Easter 4A, 2014 – Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
In order to appreciate the full impact of the words of Jesus in this familiar gospel passage, about the gate and the gate-keeper or shepherd, we have to take note that it is deliberately related to the incident that precedes it. It’s the account of the healing of the man born blind and the nasty dispute with the Pharisees, leaders of the temple, who could not believe that this healing of the blind man was authentic and would not believe what this spectacular miracle affirmed about Jesus being the Son of God – all because it was done on the Sabbath, the day that all of Israel was commanded to set aside as a day of rest. The foolishness of this is plain to see. There are good and bad shepherds. Judgment must fall on all leaders, even in our day or God isn’t God.
There is no mistaking the fact that Jesus picks up the imagery of kings and shepherds used in the Old Testament to describe the way the leadership is enjoyed or is suffered by the people of Israel. Israel’s judges, prophets and kings were often cast as shepherds. We know from the book of Numbers that Joshua succeeded Moses so that the people would not be, ‘like sheep without a shepherd’. And of course, chief among the kingly shepherds is David who is plucked up from looking after his father’s sheep to being a shepherd king. He becomes the model for the long-prophesied future king and Messiah. Jesus picks up on this. He must have known that the image of a shepherd would have resonated powerfully with his audience and especially with the leaders who had just thrown out the man healed on the Sabbath. They would have been acutely aware that Israel’s shepherds came under God’s judgment. They would, doubtless, have known how the word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel with these words:
“Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?… You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them”. It’s not just a poke but a jab in the ribs for Jesus to speak like this.
As Jesus continues, he draws out the intimacy and strength of the relationship between a true shepherd and sheep. There is a focus on the shepherd’s voice, his calling of each sheep by name and the recognition of the voice that the sheep can trust. Speaking, listening, and responding – all in a pastoral exchange – a dialogue not heard outside. There is an expectation and promise of protection from enemies and the provision of daily necessities. The sheep will not follow a stranger Jesus says pointedly.
But the Pharisees for whom the teaching was intended failed to understand what Jesus was saying. So Jesus suddenly changes the focus on the gatekeeper and explodes the metaphor by saying simply,
“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
This is quite extraordinary. And we see this often in the life of Jesus – he frequently mixes up the metaphors. Somehow, says one commentator, when Jesus says, “I am the Gate,” he is saying that he himself embodies access to the sheepfold. Jesus is himself the door to salvation for the sheep.
I am the gate. What can this mean? And what does this signify?
If you have been to Paris since 1986, you may have seen La Grande Arche de la Defense built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. It looks like an enormous glass cube as high as a football field and as wide as a football field with a massive space in the middle. It was meant to carry forward the meaning of the triumphal arches of ancient Rome – usually commemorating famous battle and invariably signifying great power. Think of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin or the Gateway of India in Bombay as modern variations. But I like the giant cube in Paris because it was supposed to celebrate all humanity reaching for greatness. The whole city, indeed the whole world is meant to pass through this arch. It’s a gate of massive proportions – a door that takes a whole people from one state of being to another – absorbing in that passage through the portal the greatness of the nation’s future for as long as it remains standing.
The irony of this cube, built by an avowedly secular government, is that it might just help us understand what Jesus was saying when he mixed his metaphors by saying to the temple leaders, “I am the gate.” I am, in myself, the person through whom all must pass in order to enter into the reign of God. Whoever enters by me shall be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
And Jesus intends that the sheep move not just to lush meadows and refreshing streams but to life in its fullness. I am the door through which you will enter upon abundant life. If Jesus is the gate, through which we must pass, somehow passing through the gate must mean entering into his life.
The one gate though which Christians pass in order to enter life in Jesus has always been baptism. Our liturgy says that baptism unites Christ with his people. Christian Churches around the world joined together 40 years ago in affirming several things about baptism which can usefully describe what happens in passing through the Gate which is Jesus himself. Here’s what that famous statement says about baptism. Think about that and about Jesus as the gate as you hear the list of scriptural references. Baptism is:
participation in Christ’s death and resurrection
a washing away of sin
a new birth
an enlightenment by Christ
a re-clothing in Christ
a renewal by the Spirit,
an experience of salvation from the flood,
an exodus from bondage and
a liberation into a new humanity
This is the gate that is Christ Jesus himself. Passing through him and into him is a lifelong mystery.
I want to end this morning with the single sentence that concludes Jesus’ teaching about being the Gate. What is the purpose of the gate if it is not to take the whole flock from one state into another? Even the great Arche de la Defense suggests that there is a purpose in passing through its portals. That purpose is found in verse 10 of our gospel text: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
First let’s remember that Jesus is saying this to the temple leaders who threw out the man whose sight had been restored. Imagine what his life had been like before that – he couldn’t hold down a job, he begged for his food, he was likely ostracized by his community, treated as a sinner, unable to marry and have a family and enjoy all the benefits of life in a community. Once his sight was given back one can imagine life being reversed – not just being able to see, but being able to enjoy friends and gainful employment and taking a joyful part in the life of the people of God. Jesus came to give life in abundance
The whole gospel of John is filled with the themes of Jesus bringing life in abundance – eternal life (3:16); a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (4:14); life that doesn’t come under judgment, but passes from death to life (5:24); living bread that comes down from heaven (6:51). There are the signs of abundance in the miracles of Jesus. He turned water into wine and fed five thousand.
Jesus’ message is about life in abundance, not just for a single person, but for a whole people. Not just a single sheep, taken up and pampered, as it were. Jesus takes the whole flock together through his life and death and resurrection.
We can think of our own church like this – a parish passing through the Gate of Jesus into a state of abundant life. This happens in every Christian community.
I was at brunch yesterday where I met many members of a downtown church that exists for the homeless. Some of our parishioners work there during the week. This community provides food and assists with life’s necessities as you can imagine. But it provides things well beyond that. I spoke to a young man who has for 11 years built drama and art into the life of this church. It gives a voice to broken down people and encourages creative gifts in people who might be thrown out elsewhere. They find the abundance of life, despite their constrained circumstances because they are moving through the gate which is Jesus crucified and now risen. We can see such things in our own church if we look closely. Let’s spend the week pondering these things and be thankful that God has called us together and caused us to pass through the living gate, which is his beloved Son.
