“I am the gate for the sheep.”

Reading the Scriptures as “a city boy” can be interesting.  That’s how my father-in-law described me to his daughter after we first met, warning her of the limitations of such young men who didn’t work with their hands all that well.  Coming from a boat carpenter and a fourth-generation woodworker, that sounded like reasonable advice.  It seems that every mention of a city or larger metropolis in Scripture has negative connotations.  Think Babel.  Think Paul in Athens, or in Ephesus the first time (Acts 19).  Definitely not good and not pretty.

So when this city boy comes to John 10 and finds Jesus talking about sheep, a sheep pen, a hireling and a shepherd, he thinks to himself, “Cool!  Jesus is really saying something here!”  But verse 6 says the people “did not understand what he was telling them.”  Why not?  It’s like this.  Let’s say I tell you a little story:  “A man received his paycheck through direct deposit.  He confirmed the deposit in his online bank account.  Then he purchased some discontinued fishing equipment on sale through the Internet from an online sports specialty store.  The items arrived three days later at which point he went on weekend fishing trip.  He caught nothing and came home disappointed.”  Now, what do you think?  I’m sure many would say, “Come on, Bill!  That’s all there is to the story?!  What’s the point?”  Bingo.  You see, the story is so familiar to us that we can’t find the deeper meaning.  Ditto with Jesus’ audience.  The details were so well known that they couldn’t uncover what he was saying below the surface.

I also find it interesting that in numerous places the Scriptures talk about gates and doors, some literal, some metaphorical. The Bible mentions that a door swings on hinges (Prov. 26:14).  In several passages it also says that they create and block access.  Matthew 25:1-13 and Luke 13 quickly come to mind.  City gates were built very strong, symbolizing strength and power.  Thus they represented the power of the government: “So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway” (2 Samuel 19:8), and “Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city [of Sodom]” (Gen. 19:1).  The main reason they were built so strong is that they were the weakest point of defense and security.  What movie did you ever see of ancient battles where the surrounding army took their battering ram to the castle wall instead of the gate?  (An aside: Reminds me of the time I was in Seattle, staying in the neighborhood where Bill Gates, then the world’s richest man, lived.  We drove over to see his house, and wouldn’t you know, we found at the end of a dead-end street on Lake Washington a gate (!) hiding everything behind it with a security booth on the left side, complete with armed guard.)

All of the above points from this metaphor are true, and all of them can have application to Jesus.  Especially the last one about a gate being the weakest factor of protection.  But we must remember, “the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”  That’s why “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:25, 27).  But the Bible doesn’t make these points for us.  Like flakes of manna, they must be gathered one by one to make bread.

But to this crowd Jesus had to make his point “again” (v. 7), this time more directly. He had to  s-p-e-l-l  i-t  o-u-t  for them.  “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.”  That’s pretty clear and straightforward.  Then he repeats the assertion in verse 9.  Why?  Because he’s making complimentary points and didn’t want them to miss them.  What follows the first claim?  “All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers.”  Not politically correct, sensitive or tolerant, is he?  “Everyone?” I can hear someone in the audience ask.  “All of them.”  No mincing words here.  His point is exclusivity: only one door in a sheep pen.  Every other way is illegitimate.  After the second time he said, “whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”  Saved in being protected at night.  Saved at having provision at daytime.  Saved in every conceivable way.  His point?  Only one way in and one way out, and only one shepherd to trust and follow.

Then in verse 10 he summarizes both applications: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  As the gate Jesus is certainly no thief.  He doesn’t climb in from another location.  Since that is true, he becomes not only the gate of security, but the gate to provision as well.  He is the gate that brings life in its fullness in every dimension — spiritually, emotionally, relationally and one day even bodily — in heaven.

In your walk with God are you regularly finding access to this life through the Gate?