The Narrow Gate

 John 10:1-10 April 30, 2023

 

I was taught in preaching class in seminary

that when you look at a text, you should ask yourself:

What is Jesus doing here? What’s he trying to say?

What is he trying to get his audience to understand?

And what is John the author of the gospel, trying to say here

by the way that they’re recounting the story?

Sheep
Deliliah Smith

We’ll be asking that question a lot in the next couple of weeks

as the lectionary texts are of Jesus last sermons

and some of them can be pretty confusing.

 

So what is Jesus doing here? What is he trying to say?

Why does he tell his disciples and us about this sheepy stuff?

What does he mean when he says “I am the gate”, Jesus says

“whoever enters by me will be saved.”

 

Now traditionally in Christianity, people have, almost without question,

seen that Jesus wants to give us an invitation or maybe a warning -

that we need to know that Jesus and Christianity

is the only way to get to heaven.

We drove up to Columbia this weekend and there are a LOT

of billboards up on the side of the highway 26 that say that 

or something like it: Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus or hell, that’s the choice.

And that is the traditional understanding of Christianity.

You probably grew up with it, I know I did.

 

So Jesus MUST be believed, church MUST be attended,

doctrine MUST be believed, the sacraments – that are administered rightly –

MUST be taken regularly. At the very least, we MUST claim 

Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. 

That’s the gate that we MUST to go through.

And everyone else gets who doesn’t go through that gate

gets sent to hell or Gahenna, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Belief in Jesus is the gate that Jesus we MUST go through for God to love us.

 

I also learned in seminary that if we say we MUST do something for

God to love us, we will get a bunch of red “X”s on our papers.

 

So is that really what Jesus is doing here?

Is that why Jesus came here on earth?

Was Jesus purpose in coming here to create a religion?

To establish an institution parallel to

other institutions, but just a little better?

Was God’s objective to put some of us inside the club

and to leave other people outside of this great plan of salvation?

 

I think for those of us who have professed Jesus Christ as

Lord and Savior and have a relationship with him,

we know that Jesus had bigger plans than that.

We know that Jesus didn’t really like clubs with exclusive memberships.

Jesus wasn’t big on putting people inside the circle and outside the circle.

He broke down those barriers.

 

And we remember that earlier in this Gospel, Jesus said

“God so loved the whole world that he sent his son.”

Christ died and rose for us. It is finished.

We don’t have to do anything for God to love us.

God just loves us.

So then, still, what is Jesus trying to say?

 

Jesus does tell us that this gate is the way to abundant life,

So we know Jesus objective is for us to have an abundant life.

 

Now quite a few Christians teach that when Jesus talks

about “abundant life”, he is talking about

having lots of personal wealth, comfort, and ease of life.

At least for us and our family.

They teach that living life the right way will result in good health,

and a large bank account, and a happy family life,

and that anything less than that

proves that you haven’t lived a good life.

Some Christians think abundant life is about

me not having to worry.

It’s about me building my wealth by myself,

and maybe giving some of it away if I feel like it.

 

But we who have a personal relationship with Jesus

know that he never said that. And he didn’t live that.

All Jesus had was the sandals on his feet

and the tunic on his back. He begged for places to stay

and his disciples stole ears of corn off of farmers’ land.

He never promised that his followers would be wealthy

or even comfortable. Take up your cross and follow me,

is what Jesus actually said. Not comfortable at all.

 

And we who know Jesus learned from him that

We can’t have a lot of stuff and comfort and watch

our neighbor have nothing and call that an abundant life.

Abundance is found in making sure that other people have abundance.

Abundance is having our hearts filled with the

care that Christ showed us and sharing that.

Abundant life is found in our hearts breaking for others.

Abundant life is found in giving our abundance –

ourselves, our time, and our possessions – away.

Abundant life is not lived alone with me and my family only,

it’s lived in community with others.

 

And this is gate that I believe Jesus is talking about.

The gate to abundant life that the Jesus, the Good Shepherd,

is trying to lead us his sheep through.

It is the way we live our lives: to model our lives after Jesus.

To sacrifice and share with others, to have compassion and love.

To not just live for ourselves, but for the sake of others.

 

In its early days, Christianity was called “The Way”

Christians marked themselves by the way that they

acted and cared for each other and the world.

Some say that’s why the religion grew,

because Christians behaved different than the rest of the world.

They went through that narrow gate,

they followed the way that Jesus lived and died.

 

They followed the way of radical, sometimes uncomfortable love.

They had compassion for the hated, serving the ungrateful.

loving their enemy, welcoming the outcast.

They treated society’s throwaways as equals.

They made sure that their neighbor was fed before they were.

They vowed not to take another life, but to lay down their life for others.

This is the gate. This is Jesus way.

This is the way to abundant life, here, now for the whole world.

 

Jesus says the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

We live in a world where many try to pass themselves off

as saviors and possessing the only ‘right way’ and plenty of people follow.

 

We have preachers who are so convinced of their hatred,

that they call God’s children abominations

and they actually use threats of violence against

gay people and transgender people to try and change them.

And they call this righteousness.

 

We also have people in political power who are leading others

down paths of hatred, who are actually proud of their sexist,

racist views and want more people to share them.

They are often openly hostile towards poor people,

and pass laws that are designed to punish instead of help.

 

We have people in religion and politics who only want to defend

Christianity and Christian rights and institutions

and they look down on Jews and Muslims

and even want to cause them harm.

 

We live in a world of thieves and bandits,

And so many of them claim to be followers of Jesus,

and I don’t doubt that they identify as Christians

but are they really following Jesus?

They don’t want to enter the sheepfold by the gate,

the gate of self-sacrifice and compassion.

The gate of welcome and service.

They only want to jump over the fence.

 

And to be honest, as God’s sheep, we too have often rejected the gate

and we have adapted too well to the world.

We have demanded safety for only ourselves,

We have helped create more privilege for the privileged,

We build our own castles and forget about others.

We try to claim our abundant life in isolation,

and not worry about God’s other beloved sheep.

 

We try to jump over the gate too.

and not travel the hard road that Jesus showed us.

The road of love and sacrifice.

 

But we have a shepherd who is kind.

Who sets out a table of love, and invites all people to it.

Who is merciful and kind, who will show us the gate,

and help us find the path of righteousness again and again.

Even if it takes two thousand years for us to get it.

We have a shepherd who leads us patiently

and who will even lay down his life for us.

 

That is the way that Jesus has shown us.

That is what Jesus is doing here.

That’s what he’s trying to say.

That is the way of abundant life.

That is the gate that Jesus wants us to go through.

The gate that will save this world.