John
10:1-10
1 "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold
by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who
enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the
gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and
leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them,
and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a
stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of
strangers." 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not
understand what he was saying to them. 7 So again Jesus said to them,
"Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before
me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the
gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find
pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that
they may have life, and have it abundantly.
“I am the gate,” or “I am the door.” Doors. Have you ever
given any thought to how many doors you walk through in a given day? It’s
likely you walked through several doors inside your home this morning, only to
walk out the door to get into your car or on the bus (through a door). Then you
entered through two sets of doors to get into this room and at least two other
doors if you were here for Sunday School. I counted the other day and, not
including cabinets, we have thirteen doors in our home (and our house isn’t
very big): thirteen doors, three of which are exterior doors.
Have you ever given any thought to what a door actually
does? I suppose we’re so used to them being there, so used to them opening at
the turn of a key and the twist of a knob, but doors are actually quite vital
to our current, comfortable way of life. You see, doors keep things out, things
we don’t want inside with us. Imagine if your home didn’t have a door—just an
opening; you’d likely wake up in the morning with squirrels in the pantry,
mosquitoes swarming the bathroom, and neighborhood dogs digging through your
trash in the kitchen. If your home didn’t have a door it would be vulnerable to
thieves and criminals when you’re away. Doors also
keep out the weather; they allow us to change the temperature and humidity
inside our homes and keep them where we want them. Doors keep out the wind and
the rain, the cold and the heat. Inside our homes, doors even keep curious dogs
with a chewing habit out of our closets! Doors are vital in preserving our way
of life, our comfort, because they keep things outside that don’t belong inside.
But doors don’t
just keep things out. No, in fact they perform another function that is
altogether contrary to keeping things out: they let things in. Think about it
this way: what would your house be without a door? It would be a box, a box
with no way in and no way out. It would essentially be an oversized terrarium! Without
doors we wouldn’t be able to welcome friends and family into our homes; we
would be unable to invite guests into our sanctuary for worship. Without doors
we would be unable to come and go as we please. So I suppose in a way, doors provide
us with a certain level of freedom as they allow us to keep out the things that
don’t belong inside and allow us to bring in and keep the things we do want inside.
Doors (along with gates) are simultaneously the tools of exclusion and
inclusion: their function is somewhat of a contradiction.
It’s this same sort of contradictory identity that I often
struggle with when it comes to the Christian faith: faith in Christ is
simultaneously exclusive and inclusive.
It’s that simultaneous exclusiveness and inclusiveness
that led to many of Jesus’ conflicts with the religious leaders of his day. In
the ninth chapter of John, we hear how Jesus healed a man who was blind from
birth—a man who would have been excluded
from the normal circles of society due to his infirmity (which would have been
believed to have been caused by his or his parents’ sins). As if Jesus’ healing
of this man was not enough to catch the attention of the Pharisees and everyone
else who was around that day, it just so happened that is was the Sabbath, and
one didn’t go around healing folks on the Sabbath—it was forbidden by the Law!
After these Pharisees catch wind of what Jesus did, they drove the man who had
been blind away. Jesus found him, and after a brief conversation with him,
Jesus turned his attention to the Pharisees and their own spiritual blindness
at the end of chapter nine. It’s after this exchange with the Pharisees that
Jesus spoke the words we have heard here today.
Now, I can understand
if some of the imagery Jesus used is lost on us. After all, I don’t think many
of us here today are shepherds, at least not in the Near Eastern tradition, but
Jesus spoke with words and images that had meaning to those who were gathered
around him to hear. In verses one
through five we get a glimpse into the way of life for a shepherd in
ancient Judea as Jesus’ words tell about thieves and bandits (which were very
serious threats to the shepherds of the Ancient Near East), gates, and the ways
in which sheep could discern the voice of their shepherd over the voices of
strangers. You see, flocks would often graze together in the same pasture, but
when it was time for one flock to move on, the shepherd of that flock would
call to his sheep (yes, sometimes even by name) and the sheep knew to follow
their shepherd.[1]
Because of such a system, strangers couldn’t simply sneak away with extra sheep
in their flocks. With this “figure of speech,” Jesus tries to take a jab at
those Pharisees and other religious leaders who had tried in the past to lead God’s
people in the wrong direction. He tries to show them that he is (as we will see
next week) the Good Shepherd, but the gospel writer tells us in verse six: “Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not
understand what he was saying to them.” I get the feeling it was like Jesus was trying to
tell them a joke and they just didn’t get the punch line.
So after they
fail to understand Jesus’ words, we hear Jesus try to speak to them again in a
different way in verses seven through
ten. In this version of Jesus’ “figure of speech” with the Pharisees, He
references again those thieves in verses
eight and ten: “All who came before me are
thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them…The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Those who would steal sheep from a flock had no real interest in
caring for them, only selling or killing them—they only had selfish intentions.
Here, Jesus attempted to take another verbal swing at the nature of those
Pharisees and other religious leaders who opposed him: they had no genuine
concern for the spiritual condition of the people, only a concern for strict
adherence to a list of rules and regulations.
The words in this passage, however, that catch our
attention today are found in verses
seven and nine: “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come
in and go out and find pasture.” This is the
third of Jesus’ ἐγώ εἰμι (“I am”) sayings in the
Fourth Gospel: “I am the gate” (or as it says in other translations, “I am
the door”). It was not uncommon in both ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish
cultures to think of the entrance to heaven as a gate.[2]
So perhaps in using such a word, especially to describe himself, Jesus conjured
up all kinds of images and emotions in those who heard his claim.
“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved.” Think about those words for just a minute. Is Jesus making a
claim regarding the inclusiveness or the exclusiveness of salvation? On the one
hand he says, “Whoever enters” implying that there isn’t a necessary
requirement for eligibility, yet at the same time in saying “by
me” implying that there is only one way. Is Christ being
inclusive—allowing all to enter, or exclusive—allowing only those who come
through him to enter? The answer is “Yes.”
You see, Jesus as the Gate, or Door, is the only way which we may enter into the
salvation of God, but he is the only way by which all may enter into the salvation of God. Some will try to tell us
there are other ways; some will try to tell us that not all may enter. But
Christ the Gate is the way by which all may enter; he is the only way by which
we may all enter into the glory of an eternity spent in the presence of God.
And what’s more is that Christ the Gate is the way by which we may have life,
for Jesus says in verse 10, “I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.” As much as the inclusive exclusiveness of faith in Christ
is about the eternal reality of heaven, it is about the present reality of the
here-and-now. As much as faith in Christ is about freedom from the punishment
of impending judgment, it is about a life lived in the freedom afforded us by
Christ to “come in and go out and find pasture.” There is freedom in
knowing that Christ is the only way
by which all may enter into the
salvation of God. There is a comfort to be found in knowing that Christ the
Gate came to die so that you and I may have life—and not simply a life of
existence, but a life of abundance in him.
Perhaps you are here today and you believe that not all are welcome.
Perhaps you’ve carried into this place a heart of exclusion and prejudice. May
you hear the voice of Christ calling his sheep and realize that there are many
who hear his voice. May you come to find that your brothers and sisters come
from different nations, races, languages, and walks of life, that the sheep of
his fold as many and diverse. May you hear the voice of Christ leading you in
the paths of righteousness and follow after him.
Or perhaps you are standing outside the sheepfold today, outside the grace
of God and the freedom found in His Son. Perhaps you are concerned that you
aren’t qualified to enter through the gate. May you hear these words of Christ
Jesus today with new ears: “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will
come in and go out and find pasture.” May you come to believe that Christ has come to save
you so that you “may have life, and have it abundantly.” May we all find the inclusive exclusiveness of faith in Christ the Gate so that we may
live an abundant life in the freedom of following Jesus in the work of God’s
kingdom.
Let us pray…
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