The Violin Guild
Parable taken from Tom Wright’s John for Everyone.
Jesus refers to himself as the ‘good’ shepherd. But our word ‘good’ doesn’t really catch the full meaning of the word John has written here… The word John uses can also mean ‘beautiful’. This doesn’t refer to what Jesus looked like. It’s about the sheer attractiveness of what, as the shepherd, he was doing. When he calls, people want to come. When they realize he has died for them, they want to even more. The point of calling Jesus ‘the good shepherd’ is to emphasise the strange, compelling power of his love.
Tom Wright, John for Everyone - Part 1, p154.
Some think of Jesus as a great Jewish teacher without much of a revolution. Others see him as so revolutionary that he left Judaism behind altogether and established something quite new.
This passage shows how Jesus himself held the two together. He was indeed offering something utterly revolutionary, to which he would remain faithful; but it was, in fact, the reality towards which Israel’s whole life and tradition had pointed.
Tom Wright on [Matthew 5v13-20], Matthew for Everyone - Part 1, p39-40.
Love what Tom Wright has to say at the end of this video about resurrection and worldview.
