The good shepherd

1Jesus talked some more and said, “Listen to this picture story about a mob of sheep and some men. This picture story’s message is true. One of the men in this story owns some sheep, and he looks after them properly. He is called their shepherd. He keeps those sheep in a yard with a big fence. And there is a man that looks after the gate of that yard. Whenever the shepherd goes there, that man always lets him in the gate. Then the shepherd calls each sheep’s name, and they know that he is their shepherd, so they come to him. Then he takes all his sheep out of the yard to a place with grass for them to eat. Wherever he walks, they follow him, because they know his voice and they trust him.A shepherd looks after his sheep, and his sheep follow him But another man in this story doesn’t own the sheep. He wants to steal them, so he doesn’t go into the yard through the gate, but he climbs over the fence.

5If the sheep hear that man’s voice they run away. They don’t know his voice, so they don’t trust him. They never follow somebody they don’t know.”

6The people listening to Jesus didn’t understand this story,

7so he said, “I will tell you something else. Listen to this, it’s true. I am like a gate in a sheep yard.

8You know, the gate is the way for the sheep to go into the yard. Well, I am the way for people to come to God. If anybody comes to me, they will come into God’s family, and he will save them. And you know that sheep have to use the gate to go out and get grass to eat. Well just like that, people have to come to me to get whatever they need to live for God. And remember the shepherd in that picture story. Well, I am like that good shepherd that looks after his sheep properly. Some other men came before me, and they reckoned they were like shepherds, but they were liars. They were bad men, and my people didn’t listen to them, just like sheep only listen to their shepherd. Those bad people only want to steal the sheep, and kill them, and finish them up. But I am not like that. I came here to give people real life, so they can live with God for ever. You know, a good shepherd looks after his sheep properly, even if he has to die for them. Well, I am like that, I am ready to die to save my people.

12You know, there are also workers that don’t own the sheep. The owner pays them to look after the sheep. But they don’t really care about the sheep. If they see a wild dog coming, they get frightened, and they leave the sheep there and run away. Then the wild dog chases the sheep to grab them and eat them, and the sheep run away.

14But I am not like those workers. I am like a good shepherd. I am ready to die to save my people. I know all my people, and all my people know me, just like I know God my father, and he knows me.

16And not all of my people are from the same mob. They are not all Jewish people. I have other people too, and I have to bring them all together, like one mob of sheep. They will hear my voice, and they will come to me. Yes, I will bring all my people together into one mob, and I will look after them all, like a good shepherd looks after his sheep.

17I am going to die to save my people, and then I will come back to life again. That is the reason why my father loves me.

18You see, nobody is forcing me to die, but I’m going to die for my people because I want to do it. My father gives me the power to do it, and he also gives me the power to come back to life again. And he told me to do both of those things.”

19Again, the Jewish leaders didn’t agree with each other about Jesus’s message.

20Lots of them said, “He’s got a bad spirit in him. He is crazy. Don’t listen to him.”

21But some of them said, “No, he hasn’t got a bad spirit. A man with a bad spirit doesn’t tell this sort of message, and a bad spirit can’t make blind people see again.”

The Jewish leaders argued with Jesus

22At that time there was a ceremony in Jerusalem. You see, every year, in the cold weather time, the Jewish people had a ceremony to remember when their grand-fathers got God’s ceremony house back from their enemies.

23So Jesus went to God’s ceremony house and walked in the part called Solomon’s veranda.

24Some of the Jewish leaders stood around Jesus and said, “Don’t keep us waiting. Tell us straight. Are you the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us?”

25Jesus said, “I have already told you who I am, but you don’t believe me. My father sent me to do powerful things. Those powerful things show who I am.

26You mob don’t believe me, because you are not my sheep.

27I know the people that are my sheep. They listen to my voice, and they believe what I say, and they follow me.

28I will give them new life, so they will live with me for ever, and they will never finish up. Yes, I will hold them properly, so nobody can ever grab them and steal them from me.

29My father gave them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone, so nobody can grab them and steal them from my father.

30My father and me, we are joined together, like we are one.”

31Again, the Jewish leaders didn’t like what Jesus said, so they picked up stones to kill him.

32Jesus said, “Why do you want to kill me? You have seen me do a lot of good things, and they show you that my father sent me. Do you really want to kill me for doing those good things?”

33The Jewish leaders said, “We don’t want to kill you for doing good things. But you are saying things against God. That is the reason why we have to kill you. You are just a man, but you say that you are God.”

34Jesus said to them, “You have God’s book, and you can read these words there, ‘God said that you are gods.’

35You see, God gave some people his message, and then he called them gods. And remember, nobody can change anything that God says in his book.

36So if I say I am God’s son, I am not saying anything bad against God. I am the one God picked out, and he sent me to this world to do his works.

37God is my father, and I do his works. You have seen me do those powerful things, so why don’t you believe me? All right, think about those things you saw me do. They can help you understand who I am. They show that my father is joined to me, so that it’s like he’s in me. And they show that I am joined to him, so that it’s like I am in him.”

39Again the Jewish leaders tried to grab Jesus and put him in jail, but he got away from them.

40Then Jesus left Jerusalem and went across the Jordan River to the place where John used to baptise people, and Jesus stayed there for a while.

41Lots of people went to him there. They said to each other, “John never did powerful things, but everything that John said about this man is true.”

42And so a lot of those people believed in Jesus.