“I Am the Door”
John 10:1-10
4/13/08
Today’s Gospel text delivers a very simple
message to us. Jesus uses very simple language, as if He were
speaking to children, in order to teach us what to listen for from
those who would claim to be Christian pastors and teachers. Jesus
warns us of those whom He calls “strangers, thieves, and
robbers,” people who do not preach the Gospel of Christ crucified
for our sins, but rather use their words to lead Christians
astray. To listen to the Gospel of Jesus and to follow Him means
abundant life and salvation. To close our ears to our
Lord’s words and to listen to someone else will mean death and
destruction. And so, simply put, Jesus gives us a picture of what
Christian preaching in the Christian Church is all about.
It’s about hearing the words of our Savior, Jesus and being fed
on the food which His gives us from the called and ordained servants of
His Word. To be on the receiving end of these gifts means life
and salvation.
To illustrate this Jesus uses the imagery of a
sheepfold, complete with shepherd, gatekeeper, door, and sheep.
In those days, a sheepfold was a walled or fenced enclosure, where the
sheep were kept at night, while during the day they were led out to
pasture. The sheepfold represents the safety from strangers,
thieves, and robbers that Christians enjoy, as they live under the care
of a shepherd. Christians, then, or the Church - all believers in
Christ, are the sheep in the sheepfold. Now, often times sheep
are characterized as being dumb and stupid. The inference is that
Christians are dumb and stupid. But if that were the case, our
Lord wouldn’t be teaching us and warning us to be on the alert
for strangers, thieves, and robbers. From the words of
today’s Gospel text itself we see that sheep aren’t all
that stupid. They are smart enough to recognize their
master’s voice, smart enough to know not to follow after
strangers. And yet it is true that sheep need a shepherd, because
sheep like to go wandering off on their own. We’re all
familiar with the parable that Jesus tells about the Good Shepherd who,
when one of His sheep wandered off, left the rest and went and found
the one who was lost and brought him back to the fold. This leads
many to conclude that the shepherd referred to in today’s text is
Jesus. But here Jesus calls Himself the Door, not the
shepherd. He does eventually call Himself the Good Shepherd, who
gave His life for the sheep, but that comes a little later. So,
who is this shepherd, if it’s not Jesus? This shepherd is
an under-shepherd of Jesus. He is a Christian pastor, called and
ordained by the Lord to proclaim His words to His sheep and to give
them His food. When the under-shepherds of the Lord speak
Jesus’ words to His sheep, the sheep hear their Master’s
voice. It’s as Jesus told His disciples, “He who
hears you hears me.” So, for example, when you hear me say,
“In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I
forgive you all your sins,” you can be sure that it’s your
Lord you are hearing, not me. They’re not my words, nor is
it my forgiveness that I’m giving you. I’m simply a
mouthpiece, speaking what the Good Shepherd has given me to
speak. But you need to know how to determine whether I’m
speaking the Lord’s words to you or not. Sheep must be able
to recognize when their Good Shepherd is speaking to them. They
must be able to distinguish between His voice and the voice of a
stranger.
How do they do this? By observing whether
their shepherd enters through the Door or whether he comes in some
other way - in other words, by whether the pastor preaches Christ or
whether he preaches something or someone else. Jesus says that
He’s the Door. The Door is the way through which the sheep
enter into the safety of the sheepfold and the way they go out to the
pastures where they are fed. And so a faithful pastor will lead
Christians through Christ, the Door, in order to find the peace,
safety, and nourishment that they need. The pastor himself comes
through this Door. He comes in the Name of Jesus Christ,
preaching Christ crucified and risen from the dead as the Way to the
Father, the Way to eternal life, the Way to salvation. When the
sheep hear their pastor preaching Christ in this way, they can know
that he is no stranger or robber. He is speaking their
Lord’s words to them, and they should follow where he
leads. A faithful Christian pastor leads the sheep to the Door,
Jesus Christ. He proclaims the words of life that the Good
Shepherd speaks to His sheep, and he feeds them on Christ’s body
and blood in His Holy Supper.
To feed the sheep anything else will mean death for
them, even if the food appears and tastes better than the food their
Lord gives them. Today, for example, many pastors are not
preaching Christ anymore. Christians are not hearing the
proclamation that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s
sake. They are not hearing Christ crucified for their
salvation. Instead of preaching the Gospel, pastors are preaching
only the Law. Instead of focusing on the Good Shepherd, they
focus on the sheep - how sheep should behave, what they should or
should not say, how they should act, how they ought to look, how they
can be better sheep. This kind of food is appealing to sheep;
it’s what they want to hear. But Christianity is not about
sheep; it’s about the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for
the sheep and took it up again that they might have life. The
sheep aren’t to be going around talking about themselves.
They’re to be talking about their Savior and they’re to be
serving one another in love. The minute sheep start talking about
themselves they are no longer talking about their Savior and
they’re not serving their fellow sheep. Under-shepherds who
fail to preach Christ and instead preach about sheep (or something else
for that matter) are no longer entering through the Door, but are
trying to enter into the sheepfold another way. They are, in
fact, thieves and robbers, because they are withholding the Gospel from
you, and that is a form of stealing. It robs you of the comfort
that only the Gospel gives. The poor sheep under the care of
these robbers are no longer hearing their sins forgiven. They are
no longer hearing about what Jesus has done for them. It’s
all about what they ought to be doing for Jesus. It’s all
about trying to figure out when Jesus is coming back. It’s
all about trying to live holy and godly lives without being given the
power to do it. It’s time for Christians to stop listening
to these strangers who are telling them to focus on themselves.
Instead they ought to go somewhere where faithful shepherds are
proclaiming Christ and His words and works and where they are
encouraging the Lord’s sheep to serve one another in love.
It is to such faithful pastors that the gatekeeper
opens. Now, I wondered who this gatekeeper might be. If the
Door is Christ and the shepherd here is a pastor who proclaims Christ,
then who is this gatekeeper? Jesus doesn’t say. But I
believe this is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Jesus, in fact,
does connect the Holy Spirit’s ministry to that of the
pastor. At the end of the Gospel according to St. John Jesus
breathes on His disciples and says, “Receive the Holy
Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if
you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” Here
we see that what the pastor does he does by the power of the Holy
Spirit. So, when a pastor proclaims Christ to the sheep, the
gatekeeper - the Holy Spirit - opens the Door to the pastor, so that
the pastor might lead the sheep through the Door. The Door
remains closed if the pastor does not preach Christ. The Holy
Spirit does not open up the way of salvation to us if we are not
hearing the Gospel of Christ crucified and risen from the dead for
us. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life. Only through
Him do we come to the Father. Only through Him are we led to the
green pastures of His Word and Sacraments to be nourished by
them. Only through Him do we enter into the safety of His fold
where we are kept from the evil one. Not even the gatekeeper
draws attention to Himself and away from Christ. Too many pastors
today are preaching about the gatekeeper instead of the Door. But
the gatekeeper directs people through the Door. The Holy Spirit
draws attention to Jesus Christ, not to Himself or His gifts. In
this way you know when the Holy Spirit is speaking through a pastor -
when he’s preaching Jesus.
And so the message of Jesus is simple: learn
to recognize who’s speaking to you by what you hear. Are
you hearing Christ crucified for you? Are you hearing your sins
forgiven for Christ’s sake? Is Jesus, His words, and His
work being glorified? Then, you’re hearing the voice of the
Good Shepherd through the voice of a faithful pastor. On the
other hand, is the glory going to you or someone else? Are you
hearing about yourself? Is the focus on the Holy Spirit apart
from Christ? Are you led through the Door, or are you directed
elsewhere? If it’s the latter, then you’re hearing
the voice of a stranger and a robber. Sheep aren’t to
remain ignorant. You need to know when you are hearing your
Master’s voice and when you’re not. And if
you’re not hearing His voice, you need to go somewhere where you
will hear it, because to listen to the voice of thieves and robbers, no
matter how good they sound, will mean death and destruction for
you. But to listen to the voice of your Good Shepherd spoken
through the mouths of faithful Christian pastors, who speak in His
stead and by His command, will mean abundant life and salvation for
you. Listen to Him speak to you again today. Hear His
absolution spoken over your sins which He paid for with His blood, and
come and feed on the green pastures of His Sacrament where He gives you
to eat of His body and blood. The Door is open. The Way to
the Father and eternal life is through Jesus Christ crucified and risen
for you. Come with me as we enter again through that Door
today. Amen.