Jesus the Gate

 

Easter 4 / Year A

John 10:1-10

Here is a statement so obvious it hardly needs saying: A walled enclosure erected in a field is designed to keep something inside and everything else out.  If it has a gate, this allows a small, managed egress from one side to the other.  When the gate is open, what is in can go out and what is out can come in.  When it is closed, no flow is possible.  Given this, what does Jesus mean when he says, “I am the gate for the sheep”?

As we learned in our Lenten study, Jesus makes seven unique “I am” statements in the Gospel of John: I am the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection, the True and Living Way, and the Vine.  The seventh, “I am the Gate,” surely is the most cryptic of the group.  What are we to make of it?

Biblical scholars note John’s gospel has a particular literary pattern around seven significant miracles it records Jesus performing.  In fact, it refers to them as signs, not miracles, because they point to deeper truths.  Here is the pattern:

·    Sign (what Jesus does)

·    Dialogue (how people respond to it)

·  Discourse (Jesus’ teaching about the meaning of the sign and subsequent dialogue). 

Today’s reading is a part of the discourse which occurs after Jesus heals a man blind from birth.  The dialogue involves religious authorities confronting this person to determine 1) if he really was blind in the first place, 2) who healed him, and 3) why was this act done on the Sabbath in violation of their interpretation of biblical laws.  The dialogue ends with the religious leaders expelling the former blind man from the local synagogue.  Jesus’ discourse draws on the image of a shepherd to compare himself with the synagogue officials.  In the first part of his teaching, Jesus proclaims, “I am the gate for the sheep.”

In biblical times shepherds lead their flock in the field by day and then directed them into fold at night.  This structure typically was a stone wall enclosure.  And, while it had a narrow opening, most did not have a gate.  Once the sheep are inside, the shepherd himself acts as the gate, using his body to close the opening. 

In addition, most folds are communal, used by multiple shepherds to house their flocks.  And while you might think this arrangement would lead to chaos – such one person’s sheep getting mixed in with another’s herd – the sheep recognize their master’s call and respond only to it.  All others continue to do what they are doing until their shepherd calls them.

The part of the discourse when Jesus says, “Whoever enters by me will be saved” often is misinterpreted by holding the sheepfold represents heaven, thereby making Jesus to be the sole distributor of admission tickets for everlasting bliss.  Everyone who does not believe in him, so the interpretation goes, will be turned away. 

The full context of the Gate image points to something very different.  The broader picture tells the story of religious authorities harassing a person whose new sight they should be celebrating.  John’s readers have a special connection with the blind man even though they are reading his story decades later.  Just as he is expelled from the synagogue, so too they are being barred from their religious communities because they profess their faith in Jesus.  Those whom God appointed to shepherd them are harming them. Jesus, in his teaching, calls them thieves and bandits.

The image the gate conveys Jesus sets himself to protecting his flock, those who know his voice.  Like a shepherd who beds down in a fold’s opening, Jesus ensures the security and well-being of his followers by prohibiting anyone seeking to injure them from getting at them.  He calls his flock to come out only when it is safe for them to reenter the pasture.  

Given all of this, listen again to what Jesus says: “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  Rather than pushing a kind of Christian exclusivity, Jesus’ words echo the spirit of the 23^rd Psalm.  He promises to lead us to green pastures and still waters, never leaving us alone when we walk through the valley of danger and death.

The image of the gate for the sheep reflects how Jesus leads the church.  We are called together into a community as a people who know the voice of our Shepherd.  We seek to follow him by emulating his example and living out his teachings.  He sees to our nourishment, nurtures us throughout our lives, and sets himself between us and what seeks to do us harm.  We in his flock experience life in all its abundance.  These are the truths we celebrate on Good Shepherd Sunday.  These are the experiences we share as his flock.