Jesus the Good... Gate?

The Fourth Sunday in Easter is often called "Good Shepherd Sunday." But this year, the gospel reading is about Jesus as the gate. Join Pastor Katie, Keith and David as they talk about the ways this text has been wrongly used in anti-Semitic ways and the good news this text has for all people. 

Scripture: John 10:1-10

Also mentioned: Acts 2:42-47

Learn more about St. John Lutheran Church at stjohnchurchmars.org or follow us on Facebook.

Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to this week's episode of Facets of Faith on this fourth Sunday in Easter, which is traditionally Good Shepherd Sunday. As you will quickly discover, we're going to read a reading from John where we don't actually get to hear Jesus called the Good Shepherd. Instead, we hear hear him called the gate and we talk about the gatekeeper and all these other things. But all in all, it comes down to hearing how Jesus loves us, cares for us, calls us by name, and protects us. John 10.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I assure you that whoever does not enter into the sheep pen through the gate, but climbs over the wall is a thief and an outlaw. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The guard of the gate opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Whenever he has gathered all of his sheep, he goes before them and they follow him, because they know his voice. They will follow, they will not follow a stranger, but will run away because they do not know the stranger's voice. Those who heard Jesus use this analogy didn't understand what he was saying. So Jesus spoke again. All who came before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life. Indeed, so that they could have life to the fullest. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Fourth Sunday of Easter, always the good shepherd Sunday. Two of the three years we hear from this John 10 section. The other year it's the second half of this reading. I forget what the third year is. But regardless, I'm gonna remind you of a story we heard weeks ago of once upon a time there was a man born blind. That was a story I I forget, lent something or other. And so this reading actually comes immediately after, Lent 2. This story comes immediately after that. So Jesus heals the man born blind. The Pharisees don't want to believe what's going on, and they there's a lot of interrogation, and the poor man born blind is just like, I don't know what happened, I just know that I can see now. And then they question Jesus about their own blindness, and then here we are. Jesus is trying to basically describe or um give further information about the sign that they just saw, aka the healing of the man born blind, and he does so in what is obviously the most clear way possible with this mixed metaphor mess of language. Um but it does give us certainly lots to talk about because Jesus as the good shepherd is certainly a very popular image, although here we get it mixed up a little bit with some gate talk. So what jumps out at you two? How have you heard this? What questions do you have?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Well, I mean, we could so I'll start off with the easy stuff. I mean, that kind of makes sense, right? Like those who the sheep that know the voice of the shepherd follow the shepherd and not the bad guys. Yeah, okay, I mean, like that's pretty obvious. So thank you for a nail on the head, Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

I mean, it seems clear, but don't forget that we're back in John. And so not long after this, Jesus calls Lazarus by name, and Lazarus responds. And when Jesus appears to Mary in the garden after the resurrection, he calls her by name, and it's only when she hears her name being called that she recognizes him. So it's simple, it's easy, but it's also profound and comes back over and over again this idea of responding to Jesus calling us by name.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I I remember um someone giving a talk about this particular gospel, and you know we're not shepherds anymore. Most most people don't know how they they work, but you know, you would have a whole huge flock of sheep and several shepherds, and they either had a musical tone or something that they said or sang or an instrument that the sheep got used to hearing at all the time. And so there could be a thousand sheep out in this pasture, and when it was time to separate, those shepherds would use that tone or that song or whatever, and those sheep then knew exactly who to follow. So I guess that's kind of I I can see an analogy here of how now we recognize the voice of Jesus, and that's who we should follow.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

We hope we recognize the voice of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Because he said that there were many that came before who were, you know. So who who was he referring to in that? Was he referring to other religious leaders? Those who came before me, what did it say?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, verse verse 8. All who came before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. I mean, yeah, that I mean that's Jesus explaining to the people who are.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I wondered is that an indictment against the the uh leadership. The leadership, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I I kind of wonder the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

That was the phrase that stuck out at me.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So I've got my handy dandy CEB study bible here, and it offers a helpful uh frame of reference. It says, all who came before me, not in a temporal sense, so not chronologically before me, i.e. Moses and the prophets, but rather all who come spatially before me, like um those who come in front of a gate in order to gain entrance, in this case illegitimately. All who came before me were thieves and allaws, but the sheep did not listen to them. So it's all who came before me who were, we could add an extra who in there, who were thieves and bandits, kind of putting that as one topic, as opposed to anyone who happened to have come before me was a thief and a bandit. I think it's more of anyone who tried to come in as a thief or abandoned before me would not gain entrance. Does that difference make sense?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I'm hearing it as a correct me if I'm wrong, I'm hearing that interpretation as stand before me, like not yeah, like not chronologically, but physically. Like and I and and that changes the context in my head, and and it may it may be incorrect, but all who so if you change the word came to stand, all who stand before me were stood, all who stood before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep did not listen to them. Is that what the transl is that what the study Bible is trying to suggest? I think uh And so Jesus then is protecting us, he's protecting the sheep.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Right, and that's that's the general generalized tone that we take with this reading is that this is not meant to be an exclusionary understanding of gate, of keeping people in versus out. It's more of Jesus is protecting the sheep, keep the keep the sheep protected. I mean, we if you think about this concept of Jesus as the door or the gate, it reminds us of the Garden of Gethsemane, right? Jesus steps into the Garden of Gethsemane, they say, they say they're looking for Jesus of Nazareth, and he steps forward and he steps between the soldiers and the disciples, so that he is the gate protecting the disciples in that sense. Um and that's kind of the idea here, too, is that Jesus is the one who will protect the sheep, the followers, God's people from thieves and bandits who would cause harm to them. Now, it's although although it doesn't say that they don't get in at all, so they're not like so it's not to say that you know, once you're in the pen, everything is safe and lovely and happy. It's there's still risk, there's still people climbing over the walls, but Jesus will be the one to protect Jesus', and that's where we go on further into the Jesus is the good shepherd, who will then protect them from within the pen, too. And this it's hard to break it up into two halves like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah, that changes the that changes it a little bit, and at least in my head.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Well, and this is where it's hard because so often the Gospel of John and Matthew 2, you can easily read the texts so that Christianity becomes um supersessionary to Judaism. So Judaism is no longer valid and it's only Christianity, and then that leads into a lot of antisemitism. Right. And I think it's things like this, where it's easy for us to read this. Anyone who comes before me, i.e., all of Judaism, is a thief and a bandit. Jews are thieves and bandits. I don't think that's what he's saying here, because that's he also says, I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. So he's not gonna call Jewish leaders and Jewish faith thieves and bandits. He's not gonna call Moses a thief. He loves Moses. And so I think it makes more sense. He's hanging out with him on a mountaintop, right? Yeah, right. He was hanging out with him. I think it makes more sense to hear this as those who are thieves and bandits who come before me, the sheep will not respond to them because they listen to me. And it's I think it's more of a protective segment than a condemnation.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it it's there's a part of me that says, honestly, it's sad that you have to say that. Like, I don't even like I don't I don't know that I even think that. It's so it's sad that because like you don't read that anywhere in scripture, right? Jesus says, I have not come to abolish the law, I've come to fulfill the law. I mean, we are grafted, Christians are Christianity, Gentiles are grafted in to Judaism. Like, I'm I just like, hey, thank you for grafting me in. I feel lucky that I'm part of the club, right? The cool kid club. Like, I'm I got I got let in. Like this is yeah, the original OG was Abraham.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not part of that lineage. I'm I'm just glad to be at the table. And so it's it's it's it's strange, it's weird to me to to realize that that is really kind of where maybe anti-Semitism comes from. Because I like I don't see it. It's it's it's not a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

But there were uh I'm sure that there were these these kinds of passages were used a hundred years ago before World War II. And that was what stirred a lot of things up. And and it seems like every a hundred years, we're seeing it today. We're really seeing it today in today's world, anti-Semitism. Yeah, and I don't get that. I mean, didn't we learn our lesson? That's my yeah, that's my point. I don't get this. We don't. Yeah, but it's it's a cyclical thing. It's it's been going on, and it seems like almost every hundred, if you study history, it's almost like every hundred years something else happens. And it and it it rears its ugly head again.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

And that's why it's so important when we see texts like this to stare at it hard and not gloss over it and say, this text is clearly saying something beyond the maybe the first guess or the first go-around that we might jump to, i.e., Jesus is saying Moses is a thief. Um, because that doesn't make sense with the rest of scripture. Right. And and it's important for us to then explicitly say Jesus is not anti-Judaism. Like that's just not a thing. Um, because there are a lot of people who might read that into the text.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, I think what he's getting at here, I I I I really think what I think what he's getting at is um evil, Satan, the devil, however you want to define it, you know, it that that's what he's talking about. Like, do we listen to our sinful nature, or do we listen, you know, the sin that is baked within us, the the the fall, or do we listen to his voice? I feel like I feel like the answer is both because we're allowed in and out, right? He lets us out, and then we screw up, and then he lets us back in to the gate or through the gate, right? I feel like I'm onto something there. Is that what he did? Did I just give the answer to the test? What the we're in and out? We're allowed in and out of our own free will and choosing. At the very end of the text, he says, and the sheep can come and go, but I'm the gate. Okay, well, I'm allowed out of the pen to go screw my life up, but I'm always allowed back in.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, in another reading, too, if you're the one that's screwed up, he's gonna forgo the other ones to come find me.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Yeah, yeah. I was just gonna say 99 and right, leave the 99 behind and come find the lost one.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

This is why these conversations are helpful, because when we read these texts, whether it's your first time reading these texts or your hundredth time reading these texts, we have very certain things that we gloss over or expect to see, or the things that we latch on to. And so when you go into conversation with other people, or if you're listening to the podcast, when you listen to conversations of other people, things will be get pulled out for you that you have to deal with because that it's not like Jesus says this is not important and this is important, you should really pay attention now. The whole thing's important, and the whole thing is rich and full of um ways for us to connect with Jesus, connect with our faith and things like that. So I think it's helpful when we go down rabbit holes, so to speak, that maybe I'm not expecting or we aren't expecting, because sometimes profound ideas can come from those those conversations. So no, thank you. I was all about the gate. Uh but but that is an important conversation to have. Or I this translation, the CEB, the last verse there, verse 10, says, I came so that they could have life indeed, so that they could have life lived, so they could live life to the fullest. Um the NRSV, the perhaps more familiar translation to other people, is so that they can have life abundant. Um and I always think that that's important to remember that it's not life abundant in the sense of extravagance and wealth and um perfect independence of anything else. Um, life abundant is is life to the fullest, is life in community and in relationship, life in um interconnectedness and all this stuff. And it's also not life in the hereafter. This is all talking about life now in this relationship and community, which I know we're not gonna get into the acts, but those of you listening online, I invite you to check out um the bulletin for this Sunday because it's gonna include Acts 2, a part of the later on where it talks about what that abundant life looks like. It looks like people living in community and caring for one another, supporting one another, and it all in relationship to Jesus. And I think that's always important to remember that abundant life does not mean rich and prosperity, and it also doesn't mean something in the hereafter. It's about a richness of life now.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

I mean, that I'm exactly right. And so like I'm I'm thinking it's it's that also correct. That that is very atypical of Jesus. Like any interpretation of abundance equaling stuff, like that is not Jesus never talks about that stuff. And in fact, he talks about the rich man and the camel and the needle and all that stuff. Like this is the abundance of living life in communion with one another, communion with God, having a relationship with one another, having a relationship with God, and then the opposite of that is sin, which is what separates us from God, right? Thief, bandit, outlaw, destroyer, right? I mean, there's lots of language there. Steal, kill, and destroy. Relationship. Steal, kill, and destroy relationship with God.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

And to put this all back into context, this is all as some sort of discourse about what happened with the man born blind. And what happened with the man born blind? He got kicked out of community. He got kicked out of relationship with those around him, with his faith community because they didn't believe him. And Jesus is kind of calling them out here a little bit because they end with a question of, well, we're not blind, are we? And Jesus is like, well.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, because you said that you are.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah, right. And and so we we think about what this man born blind experienced. He experienced getting kicked out of a sense of community and faith community, but he got welcomed into the community and relationship with Jesus in that in that happening. And so you've got some of those tensions in in that story that are kind of being illustrated through this discourse, through this conversation, through this explanation.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

All right, here's a question. Joe Blow sitting in the in the pews, probably think to himself, okay, I didn't know that there was this connection, that there was this particular event that happened right after the man born blind. So why do the the church leaders, when they came up with the sacramentary, why didn't they have a through composed kind of sacramentary where you have one story following the other because they're related? That happened in Lent, like a second Lent, and now here we are at Fourth Easter. I don't know if you can answer that one.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

I get so frustrated with the lectioner so often because I mean, like we were saying earlier, this is just the first half of Jesus' discourse, of his explanation. You don't get the second half until next year. And by that point, it'll be over a year since we heard about the story of the man born blind.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

So when we do next year's podcast, we need to come back to this one and refresh everybody's memory.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Remember that time 13 months ago when we heard the story about a man born blind?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Um we wonder why the we wonder why we're confused as you know, lay men, like lay people, right? Like pastors, priests, um rabbis, you know, like whatever, insert name of you know, leader of a faith community here seem to have the super secret decoder ring on how this all connects together, right? Because we're not smart enough to read it front to back because we, you and I, David, we like a book. Right. And the you know, so we have to be, we have to sit with the pastor to listen and have it interpreted, but then like when we're in church or commun, you know, like service, we hear all these disconnected stories, and we're gonna go we're gonna go back what next week and and hear about Jesus' death again. Like, what? What are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Well, when you made that, I mean, it all of a sudden just popped something in my mind when you said, now here's what happened right before this. Okay, now it makes a little more sense.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

I wish I had the magic decoder ring of why they picked readings for which ones. Um, I know when we go through the festivals and the liturgical calendar, they try to maintain certain themes in each season. Like Lent is all about preparing for baptism, so it's about preparing for relationship with Christ. And so they pick themes about that, and there's only so many weeks in Lent, so they've got to be very picky and choosy. And then Easter is about what does life and resurrection look like? And so then we have kind of the um the explanations of what community and life looks like and that kind of stuff, and then we get to ordinary time and it's about what's the church up to now, and if we're trying to fit a gospel reading into each of these, face it, we have a very distinct lack of gospel stories that are post-resurrection, and so they have to go back to pre-resurrection stuff to talk about what Jesus said the life looks like, and so we get this jumbled mess. There are certain churches and traditions that do a more through-composed, I guess you could say, version of the lectionary. Um, they don't follow the revised common lectionary for a season, and and so instead, they will go from chapter 9 and John straight into chapter 10, and you can tie those links more easily. But when you do that, it's harder to dovetail into the the festivals of the calendar year.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, type stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

So it's hard, but that's where things like Bible study are so good and important because Bible study is a time when you can see how everything's tying together. And then hopefully you can then take that back into worship. And so when we hear these texts in worship, you already have some sense of kind of what's around it. Now, that being said, there are 66 books in the Bible and a whole lot of pages. It's gonna take forever to go through that all in-depth in a Bible study. So that's where we try to pick and choose things that are most connective to for people. But yeah, it's hard, it's tricky.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah, there's a lot of I mean, yeah, it it this this this reading. I mean, I I appreciate actually the unwinding a bit. It's it's a bit because it is a little bit convoluted with Jesus is the gate, is he the shepherd? Is he the gu is is he the guard of the gate? There's lots of just weird typical John circular discussion or circular rambling that once you crack the code can be very powerful, but like in typical like John fashion, it's it's hard to sometimes it's hard to understand exactly what he's trying to get at. And I'm not suggesting we have it fully defined here, but my understanding here of these of these short of these few short verses is now quite a bit more than it was even just before we started.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

So yeah, I mean, because the the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they talk tend to talk in parables, in stories, in things that even if we necessarily shouldn't take them as allegories, where things have a one-to-one relationship with what they're supposed to represent, you you can get in there that way. They're a little easier to follow. Things don't have there's no mixed metaphors in the synoptic parables. But John is not afraid of mixing metaphors, he's not afraid of kind of throwing it all against the wall because he's trying to describe something that's indescribable. And so he's speaking in this more poetic sense of it all of let me paint you a picture. Imagine sheep in a pen. They are safe there, and they are safe there because there is a gate and someone who's minding that gate. Now, when you think of the safety that those sheep can feel in that space, who is the one that is making them safe? Jesus. So everything that has to do with keeping them safe and keeping them together and keeping them cared for, that would be the gate, the shepherd, the gatekeeper, whoever he is. Um, all of those things are Jesus because Jesus is the one and only thing that will hold our hearts and will keep us safe and protect us from that which would pull us away from the relationship we have in Christ. Well, thanks again for joining us in this conversation. I hope this conversation helped you to unpack these few brief verses as much as it did for us. I hope this text brought you some new insight and curiosity into faith and what it looks like to be in the care of Jesus. I invite you to share with us some of those questions or comments by sending us a message. You can find a link in the description of the episode. And we invite you to share this with your friends and share the way that this conversation has helped you explore another facet of faith. Let us pray. O God our shepherd, you know your sheep by name and lead us to safety through the valleys of death. Guide us by your voice that we may walk in certainty and security to the joyous feast prepared in your house through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.