The Good Shepherd
1“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
7Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
19Again the Jews were divided because of these words. 20Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and he’s crazy. Why do you listen to him?” 21Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone who is demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Jesus at the Festival of Dedication
22Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25“I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. 26But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
Renewed Efforts to Stone Jesus
31Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.
32Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”
33“We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you — being a man — make yourself God.”
34Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods? 35If he called those to whom the word of God came ‘gods’ — and the Scripture cannot be broken — 36do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God? 37If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me. 38But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.” 39Then they were trying again to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
Many beyond the Jordan Believe in Jesus
40So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. 41Many came to him and said, “John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” 42And many believed in him there.