John 10:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And I lay down My life." He repeats this often to show that He is not a deceiver. So also the Apostle, when he wished to show himself a true teacher and directed his speech against false apostles, boasted of afflictions and deaths.

He said: "In stripes beyond measure, in deaths often"; 2 Cor 11:23. The expressions "I am the light" and "I am the life" seemed arrogant to the senseless. But the words "I wish to die" stirred up neither envy nor hatred.

Therefore they do not say to Him: "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true." Those words showed His great care, since He wished to give Himself up for men who were casting stones at Him.

What knowledge more perfect than this do you desire? Ask the one who objects: does the Father know the Son perfectly, and does He possess exact knowledge of everything concerning Him, so that nothing concerning the Son is hidden from Him, but full knowledge belongs to Him?

He will say, Yes. Therefore, when you hear that the Son also knows the Father as the Father knows the Son, seek nothing further, since Their knowledge is entirely equal.

He expresses the same thing elsewhere, saying: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him"; Mt 11:27.

They would come to such frenzy and such madness against Him that they would hand over to death the One who ought not to have suffered it at all. On the contrary, He deserved every praise and admiration for the works He performed and for His great skill in shepherding the flock.

It must be noted that Christ suffered death for us and on our behalf not against His will. He is shown to go to it voluntarily, though He could easily have avoided suffering if He had not willed to suffer.

Therefore, in His voluntary suffering for us, we must behold the perfection of His love for us and the immeasurable greatness of His mercy.

And so, just as He Himself knows the Father through Himself, and we know the Father through Him, so He enters the sheepfold through Himself, and we enter through Him.

We said that through Christ we have a door to you. Why? Because we preach Christ. We preach Christ, and therefore we enter through the door. But Christ preaches Christ, because He preaches Himself. Therefore the Shepherd enters through Himself.

When light reveals other things that are visible by light, is something else needed in order to see light? Thus light reveals both other things and itself. Everything we understand, we understand through reason. From where do we understand reason itself, if not from reason?

Do you see with the eye of flesh both other things and the eye itself? Although we see people with our eyes, we do not see our own eyes. The eye of flesh sees other things, but it cannot see itself.

Reason, however, understands both other things and itself. As reason sees itself, so Christ preaches Himself. If He preaches Himself and enters into you through preaching, then He enters into you through Himself.

He is also the Door to the Father, for there is no other way to come to the Father except through Him. For "there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim 2:5.

Many things are expressed by means of a word. What I have said, I have said, of course, by means of a word. If I wished to express the word itself, how would I say it except with the help of a word?

Thus by means of a word both other things, which are not a word, are expressed, and the word itself cannot be expressed except through a word. By the Lord's help we have many examples.

Remember, then, why the Lord Jesus Christ is both Door and Shepherd: Door by revealing Himself, Shepherd by entering through Himself. Indeed, brethren, He also entrusted shepherding to His members. Peter is a shepherd, Paul is a shepherd, the other apostles are shepherds, and good bishops are shepherds.

But none of us calls himself the door. He kept this for Himself as His own, that through which the sheep enter.

Finally, Paul fulfilled the duty of a good shepherd when he preached Christ, because he entered through the door. But when unruly sheep began to create a schism and set up other doors before themselves, not doors through which they enter to be in unity, but doors through which they are confused and divided, some saying, "I am of Paul. " others, "I am of Cephas," others, "I am of Apollos," and still others, "I am of Christ," he was horrified at those who said, "I am of Paul." With tears he cried out, as it were, to the sheep: "Wretched ones, where are you going? I am not the door. Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" cf. 1 Cor 1:12-13.

Those, however, who said, "I am of Christ," found the Door.

The death of the Shepherd, Christ, proves all this. From the time when He laid down His life for the sheep and allowed Himself to be killed by the fury of the Jews, His sheep have been exposed to the suffering raids of pagan pirates.

Like prisoners for slaughter in dungeons, they are held in the caves of robbers. Persecutors, like prowling wolves, tear them without ceasing. Heretics bite them, like rabid dogs baring their teeth.

In light of all this, did the Shepherd prove His love for you by His death? Does He prove love by seeing danger threaten His sheep when He cannot defend His flock? Does He prefer to die, without seeing evil done to the sheep?

But what are we to do, if Life itself could not die before first resolving to do so? Who could take life from the Giver of life, if He did not will it?

Behold, He willed to die, He who allowed Himself to be killed though He could not die. Therefore let us examine the power and cause of such love, the foundation of death, and the profit of suffering.

Clearly, in all this blood there is great power, a true cause, a bright foundation, and an evident profit. An incomparable power came forth from this death of the Shepherd.

For the sake of His sheep, the Shepherd accepted the death that threatened Him. He did this so that, by a new ordering, He Himself, being taken, might take the devil, the author of death.

He did it so that, being killed, He might punish. By dying for His sheep, He could open for them the path to victory over death.

Thus, giving such an example, the Shepherd went before the sheep. He did not flee from them. He did not betray the sheep to the wolves, but betrayed the wolves to the sheep.

For He gave the sheep the ability to strike the robbers in such a way that, being slaughtered, they might live. Being maimed, they might be born again. Dyed with their own blood, they might shine with royal purple and snow-white fleece.

When the good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep, He did not lose it. In this way He preserved His sheep. He did not abandon them at all.

Indeed, He did not forsake them, but called them. He called them and led them through fields filled with death to life-bearing pastures.

As there are false teachers, so there are also false sheep of Christ. They bear only the name of Christ's sheep, but in deed they are not His sheep. These are those who know Christ poorly and are even worse in their works.

Therefore the Savior's words, "My own know Me," do not apply to them. "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father." The heavenly Shepherd knows His own, and they know Him, as the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father.

The communion of the Father with the Son is the closest and most intimate: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him"; Mt 11:27.

"And I lay down My life for the sheep." The close communion of the Son with the Father is the foundation of the Son's sacrifice of His life for the sheep. In other words, He gives His life for the sheep because such is the will of the heavenly Father.

Christ Jesus sees and shows others that His earthly course will end in a violent death. Yet He also shows that such an end is the work of His own will, sacrificing His life for the happiness of men.

But there are people who have loved and will love darkness rather than light, Jn 3:19. More than all other sins, self-reliance and pride bring a man to this condition. They most often destroy that natural bond which, by the very essence of the image and likeness of God in man, should unite the human soul with God.

By his evil will and pride, man can darken the image of God within himself and violently stifle the faith so naturally inherent in him. Then he reaches a sorrowful result: he remains alone in the world. The Lord does not know him, and he does not know the Lord.

Having established the union of the sheep with the Shepherd, the Lord raises human thought to an even higher realm of knowledge. He indicates: "As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father." His final word refers to that sacred action which serves as the link uniting man with God, and earth with heaven: "And I lay down My life for the sheep."

Therefore, considering verses 14 and 15 together, we receive this teaching. First, the human soul is united with the Lord Jesus by the bonds of faith and love. Second, the Lord Jesus, as the God-man in flesh and human form, is united with the Father. Third, there is full unity in essence of the Father and the Son. Fourth, man is united with God at the price of the great sacrifice of redemption.

The Son, in the form of the God-man, lays down His human soul for His sheep; Athanasius the Great, Against Apollinarius, book one. By His mercy He destroys sin and makes purified men capable of being received into communion, and even union, with almighty God through our Lord Jesus Christ: "That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us," Jn 17:21.

This union is the final goal appointed by God for man. To attain it, God came in the flesh, suffered and died as man, and rose again as God.

Therefore let it be understood that man's union with God was impossible until God in the flesh appeared in the world. Therefore He is the Door. Therefore He is the good Shepherd.

He is the Door, because apart from our Lord Jesus Christ there is no salvation and no eternal joyful life for man. Apart from Him, man has no possibility of raising his soul to union with God.

He is the Shepherd, because everything man has understood, received, loved, taken in, comprehended, and rejoiced in, he could receive only through our Lord Jesus Christ.

"I am the good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep."