Easter 4 “The Shepherd and the Door”
April 21, 2024 John 10:11–18
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ;
In John 10, Jesus teaches that He is the Good Shepherd. But a few verses earlier, Jesus also taught that He is also the DOOR for the sheep. Listen to His words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in & out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (10:7–10).
There’s a wonderful thing about this Good Shepherd: he lays down his life for the sheep. There’s also an important thing about a Door: it has two sides. Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the Door. This good news wouldn’t be as great IF it were just one or the other. But Jesus is both the Good Shepherd – who saves & feeds His sheep, and the Door – that locks out those who threaten the sheep.
We often speak of Jesus-The-Door in connection with Heaven ~ we go in thru Him alone. But, Jesus is also our Door right now as He shepherds us; that’s good because of the two sides. On His side of the door, there’s grace & mercy with Him, as our Shepherd cares for us.
He daily opens to us to provide the sheep: pasture, nourishment, & streams of living water. He also daily closes to provide protection from the ‘false shepherds’, whom He calls thieves & hired hands & wolves.
As we heard in the Gospel lesson: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” (vv 11–12). So, this Door-picture means either being ‘with or without him’; under mercy or judgment; being protected or vulnerable.
In today’s First Reading, Peter & John stood, after Easter, before the Jewish council; the Pharisees & Sadducees were those who should have been faithful shepherds of Israel, but the apostles were now on trial because they’d been proclaiming resurrection in the name of Jesus. IF these apostles were con artists who were lying, and dangerously spreading a false religion, they should be on trial.
But what they were doing was proclaiming the actual fulfillment of what the Jews had been looking for = the Messiah. The Son of David was to come, & fulfill the OT prophecies, & bring salvation to Israel & to the world. The apostles were proclaiming Jesus as that Messiah & Isaiah’s suffering servant, who was crucified & risen. But these leaders of the church were not believing that.
So, the council was greatly annoyed at their preaching; But Peter & John must’ve been annoyed at their arrest; but both views can’t be right = Peter was right “Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead ~ by Him this lame-man is standing before you well.” (Acts 4:10). Peter went on to explain that Jesus is the stone that was rejected but has become the cornerstone, and that there is “no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.” (4:12)
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When Peter healed a lame man in the name of Jesus, it would’ve reminded the rulers & elders of what Jesus had done many times before. For example, in John 9, Jesus healed a man who was blind from birth. The Jews overlooked the healing & denounced Jesus, saying that in doing the miracle on the Sabbath Day, Jesus was not respecting their laws. You might remember that they even removed the healed blind man from the synagogue for speaking well of the man who healed him.
However, when Jesus found the man, & revealed to him that He was The Christ, the man believed in Jesus & worshiped him. The fact that Jesus accepted this man’s worship proves that Jesus knew Himself to be ‘God’; for the 1st commandment declares that we are to have no other gods, & to worship the One God only. That One True God sent the Son as The Good Shepherd, and as the one open Door back to God. However, Jesus was a closed door to those who rejected him. And He still is.
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Long ago, God gave us an illustration of this with Noah & the event of the world-wide Flood. God commanded Noah to build the ark with one door. On the day it started to rain, Noah & his family huddled inside the ark. The hand of God then closed that door so that no matter what happened on the outside, no one could open that door. As the door shut, the rain of God’s judgment thru flood & death was kept outside. For those few who trusted, heard, & obeyed God, the door provided protection.
And then, when the flood subsided, & the waters were gone, the door was opened, and Noah went out to find God’s blessing on the cleansed earth. The door shut for protection, and was opened for blessing. But, for those outside the ark, that door meant only judgment.
The door was shut to those who did not believe what God said; they did not trust & obey Him; they perished. One door did two opposite things depending on which side of the door you’re facing.
For human salvation, for grace now & heaven later, Jesus is literally that one & only door. Those who are hearing & trusting the promise of that Savior have been brought inside the door. For those baptized in Jesus name, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us & our Door, who protects us now. He knows us & loves us; we hear Him & follow Him. That is the relationship between sheep & Shepherd. We know the sound of His voice, and we follow where His Word leads.
But for those who do not believe in Jesus as God’s Shepherd & Door, those who are not with Him in His flock, Jesus is a harsh judge; we don’t talk about that much, but it’s Biblically true. *What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Not that a person just says they believe in Him, but that they also confess His teachings as true, & they walk by those teachings. There are many who think of Jesus as ‘loving & kind’, & would never reject anyone; those people don’t know Him as He is. They think ‘a shepherd’ sounds nice; but they don’t like ‘a door.’
In Luke 13, Jesus says: ‘Strive to enter thru the narrow door; for many will seek to enter and will not be able. When the master of the house has shut the door, and you stand outside & knock at the door saying, ‘Lord open to us,’ he will say: ‘I do not know you.. .depart from me you doers of evil things.’ Just as we confess in our creeds: Jesus will come again to judge between the sheep who trusted Him, & the goats who did not.
So it was with those church leaders & their followers who rejected Jesus; by unbelief & disobedience they were on the wrong side of the Door, and were being rejected by the Good Shepherd who was protecting the flock of those who truly trust & listen to Him. As the priests & Sadducees rejected Jesus Christ & His Word, so they also rejected those sheep who belonged to Him. So, the formerly blind man was put out of the synagogue because he confessed Jesus as God. Peter & John were arrested for teaching & healing in the name of the Risen Jesus.
So,… we have this example of the blind man & the apostles. What do you think will happen to you & me? As you go in & out of this church & follow Jesus, how will the unbelieving world treat us? As we bear Christ’s name, / gather in that name, / hear his Scripture & put it into practice, how will those other ‘religious people’ who reject Jesus treat you & me? That’s kind-of the downside of faith.
The up-side is that we are following God’s Shepherd to green pastures & living waters. That means we can know what’s right & wrong by His voice; +we measure & weigh the world & its ideas, and we know what’s good & what’s bad by His Bible. +He leads us to repent of our sins, & He refreshes us with forgiveness & peace. +He comforts us in times of trouble by keeping our eyes on the ‘long-game.’ +He strengthens us in our losses of things & people by keeping our priorities in line with His.
Think of how much time & effort the world puts toward trying to find: meaning in life, happiness & satisfaction, solving problems, & having peace of mind. People struggle to define what it means to be a man or a woman, what marriage means, whether we should kill babies or assist suicide for old, ailing people. The Good Shepherd freely teaches us about all those things as we listen to & follow His voice.
And the world laughs at us for following some ‘old’ commandments and ‘outdated’ religious teachings ~ but *who are the foolish ones? So, our Good Shepherd brings us close to Him, and we are -then- safe behind God’s Door. That Door defends us against the wolves & thieves. That means exactly what Romans 8 says: If God is for us, who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of our Christ? … trouble, distress, or persecution; famine, want, danger, or threats? Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of our Shepherd, and the protection of our Door.
Even that blind man’s parents kept their distance from him when he came under scrutiny by those in power. The same might happen to you & me ~ even our own family might reject us because we hold to the plain written word & teaching of our Good Shepherd. Those around us who do not accept Him will associate you with the firm word & harsh judgment of Jesus.
They will be annoyed by you, & will want to silence you, even as the Jews hated Peter & John, & the man born blind.
But that does not mean you are not safe; you are safe. Just as Noah was safe from the wind & waves & flood as the waters rose to destroy the earth; likewise, you are safe from God’s judgment, and the world cannot take that away. Just as sheep who are tucked safely away inside the sheepfold, and are protected from the wolves that lurk in the shadows, you are protected from the devil & those who follow him. You are safe inside His Church’s green pasture, where God feeds & nourishes you. Here in the flock, you hear His voice as it’s brought to you thru preaching & teaching, thru psalms & hymns. Your baptism keeps you washed in Him; His meal of bread & wine, body & blood, offers you forgiveness of sins, life, salvation.
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Do you Remember the old game show Let’s Make a Deal? The contestants played & earned some prize, and then could trade that prize for what was hidden behind a door. The show was exciting & entertaining because you never knew if that prize hidden behind the door was something of greater value; like a new car, a boat, or a dream vacation, OR whether it was something worthless.
In our hands, we gather up the prizes of this earth: money & different jobs, entertainments & recreations, hobbies & collections, friendships & reputations. We are tempted to spend the time of our lives collecting & enjoying all those things; and we don’t like the idea that we might have to give them up to take a chance with what’s behind that Big Door ~ God’s Door.
But it’s not ‘chance’ at all, and it’s no secret; what’s there has been revealed by our Good Shepherd. The gifts He gives of forgiveness & a future are truly good & lasting; and the world’s things are not. And with Jesus, thru that Door, lies heaven & all its glory. That’s what He won for you when He laid down His life, & then took it up again.
Good Shepherd and Door. Those two different things are related in Jesus. Your wonderful Shepherd laid down His life to save you. A Door is important because it has two sides & you are protected by it. Jesus declares to you that He is both your Good Shepherd and your Door. For us, our Jesus is two kinds of Good News.
Amen