most High all of YOU]”.[iii] ·If he referred to those to whom the Word of God came as “gods, and the scripture text cannot be dissolved, ·how can YOU say to the one the Father consecrated and sent into the world: “You are blaspheming” because I said, “I am the Son of God”? ·If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me! ·But if I am doing his works, at least believe in these, even if YOU do not believe in me—that YOU may know and be certain that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ ·Then they again sought to arrest him, but he escaped out of their hands. (Jn.10:31-39)

In his parable of the sheepfolds, Jesus taught his disciples how to approach people of other social and cultural groups (Med.#23). When he uses this analogy again at a different Feast, we see how the parochial worldview of a particular ‘sheepfold’ can prevent those in it from following him outside the comfortable framework of their own group's way of seeing things: in this case, about the Father. Jesus' words challenge us today too. Will we bring our own worldview into line with God's perspective, or back away from what he is trying to teach us?

These Judeans grew up expecting a Messiah who would ‘set Israel free’ (Lk.24:21) and ‘restore the kingdom to Israel’ (Med.#49). So their belief in Jesus as Messiah is conditional on him fitting into their nationalistic worldview (Med.#64). And when he starts talking about the works he has done in his Father's name, and the intimate partnership he enjoys with him, they can only hear blasphemy—a human being claiming equality with God (Med.#59). They are unable to connect this to the biblical prophecy about the Messiah—“I will be a Father to him and he will be my son”  (Med.#D)—because in the worldview they have developed, the Creator is so separate from his creation that he only relates (sometimes, and in the past) to very special people like Abraham, Moses, and David. So it is unthinkable that an ordinary person—especially a Galilean!—could enjoy an intimate, personal relationship with God as a son to a Father. The clear and separate categories (dichotomies) in their worldview—of Creator vs. creation, prophets vs. ordinary people—keep them from hearing how Jesus wants to lead them too into the same relationship with the Father that he enjoys.

Even today, many believers are unable to embrace this idea because of a similarly ‘dichotomous’ worldview. This is especially true in the West where, according to the late Francis Schaeffer, people have created a high wall between the natural world and the supernatural realm. So when Christians with a Western education read Jesus' application of a ‘scripture text’ (Ps.82:6)—telling his listeners that God sees them as ‘gods’ and therefore ‘sons of the Most High’—they feel uncomfortable and focus only on what Jesus says about his own relationship with the Father; because it is more familiar to just associate the relationship, ‘Son of God’, with the divine nature of Jesus. Like the Judeans, they miss the connection between Psalm 82 and what the Torah teaches: that all human beings were made in God's image and were given his word at creation; also that all human beings continue to bear his image (Med.#A) even though all have disobeyed him, like sheep that ‘have gone astray’ (Is.53:6). More than people of any other nation, these Judeans should have remembered the ‘word’ God gave to them—“Israel is my firstborn son”—when he called them out of Egypt. And how their Father never gave up on them, even when their ancestors chose to disobey his word and walk in darkness (Med.#C).

Yes, Jesus speaks of his confidence that the Father knows and loves him, but at the same time he is thinking of how he will ‘lead’ all his ‘sheep’ into knowing the Father like he does. For that is why he, ‘the Word of God’ became a human being (Med.#58). As the ‘firstborn of many brothers and sisters’ demonstrates what true humanity looks like, then he ‘laid down his life’ and ‘took it up again’, so that through the Holy Spirit he could finally lead his disciples into the same intimate adult family partnership with the Father that he enjoyed here on earth (Med.#5 & Med.#7). In Jesus' application of Psalm 82, being a ‘god’ and a ‘son of God’ is less about having a supernatural origin or capabilities than it is about having a relationship with God through his Word. Yet today, many believers—especially in the West—subconsciously identify themselves more with the higher animals, as part of nature, than with their supernatural God and Father. However, Psalm 82 also teaches us that it is not our natural existence that makes us ‘die like mortals’, but our choices to disobey God's word and ‘walk in darkness’ (Ps.82:2-7 NRSV). So when Jesus speaks of himself as ‘Son of God’ in relation to this text, he is not claiming divinity, but instead underlining how he—as a human being in this world—is honoring and obeying his Father by doing the works his Father has given him to do.

With John, I believe that Jesus is the divine ‘Word’ of God, and that he is both God and uniquely ‘the Son of God (Med.#58). This is why we continue to honor him as ‘the Son of God’ and listen to his voice as he leads us and gives us eternal life. Yet it is also important for us to recognize that on this occasion, Jesus is mainly anticipating how his disciples will soon obey and honor the Father as his adult sons and daughters too (Med.#43). For in this teaching Jesus also emphasizes that it is really the Father who leads us, since he led us to Jesus in the first place (Med.#61). And the reason that we are safe in Jesus' hand is because our safety is guaranteed by the Father's hand; for it is the Father who is ‘greater than all’ other powers—even, Jesus says, 'greater than I' (Med.#51).

God is your real Father. Both he and Jesus see you more as a ‘god’ than as a mere ‘mortal’. How do you see yourself? Are you able to hear Jesus' words and adjust your worldview? Or are you tempted to modify his words because they sound blasphemous, or because they make you feel uncomfortable? To know full freedom and confidence as an adult son or daughter, in an intimate partnership relationship with the Father, each of us must follow Jesus ‘out’—out of the restrictive religious and cultural worldview of our native ‘sheepfold’.

Father, how great is your love that we should be called your sons and daughters. For that is what we are, even though this world cannot yet see this in either Jesus or in us. But you chose us in him, Father, before the creation…predestining us to be placed as your sons. Though you made us for a little while lower than the angels, you crowned us with glory and honor, by giving us the Spirit as the deposit on our inheritance, the guarantee of all that’s to come—so that we already have access to you, Father, with freedom and confidence through Jesus. In this world we are already like him, as we rely on your love and as your love matures in us. And when we are revealed to creation as your sons [& daughters], we will be like you and see you as you are. (1 Jn.3:1; 4:16; Eph.1:4-5,14; 2:18; 3:12; Heb.2:7; 2 Cor.1:22; Rom.8:19; 1 Jn.3:2; Matt.5:8,48)

[i] The Scripture passage is taken from J.K. Mellis, The Good News of the Messiah by the Four Witnesses: pp.147-148, 165-166.

[ii] The eight-day ‘Festival of Lights’ (Hanukkah) that began in late December.

[iii] In Jesus' day, when part of a text was quoted—in this case, Psalm 82:6a—it was understood that the rest of the text [including Ps.82:6b] was being referred to as well.