I AM THE GATE
John
10:9 I
AM the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go
out, and find pasture.
Sheep are a unique animal.
They are very skittish, loyal to only one shepherd, unaware of their
surroundings and easily lost. Sounds a lot like humans, doesn’t it? When
pasturing sheep in Jesus’ time, pens were constructed of low stone walls or
wooden corrals. There was one entrance and exit for the shepherd and sheep to
pass through. In verses 1- 5 we hear Jesus explain how a thief or a robber
could enter the pen and manipulate the sheep and steal them from the owner, the
gatekeeper. These verses were not understood by his listeners and people today.
Jesus then explains clearly
his meaning to them. He explains this story with two examples: The Gate and the
Good Shepherd. People, the children of God, are the vulnerable sheep. Some of
his listeners had been gathered into the pen which is Israel, the family of
God. They were being led by shepherds. But they were not shepherds the
gatekeeper let into the pen. They had climbed over the walls into the pen. You
see, Jesus is the gate. If the shepherd got into the pen some other way, he was
really a thief or a robber. He wanted the sheep for some other purpose than the
gatekeeper’s.
To be a sheep of a
particular flock required that you enter the pen through the gate. There was no
other way in for a sheep. So for us to enter into the flock, the children of
God, it requires that we enter through the gate intended by the gatekeeper.
Jesus is the gate. He is the entry point intended by God, the gatekeeper.
Entering by way of Jesus ensures us they we “may have life, and have it to the
full.”
There are many paths we can
take in life. But there is only one path that leads us to the gate. It is this
one path which the gatekeeper intended his sheep to pass through. If you do not
pass through the correct gate, you will never be among the flock owned by the
gatekeeper.