Session 6 - The Law of Self-Giving (John 10–12)

Scripture handouts for Session 6 & Session 7:

• Thurs 5/14 - Session 6 - The Law of Self-Giving (John 10–12)
• Thurs 5/21 - Session 7 - The New Commandment and Life in the Spirit (John 13–17)

Here are a couple articles regarding the traditional Catholic way of interpreting the Bible using the literal and spiritual senses of scripture (the spiritual sense is what St. Augustine uses in the Lazarus allegory that Dr Sri mentioned in the video):

• One Text, Four Senses: Understanding the distinctions between the literal and spiritual senses of the Bible - Article by Jimmy Akin at Catholic Answers
• The Key to Reading Scripture Right - Article by Steve Kellmeyer at Catholic Answers

Below is some commentary on the passages we discussed.

Good Shepherd (10:11-18)

• General commentary 

[Follow Me workbook] He identifies himself as the Good Shepherd, and he is the one who seeks the lost (such as the Samaritan woman in John 4), feeds the hungry (as in the multiplication of loaves in John 6), and binds up the crippled (such as the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5). As the Good Shepherd, Jesus is constantly using his life to serve others. Ultimately, he will give up his life in order to give life to others.

[Follow Me workbook] In Jesus’ day, those wicked shepherds can be seen as the leaders in Jerusalem who oppose him. Just in the previous scene, they, like thieves, tried to steer one of Christ’s flock away from him: the blind man in John 9.

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] The expression "to lead out" recalls how Joshua was appointed to lead Israel out of the wilderness (Num 27:17) and how Yahweh promised to recover the lost sheep of Israel by leading them out of their exile among the nations (Ezek 34:13).

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 10:8 - All who came before: Refers to the shepherds of Israel, many of whom were denounced by the prophets as worthless and evil (Jer 23:1-3; Ezek 34:1-10; Zech 11:17). The Pharisees are their spiritual descendants (Mt 23:29-36).

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] . . . willing to die for them (10:17-18; CCC 609). Although Yahweh was the divine shepherd of Israel (Ps 23:1; Is 40:11), he exercised his rule through earthly shepherds like Joshua and David (Num 27:16-18; 2 Sam 5:2). A similar arrangement was expected for the last days, when the Lord would shepherd the flock of his people through the Davidic Messiah (Ezek 34:11-24). Note that David himself was a good shepherd, who, before his kingship over Israel, risked his life to deliver his flock from predators that tried to kill them (1 Sam 17:34-36).

[Ignatius Catholic Study Bible] 10:12 - The wolf: A traditional symbol of spiritual enemies (Mt 7:15; 10:16; Acts 20:29)

[The Gospel of John commentary] Here several elements in Jesus’ words resonate with the theme of leaders and disciples.

• First, walks ahead and follow characterize the relationship of the teacher, who leads, and the disciples, who follow (John 13:36–37; 15:20).
• Second, the Greek verb for driven out was used in 9:34, when the †Pharisees “threw . . . out” the formerly blind man. This creates a contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees as religious leaders. Whereas the Pharisees angrily ejected the healed man, Jesus leads his sheep out to good pasture, to eternal life (10:9, 28).
• Third, Jesus says, The sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. A true disciple is one who hears and receives Jesus’ revelatory word: “Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God” (8:47). Similarly, Jesus tells Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (18:37).
• Fourth, Jesus calls his own sheep by name. In the Gospel, Jesus calls several disciples by name—Peter (1:42), Lazarus (11:43), Mary Magdalene (20:16)—who hear and respond positively to him. Similarly, the formerly blind man became a believer in Jesus after he saw Jesus and heard him “speaking” (9:37) to him.

[The Gospel of John commentary] Jesus also develops the imagery of the thief and robber, who do not enter through the gate (10:1): All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers.2 This verse created some interpretive difficulty for the early Church, because, as St. Augustine points out, Jesus is surely not indicting the great biblical heroes and the faithful leadership of Israel who came before him as thieves.3 Most likely, Jesus is criticizing any religious authority who rivals or challenges him as leader of the sheep, and in the Gospel’s immediate context, it would apply to the †Pharisees of John 9. The remark, The sheep did not listen to them, links the thief and robber to the “stranger” (10:5), reinforcing their status as opponents of Jesus the shepherd.

• Relevant passages from Ezekiel 34

Israel’s False Shepherds

34.2 - “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 

34.10 - Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

God, the True Shepherd

34.15-16 - I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over;[b] I will feed them in justice.

34.17 - “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, rams and he-goats. 

34.23-24 - And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

34.25 - “I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 

Raising of Lazarus (11:1-53)

• Augustine's allegorical interpretation 

St. Augustine describes how this scene symbolizes what happens in confession. (Tractate 49, § 24)

• Just as Jesus calls Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, so he calls us to confession.

• Just as Lazarus comes out of the tomb but is still bound by the burial bandages, so we come to confession but are still bound in our sins.

Notice how Lazarus has already been raised from the dead, but he still needs to be unbound. Similarly, once we repent in our hearts and begin the movement toward confession, we already are starting to experience God raising us from our sins. It is God who calls us out of our sins and to himself in confession, and there are already beautiful signs of new life in the soul at this moment. But we are still bound by our sins until we hear the priest say in confession, “And I absolve you of your sins.”

• Just as Jesus then tells the people to unbind Lazarus, so, too, Jesus tells the priests to unbind us of our sins in the sacrament.

Indeed, Jesus gave the apostles the authority to bind and loose, saying to them: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). He also told them “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (John 20:23)

• Raising of Lazarus as a "sign"

11:1-44 The raising of Lazarus is the sixth of seven "signs" that Jesus performs in John (12:18), giving emphatic support to his claim to give "life" (5:25-29; 6:40).

• Meeting of the Council

11:47 the council: The Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews. Though many reasons underlie their conspiracy against Jesus (11:53), the raising of Lazarus was particularly insulting to the Sadducees, who did not believe such a thing was possible in the first place (Acts 23:6-8). See notes on Jn 11:24 and Mk 14:55.

11:48 the Romans will come: The statement is brimming with historical irony. The Romans did in fact destroy both Jerusalem and its Temple in A.D. 70, not because the Jewish authorities let Jesus continue his ministry in peace, but precisely because they condemned him to a violent death. In the end, it was not the acceptance of Jesus that threatened the city but the rejection of him that made its demise inevitable (CCC 59697, 1753). See note on Jn 2:19. our holy place: A reference to the Temple or to Jerusalem more generally (Acts 6:13; 21:28). 

Book of Glory Begins

• The grain of wheat 

[Follow Me workbook] He says he will be like a grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies and bears much fruit (see John 12:24). He says now is the time of the judgment of the world, when the ruler of this world (Satan) will be cast out (see 12:31). This is the hour when he is lifted up from the earth . . . and it is then that he will draw all people to himself (see 12:31). Note: The image of Jesus being lifted up from the earth also relates to his saving resurrection and ascension (see CCC 662).

[Vatican II] Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself. (Gaudium et Spes 24) 

[John Paul II] The quotation below is from one of the general audiences making up John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

The human body, with its sex, and its masculinity and femininity seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order. It includes right from the beginning the nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love, that love in which the person becomes a gift and - by means of this gift - fulfills the meaning of his being and existence. Let us recall here the text of the last Council which declared that man is the only creature in the visible world that God willed "for its own sake." It then added that man "can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself" (GS 24).

Pope St. John Paul II, General Audience, Wednesday 16 January 1980

• Jesus "lifted up from the earth"

[Catechism 662]  The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."543 There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him".544 As "high priest of the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven. [Notes: 543. Heb 9:24. | 544. Heb 7:25. | 545. Heb 9:11]