The Door and the Shepherd

Text: John 10:1-11

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

            We love our metaphors in American English. They help us get a point across and can even entertain us as we’re helping each other visualize what we’re trying to communicate. But there are those times when they just stack up a little too thick. We all know of someone, maybe a coach or coworker or family member, who throws just a few too many images at us. They tell us to hit the ground running, take it one day at a time, and knock it out of the park. By the end we don’t know if we’re on a track, walking a trail, or on a baseball diamond. So today in our Gospel reading, when Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep,” we think, “Good—we’ve got the image.” But then He adds to it: “I am the Good Shepherd.” Which one—a door or a shepherd? The images can get boggling, maybe even a little amusing, but Jesus doesn’t go back and try to fix it. He lets both stand. He doesn’t choose one metaphor or the other because when we take them together, it actually gives us an even clearer image of who He is.

            Jesus calling Himself both the door of the sheep and also identifying Himself as the Good Shepherd might seem strange at first—something of a jumbled metaphor or parable that has too many roles for one person to fit. But when we take a step back and look at what Jesus has taught us these last couple weeks of Easter, we can see how this—Jesus being both the Door and the Good Shepherd—actually fits in well with what we’ve learned this Easter season.

            Last week we encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, as we walked along with the two disciples. It was there on the road that Jesus opened up the Scriptures, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, and explained what the prophecies of the Messiah meant. In this, He was the door—He was the way in which His disciples gain a right understanding of the Word. But He is also more than just an instructor. He is the fulfillment of those same prophecies. He is the Messiah they were foretelling, the Shepherd that the Lord would send to gather His flock. Jesus was the Door, the one who opened the Scriptures; and He was the Shepherd, the One about whom the Scriptures were speaking. He is prophecy and fulfillment, promise and realization of that promise.

            And now, this week, we get a beautiful picture of what that means for us. Jesus tells us, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know His voice.” Those who belong to Jesus, who’ve been claimed by Him and given names, recognize the voice of their Good Shepherd and they run to Him when He calls them. But, He also says, “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers… All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them… The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” And indeed, a couple of weeks ago we heard about some examples of those thieves. In our Acts reading two weeks ago, Gamaliel, a famous and respected teacher of the Torah, laid out the relatively recent history of that. “For before these days,” Gamaliel recounted, “Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.” Those words and works of the false shepherds, those false messiahs, ended in death, dispersion, and destruction. So those who heard the voice of those thieves and robbers and recognized them as strangers to the way of truth did well to flee them and not follow them to destruction.

            But for those who know the voice of their shepherd, we are led to safety and pasture. We’re led into life. So then, we must ask ourselves, how do we recognize the voice of our Shepherd? Some would point us to a feeling, a hunch. Others would tell us to follow our hearts, as if those weren’t misleading and constantly getting us into trouble. No—there’s something much more certain that we can use to hear and recognize the voice of our Good Shepherd. It goes back to what Jesus said first: “I am the door of the sheep.” He is the door, the way in. When we combine that with last week’s lesson, we find out that He is the One about whom the prophecies, the Word, was speaking. He’s the one that Scripture talks about constantly. He is the fulfillment too. He is the Word and the fulfillment of the Word. He is the door and the Shepherd. And so, we hold these two things together. That is, we weigh the voices that we hear by the Word, the Scriptures. If the voice we’re hearing is the same as the Word, then that’s our Good Shepherd speaking to us. If it’s a voice that contradicts or leads somewhere the Word of Scripture does not, then it is not our Shepherd’s voice. He is the Door and the Shepherd. He helps us recognize Him by giving us the key to knowing whether it’s His voice or not.

            This is all to say that if it shows us our Good Shepherd, if it gives us Jesus, then that is the voice we follow. That voice may have different tones and pitches, depending on what situation we’re in—whether we need to be called away from something potentially harmful or if we need to be consoled and healed. It may have different vocabularies, from the simple pure words of Sunday school lessons to the in-depth examinations of profound theology. The voice may have different accents—different inflections and focus, from parents to teacher to pastor to friend. But if it’s showing us our Shepherd Jesus, it’s His voice. Those who speak with the Shepherd’s voice will not talk about themselves, as the false messiahs do—like Theudas who thought he was somebody, like the countless false shepherds who have come ever since and tried to steal from God’s flock. The Good Shepherd’s voice will not talk about the flock’s ability to save itself or find some other savior or shepherd. It will only be the voice of Jesus—the Way, the Truth, the Life—calling us by name.

            It’s very telling that the first question that is asked of us before we become part of God’s flock through the Sacrament of Baptism is “How are you named?” And then, when the water and Word is applied to us and we become God’s own, we are called by that name. It’s no accident. God delights to make us individual lambs and sheep that belong to His flock. But we’re never just lost in the crowd. We’re His—individually and together. You belong to Him, specifically, having been called and named by Him in Baptism, having that name called again in places like Confession and Absolution, confirmation, in moments of counsel, and walking through the Word of God alongside those other named and called individuals of God’s flock.

            And you are still called today. “The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice…I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” That’s the ultimate purpose of your Shepherd’s call to you. You’re led by Him into pasture and life. And it’s not just biological life, with just enough to eke out a bare existence on this rock orbiting in the cosmos. Your Shepherd has come to you, lived and died and risen with you, so that you would have life and have it abundantly. That means that it’s overflowing, endless, bottomless—it can’t be weighed or measured or counted because it’s so much. Yes, that means everlasting life that will remain through eternity. But it also means a life that’s so full of blessing that you’ll never find the end of it. I’m not just talking about the kind of blessings that your fallen flesh or the corrupted world would count—again, those kind of blessings, things like money and power and popularity and human glory—those things can easily be counted and weighed. They’re not so abundant. I’m talking about those rich, uncountable, inestimable blessings that faith recognizes, that God loves, that we as His flock love: blessings like peace that passes all understanding, in every situation; life that overcomes death through resurrection; joy even in the midst of crosses and hardships; friendship with those who share the deepest common foundation of belief in the Good Shepherd; the understanding that our heavenly Father will never leave us without daily bread, or forgiveness, or fail to deliver us from evil. Our Shepherd goes before us into all those things, and we follow Him into all those riches, far more than sheep would ever dare to dream. The voice of your Good Shepherd is summoning you now to receive those gifts, to hear His voice in this moment, to eat at His table prepared before you in the presence of your enemies—sin and death, who are defeated by His table—and to see goodness and mercy following you all the days of your life. In the name of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, Amen.