Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

In the verses immediately following our Gospel reading today Jesus confesses “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11, 14). That is the more familiar statement and the source of much sacred art and literature. But in the beginning verses of John 10, Jesus confesses something else about Himself, something more difficult to put into a stained glass window or paint on canvas. “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (10:7-9).

 

It may be difficult to create a piece of artwork depicting Jesus as the door or gate for the sheep. But it is foundational to our confession of faith as Christians that He is the only way to eternal life. He is more than just a shepherd leading His sheep to follow in His footsteps. He is the place whereby we pass through to life and salvation. Like sheep who can only get to the green pastures by passing through the gate, so our only way to the eternal life in the paradise of God is through the death and resurrection of Jesus in payment for our sins. Without Jesus’ sacrifice for our atonement, the gate is barred and the door is shut.

 

We all have sinned and should be denied access to God’s blessings for this life and for eternal life. But the Son of God has become man in order that He could take our sins upon Himself and pay the price by of the just punishment of God’s wrath through His suffering and death. For His innocent sacrifice and His willing obedience to God the Father’s will that He be our Saviour, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead showing that the punishment has been paid in full. We are freed from God’s wrath against our sin and its just penalty, and victory over sin and death is ours in Him.

 

Without the death and resurrection of Jesus for us, there is no way out. We are locked in the courtyard. Like penned animals, our sins have us closed in, have taken away all true freedom, and have destined us for eternal suffering and death. The only way out to the open green pastures of freedom and life is through the gate who is Christ the crucified. We cannot climb out. We cannot find another way of escape. We cannot push our way through or even be good enough little sheep to escape our fate.

 

There is only one way out and it is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in payment for our sins. If we are to be free, it will only be through Him. And if anyone is going to lead us in the way of salvation it will be by guiding us through that one gate. That is why St. Paul wrote to the churches that “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). St. Paul was responding to those who try to get out of the courtyard by another way.

 

Next week we will hear how Jesus told His disciples, “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). We do try to get out of the courtyard by other ways. St. Paul pointed out that Jews typically thought the way out of the courtyard was through signs of God’s power, and so many of them could not see the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as the way out. And Greeks typically looked for a way out of the courtyard of sin and death through wisdom. Plato famously taught the analogy of people living as though in a cave thinking that the shadows on the wall were reality; and that if they only learned to look around they would see that there was a way out of the cave and into the sunshine itself.

 

Jesus, in declaring “I AM the door,” was pointing the people away from the chief priests and Pharisees who demanded an impossible obedience to their laws and traditions. The people needed religious leaders who would preach Christ crucified. Our salvation is not in acts of obedience even to God’s Law, but in Jesus Christ’s act of obedience to the Father’s will that He should be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Our sins have us penned into a courtyard that leads only to death, but there is one gate of escape through which we can pass if we are led through it.

 

And this is where Jesus Himself also becomes the Good Shepherd who leads us out. He takes the primary place of all those who have proclaimed salvation in His death and resurrection. Jesus did it in His teaching, which is why the Jews largely rejected Him. Many wanted Him to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour sent from God, but when He talked about Himself suffering and dying before rising again on the third day, they could not follow Him.

 

Likewise, our world today and we ourselves find it difficult to accept this theology of the cross. God makes His saving power known to us in suffering and death. Jesus accomplished our salvation by dying upon the cross. The Jews wanted another sign of power, like the parting of the Red Sea by which God saved His people from slavery in Egypt. They could not see how passing through the depths where they would normally drown pointed to passing through death to life set free from sin.

 

We recognize the connection to our salvation in Jesus’ death and resurrection through the waters of Holy Baptism. It is the sign of a different sort of power. It is the powerful image of passing through death to everlasting life. And that is what truly happens, but only because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. St. Paul explained, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

 

We can only point to our salvation through Baptism by pointing to its application of the death and resurrection of Jesus to each of us. We are not saved because we have obeyed God’s command to “be baptized, every one of you” (Acts 2:38), but because “God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (2:36). In every way that forgiveness and salvation and eternal life come tor us, it is always through Jesus whose death and resurrection is the door, and not through any sacrifice that we might make as an act of obedience.

 

Those who would try to get in and out a different way are thieves and robbers, not good shepherds. The chief priests and Pharisees were robbing God of His people by directing them away from the one and true door. They came to steal and kill and destroy. By their insistence that the way to God’s salvation was through obedience to their laws and traditions, they were stealing the people away, killing them through their demands, and destroying any hope of forgiveness and blessing and eternal life with God.

 

Like thieves climbing into the sheepfold, these religious leaders saw the people as dumb animals penned up to be sacrificed. They could offer their devotees on the altar of good works, thinking they were earning God’s blessing and favour. The Lord would have to listen to them and do what they asked because they held His people hostage, they had demonstrated their ability to make people perform according to their laws and traditions.

 

There are still such thieves and robbers around today, and we have to be careful that we do not follow them or even become one of them. There is a reason why Jesus had to declare “I AM the door of the sheep” and St. Paul had to confess “we preach Christ crucified.” Our sinful nature cannot accept that our only way of salvation is outside of ourselves. There is nothing that we can do to effect forgiveness or earn or achieve eternal life. It only comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are willing to steal and kill and destroy in order to try to find another way. But there is no other way and all who try any other way are thieves and robbers.

 

Those who point us to the only way, the true door of the sheep and the one gate to eternal life are the shepherds. This is the resurrected Jesus Himself who told His disciples, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46-47).

 

The gate is open through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He calls us each by name and unites our name to His own through Holy Baptism. His death and resurrection is ours, our entry to eternal life in God’s paradise. Jesus has gone before us and He leads us through the way of suffering and death to everlasting life. We are following Him as we hear His voice pointing us to His death and resurrection, calling us away from every attempt to save ourselves, delivering us from the false teachers who would direct us to a salvation through obedience rather than through faith in Jesus’ obedience.

 

If we hear His voice we will flee from these thieves and robbers who seek to steal us away, kill us for their own benefit, and destroy our hope of salvation. Instead of looking upon a baptism whose power is in decision or obedience, Jesus has led us to His Baptism of death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness, His promise and our following by faith.

 

We follow where He leads because He leads us to our heavenly Father. And the path that He took was His death and resurrection for the sins of the world. We do not have to suffer on any cross to pay for our sins, but we have to pass through His death and resurrection, like passing through a door or a gate, out of the pen of sin, death, and destruction and into the wide open spaces of God’s blessings in the pastures of paradise.

 

It used to be common to see in the construction of wooden doors, the image of a cross. Perhaps if you look for that in the doors that you walk through this week, it will remind you that Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”