I’m sure you’re familiar with the image of our Lord as the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls his sheep by name. They know his voice and follow him when he calls. He guides them, protects them, and provides for them. It’s probably one of more beloved metaphor’s for Christ.
The 10th chapter John’s gospel is one of our main sources for thinking of Jesus in this way. To be clear, throughout the scriptures God is often referred to as a Shepherd. But, it’s in John 10 where Jesus identifies himself as that Shepherd. So, you noticed just as Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he is also the gate. Verse 7, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” I can remember, however many years ago, when I first paid attention to this passage and it dawned on me that Jesus is saying he is both the shepherd and the gate. And so, I’m trying to form a mental image of what he’s saying. I have this image of Jesus there as a shepherd, I have sheep, but then Jesus is also the gate, and I’m having trouble making sense of this image. How can he be both? What does that mean?
And maybe it helps to remember the obvious: In the most literal sense possible, Jesus is not a shepherd, his followers are not actual sheep, and Jesus is not an actual gate. These are metaphors that Jesus is using to try and communicate some important, spiritual truths to us. So, once I put the mental image aside and try to listen to what he’s saying then I’m in a better position to try make sense of it.
Let’s begin with some background. In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes a series of “I am” statements. “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And then two from today’s chapter. “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the gate of the sheep.” All of those “I am” statements fall under the general umbrella of why he came. As he says in vs. 10 of today’s passage, He came so that his sheep would have life and have it abundantly. That’s the end goal. And so, you can see how all those “I am” statements pertain to the overall goal of life. Right? He is the bread of life, he is the light (life needs light), he is the resurrection and the life, he is the way-truth-life, he is the good shepherd (who provides, guides, and protects). All of those make sense in terms of this larger goal of life and abundant life. But how does the gate fit into all of that? How does Jesus as the gate pertain to the life he came to give?
Well, let’s think about gates for a moment. We live in a rural area, so I think you’ll agree with what I’m about to say. In rural areas, especially where there’s livestock, there’s this unwritten rule when it comes to gates. And the unwritten rule is: Leave the gate exactly the way you found it. In other words, if you have to go through a closed gate, close it behind you. And close like it was. If it was locked, lock it. If it was dummy-locked, dummy-lock it, etc. But, whatever you do, don’t leave the gate open if it was closed. And likewise, if the gate was open, don’t close it.
Now why this unwritten rule: leave the gate the way you found it? Chances are there is life (the life of the livestock) that depends on that gate being the way it is. If the gate is closed, chances are it is keeping livestock in (instead of out in the road where they might get hit). If the gate is open, chances are it’s so that livestock can get to water or pasture. So, the gate is there for the life of the livestock. Generally speaking, when closed the gate preserves life, when opened it promotes and provides for flourishing life.
Once we think of the gate in these terms, then we can make some sense of what it means for Jesus to be the gate that pertains to life. As he says in vs. 9, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved (life), and will come in and go out and find pasture (abundant life).” Notice the movement of entering in and going out to find pasture. In him we have been given life, and through him we find abundant life, just as the lives of the sheep are preserved by going in the gate, and by going out they find the water and pasture they need for abundant life. But, of course, the sheep don’t just go in and out the gate in some random fashion. When the sheep leave out through the gate, they don’t just wander off. They follow the Shepherd. They know his voice; they follow his voice. He leads them to pasture, to abundant life.
So, two important features of this passage are when Jesus says, “I am the gate” and then in vs. 11 says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” Those metaphors tell us something significant about our Lord. But, for our purposes, it’s just as important that the sheep know the shepherd’s voice and follow it. Jesus says, if they hear the voice of the stranger (that is someone who is not the Good Shepherd), they don’t follow that voice because they don’t know it. In fact, they will flee from the voice of a stranger. So, the idea is, his voice, his way is the way that leads to life. His sheep know this and follow him.
And, maybe it helps to mention the context here. You’ll notice in vs. 6 it says, “Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” Who is it that doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying? Apparently, it’s the pharisees, the religious leaders.
In the previous chapter, Jesus heals a man born blind. After he is healed, the man’s neighbors are like, “Who healed you?” For as long as they’ve known him, he’s been blind. He says, “Jesus.” So, they take to him to the pharisees, who ask the same question and get the same answer. And this starts a debate between the pharisees and this man. And the question they are debating is, “Is Jesus good or not?” As they put it, “Is he from God, or a sinner?”
It just so happens that Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath. In the mind of the Pharisees, Jesus can’t possibly be from God because he breaks the Sabbath law, or at least their understanding of the Sabbath law. So, they keep insisting that Jesus cannot be from God, he’s a sinner, as they put it. And the man keeps responding, “But I was blind, and now I see.” As if to say, how can Jesus not be good? How can he not be from God, when he has restored my sight? So, not only has this man gained his physical sight, he now has spiritual sight. He is able discern the goodness in what Jesus has done. Whereas, the pharisees appear spiritually blind, because they aren’t able to discern the will and goodness of God in what Jesus has done.
So, if we’re looking for an example of what Jesus means when he says his sheep hear his voice, this man is it. Right? He is able to discern what is good, i.e. the will of God, and he sees this in Jesus. Whereas, here are these “strangers,” these voices of the religious leaders telling him, “No, what has happened here is not good, Jesus is not good, listen to us.” And the man is like, “You’re wrong, I can see the goodness in what he has done in my life. I was blind and now I see, surely he is from God.” So, this man doesn’t hear the voice of these strangers, so to speak. He sees the goodness and grace in what has happened to him. In other words, he hears the voice of the Good Shepherd.
There are so many things we can take away from this passage. Once thing that comes to my mind is all the different voices that impinge upon us, simply because we have access to so much information. And, which ones are in line with what we know in Christ and which ones are not, is part of our responsibility to discern as followers of Christ.
But this passage also reminds me of what we were talking about in the last post about the things and voices we allow our minds to dwell upon. Consider the passage from Philippians 4 where it says: Whatever is honorable, or just, or pleasing. If there is anything that is excellent or worthy of praise think about these things. In other words, let your mind dwell on these good things. Much of the struggle in the Christian life happens in our minds. The voice of the Good Shepherd is the one voice, if we will dwell upon it, that will not lead us astray.
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