Easter 4
A shepherd owned a brilliant dog, deft at sheep herding and able to speak. At the end of the day, after his dog had herded the flock into the pen, the shepherd asked his smart dog to confirm how many sheep were in.
"40," the dog barked.
"40? I counted 37."
"Yes," replied the dog, "I rounded them up."
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday - every year a couple of weeks after Easter, we have similar scriptures about sheep. We need some context for what Jesus is saying in this reading so let me go back to John, chapter 8:
Early on the Sabbath morning, Jesus is at the temple, teaching, and preaching. His message is that he is the Messiah and that isn’t going down well with the leaders of the temple. Eventually they start throwing rocks at Jesus.
He goes outside, then heals a man who has been blind from birth. The healed man is brought to the Pharisees in the temple who aren’t impressed that his sight is restored. Oh no, they are focused on the fact that Jesus sinned by healing on the Sabbath. Then they kick the blind man out of the temple where he meets up with Jesus again and declares his belief that Jesus is Lord.
Here come the Pharisees and here we start today’s reading. Jesus is VERY annoyed at how these religious gatekeepers have treated this poor blind man. He starts talking about sheep, gates and thieves and bandits.
The Pharisees are confused. So, Jesus tries a different image; “I am the gate. You are thieves and scum. I am the gate. With my help, the sheep will come in and go out and find tasty grass and cool water. The thief is all about killing but I am all about life, abundant life.”
Jesus realizes that they are still not really getting his point. So, he changes his imagery: “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” Back in the first century, shepherds high in the hills could lead their sheep into pens, usually built of stone. There was no door, just an open area. The shepherd would sit right there, blocking the way, keeping the sheep safe. On a quiet night, the shepherd would sleep, laying down across the open area, blocking the entrance.
Now for years, I didn’t like this gospel reading - I thought that this was a very exclusionary statement by Jesus. I thought he was saying that “I am the only door, and without me, no one can get to the good place.” This very gospel has been used for centuries to encourage people to think that the only way to heaven was through the right version of Jesus as determined by your particular sect of Christianity. I grew up terrified that my good Lutheran father couldn’t go to heaven because he wasn’t Roman Catholic.
Listen closely: Jesus is the gate, not us. While there is a supremely human impulse to gatekeep who is in and who is out of our churches, that is not the role of the sheep. Jesus is clear: “I tell you; I am the gate for the sheep.”
Christians over the centuries have argued and even spilled blood on the “right” ways of thinking, believing, and behaving. And those who did not align with their “right” way were cast from the community, just as the blind man was cast from the temple.
We see this today with the vilification of the LGBTQ community by certain churches. It kills me when I see churches that should provide loving sanctuary in the name of Christ, instead choosing cruel exclusion of those they deem unacceptable. If we trust that Jesus is the gate and the shepherd, we understand that it is not up to us to go around slamming gates shut.
Remember the key message of John’s gospel: that God SO loved the world. The whole world. Following our reading today, in verse 16, Jesus continues, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.”
Do we know the Good Shepherd’s voice when we hear it? This shepherd leads us out of fear and division into peace and unity, where, as Jesus says, “we may be one flock under one shepherd.” The Good Shepherd, unlike the thieves, loves us. Instead of taking from us for personal gain, the Good Shepherd even gives his own life for us. In God, we really have nothing to fear because we are always in the hands of the one who loves us and will never let us go, in life and in death. God calls each of us by name. To hear that voice calling us above the clamor, the fear, and the thieves of this world, we have to stop, listen, and pray. And his voice will lead to more abundant life.
John’s gospel has many ways of naming Jesus: the shepherd, the gate, the word, the way and the life. In this gospel we are invited to understand that Jesus stands as a gate through which we can attain abundant life. When we learn to live THROUGH the teachings of Jesus, our lives become abundant, not with things but with love, compassion, and grace.
Jesus was a living gate, a door who invites us in, who shows us the way to an abundant life. He says, “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” What is the purpose of the gate? It is precisely to create an opening in the fence. It is precisely to allow travel through the wall. It is a means of liberation, not a means of exclusion.
Jesus is inviting everybody in. Living through Christ is our way to safety, to entering a restful place, a sanctuary, where we know we are loved and protected.
Let us pray:
O God, whose goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, you have made Jesus the gate through which we, the sheep of your flock, may enter abundant life. Pour forth upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that amidst the corruption of this age and over the voices of those intent on leading us astray, we may learn to recognize the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who came that we may have life, life in all its fullness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.