John 10:7, 9 Therefore, Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…..I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture."
Text: John 10:1-10
Often, we heed the correction, training, and teaching of those who set themselves up to lead us. We go along with them and we do what we are taught so long as we agree with it! The Pharisees were teachers of the law. However, they were blind guides and opposed and persecuted Jesus and aided in conspiring to kill Him. He had ability to sway the people and the revolution that He led challenged the law. In this passage, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees. While this allegory is comforting to us, it is somewhat of a rebuke to the Pharisees. Jesus is making a statement that He has conquered the Pharisees and their agenda. The issue with the Pharisees is that even though they as religious leaders and instructors of the people sought the good of the people by being a guide and through correcting their fellow Jews, they and their teaching created nothing out of the people except thieves and robbers. They did not watch over their ‘sheep’ or care for them. Essentially, Jesus is saying, “It does not matter what plans and attacks you have set up against the Shepherd or His Sheep. What matters is that you can not go through the gate and I am the gate.” No one has access to the sheep without going through the gate. So though they accused Jesus just a few chapters earlier of having an invalid testimony, they and their subjects had no valid testimony that would in all correctness allow them to enter the sheep fold and take whatever sheep they needed or wanted for themselves. Perhaps they might want a sheep for an upcoming Passover meal. Whatever reason that the robber or thief approached the sheep pen he had no valid reason to go into the sheepfold. The only valid entrance was at the gate. The gate is the pivotal object of the entire allegory. Without reliance on Jesus Christ we can not live a life of obedience to Christ. We cannot be found in Him. Without trusting Jesus and taking Him at His word we will not be allowed entrance at the gate and neither will we be allowed to exit the gate further into the pasture land as a follower with the true shepherd. Yet, Jesus is the gate and He conquers as the gate. Why? There was no plan of the Pharisees that could overcome the plan God set into motion through Jesus. Even though they proclaimed a false gospel and did not care for God’s sheep as Ezekiel 34 says, they could not stop the work of the Holy Spirit among His own followers as they proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ. Those in the sheep pen would be cared for despite the angry robbers, despite the angry bandits, despite the thieves that come to steal, kill, and destroy, and despite the opposition of the Pharisees to God’s will. God’s plan through Jesus enacted by the Holy Spirit would bring the sheep safely out of the pen, through the gate, and into the pasture where they would follow the True Shepherd into the deepest darkest valleys, across the meadows, and into the great hilltops, and majestic mountains.
Have you gone through the gate? Are you in the sheepfold? Or are you journeying through the pasture with the Shepherd?
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