ODB: the other side
February 11, 2010 READ: James 4:13-17 What is your life? It is even a vapor. —James 4:14 When someone said to my friend, “See you in a year,” it sounded odd when he replied, “Yes, see you on the other side.” He meant that he’d see him on the other side of a one-year deployment [...]
ODJ: thieves and shepherds
I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold . . . must surely be a thief and a robber! (v.1).
READ: John 10:1-21
In September 2008, a court convicted Ryan Mueller of burglary. Due to multiple convictions, Mueller received 6 years in the penitentiary along with 5 years probation. Mueller’s latest crime happened in the middle of the night when he crept into a family’s home under cover of dark and attempted to steal $20 from a toddler’s piggy bank.
I don’t know Ryan’s story, but I’m guessing that by the time you get to the place where you are lifting kids’ piggy banks, stealing has become a way of life.
Jesus spoke of a thief whose nature is “to steal and kill and destroy” and contrasts this thief with Himself, who intends to “give [us] a rich and satisfying life” (John 10:10). Jesus used this metaphor as a distinguishing mark between Himself and all false truths or teachers. “I am the gate for the sheep,” Jesus said (v.7). However, “all who came before Me were thieves and robbers” (v.8). In an agrarian society where most everyone had someone in the family who made a living tending sheep, Jesus provided an image with immediate resonance.
Often when shepherds were moving their sheep to better pasture, they would stop for the night in a place where there was a stone (or hedged) wall to protect the sheep. The shepherd would sleep in the entrance. His body became the gate that kept the wooly creatures in and kept the wolves out.
“The good shepherd,” Jesus said, “sacrifices his life for the sheep” (v.11). On the other hand, “the wolf attacks . . . and scatters the flock” (v.12).
In John’s context, the hero and protagonist are clear. Jesus is the life-giving Shepherd. The ravenous, destructive thief is a false teacher following the lead of Satan. Who is the one we will listen to—the thief or the Good Shepherd? —Winn Collier
Where do you see signs of a thief’s work in your life? Where do you see hints of the truth and kindness of the Good Shepherd?
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