Sermon for April 26, 20206: Sheep at the Gate based upon John 10:1-10

John 10:1-10 Jesus the Good Shepherd (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go 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.

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     On Thursday, while doing some much needed tidying in my office, I found this wild little sheep with my name on it. There ended up being a whole herd of sheep from some children’s moment that neither Cyndi nor I remember stashed away in a pile that includes notes from a continuing ed program about capital campaigns, an order of worship from a friend’s installation service where I preached, and a certificate from a boundary training program that I attended in 2015. If there’s anything I’ve learned from conversations with real shepherds, they wouldn’t be surprised that the sheep got somewhere unexpected. They are prone to wander. That’s why both humans and dogs get deployed to keep track of them.

     One of the staff chaplains at the hospital where I did my chaplaincy training often complained about any sentimental reading of sheep metaphors in the Bible. He’d say, “Have you ever had sheep? They’re terrible!” Then he’d go on to outline the ways they get into things they aren’t supposed to and have far too little regard for their own safety. It bugged him when people used the word “sheep” to mean “someone who is easily convinced to follow a leader.” He said that sheep are never that easy.

     In her commentary on today’s reading, Laura Holmes says that when we see or hear “very truly” at the beginning of a reading, we should understand that phrase as a connector to the story that comes before our reading. In this case, it was a story I preached on a few weeks ago, about a man who had been born blind. Jesus healed him. The man’s community had assumed that his blindness was due to something either he or his parents had done wrong and were very suspicious of Jesus’ action. They even pushed the healed man out of community. Jesus promptly invited him to become a disciple and follow him. There were Pharisees, who had been suspicious of Jesus, listening to him talk to the man about belief. They wondered aloud if they had misunderstood Jesus. “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus responds to them, reminding them that disability is not a consequence of sin. But their disbelief continues to keep them from building the relationship with him that they could have.

     In her commentary on John, Karoline Lewis points out that they aren’t literally blind, they are unable to understand his origin and identity. And this is the disruptor of relationship between them. According to Lewis, in the Gospel of John, “to remain in sin” means to not be in relationship with Jesus. While belief is rooted in relationship, sin is rooted in disconnection. This whole shepherd/sheep/gate discourse is preached to, according to Lewis, the newly connected healed man, the already-connected disciples, and the disconnected Pharisees. Jesus will use a whole new set of metaphors to help people understand who he is.
He’ll shift them from talking about blindness and sight, and into talking about sheep and all manner of ways of keeping them safe, with the gate/door and the shepherd being two identities in particular that he assumes to describe his own mission. The door isn’t intended to signal exclusion. It is to signal protection. Lewis points out that in John 18, Jesus will be the gate or door that stands between the disciples in the garden and the soldiers who are coming to arrest Jesus. The gate is put there for protection for the vulnerable. Relationship with Jesus comes with care and protection from the powerful.

     As I talked about with Thomas, another story from John, intimacy is a key feature in Jesus’ ministry. Even in the metaphor about the sheep: They feel safe and gather together when hearing the familiar and trusted voice of the shepherd. In another part of the reading, there’s a gatekeeper who recognizes the shepherd and, in that recognition, opens the gate. In her commentary, Lewis points out that even the part about knowing the sheep’s names is a sign of intimacy that will be reproduced at both the raising of Lazarus and Jesus’ own resurrection. When Jesus calls out Lazarus’ name, he comes out of the tomb, alive (11:43). In chapter 20, Mary recognizes the resurrected Christ when he addresses her by name.

     Jesus, in John, wants a life abundant for humanity. As Holmes notes in her commentary, gates and doors aren’t just for keeping people out. They are also for giving access. John is clear that Jesus intends to give people access to an abundant life. Part of the role of the shepherd to make sure the sheep have all that they need. Clean water, enough forage to remain healthy, care when they are sick, protection from predators, a community of other sheep for joy and companionship. There are seven big miracles in John, and I think it would be fair to read six of them as reinforcing an abundant life: water is turned to wine at a wedding, an official’s child is healed, a man is healed at Bathesda, he fed the 5000, he healed the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus. Jesus perpetually invites people to be in relationship with him as he opens the door to a pasture full of life.

     Holmes also notes that their a long history within the Bible of leaders being referred to as shepherds. Moses and David were called shepherds of their people. Different prophets might call a leader a good or bad shepherd based on how well they were living into the covenant. Any leader who does not protect his people “death-dealing” forces is a bad shepherd. And, as Holmes says, their actions “go directly against the life that the gate leads to.”

     Very often in the Gospel, people hearing Jesus don’t understand him, and that is true in this story, too. The layered meanings of metaphors drawn from their daily lives as people dependent on sheep and shepherds for survival are still a challenge, as is often true of Jesus’ teaching. In the back half of today’s reading, Jesus attempts a slightly different angle to help the man, the Pharisees, and the disciples understand. He says, “I am the gate.” I am the portal into abundant life. I am the invitation into relationship. I will offer salvation.

     The man born blind offers an example of what salvation looks like: disabled person who has been blamed for his disability and marginalized in his birth community finds new community, its own kind of healing, while following Christ. This man who had begged for survival won’t have to beg anymore. He will have food and people who care for him and safety that he did not have before. Lewis calls this “pasture and protection.” According to John, Jesus tends to the needs of life in concrete ways. So, too, will we, the on-going body of Christ.

     When we speak of salvation, it shouldn’t be in amorphous, spiritualized terms. It should be in terms of pasture and protection. When the Gospel of John claims that God love the world, that means that God will tend to well-being of this world and the people within it. The church, as the sheep and the livestock guardian dogs in training, will be about that business of loving as well. In times when we are called to abandoned those who struggle, remember that Jesus feeds his sheep and so should we. In times when some shepherds are not trustworthy, may we look to the Good Shepherd to see what loving leadership looks like, and emulate it. When we hear of salvation, may we remember that this comes in community, not isolation. As I was reminded while I cleaned this week, you never know where you’re going to find the sheep. Let us make sure they can find the way to safe pasture.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Laura Holmes: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-john-101-10-7
Karoline Lewis, John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).