Each year, when spring with its breezes begins to usher in the birth of so many sheep and to deposit the numerous young of the fruitful flock about the fields, the meadows and the paths, a good shepherd puts aside his songs and leisure. He anxiously searches for the tender little sheep, picks them up and gathers them together. Happy to carry them, he places them about his neck, on his shoulders and in his arms. He wants them to be safe as he carries or leads them to the protecting sheepfolds.

That is the case with ourselves, too. When we see our ecclesiastical flock gaining rich increase under the favoring smile of the spring of Lent, we put aside the resonant tones of our treatise and the customary fare of our discourse. Concerned about our very heavy labor, we give all our concern^[1] to gathering and carrying in the heavenly [lambs].

Observe the marks of a robber. First, that he does not enter openly. Second, he does not enter according to the Scriptures, for this is, not by the door. Here also, Jesus refers to those who had been before and to those who would come after him: antichrist and the false christs, Judas and Theudas, and whoever else there have been of the same kind. And he rightly calls the Scriptures a door, for they bring us to God and open to us the knowledge of God. They make us his sheep. They guard us and do not let the wolves come in after us. For Scripture, like some sure door, bars the passage against the heretics, placing us in a state of safety as to all that we desire and not allowing us to wander. And, if we do not undo Scripture, we shall not easily be conquered by our enemies. By Scripture we can know all, both those who are and those who are not shepherds. But what does into the fold mean? It refers to the sheep and their care. For whoever does not use the Scriptures but climbs up some other way, that is, who cuts out for himself another and an unusual way, the same is a thief.… When our Lord further on calls himself the door, we should not be surprised. According to the office that he bears, he is in one place the shepherd, in another the sheep. In that he introduces us to the Father, he is the door; in that he takes care of us, he is the shepherd.

Keep hold of this, that Christ’s sheepfold is the church. Whoever would enter the sheepfold, let him enter by the door; let him preach the true Christ. Not only let him preach the true Christ but also seek Christ’s glory, not his own. For many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ’s sheep instead of gathering them.

Our current circumstance is a lot like the sheepfold: the thief comes from wherever it is possible for him to hide. His desire is to steal. But the shepherd who has authority to use the entrance leads the sheep out to pasture, and they follow him, knowing their own shepherd, while they avoid the others whose voice they do not know.

Those, then, who follow impious words and dictate them to others, inasmuch as they pervert the divine words instead of using them rightly, neither enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor do they permit those whom they have deluded to attain the truth. They do not have the key for the entrance but a false key. Using this counterfeit key, they do not enter in as we enter in, that is, through the tradition of the Lord by drawing aside the curtain. Instead they burst through the side door and dig clandestinely through the wall of the church. They step over the truth and constitute themselves the Mystagogues^[1] of the soul of the impious.

Who is he who enters by the door? It is he who enters in by Christ. Who is he? He is the one who imitates the suffering of Christ, who is acquainted with the humility of Christ, so as to feel and know that if God became man for us, [a] man should not think himself God but man [humankind]. He who being man wishes to appear God does not imitate him who, being God, became man. You are not asked to think less of yourself than you are but to know what you are.

The shepherd of the sheep is the one who is worthily endowed with the gift of teaching. He is the one who uses the lawful entrance, that is, who lives with all his heart according to the doctrine of the law and so enters into the sheepfold, as is only right. Then he leads all the others, like sheep, to the pastures of doctrine by showing them the food of the Word with which they must nourish themselves first and continually afterwards. He also leads them by showing them the power of the Word, how Scripture must be understood and from which doctrine they must abstain—doctrine that others may deceitfully propose to them for the slaughter of the sheep…. The thief and bandit is the exact opposite. He neither uses the lawful entrance, nor does he show respect for the precepts of the law. This is how he teaches the people given to him. In vain he tries to take hold of the entrance and of the dignity of the teacher, even though he does nothing that is required for such an honor. He is inconsiderate and does everything without regard to how it may harm the sheep. Indeed how can he be useful to others when he does not exercise himself in the precepts of the law? Take a look if you want, our Lord says, and discern between me and you as to who uses the lawful entrance. See who diligently follows the precepts of the law. See to whom Moses, the gatekeeper of the sheepfold, opens the gate and whom he praises for finishing his work. See whose works themselves testify to his worthiness to be called the Shepherd.

The gatekeeper perhaps is Moses, for to him the oracles of God were committed.

Whoever you understand here, be careful that you do not think that the porter is greater than the door; for in our houses the doorman usually ranks above the door, not the door above the doorman…. The doorman is our Lord himself. There is much less difference between a door and a doorman than between a door and a shepherd. And he has called himself both the door and the shepherd. Why then not the door and the doorman?… For what is the door? The way of entrance. Who is the doorkeeper? He who opens it. Who, then, is he that opens himself, but he who reveals himself to sight?… If you seek another person for doorman, take the Holy Spirit… of whom our Lord below said, He will guide you into all truth.^[1] What is the door? Christ. What is Christ? The truth. Who opens the door but the one who will guide you into all truth?

The gatekeeper is either the angel who is appointed to preside over the churches^[1] and to assist those whose lot is to minister in holy things for the good of the people, or else [the gatekeeper is] the Savior himself, who is at the same time both the Door and the Lord of the door. Commentary on the

My child, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I say. For we who read the things of God need to do so often, otherwise we might say or think something too rashly about them. And applying yourself in this way to the study of the things of God, with faithful preconceptions that are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you by the gatekeeper, of whom Jesus says, To him the gatekeeper opens. And applying yourself in this way to the divine study, seek the meaning of the holy Scriptures that so many have missed, but do so in the right way and with unwavering trust in God. Do not be satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is, of all things, indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. This is what the Savior encourages us to do, saying not only, Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and you shall find,^[1] but also, Ask, and it shall be given to you.^[2]

These I call by name… and they follow me, for I herd them up beside the waters of rest. They follow every shepherd whose voice they love to hear…. But they will not follow a stranger. Instead, they will flee from him because they have a habit of distinguishing the voice of their own from that of strangers.

When he sent out the sheep, he sent them not out of the reach of, but into the midst of, the wolves.^[1] For far more wonderful is this way of keeping sheep than what we do. There also seems to be a secret allusion to the blind man. He called him out of the midst of the Jews, and he heard his voice.

And who else leads them out but the same one who loosens the chain of their sins so that, unfettered, they may follow him?

In our sickness we need a Savior, in our wanderings a guide, in our blindness someone to show us the light, in our thirst the fountain of living water that quenches forever the thirst of those who drink from it. We dead people need life, we sheep need a shepherd, we children need a teacher, the whole world needs Jesus!

Shepherds always follow behind their sheep, but he, on the contrary, goes before them to show that he would lead all of them to the truth.

And who has gone before the sheep to the place where they are to follow him but he who rising from the dead, dies no more…. And who when he was seen here in the flesh said, Father, I will also that they whom you have given me be with me where I am?^[1]

He offers you a shepherd. For this is what your good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep is hoping and praying for…. Do you on your side offer to God and to us obedience to your pastors? Will you dwell in a place of pasture and be fed by refreshing waters,^[1] knowing your Shepherd well and being known by him?^[2] Will you follow when he earnestly calls you as a Shepherd through the door? Or will you follow a stranger climbing up into the fold like a robber and a traitor? Will you listen to a strange voice when that voice would take you away by stealth and scatter you from the truth on mountains,^[3] and in deserts, and pitfalls, and places that the Lord does not visit? And would you be led away from the sound faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the one power and Godhead whose voice my sheep always heard—and may they always hear it—to follow deceitful and corrupt words that would tear them from their true Shepherd? May we all be kept from this, both shepherd and flock. May we guide and be guided away from such a poisoned and deadly pasture so that we may all be one in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and unto our heavenly rest.

What are we to think? Were all those who heard Christ’s voice sheep? Judas heard, and he was a wolf but wore sheepskin as he followed, laying snares for the Shepherd. And sometimes some of the sheep do not hear him, as for instance those who crucified Christ…. Now you might say, When they did not hear, they were not yet sheep so they must have been wolves at the time; the voice, when they heard it, however, changed them from wolves into sheep….

Still I am disturbed by the Lord’s rebuke to the shepherds in Ezekiel, Neither have you brought again that which strayed.^[1] He calls it a stray sheep, and yet it never stops being a sheep, although if it strayed, it could not have heard the voice of the Shepherd but the voice of a stranger—the voice of the thief and robber….

What I say then is this: The Lord knows those that are his.^[2] He knows the foreknown, he knows the predestined.^[3]… They are the sheep. For a time they do not even know what they are themselves, but the Shepherd knows them.^[4]… According to this divine knowledge and predestination, how many sheep are outside, how many wolves within! And how many sheep are inside, how many wolves without!… But these [wolves] are not the sheep, for we speak of those who were predestined—of those whom the Lord knows are his. And yet, even these wolves, as long as they rightly obey, are still listening to the voice of Christ. In fact they are the ones who hear, the others do not. And yet, according to predestination, they are not sheep while the others are.

This is how we solve the difficulty. The sheep do hear the Shepherd’s voice, and they only. When is that? It is when that voice said, He that endures to the end shall be saved.^[5] No one who is his is indifferent to such a voice; a stranger does not hear it…. But maybe there was someone who treated this voice with disdain and heard it as that of a stranger. If he was predestined, he strayed for the time, but he was not lost forever. He returns to hear what he has neglected, to do what he has heard. For if he is one of those who are predestined, then both his very wandering and his future conversion have been foreknown by God. If he has strayed, he will return to hear that voice of the Shepherd and follow him.

Our Lord feeds by plain words, he exercises by obscure ones…. For when two people are listening to the words of the gospel, the one godly, the other ungodly, both can hear the words of the gospel, but it can also be the case that neither one of them understands the words. One person says, What Jesus said is true and good, but we do not understand it. The other says, It is not worth attending to. The first one knocks [on the door] in faith. Yes, and, if he continues to knock, it shall be opened to him. The second one, however, will hear the words in Isaiah, If you do not believe, you shall not understand.^[1]

Our Lord just said now that he was a shepherd. He also said he was a gate…. He is the gate in the head and the shepherd in the body. You see, he says to Peter, whom he singles out to represent his [body the] church, Peter, do you love me?^[1]… as though to say, What will you give me, what proof will you provide me with that you love me?… If you love me, feed my sheep; enter in by the Door and do not go up another way…. Who is the one who enters by the door? The one who enters by Christ. And who is that? The one who imitates Christ’s passion, who understands Christ’s humility, understands that while God has become man for us, he himself as a human being is not God, just a man [person]. I mean to say, anyone who wishes to play God while he is just a man is not imitating the one who, while he was God, became a man.

Jesus sees that the foolish Pharisees wanted to be rulers and that they were unwisely boastful of the name and character of leadership. And so it is good that he teaches them that he himself is the one who confers leadership in the church. And he bestows this authority without difficulty. For since Jesus is the door of the sacred and divine fold, he will both admit the one who is fit for leadership but also will block the entrance to the one who is unfit to lead the flock.

He says that he is the door of the sheep because he is the principal access to truth for everyone. His doctrine that he has uniquely established calls everyone that is summoned by it. He established laws, as was his prerogative, so that we might live through them according to his will. And he was the Word through which all might know the Father. Therefore let us abandon the works of the law and apply ourselves to obey the precepts of Christ. Let us devote our entire being to the principles of the gospel and employ all diligence in fulfilling his laws. Thus, he very appropriately called himself the door of the sheep, since there is no other way to seek out the truth except by believing first of all in our Lord, and by drawing near to the entrance of truth through his commandments, finding pleasure in the good things we possess because of our nearness to God the Father.

He could not have added good if there were not bad shepherds as well. They are thieves and robbers, or at best mercenaries.

These are rapacious wolves hidden in sheepskins, human traffickers, and opportunistic soul seducers, secretly, but [later] proved to be robbers. They strive by fraud and force to catch us who are unsophisticated and have less power of speech.

Those who teach with a dishonest and defiled soul steal. Of them it might be said, All who came before me are thieves and robbers. Such people use the gospel without being affected by it in faith or in living. Instead, they use the good news of the word in a way in which it was not intended. Such a person is a thief, and it will be said of him, you who preach not to steal—you still steal.^[1]

[Christ] is the door of the Father through which Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets, the apostles and the church all enter. All these enter into the unity of God.

He is the Way, because he leads us through himself. He is the Door who lets us in, the Shepherd who makes us dwell in green pastures,^[1] bringing us up by waters of rest and leading us there. He protects us from wild beasts, converts the erring, brings back what was lost and binds up what was broken. He guards the strong and brings them together into the fold beyond with words of pastoral knowledge.

Here it is as though Jesus had said: They shall be safe and secure, that is, they shall remain within and no one shall throw them out. This is in reference to the apostles who went in and out boldly as though they had become masters of all the world. None could turn them out of their kingdom. But by pasture, Jesus means his own nurturing and feeding of the sheep as well as his power and lordship.

Where do you pasture your sheep, O good Shepherd who carries all your flock on your shoulders? For the one lamb that you took up is the entire human race, which you raised on your shoulders. Show me then the place of pasture, make known to me the waters of rest, lead me out to the good grass, call me by name that I, your sheep, may listen to your voice and may your call be the gift of eternal life. … Show me, then, she says, where you feed,^[1] so that I may find the pasture of salvation and be filled with the food of heaven which all people must eat if they would enter into life.

Therefore, he said, I came that they may have life, that is, faith that works by love.^[1] By this faith they enter the fold so that they may live, for the just lives by faith.^[2] And not only may those who endure to the end have life, but they may have it more abundantly, as they pass through this same door, that is, by the faith of Christ. For as true believers they die, and they will have life more abundantly when they come to the place where the Shepherd has preceded them—a place where they shall die no more. Although there is no want of pasture even here in the fold—for we may understand the words and shall find pasture as referring to both, that is, both to their going in and their going out—yet only there will they find the true pasture where they shall be filled who hunger and thirst after righteousness.^[3] This is the pasture that was found by the one who heard, Today you will be with me in paradise.^[4]

So after giving evidence derived from these facts, he said to them, I am the good Shepherd. Therefore, if I act against the thieves, not only am I not the cause of destruction for those who obey me, but I even invite them to eternal life. And so I appear to be the Shepherd because I work for the good of the sheep. Since he asserts this decisively, he proves his argument even more so, so that he may not appear to vainly portray himself as the good Shepherd. And so, with the intention of demonstrating this with different arguments, as well as the facts themselves, he says, The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. If, he says, the good Shepherd is the one who accepts suffering for every affliction of his sheep, since I am going to die for the salvation of the whole world, the testimony about me is beyond doubt. I am the good Shepherd. Indeed, if the thief kills, on the contrary, not only do I not kill, but I also give new life to men and women after taking death from them. Therefore, in every respect, I appear to be the good Shepherd according to these facts.

Above he said that the good Shepherd entered through the door. If he is the Door, how does he enter through^[1] himself?…

Just as he knows the Father through himself and we know the Father through him, so he enters into the fold through himself and we enter through him. Through Christ we [pastors] have a door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ and therefore enter in through the door. But Christ preaches Christ too because he preaches himself; and so the Shepherd enters in through himself…. He is also the door to the Father, for there is no way of approach to the Father except through him…. And indeed brothers and sisters, because he is the Shepherd, he has permitted his members to bear the office of shepherd. Both Peter and Paul and all the other apostles were shepherds: all good bishops are shepherds. But none of us calls himself the door.

He whose goodness is his own nature and not some nonessential gift, says, I am the good Shepherd. He adds the character of this goodness, which we are to imitate, saying, The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He did what he taught; he gave an example of what he commanded. The good Shepherd has laid down his life for his sheep in order to change his body and blood into a sacrament for us and to satisfy the sheep he had redeemed with his own body as food. The way of contempt for death that we are to follow has been shown us, the mold that is to form us is there. The first thing we are to do is to devote our external goods to his sheep in mercy. Then, if it should be necessary, we are to offer even our death for these same sheep…. If someone does not give his substance to the sheep, how can he lay down his life for them?

For the sake of his flock the shepherd was sacrificed as though he were a sheep. He did not refuse death. He did not destroy his executioners as he had the power to do, for his passion was not forced on him. He laid down his life for his sheep of his own free will. I have the power to lay it down, he said, and I have the power to take it up again. By his passion he made atonement for our evil passions, by his death he cured our death, by his tomb he robbed the tomb, by the nails that pierced his flesh he destroyed the foundations of hell.

Death held sway until Christ died. The grave was bitter, our prison was indestructible, until the Shepherd went down and brought to his sheep confined there the good news of their release. His appearance among them gave them a pledge of their resurrection and called them to a new life beyond the grave. The good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep and so seeks to win their love.

I will be their shepherd, he says, and I will be close to them, as clothing to their skin. He desires to save my flesh by clothing it in the robe of immortality, and he has anointed my body. They shall call on me, he says, and I will answer, Here I am. Lord, you have heard me more quickly than I ever hoped! And if they pass over they shall not fall, says the Lord,^[1] meaning that we who are passing over into immortality shall not fall into corruption, for he will preserve us. He has said he would, and to do so is his own wish. Such is our Teacher, both good and just. He said he had not come to be served but to serve,^[2] and so the Gospel shows him tired out, he who labored for our sake and promised to give his life as ransom for many,^[3] a thing that, as he said, only the good Shepherd will do.

Will you think less of him… because to seek for what had wandered, the good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep came on the mountains and hills on which you used to sacrifice^[1] and found the wanderer. And having found it, he took it upon his shoulders,^[2] on which he also bore the wood. And having borne the wandering sheep, he brought it back to the life above. And having brought it back, he numbered it among those who have never strayed.

Why, a shepherd like this would be kicked off the farm! The wages held for him until the time of his discharge would be kept from him as compensation! In fact, the master’s losses would need to be compensated from this shepherd’s savings.^[1]

There are some who love earthly possessions more than the sheep and do not deserve the name of a shepherd…. He is called a hireling and not a shepherd because he does not pasture the Lord’s sheep out of his deep love for them but for a temporal reward. That person is a hireling who holds the place of shepherd but does not seek to profit souls. He is eager for earthly advantages, rejoices in the honor of preferment, feeds on temporal gain and enjoys the deference offered him by other people.

Who then is the hireling? There are some in office in the church, of whom the apostle Paul says, Who seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.^[1] What does that mean, who seek their own? It means those who do not love Christ freely, who do not seek after God for his own sake. It means those who are pursuing temporal advantages, gaping for gain, coveting honors from people. When such things are loved by an overseer, and this is why they serve God, whoever does this is a hireling who cannot count himself among the children. For of such also the Lord says, Truly, I say to you, they have their reward.^[2] Listen to what the apostle Paul says of Timothy: But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly to you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your circumstances; for I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for you. For all seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.^[3]

There is another wolf that ceaselessly, every day, tears apart minds, not bodies. This is the evil spirit that goes about attacking the sheepfolds of believers, seeking the death of souls. Of this wolf it is said, And the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. The wolf comes, and the hireling flees. The evil spirit tears apart the minds of believers in temptation, and the one holding the place of shepherd does not take responsibility. Souls are perishing, and he enjoys earthly advantages. The wolf snatches and scatters the sheep when he entices one to drunkenness, inflames another with greed, exalts another by pride, destroys another by anger, stirs one up by envy, trips up another by deceit. When the devil slays believers through temptations, he is like a wolf dispersing the flock. No zeal rouses the hireling against these temptations, no love excites him. He seeks only the outward advantages and carelessly allows the inward injury to his flock.

But we cannot truly know whether anyone is a shepherd or a hireling if there is no occasion to test him. During times of peace even a hireling frequently stands for the protection of the flock like a true shepherd. When the wolf comes, each one shows what his intention was as he stood as protector of the flock.

Humanity, having yielded to an inclination for sin, wandered away from love toward God. On this account we were banished from the sacred and divine fold, I mean the realm of paradise. Having been weakened by this calamity, we became the prey of two bitter and merciless wolves: namely, the devil who had beguiled humanity to sin; and death, which had been born from sin. But when Christ was announced as the good Shepherd over all, in the struggle with this pair of wild and terrible beasts, he laid down his life for us. He endured the cross for our sakes that by death he might destroy death. He was condemned for our sakes that he might deliver all of us from condemnation for sin, abolishing the tyranny of sin by means of faith and nailing to his cross the bond that was against us,^[1] as it is written. Accordingly, the father of sin used to put us in hades like sheep, delivering us over to death as our shepherd,^[2] according to what is said in the Psalms. But the truly good Shepherd died for our sakes, that he might take us out of the dark pit of death and prepare to enfold us among the companies of heaven and give to us mansions above, even with the Father, instead of dens situated in the depths of the abyss or the recesses of the sea. Therefore Jesus says to us, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.^[3]

Suppose someone has sinned—grievously sinned. He ought to be rebuked, excommunicated. However, if he is excommunicated, he will become an enemy and will plot and do as much harm as he can. And so, for the time being, the pastor who seeks his own and not what is Christ’s keeps quiet and does not reprove the person so that he will not have to put up with the annoyances of their attacks or lose what he truly follows after—the advantage of human friendship. But look! The wolf has caught a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a believer into adultery. And yet, you are silent—you do not censure. As a hireling, you have seen the wolf coming, and you fled. Perhaps you answer and say, See, I am here: I have not fled. You have fled^[1] because you have been silent; you have been silent because you are afraid.

The wolf too comes upon the sheep whenever any unrighteous person oppresses the humble believers. The one who only appears to be a shepherd leaves the sheep and flees because he is too afraid to resist the wolf’s violence from fear of danger to himself. He flees not by moving to another place but by withholding consolation from his flock. The one who conceals himself beneath his silence is the one who flees…. The hireling is inflamed with no enthusiasm to fight against this injustice…. The only reason that the hireling flees is because he is a hireling. A person who is in charge of the sheep, not because he loves them but because he is seeking earthly gain, cannot make a stand when the sheep are in danger. Because he esteems honor, because he enjoys his temporal advantages, he is afraid to oppose the danger for fear he should lose what he loves so much.

Many that seek temporal advantages in the church preach Christ, and through them Christ’s voice is heard. But the sheep are not following the hireling but the voice of the Shepherd speaking through the hireling.

You may learn, if you will, the profound wisdom of the most holy Shepherd and instructor, the Lord of the universe and the Word of the Father. He presents himself to us by way of allegory as the shepherd of the sheep, and so in this way serves also as the teacher of children.^[1] Speaking through Ezekiel to the Jewish elders, he gives them a salutary example of true care. I will bind up the injured and will heal the sick; I will bring back the strays and pasture them on my holy mountain.^[2] These are the promises of the good Shepherd. Pasture us children like sheep, O Lord. Fill us with your own food, the food of righteousness. As our instructor, feed us on your holy mountain, the church above the clouds that touches the heavens.

When Jesus says, I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father, it is equivalent to saying, I shall enter into a close relationship with my sheep, and my sheep shall be brought into a close relationship with me, according to the manner in which the Father is intimate with me, and again I also am intimate with the Father. For God the Father knows his own Son and the fruit of his [i.e., the Father’s] substance because he is truly his parent. And again, the Son knows the Father, beholding him as God in truth, since he is begotten of him. In the same way, we also, being brought into a close relationship with God the Father, are called his family and are spoken of as children, according to what he himself said: Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.^[1] Truly, we are called the family of the Son, and in fact we are part of his family. Through our relationship to the Son, we are related to God the Father, because the Only Begotten, who is God of God, was made man, and though separate from all sin, he assumed our human nature.

There is a different way of knowing. You see, I made them my own, for they are my own possession,^[1]… and they recognize me as the master. But then he also said, Just as the Father knows me, I, also, know the Father, as if to say, I know the sameness of the nature and of the substance of the Father, being consubstantial^[2] with him, and he also knows mine. Nevertheless, I am not like the earlier teachers or like those who are teachers now, which is why I choose the danger on behalf of the sheep.

Christ did not endure death against his will on our behalf and for our sakes. Rather, we see him go toward it voluntarily, although he could easily escape the suffering if he did not want to suffer. Therefore, in his willingness even to suffer for us, we shall see the excellent quality of his love toward us and the immensity of his kindness.

The force of love makes a person brave because genuine love counts nothing as hard, or bitter, or serious or deadly. What sword, what wounds, what penalty, what deaths can avail to overcome perfect love? Love is an impenetrable breastplate. It wards off missiles, sheds the blows of swords, taunts dangers, laughs at death. If love is present, it conquers everything.

But is that death of the shepherd advantageous to the sheep? Let us investigate. It leaves them abandoned, exposes them defenseless to the wolves, hands over the beloved flock to the gnawing jaws of beasts, gives them over to plunder and exposes them to death. All this is proved by the death of the Shepherd, Christ. From the time when he laid down his life for his sheep and permitted himself to be slain through the fury of the Jews, his sheep have been suffering invasions from the piratical Gentiles. Like prisoners to be slain in jails, they are shut up in the caves of robbers. They are torn unceasingly by persecutors who are like raging wolves. They are snapped at by heretics who are like mad dogs with savage teeth….

In the light of all this, does the Shepherd prove his love for you by his death? Is he proving his love because, when he sees danger threatening his sheep, when he cannot defend his flock, he prefers to die before he sees any evil done to the sheep?

But what are we to do, since the Life himself could not die unless he had decided to? Who could have taken life away from the Giver of life if he were unwilling?… Therefore, he willed to die—he who permitted himself to be slain although he was unable to die. And so, let us investigate the strength and the reason of this love, the cause of this death and the utility of this passion.

Clearly, there is an established strength, a true reason, a lucid cause, a patent utility in all this blood. For unique power sprang forth from the one death of the Shepherd. For the sake of his sheep the Shepherd met the death that was threatening them. He did this that, by a new arrangement, he might, although captured himself, capture the devil, the author of death; that, although slain himself, he might punish; that, by dying for his sheep, he might open the way for them to conquer death.

Therefore, by giving a pattern like this, the Shepherd went before his sheep; he did not run away from them. He did not surrender the sheep to the wolves, but he consigned the wolves to the sheep. For he enabled his sheep to pick out their robbers in such a way that the sheep, although slain, should live; although mangled, should rise again and, colored by their own blood, should gleam in royal purple and shine with snow-white fleece.

In this way, when the good Shepherd laid down his life for his sheep, he did not lose it. In this way he held his sheep; he did not abandon them. Indeed, he did not forsake them but invited them. He called and led them through fields full of death and a road of death to life-giving pastures.

This sentence alludes to those among the Gentiles who will believe, because many among the Gentiles as well as many among the Jews are destined to gather together into a single church and to acknowledge one shepherd and one lord, who is Christ. This has indeed actually happened. But at that time the miracles confirmed the words; now the fulfillment of the words confirms the miracles accomplished then even though this did not appear at that time.

So listen to this unity being even more urgently drawn to your attention: I have other sheep, he says, who are not of this fold. He was talking, you see, to the first sheepfold of the race of Israel according to the flesh. But there were others, of the race of the same Israel according to faith, and they were still outside, they were of the Gentiles, predestined but not yet gathered in. He knew those whom he had predestined. He knew those whom he had come to redeem by shedding his blood. He was able to see them, while they could not yet see him. He knew them, though they did not yet believe in him. I have, he said, other sheep that are not of this fold, because they are not of the race of Israel according to the flesh. But all the same, they will not be outside this sheepfold, because I must bring them along too, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

Let them all be in the one Shepherd and speak with the one voice of the Shepherd, which the sheep may hear and follow their shepherd, not this or that shepherd, but the one Shepherd. And in him let them all speak with one voice, not with conflicting voices.

If we see ourselves in our own child, we are drawn to an intensity of love whenever we see that child. In the same way, I think God the Father is said to love his own Son, who lays down his own life for us and takes it again. For it is a work of love to have chosen to suffer—and to suffer shamefully—for the salvation of some.^[1] It is a work of love not only to die but also to take again the life that was laid down in order to destroy death and to take away sorrow from corruption. Although the Son is always beloved by reason of his nature, it is evident that Christ is also beloved by God the Father because of his love toward us. Naturally, this gladdens the heart of God the Father since he can see the image of his own nature clearly and perfectly shining forth through Christ’s love for us.

What could be fuller of humanity than when our Lord says that he is loved because he is dying for us? Wasn’t he loved before this? Is it only now that the Father begins to love him and are we the causes of that love? See how he condescends to our level. But what is he trying to prove here? They had said he was a stranger to the Father and a deceiver who had come only to ruin and destroy. And so he tells them: Even if there was nothing else that made me love you, the fact that you are loved by my Father in such a way that I win his love by dying for you—that alone is reason enough to love you. He also shows that he did not do this under compulsion. For if he did it under compulsion, how could love be the motive? And that willingness on his part was something especially known by his Father.

He shows that his passion was a voluntary thing; and besides that, he indicates that the life that is laid down and taken again is one thing and the divinity that lays that down and takes it again is another.

To be troubled was proper to the flesh, and to have power to lay down his life and take it again when he wanted was no property of people but of the Word’s power. For human beings die not by their own power but by necessity of nature and against their will. But the Lord, being himself immortal but having mortal flesh, had power as God to become separate from the body and to take it again when he wanted to. Concerning this David speaks in the psalm: You shall not leave my soul in hades, neither shall you suffer your holy One to see corruption.^[1] For it was appropriate to the flesh, corruptible as it was, that it should no longer after its own nature remain mortal, but because of the Word who had put it on, it should remain incorruptible. For since he was conformed to our condition, having come in our body, so we when we receive him partake of the immortality that is from him.

Here he shows that his natural death was not the consequence of sin in him but of his own simple will, which was the why, the when and the how [of his death]. For because the Word of God is so commingled [with the flesh] as to be one with it, he says, I have power to lay it down.

Because they had often plotted to kill him, he tells them their efforts will be useless unless he is willing…. I have such power over my own life that no one can take it from me against my will. This power does not belong to human beings. We do not have the power of laying down our own lives unless we put ourselves to death…. Our Lord alone had the power to lay down his life, showing also that he was able to take it up again by that same power. Do you see how he proved from his death that his resurrection was indisputable?

How then does our Lord lay down his own life?… Christ is the Word and man, not man as flesh alone but as soul and flesh, so that in Christ there is a complete humanity…. This refutes the Apollinarians, who say that Christ did not have a human, rational soul…. Does the Word lay down his life and take it again; or does the human soul, or does the flesh?… If it was the Word of God that laid down his soul and took it again… that soul was at one time separated from the Word…. But, though death separated the soul and body, death could not separate the Word and the soul…. It is still more absurd to say that the soul laid down itself; if it could not be separated from the Word, how could it be separated from itself?… The flesh therefore lays down its life and takes it again, not by its own power but by the power of the Word.

He foretells that at the time of his passion he would voluntarily detach his soul from his body, saying, No one takes my soul^[1] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.… For his Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after his passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what it was by nature and so continuing forever. But in the suffering of his human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united. And it did so by joining again the elements that had been parted in this way so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example that it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that is, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption and all the mortal may put on immortality, our firstfruits having been transformed to the divine nature by its union with God.

To say that the body of the divine Logos also had a soul does not suggest the divinity of the soul…. In this context, when something like this is stated, we understand the statement to refer to the flesh, which had a soul and was united with the divine Logos…. After all, even when Peter says, Now I will lay down my soul for you,^[1] just like the Lord did, there is no difference. You see, just as Peter, who was a man, composed of body and soul, said this, so too Christ, being one and not two, composed of divinity and humanity, says that he lays down his soul, which belongs to him and is part of him (although he was God in nature, assuming flesh—which had soul— and uniting it to himself).^[2]

So take a look at Christ: I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it up again; nobody takes it away from me. I myself went to sleep; that, you see, is what he says in the psalm: I myself went to sleep. As though to say, Why are they so excited, why so exultant? Why are the Jews waving their arms with joy, as though they themselves had done anything? I myself went to sleep. I, he says, who have authority to lay down my life, by laying it down ‘I myself went to sleep, and took my rest.’ And since he had the authority to take it up again, he added, I rose again, but to give the glory to the Father, since the Lord took me up.^[1] Do not let these words, where he says, Since the Lord took me up… strike your minds as meaning that Christ himself did not raise up his own body. The Father raised him up, and he also raised himself up. How shall we prove to you that he raised himself up? Call to mind what he said to the Jews: Pull down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.^[2]

What commandment was this? It was the commandment to die for the world. Did Jesus then wait first to hear and then choose, and did he need to learn the commandment? Who (if he had any sense at all) would say something like this? But before, when he said, Therefore my Father loves me, he showed that the first motion was voluntary and removed all suspicion of opposition to the Father. And so here when he says that he received a commandment from the Father, he declared nothing except that what I do seems good to him.… For if he had needed a commandment, how could he have said, the good Shepherd lays down his life on his own? For he that lays his life down on his own needs no commandment. He also assigns the cause for which he does this. And what is that? That he is the shepherd, and the good Shepherd. Now the good Shepherd needs no one to arouse him to his duty. If this is the case with people, it is even more so with God. This is why Paul said that he emptied himself.^[1] So the commandment put here means nothing else but to show his unanimity with the Father. And, if he speaks in such a humble and human way, the cause is the infirmity of his hearers.

Because he spoke as one greater than human beings, they said he had a devil…. They had said this many times.^[1] Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?’ Since they could not silence their opponents by words, they now brought proof from his works. Certainly neither are the words those of one that has a devil, and yet if you are not persuaded by the words, be persuaded by the works.… Our Lord, having already given proof of who he was by his works, holds his peace because they were unworthy of an answer…. Indeed, as they disagreed among themselves, an answer was unnecessary. Their opposition only brought out, for our imitation, our Lord’s gentleness and long suffering.