The Gate Series

We are going through the book of John. Last week, we finished off the story of the blind man who was miraculously cured. Someone who was blind from birth. Jesus walked along the road, placed mud in the man’s eye, and said now go and wash, and he washed and he was healed. Not only was he healed of his physical blindness, we find that he was healed of his spiritual blindness. Even more importantly, by his healing, he exposed the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, of the Jewish elite. Today, as we continue on and look at chapter 10, which is a continuation of the previous story. This is where Jesus begins to shift the metaphors from blindness to begin to talk about things like sheep and shepherds and gates and thieves and robbers and that sort of thing. What he is doing is beginning to let the Jewish leaders know that not only were they spiritually blind, they were bad shepherds to the sheep. Once again, we will be reading from John 10:1. We are going to look at the first six verses first. (Scripture read here.)

Once again, you can tell by those first six verses that this is about shepherds and sheep. Living in Pittsburgh, we maybe have a hard time understanding this imagery, but the image would have been very clear to the first-century reader. Really the picture is a picture of a sheep pen. I have never been to the Middle East. I have never seen these in action. Apparently, it is like a regular sheep pen where all the flocks would be gathered at night for protection. All the shepherds would come in and chip in and have a watchman there that night to protect the sheep from attack or from robbery or from wild animals. They would place a watchman there in front of the gate. The next day, the shepherds of the various flocks would come and begin to call their sheep out. Some knew them by name I guess. They would call them out by name and the sheep, because they would recognize the voice of the shepherd, they would follow the shepherd out because they heard his voice. They would not follow a stranger. Because this particular story follows the story of the blind man, really this is a subtle slam by Jesus to the Jews. What he is saying is that you Jewish leaders in particular have been assigned a responsibility to be shepherds of the flock. We see that imagery especially in the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel and different places. You were assigned the responsibility to shepherd the people. To take care of God’s people. Instead of acting like good shepherds, you are actually like the thieves and the robbers that would come in some other way to try and gain control over the flock. They would come in by way of deception. They would come in by way of control. They would come in by way of legalism to try and get control over the flock. The blind man was an example of this. When he began to get free, they tried to control him and they were upset by that. Jesus, on the other hand, being the good shepherd, he comes in a straightforward way. He comes in through the front gate and gives the truth. That truth resonates with the flock, the people, and the flock follows him. Just like we saw the Samaritan woman follow Jesus. Just like we saw the blind man follow Jesus. Just like we see his disciples following Jesus. There is a ring of truth that resonates within the flock and they know the shepherd. They recognize his voice. They will not follow a stranger. They will follow the good shepherd. This is that first six verses. As we see in verse 6, they don’t really get this. He is using a figure of speech. He is using a metaphor to try and explain it so he decides maybe I need to come at it from a different approach. Instead of being the shepherd, how about if I take the role of the actual gate. We see this as we pick up on verse 7. (Scripture read here.)

We can see a shift in imagery. Jesus was the one who entered in the front gate as the good shepherd but now we see him taking the role on as the actual gate. This imagery would have resonated also with those first-century readers. Thinking again about what is going on here. When the shepherds would take their flock out into the fields and they would be in the field overnight, they would have to find some protection for their sheep. They would look around and in some cases they would find a cave or in some cases they would find maybe a man-made sheep pen that was left by another shepherd or they would have to make their own type of sheep pen. Then what they would do is put the sheep in there at night, and they would lay in front of the entryway. They would actually be the gate. Some versions actually say the door. If you are using the King James Version or the New American Standard Version, you will see that the word door is used. The underlying Greek word can be translated door or gate. What we are talking about is an entryway. The person would actually lay in front of the entryway and serve as a gate or a door. I actually found an image that maybe will help you out a little bit. This would be an example. A man-made sheep pen and then you see the shepherd here in the front acting as an entryway or acting as a gate in the entryway. That is the imagery that he is trying to create. Although we are not familiar or we can’t always connect with the sheep and shepherd imagery, I would think all of us here could connect with the idea of a door or gate. The purpose of a door or gate is to be a point of entryway; an access point to something. Some of you might be going down to the Steelers game today. You are going to have to go through a gate of sorts. If you go down to PNC Park for a Pirates game you would go through a gate. Some of you go to hockey games and you have to go through a gate. We also go through doors every day. We go through the door of our house. We go through the door of our workplace. We go through the doors of the church. Just like there were many doors and gates back in the first century, there are many doors and gates today for us. The difference is that Jesus is not saying that he is one of many doors or many gates. He is saying very clearly and very poignantly that he is the gate. He says “I am the gate.”