John 10:1‑10
“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.”
How do you go to a place you want to be? GPS answers that question
easily for driving there. You enter your destination and Google Maps, for
example, usually offers three different routes.
Have you ever wanted to go somewhere and found there was only one
way to it? Or along the way there was a place that there was no choice but to
pass through? When Cathy and I lived in Oklahoma, we found there are destinations
in the Great American Desert for which there is one way to go and that’s it.
Either follow it or don't get there.
In our passage for today, Jesus describes himself like that. He
speaks of himself as a shepherd who guides and leads his sheep. In fact, Jesus
taught that not only is he the Way, but he is also the gate for his flock. The
actual gate.
The only legitimate way into Christ’s kingdom is through him. He
is the gate. We may think there is another way, but we are only fooling
ourselves to think that.
We are familiar with thinking of Jesus as a Good Shepherd whom we
follow. But what about Jesus as the actual gate, or actual entrance to the
kingdom?
The implications of that are very important. So let’s take a look.
I was stationed in Germany from 1983 to 1986. Cathy and I lived in
a small farming village called Dorf-Guell, about 35 miles north of Frankfurt.
Behind our house was a large, open field that lay fallow the three years we were
there. One morning I opened the blinds in the back window and was startled to
see a flock of sheep all over our backyard, some grazing right next to our
house’s wall. At the edge of the field stood the shepherd, attired in German
shepherd’s clothing just as if he had come straight from central casting. I
called Cathy and we watched for awhile. After several minutes, the shepherd
walked to the right. When he reached the side of the flock he turned and spoke
to the sheep. Right away the sheep stopped grazing and walked toward him. The
shepherd turned and walked on, the sheep following docilely behind him. The
sheep dog brought up the rear, keeping the sheep in formation.
Jesus' hearers would have understood the images of ancient Judea
shepherding, of course, in a way that tends to escape us. At night, shepherds
in Judea would bring their flocks together for the night for security, but how
to separate them in the morning? Each would simply call his sheep, who recognized
their shepherd’s voice and ignored other voices.
William Barclay explained that in the fields shepherds would construct
a simple pen for the flock at night with only one entrance, and the shepherd
would sleep across the entrance. The shepherd literally was the gate for the
sheep. Obviously, anyone having legitimate business would come to the shepherd.
Anyone who went into the pen by going through the simple fence was up
to no good.
But, as John explains in verse six, Jesus is speaking
figuratively. His words must have called to mind passages of the Jewish
Scriptures in which God describes himself as a shepherd and the people as his
flock. Ezekiel 34, for example, portrays most kings of Israel as bad shepherds
who through misrule and corrupt religion place the flock - the people of Israel
- in danger both physical and spiritual. Ezekiel counters that God alone is the
good shepherd who will rescue the sheep and place them in the care of “my
servant, David” - meaning a monarchy restored to righteousness of King David.
But in Jesus' day the kingdom of Israel was gone forever. The Romans ruled Judea, so it is highly unlikely that Jesus was referring to any political entity as thieves and bandits. Nor would he have meant that the long line of Jewish and Hebrew prophets who came before him were the bad men because Jesus respected Moses and his successors.
Jesus' teaching, then operates on a religious level, and on at least three of them. New Testament scholars agree that Jesus was directly referring to the Pharisees as the thieves and the bandits. Some versions of the passage say so explicitly. John's Gospel is especially harsh toward them - the prior chapter relates their cold accusations of blasphemy toward a blind man Jesus has healed. They hardly have the best interests of the flock in their hearts, while Jesus, who removed the blindness, is a shepherd to tends to the sheep. So, at one level Jesus is contrasting himself with the Pharisees and the Pharisees come off poorly.
But there is more. If the only authorized access to the sheepfold
is through the gate - and the gate is Jesus himself - then membership in the
flock is determined solely by one’s relationship to Jesus. The only approved
way into the fold is through Jesus.
We live in a tolerant age, and this is an intolerant passage, at
least in part. On the one hand, there are no preconditions as to which sheep
can be part of the flock. If they enter through the gate, through Christ, then they
are part of the flock not because we say so but because Jesus says so. Their
membership in the flock is assured. On the other hand, there is no way to be a
rightful part of the flock except through Jesus; sheep who try to jump over the
fence may get into the sheepfold, but they don't belong and are merely
Christian imposters whom Jesus does not include in his flock.
There are staggering implications for churches here. It is easy to
become a member of a congregation or denomination. But this passage constrains
us from thinking that being listed on a church’s membership roll is the same
thing as being part of Jesus' own flock. The act of joining a church does not
guarantee salvation, for if the joining is done by jumping the fence, then it
is religious pretension. The only thing that counts is one’s relationship to
the shepherd: Christ alone gives entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God; no
one else does, and there is no other way.
This is not a warm, fuzzy teaching. It's a smack upside the head.
Whoever enters the sheepfold through Jesus is saved - but no one else can admit
entrance nor is anyone who enters another way saved. By Christ and by Christ
alone is our eternal place in the pasture both granted and assured.
Jesus is at one time the entryway into the eternal kingdom, and at
the same time the true leader of the flock for abundant life. The church's
identity can only be determined by the identity of Christ: if Christ is the one
who saves and leads, we are those who are saved and are led.
We become members of Christ's flock by entering into relationship
with God through Christ, in whom we receive abundant life. Most importantly, we
are among those for whom Jesus was willing to die. By his death Jesus
paradoxically opened the gate to life both abundantly Spirit-filled in the here
and now and to eternal life in the presence of God.
So, we cannot understand ourselves as some of his sheep unless we
keep foremost in mind who Jesus is as our shepherd. When we reflect on what and
whom our church is supposed to be in the world, we should ask ourselves whether
we are being sheepish enough to be part of Jesus' flock. What does it mean for
us to live as Jesus's sheep? How do we manifest our sheepish identity in the
world? How do we as Christ's flock point the way to Christ as the shepherd, and
not merely the shepherd for us alone, but for the world?
Most urgently, perhaps, we need always to remind ourselves of
whose voice to listen to. There are hundreds of different voices calling to us sheep
and it is easy for the shepherd's voice to be lost in the cacophony. As author
Robert Kohler wrote, there are different kinds of voices calling us to
different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which voice is the call
of God rather than the voice of self-interest, cultural values, or something
else. "All we, like sheep, have gone astray," said Isaiah, we are all
doing our own private thing (Is. 53:6). We are called by the thieves and
bandits of politics, consumerism, selfishness, entertainment, inactivity, work
work work work - the list is endless. Do we still hear the shepherd's voice?
What does the Good Shepherd call us to?
He calls us to love one another, John 13:34 ‑ "I give you a
new commandment: that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you
should also love one another.
He calls us from labor to rest (Matt. 11:28): Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
· Calls us from death to life (1 John 3:14): We know that we have
passed from death to life because we love one another.
· Calls us from bondage to liberty (Gal 5:13)
· Calls us out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9)
· Calls us from bondage to peace (1 Cor. 7:15
· Calls us to the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9)
When we faithfully answer the call, here is what happens:
· We become children of God (John 1:12)
· We become the servants of God (Matt. 25:21)
· We become God's witnesses (I Thess. 2:10)
· We become workers together with God (2 Cor. 6:1)
· We live a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9)
These are merely some of the things that come to mind from this
passage. But foremost always we have to remember:
· the only valid way into God's kingdom is through Christ. To think
we have a place apart from going through Christ is lethal self-deception.
· only Christ is the shepherd; the sheep must heed only his call and
follow where he leads.
· that is the way to life more abundant.
Remember what Paul wrote in Galatians 5.13: “For you were called
to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for self‑indulgence, but through love become servants to one
another.”
