John 10:12 Commentary and Bible Study

Again we see the running contrast between him and the scribes and the Pharisees. Christ here denounces the false shepherds – ‘He that is an hireling’ – that is all they were. They did it for pay. They did not have the care for the sheep at heart. They would cast out the man born blind and anyone else who followed Christ. He is that is merely an hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not. No affection, no love. He does not care for or protect the sheep when they are in danger because he is an hireling.I think this primarily refers to that great movement and those who would take Christ and execute him. Of course, they didn’t have the power to do that, but Christ allowed them to because he knew he was to go to that cross, and that on Calvary’s cross God would strike him instead of us, put our sins, our guilt, upon him and punish him instead of us! But the wolf, in a sense, is those people, those leaders, who wished to arrest him and take him and execute him. But what did the others do, those who were not so full of venom and hostility? They allowed it to happen! They were just looking after their own skins, even though we read in the Gospels that many of the Pharisees believed in him and realised that he was Messiah, and yet they stood back and they allowed him to be taken and they went along with the stream of shouting and screaming. Of course, they were not truly converted, but they did recognise he must be the Messiah. Well then, what was the matter with them? They are described in verse 12: ‘He that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not’ – they knew he was Messiah, some of them, but they didn’t have the salvation of the people on their hearts, and when they saw the wolf, that great drive to take him and execute him, well, they just stood by and let it happen. They ran away, as it were, like an hireling.