Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It’s safe to say that most of us are unaccustomed to the care of sheep. Even if you grew up on a farm, maybe it wasn’t sheep you were raising. For this cultural context of Israel being a nation of shepherds lends so much to understanding this imagery within scripture. Since we, modern day readers, do not know or understand what it meant to be a shepherd in Israel, we often scratch our heads at the finer details relayed to us in Scripture.

This Sunday is often referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday. We’re reminded of these tender images of our Lord being our Good Shepherd as he cares for all our wants and needs. Yet, there’s always more in our text that we miss because we’re unfamiliar with sheep and shepherds. 

For in our Gospel lesson this week, Jesus tells the crowd, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep,” John 10:7. Whenever I’ve read this, I’ve always assumed Jesus was talking about any old door. We know what doors are meant for. They allow us entry into a space. They block unwanted visitors from entering. They open and shut. So on and so forth. But it’s so much more than this.

When Jesus says, he is the door of the sheep, he’s using common knowledge in Israel for how sheep were tended. Shepherds would take their sheep out into the country. There they would build something like the picture above, a wall of stones enclosing an area with a single opening. There was no door, no piece of wood over it. Instead, the Shepherd would become the door. The shepherd would sit in the opening to fill the gap, so that he could protect and care for the sheep against any wolf, thief, or any other danger that would threaten his sheep. 

There’s only one way into the sheepfold just as there’s only one way into eternal paradise. It’s Jesus. “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture,” John 10:9. To try to enter by any other way makes us a thief or a robber. For there are many who try to sneak their way into the sheepfold, but their motives are purely for evil. But Jesus is the true shepherd, he’s the door. He’s the one who calls you by name in your baptism. He’s the one who brings you through the door into his church for protection against the temptations of Satan, the world, and our flesh. He speaks that we may know his voice and follow him out to pasture where he feeds us his own body and blood. Jesus is the shepherd who laid down his life for you on the cross that you may enter through him to paradise unending. For just as Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” John 10:10. So, Jesus by his death on the cross has opened the door, the gates of heaven to you that you may enter through him to abundant and eternal life!

Pastor Sorenson

Prayer:

Almighty God, merciful Father, since You have wakened from death the Shepherd of Your sheep, grant us Your Holy Spirit that when we hear the voice of our Shepherd we may know Him who calls us each by name and follow where He leads; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!