A sermon on John 10:1-10 by the Revd Chris Barnden
(our BUV Regional Minister and one of our Visiting Pastoral Overseers)

Each one of our Scripture readings today has to do with shepherding in some form, even if the Acts passage doesn’t explicitly mention the word.

While shepherds and shepherding are possibly out-of-date words in our general vocabulary these days, for those of us familiar with the Bible, they are words that speak impressively to us – conveying a powerful image to the reader of the loving care of God for us, his sheep.

The prime example of that is Psalm 23. We understand it at that personal level of God, our shepherd, meeting all the personal needs we might have.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a wonderfully comforting and encouraging image of the way in which God cares for us.

However, in the Old Testament, shepherding was also an image used by the prophets to describe the manner in which the leaders of Israel were expected to care for the whole community of the people. Or, to describe the character of leadership the leaders were expected to embody and to demonstrate.

In Ezekiel 34, God uses shepherding imagery to attack the leaders of Israel who have not shepherded Israel, who have not cared for the people in their charge – who haven’t cared for the weak, who haven’t protected the helpless.

Instead, they’ve misused their position by taking advantage of the vulnerable, looking out only for themselves at the expense of those same weak, helpless and vulnerable members of the community whose responsibility they had been given.

Today, I want to focus on the passage from John’s gospel. Again, it talks of shepherds. It’s a fascinating passage, and readily open, I think, to misunderstanding.

I say that because, with its close proximity to Jesus’ words in verse 11 of the chapter, “I am the Good Shepherd,” the assumption is readily made that Jesus is also the shepherd mentioned in the first ten verses whose voice the sheep hear, recognise, and who follow their shepherd’s voice, and most preachers take it that way, including me!

However, as I read the passage again more carefully, I notice that here Jesus specifically says, “I am the Door”, or “I am the Gate.”

In fact, this is one of those seven particular emphatic statements Jesus makes in John’s Gospel where he gives particular weight to the first person indicative – “I am”. Talking about the door or the gate to the sheepfold by which the sheep move in and out safely following their shepherd, Jesus says, “I am that Door”, or “I am that Gate.”

So, how are we to understand this?

Well, to begin with, it’s important that we read these ten verses as following on directly from the verses of the previous chapter. Jesus has healed the man born blind, and the Pharisees, in their efforts to find out just how he regained his sight, flatly refuse to believe the man’s calm and persistent assertion that he has been healed by Jesus, or that it’s Jesus who has healed him.

They reject the man’s testimony and cast him out of the synagogue – out of the church. Hearing this, Jesus finds the man and asks him,
John 9:35-39(this is from the Message)
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
37Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
38“Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
39Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretence of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

John 10:1-10
1“Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler!
2The shepherd walks right up to the gate.
3The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice.
5They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”
6Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about.
7So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep.
8All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them.
9I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture.
10A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

Jesus here is not the shepherd – that comes in the next section. Jesus is the gate, or the door. Jesus is the means of entry for the sheep into safety, and the means of exit out to find pasture.

Jesus is describing the leaders of Israel as the thieves and robbers who climb over the fence into the sheepfold to steal and destroy. They are the ones who, again, just like in Ezekiel’s time, are not real shepherds who care for the sheep in their charge.

They don’t really care for God’s people whose responsibility they’ve been given, and they’ve demonstrated that by the way they’ve just treated the man born blind. They have not believed Jesus, they have no interest in entering through Jesus into eternal life, therefore, continuing the metaphor, they are not acting like the shepherds concerned to lead God’s people to life in all its fullness.

However, the man born blind has recognised the voice of God in Jesus and what does he do? He worships Jesus. Or we might also say because of Jesus he has received not only sight but life. He enters, through the door, into life in Jesus’ name in all its fullness, just as Jesus promised.

What does this say to us? Well it says that Jesus is the door that leads to God – that Jesus is the gateway through whom we may approach God. Jesus is the means by which we understand God. It’s through Jesus that we know God.

We might also say that it’s through Jesus that God also comes to us and reveals himself to us.

Jesus is the door through which we pass to receive life – life in his name – a life of authenticity, a life of freedom, a life of purpose – a life that is the real deal because it is founded on the truth that is Jesus.

What else does this say to us? To those of us who are leaders – this story asks of us, do we care for those in our charge as a good shepherd does? Do we care for these, our flock in ways that nurture and lead to life?

Do our people recognise the voice of the Lord in us? Does our leadership reflect the truth that is Jesus? Do we carry out our leadership responsibility in the name of Jesus, in the way of the gospel? Or do we do things our own, more selfish way, seeking our own advantage, or seeking to advance our own cause?

And if we extend the metaphor in that familiar way, as members of that flock in the sheepfold, do we listen for the voice of the one who is our shepherd? In the midst of a world of voices competing for our attention, and for our allegiance – voices which loudly claim to hold the truth – do we recognise the voice of God when it comes to us through Jesus, when we’re invited to approach the Father through him?

Are we courageous enough to follow where that voice leads us? Are we confident enough in hearing his voice that we will follow him even when we don’t know exactly where he may lead us, trusting that where he is, there is life?

May God help us not only to listen, but in listening, to recognise his voice that we may follow with confidence and find food for our souls.

May we help others, those sheep who are lost, (referred to by Jesus later in chapter 10) may we help them to hear and recognise the voice of the shepherd that they too may find life, peace, and a safe place for their souls.

May we draw near to God through Christ, the door, and discover that there is peace, joy, and life in all abundance.