Theme:  Jesus is the Gate

“To understand the Biblical parable of the sheep and the gate, it is helpful to trace our steps back two thousand years into the time of Christ, to the time of sheep, shepherds and watering holes.

During the time of Jesus in the land of Palestine, during the evening, the shepherds would bring the sheep down from the hills to protect them at night when the wolves and mountain lions were hunting their prey. At night, the shepherds would gather their sheep together and lead them into large pens. These large pens were called sheepfolds. These sheepfolds or sheep pens had large walls which were made out of rocks. The walls of the sheep pens were about five feet high. On the top of the four stone walls were briars or prickly branches. The shepherds put the prickly briars along the top of the wall, as it was like our barbed wire today on the top of walls. The result of all of this is that the mountain lions and wolves couldn’t get inside the sheep pen.

The door way was about two feet wide. …not wide at all. It was a small entry. It was like one small gap in the wall. So I ask you: what was the door made out of? This is crucial. Was the door made out of wood that a carpenter had constructed? Was it made out of wool, a wool blanket that a weaver had woven? Was it made out of stones that the shepherd had piled up? Was it made of out sticks, all laced together to form a barrier? Was it made out of leather, a hide from the sheep? Was it made out of linen, like a linen cloth hanging there in the gap in the wall? What was the door made out of? Wood? Wool? Stones? Sticks? Leather? Linen? This is the key to the story.

There was no gate! The shepherd himself was the gate or door. At night, the shepherd himself would sleep there in the small opening of the rock wall. He would sleep there, by the fire, with his rod and staff. If any mountain lion would come, the shepherd would fight it off with his weapons, his short stocky club or his long pointed staff. Literally and actually, the shepherd himself was the gate.

Therefore, the meaning of this parable of Jesus, in John 10, is unlocked when we start to think of Jesus himself as being the gate. It was as if Jesus was saying: “I am the gate to the Father’s house. I am the gate to the Father’s family. I am the door to the Father’s safety. I am the door to the fullness of life. I am the door to the banquet, the feast, the green pastures.  I am literally the door into the safety and security of the sheep pen and the door out to the green pastures and the abundant life and feasting that goes on in those pastures. I am the gate.”

This past week I have been thinking about doors. Please imagine some doors in your mind. The doors that I thought of were some doors at Hastings State Mental Hospital where I worked years ago. These were large, yellow, steel doors, down in the tunnels between buildings in that old mental hospital. As I recall, these doors were intimidating fearsome doors and kind of spooky, especially their loud, cold clank in the lonely tunnels.

Also, when I think of doors, I think of the doors at the King County Jail where I have been to visit some folks. When you go to visit the inner rooms in the King County Jail, several doors are made out of solid steel, except for a small window. A jailer would pull back a steel plate from that small window and grumble, “Yes?” I would reply, “I am here to see so and so. Can I come in?”

Or, when I think of doors, I think of old castles in Europe and of those giant wooden doors with iron hinges. Recently, when my wife and I visited Spain, we saw an old iron door on a castle that was one thousand years old and still working and keeping people out. In these three examples of doors that I have shared with you, those closed doors all symbolically said, “KEEP OUT. STOP. NO ADMITTANCE.”

Jesus wasn’t and isn’t that kind of door. Jesus was not like any of these doors. Jesus was just the opposite. Rather than a barrier and a persistent “no admittance,” Jesus was a living door, a talking door, a speaking door who invites us in: “Won’t you come in? Won’t you come in to my Father’s house? Won’t you come into my Father’s love? Won’t you come into my Father’s family? Won’t you come in to the banquet?”

Won’t you come in and experience abundant life?  Yes, Jesus is a living gate, an open door.

Edited with permission.  A sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart

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