A gate serves to allow people to move from one parcel of land to another. A gate is the entrance to security and clear boundaries; a portal from safety into the unknown and insecure. A gate serves to allow passage through the boundary.
In early sheep farming, the sheep were protected each night in the pens. This gave them boundaries as to not wander off into the darkness. The boundaries give them a sense of peace. The shepherd served as a gate, laying across the passageway from the pasture to the rock walled pen. The shepherd knew which sheep were his. He would allow his sheep entry into safety.
In John 10:9 Jesus said, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
Jesus serves as the gate from the feral, open land where enemies are lurking to the security of the watchful eye of the shepherd. He is the passage into the walls erected to protect the sheep from wandering off and from the enemies from climbing in. Jesus said in John 10:1, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief or a bandit.”
Jesus as the passage or gate is a preamble and beautiful image for Jesus’ words in John 14:6, when Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It is through Jesus that we find the fullness of life through our salvation. We are safe in the care of the shepherd (as we will talk more about next week), and Jesus as the gate calls us into safety and then guides us back out to new lands and new opportunities.
Consider the way we come to worship each week in community and often in a building. The threshold of the door is the passage from the busyness and craziness of the world to spend intentional time focused on worship, on learning, and on feeding on God’s Word. We are then sent out at the end of the worship time back across the threshold into the world who needs to hear the Good News. Jesus as the gate serves as the one who is our passage as we come in and go out. He is the passage who blocks the wiles of the evil one, while allowing admittance to those who are seeking shelter, forgiveness, and new life.
As we continue in this Lenten Adventure, recognize that when Jesus says, “I AM the gate,” He is reminding us that we do not come into the fullness of life and our salvation in any other way, but through Him. We can try to find salvation through our own works (i.e. trying to climb in another way), but this is not true salvation. He is the one who bids us to come and He is the one who provides our way to be sent out through Him.
Have you come to salvation through the Gate that is Jesus?
Prayer: Lord, I too often try to make salvation come through another way: my works, my attendance, or my being a nice person. Yet, it is through you, Jesus, that I receive salvation. Thank you for being the Gate. Amen.