The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A, 2011

John 10:1-10

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

Jesus said, “I am sheep’s gate. If you enter through me, you will be saved.” This is a slight paraphrase of the Gospel text, but it accurately conveys the meaning.  “I am the gateway to eternal life. Those who believe in me and are my disciples will be saved.”

What did our Lord mean?  Simply this: the way to eternal life is through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus spoke, using pastoral imagery, because it was imagery that had meaning for those with whom he lived and worked.  Our Lord’s society was an agrarian society of small farms and herds of sheep and goats.  The animals were very dependent upon their shepherds for their safety and wellbeing. The animals came to know their shepherd, by his voice, his appearance and his smell.  And, in their inherent anxiety, they trusted him and him alone.

Jesus often described himself as the “good shepherd and described his followers as his sheep. His promise to them was that he would never abandon them; that he would be their eternal shepherd.  In the Gospel today, Jesus spoke from this theme. The reading tells us, just as he told his disciples, that his way and his, alone, is the way of salvation.  In another place, Jesus said that if anyone would be his disciple, it was necessary to deny the self, take up the cross and follow.  What is the way of the Cross?  It is a way that is modeled on the life of Jesus.  It is a way that loves God the Father with all of one’s being and ability, and loves neighbor just as much as one loves oneself.  To love this way is to love sacrificially; it is to take up the Cross and follow Christ by imitating Christ.

Demanding? You bet. Hard to do?  Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it.  Impossible to do?  If discipleship means never failing, never doubting, never quitting or wanting to quit, then discipleship is simply not possible.  But, we are not called to perfection; we are simply called to try.  That is why there is forgiveness.  That is why Christianity allows us another chance, because Jesus loved us so much that he died for us that we might have another chance in Christ.

“I am the gateway for the sheep.”  “I am the way, I am truth, I am life!”  We prefer, in our culture, to be inclusive.  We value tolerance.  As Americans, we stand against anything that makes any one religion the official religion and excludes others.  But the Lord made an exclusive claim.  What, then, do we do with such a claim?  I think that we recognize it for what it is. Jesus understood himself as sent by God to redeem all humanity.  If we choose to seek unity with God by following Jesus, that is good enough, for we know that we have found the way.  We can invite others to travel that path with us.  We can proclaim that it works for us.  Beyond that, we do not need to go.

Our job, our commission, is simply to know Christ and make him known.  This is our common mission, our common calling; to follow the way of the Cross and show others this way of Christian love.  Amen.