Someday, someone will explain to me the Easter season lectionary. After a few Sundays exploring the events of Easter Sunday, we jump every Fourth Sunday of Easter to one of the “I am the good shepherd” passages.
At first glance, “Good Shepherd Sunday” sounds comforting. But these passages are anything but cuddly. Thieves, rustlers, predators and unreliable hired men abound. It turns out that Jesus is really talking – as usual – about the corrupt and oppressive religious leaders whom he feels misrepresent God and choke the spiritual life of their people: “Very truly, I tell you Pharisees, 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.”
It’s easy to get tangled up in the words as John presents them, but Jesus clarifies it, saying a bit later, “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.”
Is it any wonder the leaders wanted to kill Jesus? He explicitly compares them to thieves and bandits, robbing people of their assurance of God’s love and mercy. And he likens the people to sheep, not the most flattering of allusions. But how is Jesus a gate?
It is hard for my literal mind to imagine Jesus as a gate – a gate is empty space when open; a person fills space. Maybe it helps if we think of him as one who creates entry space for connection with God – a threshold we cross to gain access to the Holy One, the Creator of all. After all, we affirm that it is by Jesus’ holiness, not our own, that we have access to the Father. He’s our way in… and out, our "gateway drug" to the fullness of Life we're promised in God.
Does Jesus function that way in your spiritual life? Does he open the way to a deeper relationship with God? Do you think you need Jesus to get closer to God? Do you want him in that between-space?
Maybe you have suffered from poor shepherds in the past, who made intimacy with God more difficult. Try to pray for them, and even forgive. That creates space too.
My prayer for today is, “Jesus – if you’re the gate, show me how I can come closer to the fullness of God by coming closer to you.”
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