Text:  John 10:1-10                                                                                     U Jubilate (4^th Sunday of Easter)

The Gate of Righteousness

            In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ: today, as I mentioned before, is known as Good Shepherd Sunday; and I’m sure that you’re quite familiar with that image of Jesus as our Good Shepherd – it’s one of the most well-known, best loved, and tender portraits of the Savior that we have been given.  It’s also the theme of the stained glass window at the rear of the sanctuary right above the doors.  But you may have noticed that in the Gospel text selected for this morning, Jesus never once calls himself the Good Shepherd.  Instead, he refers to himself as the gate to the sheep pen.  He says he is the gate through which a true shepherd must pass, and indeed, through which must pass the sheep whether they are coming in to the pen for the evening or going out in the morning with the shepherd to find pasture.  Now, it’s true that later in the same discourse from which our text is taken Jesus does refer to himself as the Good Shepherd; but we’re not there yet, and so, for today anyway, I’d like you to set that picture aside so that we can explore this idea of Jesus as the gate a little more closely.

It’s not quite as familiar an image to us, but we all understand what a gate is and what it’s for – especially a gate for livestock, which is what we’re talking about here.  When it’s closed it keeps the animals on the inside from straying off and getting lost or harmed.  In addition to that, because the words Jesus uses here describe a walled compound with more or less a solid gate, when closed the gate would also prevent predators or rustlers from getting at the sheep – or at least dissuade them a bit. It’s still possible to get at the sheep, but that would involve climbing in over the wall.  But in general, when closed, the gate serves in a protective or defensive role.  On the other hand, when the gate is opened, it allows access, specifically legitimate access.  Properly guarded by the watchman, it is used to determine who may go into where the sheep are to tend them, and who may lead them out to ensure that they are fed and watered.  So, by opening or closing the gate to certain individuals, the gate serves to regulate who may or may not deal with the sheep.

All of which informs our understanding of what Jesus means when he calls himself the gate to the sheep pen.  If we take the pen itself to be the place where the Lord gathers his faithful people – sort of the household of faith, or the kingdom of grace idea, or something along that line, which seems to make the most sense – then, to get inside, we see that the sheep must always go through Jesus.  Likewise, to be led out to pasture and be fed, they must also pass through him.  For the sheep, there is no other way – they’re not very good at climbing over walls. And as has been said, we see that the gate keeps the sheep from straying, and protects them, and so forth. All of that is clear.

But we also see at once that in describing himself as the gate, Jesus really isn’t talking so much about his relation to the sheep as he is talking about the ones whom he allows to care for his sheep.  A legitimate shepherd, he says, will always come through the gate, which, as we’ve seen, is Jesus.  Anyone who tries to get at the sheep apart from Jesus, who tries to find access to them any other way, the Lord describes as a thief and robber whose purpose is to prey upon the sheep – to kill and destroy them.  And to understand exactly what he means, it will be helpful to review the context in which Jesus speaks these words.

This discourse of Jesus follows immediately after story of the healing of the man who had been born blind, and is, in fact, part of the same narrative. We heard about the man born blind during the season of Lent, about eight weeks back, so it should be still fairly fresh on our minds; but in case it’s not or if you missed that week, let me just review a few of the details for you.  Jesus had been in the Temple courts in Jerusalem, speaking with the religious teachers and leaders there. Things were getting pretty heated because, to tell the truth, they didn’t care at all for what he was saying about his authority, his mission, his unique relationship with God the Father, and so on.  Well, the growing brouhaha really got out of hand when he used the holy name of God in reference to himself.  At that point they became completely unglued and started looking around for handy rocks to stone him for blasphemy.  But Jesus just walks away from them all, leaving the Temple precincts with his disciples.

It happens that as he’s going out, he spies sitting near but outside the Temple gate the man who was born blind.  He’s just squatting there begging for handouts from the people coming and going to worship.  But it’s noteworthy that he is found near the gate of the Temple – the gate to God’s sheep pen, as it were – but he is one who is not welcome on the inside.  The assumption of the religious leaders and Pharisees who spend so much of their time in there is that the reason he was born blind was that he was being punished for some terrible sin that either he or his parents had committed.

So there’s a little bit of irony here:  here’s this guy sitting at the gate of the Temple – a Temple which has as its primary purpose the forgiveness of sins through the ministry of sacrifice (the sacrifice of lambs no less) – but the blind man is counted by those who pass by him every day as one not worthy of entering.  The gate to the Temple keeps this particular sheep out – and indeed, any others like him – which only goes to show that those who do go in are totally misunderstanding what the Temple is and what it’s for.  And part of the imagery here is that the Temple is situated on top of a hill, which on one hand represents God’s position of being high above us; but, in this story anyway, the problem is that people think that the way to approach him is by ascending themselves in a moral sense.  They are good people reaching out and climbing up to God by their scrupulous obedience, their noble spiritual aspirations, and their worthy achievements. And so what we see is that the bungling, self-serving shepherds of Israel have misappropriated the Temple.  Though they are using a gate, that gate is not Christ, and so they are in fact climbing in over the wall.  And they are preying upon and destroying the sheep in a spiritual sense:  those on the inside by perpetuating their false notions of their own goodness, and those on the outside by keeping them out of the Lord’s gracious presence.  Their ministry is death to the sheep

Anyway, recalling the story, Jesus goes over to the blind man, puts mud on his eyes, and directs him away from the Temple, downward, to the lowest part of the city where he is to wash in a pool there named Siloam, which means “the Sent One”. The man obeys.  He descends through the winding streets, down, down, to the pool where he bathes himself in the water – the water called “the Sent One” – which title Jesus just got expelled from the Temple for applying to himself.  Then, coming up out of the water, the man can see for the first time in his life.  All together it is a wonderful picture of repentance and coming to faith through Baptism.  Instead of reaching higher to come to God through personal merit and achievement, the sinner has his filth – his guilt – placed before his eyes and is directed downward.  Dying the death of repentance he is buried, as it were, in the Sent One – in Jesus. That’s where the miracle takes place. That’s where the true gate for the sheep is – which through this Baptism this particular sheep now enters.  Then, rising again, he comes up out of the water seeing the truth.  Even his hearing is better, because now he recognizes the voice of the True Shepherd and he will not allow himself to be deceived by the impostors any longer.

We see this play out in the story.  It creates something of a scandal for the religious leaders when it’s discovered that the blind man who used to sit at the gate can see and that everyone is giving Jesus the credit.  That can’t be, they think.  That man Jesus is a dangerous heretic and blasphemer.  And besides, the healing took place on the Sabbath, and anyone who would do the work of healing on the Sabbath when he should be resting according to the law is obviously a notorious public sinner.  So, they summon the formerly blind man and have him stand before them to explain what happened.  They grill him with questions and try to convince him to see things their way:  that Jesus is a bad man who’s causing all kinds of trouble.  And here’s this guy who probably doesn’t even have a first grade education going head to head in a theological argument with seventy of the finest and most highly trained minds in the nation.  But he holds his own.  He says, “Look, I don’t know what you guys are talking about; but one thing I’m absolutely sure of is that Jesus gave me my sight, and that means that he was sent from God.  What I don’t understand is why you guys who are supposed to be so smart can’t see that too.”

Well, that was too much for them.  They weren’t about to be lectured by an ignorant “sinner” that they were used to looking down on – no matter how much sense he was making.  So they screamed insults at him and cast him out, excommunicated him from the Temple and their religion (such as it was).  Later, as the man is sitting there in bewilderment, wondering what that was all about and why the religious leaders were so mixed up, Jesus comes to him, and reveals himself as the promised Savior.  The man acknowledges this at once – he can “see” the truth of it – and he worships Jesus.

Then Jesus explains to the man – and to a group of Pharisees who happen to be listening, “For judgment I have come into the world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  The Pharisees become upset with this and ask him, “What?  Are you saying that we’re blind?”  And in reply Jesus essentially tells them, “Yes”, and then proceeds with the words that are this morning’s text, about how he is the gate to the sheep pen. 

And with all of this in mind, the question each one of us needs to ask this morning – and indeed every day – is this:  “Is Jesus my gate?”  It’s an important question; and though it’s obviously a deeply spiritual one, we can find some answer to it using a very physical object. And what I mean by that is the door – or gate, if you will – to this church building.  The question is:  What were you thinking when you came in here through it this morning?  How do you think of this place?  Is this a place where basically good people come to climb to levels of yet greater goodness and spirituality?  To be inspired by biblical exhortation to do more, or to do better, or to try harder?  Is that why we’re here?  Is it a place where comparisons are made?  “Well, I noticed that ol’ what’s-his-name didn’t make it today.  Figures – rarely makes it anyway; and he was probably out way too late last night.   And would you look at that!  What’s she doing here?   Ain’t she got the nerve?”  Those kinds of thoughts and many more like them indicate that you really didn’t come in through the gate this morning – that you climbed in over the wall.  They also indicate how easy it is to do it; and we all do.

No, the way to come in here is through the gate.  You come by descending in a spiritual sense, going low with mud in your eyes:  the sticky, clinging clay of your own sin the only thing you are able to see.  And here, by repentance passing through the gate which is Christ Jesus, the Sent One who sacrificed himself for you, you are washed, you are cleansed, and you are given the grace to see and know the truth. And here you learn to recognize his voice and to distinguish it from all those other voices – both the voices in your head and from the various shepherds that are always trying to gain access to God’s flock by other means to lead it astray and destroy it.  Listening to his voice you are led through the gate to green pastures and quiet waters where you can feed on God’s abundance and drink deeply from the well of life.  And here, like the man born blind, you worship him with thanksgiving in your heart for all that he has done for you.

One of the texts I often use at the graveside service following a funeral comes from Psalm 118 and reads, “Open for me the gate of righteousness.  I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.  This is the gate through which the righteous may enter.”  In the context of the service, the suggestion is that the grave itself is the gate for the believer.  The idea is that the person being laid to rest is in fact through death going through the gate and entering into the joy of the Lord where he will live in thankful praise forever.  What makes that true, however, is that the real gate of righteousness is Christ Jesus our Lord.  It is through him we pass each day by dying to ourselves, confessing our sins, and receiving his forgiveness.  Then, whether coming in or going out, we are renewed in his righteousness – righteousness by which we live now in his grace, by which see and hear and are able to discern the truth, and by which we will live forever with him in glory.  My friends, the gate of righteousness is open for us.  Today and every day may we enter into it, and give thanks to the Lord through Jesus Christ. In his holy name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!