John 10:11-22

11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.

12A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.

13The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.

14“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,

15just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.

16I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

17“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again.

18No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

19When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him.

20Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?”

21Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

22It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.