Shepherdoor

John 10:1-21

Jesus begins to prepare his disciples to understand his sacrificial crucifixion. To save Jew and Gentile, he will lay down his life... and then take it up again. This is what sets Jesus and disciples of Jesus apart from human religion.

The "religious" leader is a sheep thief, seeking power and gain by consuming sheep. They win, we pay.

Jesus owns the sheep and seeks to protect them at his own cost. He pays, we win. Merry Christmas!

Multi-Level Marketing Job

In 1999 I was looking for a job. I started sending out resumes and soon got an interview.

Super sketchy almost empty office space. A few folding chairs, a folding table, and three “interviewers”.

In this job, all I had to do was pay $200 for initial setup, registration, and entry fee. Then I got my own website where I could sell friends and family soaps and shampoos and, you know, things they “already need.” And 20% of what was purchased was mine, cash money. 20% flowed up the pipeline to the people “interviewing” me.

But the real money was if I recruited other friends and family in the pipeline. Then I got signing bonuses, $100 for each of them, and I got revenue on any sales they made… and on anyone they recruit.

It was a marketing scam. The company was later sued out of existence.

But it left me with this tremendous skepticism for absolutely anything marketed via “multi-level marketing”. Are there valid MLM operations? Sure, ask Jono and Reba about it sometime. But because I saw it abused, and was nearly caught in it myself, I am super leery. Super suspicious. Once burned, twice shy.

Multi-Level Religion

Enter religion. Religion, as a whole aspect of life, seeks to answer the great questions of life. Answers about meaning and existence and purpose. These are the deepest questions of the self: who am I, why am I, what am I for?

Because they are questions of such power, there is opportunity there for exploitation. And I know many of you have been burned by someone in the name of religion. In the name of God. And even in the name of Christ and Christianity. And so you can be suspicious. Once burned, twice shy.

The name of God has been used to steal, kill and destroy.

And even if that isn’t you, that is the reaction you see on many faces in your lives. Often what lies behind derision or skepticism, or even hostility when you speak about your faith is a story like mine. Someone using the power of religion for personal gain.

This story is written large across world history, and across the personal history of many here. Once burned twice shy.

And this has always been true. Always people have used and abused power of any kind, and religious power as well. This was true since Jesus, it was true before Jesus, it was true at the moment of Jesus’ coming.

The name of God has been used to steal, kill and destroy. So what’s different about Jesus?

Last week Catchup

Recall last week we heard the story of Jesus healing the blind man on the Sabbath. And three times the blind man tells his story, and each time the religious leaders reject what the blind man’s story says about the world and God and Jesus in particular, and impose their own worldview on the events.

(eyes, closed, it is Berenstein Bears, Berenstein Bears, Berenstein Bears).

Finally they cast the man out of the Synagogue. Out of his community, out of his relationships.

And in reaction, in response to this abuse of religious power, Jesus launches into this powerful teaching of why he is different. Why is he different than every other religious figure in history. Particularly different from those who would use religious power for personal gain.

What is so different about Jesus?

Text

John 10:1-21

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Jesus is pointing out something fairly obvious… but it is super unclear how he is connecting that to their reality. Who are the sheep, who is the shepherd, what is the gate?

In that time, and still in this time, families with a few animals were likely to keep them in their home with them. But if you had too many to be in your home, but too few to be a large scale independent operation, it was common to pool the sheep together in one large-ish sheepfold. Then you can take turns guarding it, you share the cost of building and fencing and protecting it. Then when it is time to take the sheep out to eat, the shepherd would call his own and just his own would come running out.

“It’s that guy, we love that guy, he is ours, we are his.” And out the door they come.

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

This is the third now of the great “I Am…” statements of John. And we get 2 for 1 today in a glorious mixed metaphor.

8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

And this is one of my favorite verses. Not “I came that they may have life someday in the future and be kept safely in until then.” It is more present and more dynamic than that.

Go in and out… so it is a door like sheep use the door, but not like we would think just as entry into the Kingdom of God. You go in for safety, you go out for green pasture. This door is not a one-time entrance but an ongoing fact of life.

Wyatt – in and out

I have this picture in my mind of Wyatt (Levi’s dog) at the sliding door. When he is inside he sees the ball outside and the green grass, or a bunny. And he is whining to go outside. And then when he’s outside, he sees the family inside, it is warm and safe in there and he is whining to come inside. In and out.

But this isn’t about the yearning for something else, it is that Jesus is providing the way both to safety and security and to food and adventure and abundance.

Abundant life, life that starts now. This is the first hint of where Jesus is going. He is not a thief. He did not come that anyone might have less. He doesn’t want to use religious power to get his way or fleece the sheep. Or steal anything from the sheep. He came to give something beautiful and powerful, life-giving and more abundant life to the sheep.

Now he changes gears, because the door is the stuff of life for the sheep… but it is only part of the picture.

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This is “I AM” number 4! I am the good shepherd. This is contrast to the useless shepherd, and God, through his prophet Zechariah speaks to religious leaders of his day “Woe to the worthless shepherd…”

12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I lay down my life for the sheep. He is going to elaborate and repeat that, because it is absolutely important, so let’s go on.

16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

I am incredibly thankful for this verse, and others like it. This is Jesus preparing the ground for the extension of his gospel mission, his saving work, beyond the sheepfold of the Jewish people out to the Gentiles. That is, the rest of the world, that is most of us here.

17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Here. Here Jesus casts forward to his crucifixion, and again he refers to it as the absolute truth of his words. But here, it isn’t vague “when I am lifted up…” it is specific. He will lay down his life. Not self-sacrificial like one who would jump off a cliff to prove their love. This has a fierce, battling protective sense, as one might jump to stop a bullet… or a shepherd who, at the last resort, to protect his flock, might tackle the lion to slay it even if he be slain himself.

Because the sheep are his sheep.

Jesus is so careful to set the stage for his death… and his resurrection… and make it absolutely clear that what is coming is a willing act. It is not forced upon him, it does not sneak up on him. He knows it in full and he chooses it. Because he loves us. Because he knows we are lost without him. Dead without him.

19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

They of course, didn’t know what we know. It was confusing and incomprehensible. But we do.

What is Different about Jesus

This is what is different about Jesus. It wasn’t just words about sacrifice. He went willingly to his death for us. He lay down his life… that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

This is what is different about Jesus. He didn’t come to steal, kill and destroy. He doesn’t need anything from you… it’s all already his. You are already his, in fact. Jesus came, lay down his life and took it up again, death and resurrection, that you might have life and have it to the full. To the fullest. Brimming over. More abundantly.

Jesus came, lay down his life that you might have life and have it more abundantly. This may be an answer for your friends, once burned by the church and now twice shy. It may be an answer for you.

Jesus isn’t looking to take anything from you. He wants you to have the life you were made for, created for, designed for, to be the glorious immortal shining being. He died and rose again that you might be that. Rescued from death to abundant life.

Receive the gift. That’s all. That’s it. We are in the gift giving season… receive the gift. It is literally what Christmas is all about.

Christ came, and he taught and showed us abundant life in his own life, and he trained disciples, but the purpose to which everything leads is this:

He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. He has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

There is so much to say about how to live the abundant life. So much more to say about how and why he laid down his life. So much more to say about who we are created to be.

But today, it is simply about thanking Jesus. Receiving his gift. The door of our life. Our good shepherd. Our Savior.