Reading:
John 10
The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full. (John
10:10)
How
often have we heard this scripture quoted and assuming the thief is
the devil? Don't get me wrong, I am not disputing the fact that
the devil is a thief. Nor that he is bent on destruction. He is
indeed. But by too quickly concluding that Jesus is speaking of the
devil here we might miss the more significant and relevant
application for those in positions of leadership over God's people.
If we read more carefully we may find a warning for leaders to
beware lest they be the thief who destroys.
This
scripture has a context, and the context of this verse doesn't seem
to have anything to do with devils or demons. The context of this
verse is all about presumed leaders of God's people who prevent the
people from seeing Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The end of John 9
flows right into the beginning of John 10:
39Jesus
said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the
blind will see and those who see will become blind." 40Some
Pharisees who were with him heard him
say this and asked, "What? Are we
blind too?" 41Jesus
said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but
now that you claim you can see, your
guilt remains. 10:1"Very
truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who
does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other
way, is a thief and a robber.
(John 9:39-41; 10:1)
In
John 10, Jesus is speaking to the same pharisees as in chapter 9. He
tells them they are guilty of sin and under judgment. The
“very
truly I tell you...”
of John 10:1 is a continuation of the same thought. John
10 is a warning against these Jewish leaders that they are thieves
and robbers.
Jesus
is speaking to them in parables. In the first, Jesus is the Shepherd
of the sheep (John 10:1-5). The
gatekeeper opens the gate for Him. This is what the Jewish leaders
were supposed to be: gatekeepers.
But they weren't opening the gate for Jesus. Jesus came to give life
and that more abundantly. Instead of opening the gate so the sheep
might have life they were barring sheep from Jesus. They
were stealing life from the sheep by keeping them from Jesus.
Then,
as if He is shifting parables, Jesus is now the gate and the Jewish
leaders are “all who have come before me” that are “thieves and
robbers” (John 10:7-10). How is it that the Jewish leaders,
teaching the scriptures as they were, were thieves and robbers? How
were they keeping people from Jesus?
Though
I am certain there is more than one answer to this question, I think
we have a big answer in John 5. There
Jesus is also speaking to the Jewish leaders.
39You
study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you
have eternal life.
These are the very Scriptures that testify about
me, 40yet
you refuse to come to me to have
life.
In John 5 we discover
that the Jewish leaders studied the Scripture, but refused to see
Jesus in the Scripture. They were not rightly handling the Scripture
(2 Timothy 2:15). All of the Scriptures are to point us to Christ
(Luke 24:27, 44). The Pharisees thought they had life in the
Scriptures. But they refused to go to Christ to get that life.
Likewise, in their teaching they were not opening the gate of the
Scriptures to lead the people to Jesus but rather were hindering
their ability to see Jesus by teaching everything but Jesus from the
Scriptures.
So although it may seem
harmless to think that John 10:10 is talking only about the devil, I
wonder if in fact it might lead to a bigger problem. If we think it
is the devil, we might miss the warning that applies to any that
would presume to teach the Scripture. We (those who teach God's
word) better make sure we are using the Scripture to open the door to
Jesus. If not, we are thieves and robbers, keeping the people
from the life, the abundant life that Jesus and only Jesus can give
them. (See also James 3:1.)
Love
the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,
Jerry
For
More on John 10 and Jesus' handling of the false shepherds of Israel
see I
Said, “You are 'gods'”!
