Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 4th Sunday of Easter - A
[Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Pet 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10,43]Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I cam so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
The traditional name for this Sunday after Easter is "Good Shepherd Sunday." But the part of the gospel passage from the Gospel of John that is featured today comes before Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd!" In the gospel passage today, Jesus says, "I am the gate!" I think many of us miss this because we are focused on the traditional image of Jesus bringing back a lamb from somewhere draped around his shoulders with an approving ewe-mama walking along beside him. A gate is not as personal or warm or inviting an image! Yet the image of the gate is in keeping with another, I AM saying: "I am the way, the truth and the life....[John 14:6]
A gate can mean security of either a positive or negative kind. If it is used to overprotect and exclude it can wind up harming the very ones who want protection by isolating them. On the other hand, it can be an invitation to enter or to go out and meet. Which one appeals more to us? When we think of a gate, do we think of the gate as closed or open? The image of the gate challenges us to focus on Jesus as a way to abundant life and not as a way to exclude others from that life. Do we think of Jesus as the guard at the gate? That is not what he claims to be! He claims to be the gate!
When I was a little boy and my father would take my brothers and me "down the river" to look at some of the crops or farm property, it might be our duty to get out and open a gate so that the car could come through and we could go on our way. Has Jesus give us the role of "gate" now? Or gatekeeper? Are we helping people on the "way" or keeping them out? Thinking about gates can be very challenging. AMEN