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“Jesus said to them, ‘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.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have
it abundantly” (John 10:7-10).
Recently five of us from Good Shepherd traveled
down to St. Louis
to receive training as Stephen Leaders.
The mission of Stephen
Ministry is to train
and support lay people as they provide one-to-one Christian care to hurting
people. You’ll be hearing a whole
lot more about this ministry in the future.
It’s going to be a good thing for us!
In
any event, we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel near the airport in St. Louis. It was a wonderful facility, great staff
. . . lots of hidden expenses. For
example, if we had chosen to open that bottle of water in the room it would
have cost us $4. Wireless access was
$9.95 a day, or $3.95 cents for fifteen minutes (30 cents for each
additional minute). There was no
free continental breakfast. This was
an upscale hotel, which means $7.80 for a little yogurt with fruit and a
cup of coffee. When I tried to go
out for breakfast, a big yellow gate blockaded my escape. I put my little card in the scanner
expecting to see the gate lift and clear the way. That’s when I learned that parking was $7
a day. Thinking this had to have
been a mistake I parked and walked back to the hotel. An elderly African American man was
serving as the door man, dressed in a navy blue uniform with gold trim,
thick glasses, salt and pepper hair.
Walking up to him with my little ticket in hand, I said to him,
“Tell me the parking is free for guests of the hotel.” He chuckled and shook his head and said,
“Sir, ain’t nothin’ free here.” A
week later, at the end of the conference, I shook his hand and reminded him
of his insightful words and thanked him for the sermon title. “Any time” he said, “Any time.” At least that was free.
“Ain’t
nothin’ free here.” You and I go
through a lot of doors in life and there’s nearly always a price for doing
so. We are charged at the door of
movie theaters and concert halls and pubs with live music. There’s no getting into the Middle School
swimming pool or the Hawk
Center or Snap
Fitness without paying for it.
There’s principal and interest to pay for the privilege of opening
the door to your own home, and when you pass through the doors of a store
there’s the expectation you are there to shop, not just pass the time or
use the restroom. Going to dinner at
a friend’s house usually implies reciprocity, and as you pass through the
sanctuary doors you may even feel the weight of responsibility knowing your
church also has bills to pay. “Sir,
ain’t nothin’ free here.” It’s true
. . . not just of the Renaissance Hotel, but of life.
Jesus
once said, “I am the door.” Of
course, he was talking of the sheepfold.
In ancient Judea, at night, the
shepherd gathered his sheep into a safe place. Shallow caves served well. Shepherds would build a wall of stones
partly across the mouth of the cave forming an enclosure. If there was no cave, a palisade, or
courtyard surrounded by a low wall of field stones was made out in the open. Briars and thorny vines were encouraged
to grow on top of the stone walls, the ancient version of barbed wire. Mostly open to the sky, these sheepfolds
provided some protection from thieves and predators. A small gap was left in the stone wall,
where the door was. And what was
that door made of? Of wood, or of
sticks tied together, or a wool blanket stretched across the entrance, or
stones temporarily piled up? No . .
. it was made of flesh and blood. At
night the shepherd simply laid his body across the gap. The shepherd was the door for the
sheep. There was no getting in (or
out) without going through that living, breathing gate. “I am the door” Jesus said.
It
actually works. At the 8th
grade confirmation retreat, we stuffed about 25 8th grade boys
into a large room full of bunk beds.
Pastor Schroeder of Divine Savior rested his head in a bunk bed near
the one exit and I did the same near the other. And you know . . . it worked. Not all our wise plans worked that
weekend, but this simple one borrowed from antiquity did. No one got in or out without us knowing
or permitting it.
“I
am the door” Jesus said. “If anyone
enters by me, he will be saved.” Do
you understand the claim Jesus is making?
He alone is the door through whom entrance to God is made
possible. He alone is the door by
which sinful people can come into the presence of God. There’s no getting into heaven but
through him. In the Greek, it’s even
more emphatic, placing the emphasis on Jesus as the only door. “I am the door. By me if anyone enters in he shall be
saved.” There is no other door.
Jesus is not being
politically correct here, is he?
Jesus is not being gentle on our cultural sensitivities. He’s claiming to be the only door to
heaven. He’s saying it is impossible
to sneak in by some other means.
There is future judgment against all who reject him as the door. Those who would try to bypass him, those
who would try to climb the walls, are thieves and robbers. They don’t belong among the sheep. They will be forcibly expelled.
The same one who
said, “I am the door” also said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. No one comes to the Father but
by me” (Jn. 14:6). In Matthew, Jesus
says, “Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to
destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and
only a few find it” (Mt. 7:13-14).
Jesus said, “I am the door.”
And so Paul writes, “Through him we have access to the Father” (Eph.
2:18).
Peter proclaimed
the same. With his very life on the
line, before the religious authorities in Jerusalem, the same ones who had
put Jesus to death, Peter boldly proclaims “Salvation is found in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must
be saved” (Acts 4:12). Peter would,
in the end, be executed for his steadfast refusal to back down on this. Yet he knew the most uncaring thing he
could say, the most unloving thing he could proclaim is that everyone can
relax because there are lots of doors into heaven, all of them open, all of
them equally viable. We’re tempted
to say and believe that too. In fact
that message is hammered into us in a culture where choice is god. And so there’s a door for Muslims,
another for Hindus, another for Jews, another for agnostics, another for
Unitarians, even a little one for atheists, and they’re all wide open and
equally legitimate. But according to
Jesus, there is one door, and there is one mission to bring people to this
door. From verse 16 of this same
chapter, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and
there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
You and I know
some of these Jesus is thinking about, these who are rejecting Christ as
the door. You and I love some of
these who are not listening to his voice but are doing their own thing,
going their own way. Realize we may
be the only ones with access to these people, because we have the
relationship and the faith. We have
their respect. The most unloving
thing we can do is be respectfully silent, allowing them to continue on
that broad path. Future judgment
awaits all who reject Christ as the door to salvation, and, I might add,
those who fail to warn them (see Ezek. 3:18).
“I am the door of the sheep” Jesus
said. “If anyone enters by me, he
will be saved.” Many of the doors we
know are meant to be barriers. I
visit jails with sliding steel doors, solid but for one little window. When they are closed, there’s no prying
them open. By necessity, the doors
to our homes are heavier and sturdier than those doors inside, in part to
prevent or at least slow people down who would break in at night. Across the street, the door to the bank’s
vault is thick and nearly impenetrable.
When these doors are closed and locked, they all send the same
message: “Stop. Keep Out!
This is not for you. No
Admittance. No Trespassing.
Private.” As a door, Jesus
isn’t like that . . . not at all.
“Come to me” is his will for us all.
“This is for you.” “Bring
your family and friends. This door
is for them too.” Jesus wants to be
the door everyone uses. “I take no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their
ways and live” (Ezek. 33:11). “The
Lord . . . is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone
to come” (2 Pet. 3:9). In the
parable of the Wedding Banquet, the Father pleads with the people: “I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been
butchered. Everything is ready! Come to the wedding banquet!” (Mt. 22:4). Jesus is not interested in being a
barrier or blockade, but rather an entrance into heaven.
“Ain’t nothin’
free here” the doorman said. That’s
true for doors on earth, but that is not true for Jesus the Door. Can you believe it? There’s no door charge. A feast is happening on the other side
of that door, “The best of meats and the finest of wines” Isaiah says, and
it’s all free. “Come” invites the
Lord in chapter 55 . . . Come, you who have no money, come, buy and
eat! Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without cost . . . Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Is. 55:1-2). I like to think there’s going to be live
music of the best kind on the other side of death, and no cover
charge. Great company, exquisite
sights, wonderful staff; but no tickets, no cashiers, no hidden costs!
In verse 28 of
this same chapter, Jesus says, “I give them eternal life” (10:28). Can you really fathom full intent of that
word give as it’s connected with eternal life? It’s by grace we are saved, not by works
(Eph. 2:8). No implied
reciprocity. He is the host. We are the guests. It will always be so. No silent weight of responsibility as if
heaven has its own bills to pay and we should really be helping. The cost has already been paid. The shepherd has laid down his life for
the sheep. It’s over his dead body
that we get in. It’s by his blood we
are washed, forgiven, redeemed and made worthy.
“I am the
door. If anyone enters by me, he
will be saved.” “Through him we have
access to the Father” (Eph. 2:18) and that access is unlimited and free. Amen.
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