[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER 13 April 2008 "The Door" John 10:1-10 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

While the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one of the most popular and beloved images of Jesus, we live in an age in which very few of us know anything at all about sheep, much less do we have an understanding of how Palestinian shepherds cared for their sheep. In this picture Jesus speaks of the door of the sheep, a shepherd, as well as a gatekeeper. Our reading ends before we get to the familiar words, "I am the good shepherd," so that we are left with gatekeeper and door as our focus today. The bulletin cover graphic today pictures for us what Jesus says about his being "The Door" of the sheep.

Palestinian sheep pens were enclosures that were sometimes attached to houses, but some of them were out in the open. Walls surrounded the pens. You can see the walls on the cover graphic. These walls were often topped with briars so that animals would not attempt to get over, nor would a foolish human being. Today we would probably use razor wire. At the very narrow entrance, wide enough for one sheep to pass at a time, the shepherd would sit or lie down, his body blocking the entrance. He was himself the door, the gate. At night when the sheep would come in, the shepherd would stand there and inspect each lamb as it would pass beneath his legs or as he stood outside the door. He would see if any of the sheep required medical treatment. Maybe he would remove burrs and other things that had attached themselves to the sheep's wool. By inspecting the sheep he would know each one intimately. Each lamb had a name and the shepherd would name them as they came in. He kept count of all of them. The shepherd was with them 24 hours a day, which is probably why shepherding is not done this way in our country. They were his livelihood, or at least, the livelihood of the owner of the sheep. In this case, the owner would be our heavenly Father.

At the center of this reading lies the protection and care given by the shepherd. Of course, all of this is a metaphor for something bigger. Jesus enlarges a familiar Old Testament metaphor which spoke of Israel as the sheep of God's hand. There was David who was a shepherd, and there were the religious leaders who were regarded as the shepherds of God's people. But these shepherds were not good shepherds.

Jesus was directing his picture to the Jewish religious leaders. Our reading is a continuation of the discussion Jesus had with the Pharisees after he had healed the man born blind. Prior to that incident the religious leaders had actually picked up stones with which to kill Jesus because he had said to them,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58, ESV)

The metaphor really comes together with Jesus as "The Door" of the sheep. At night, when the gatekeeper lay down in the entrance of the sheep pen, anyone trying to enter through this narrow opening would have to get past him. "Over my dead body" was a very real possibility! It was also very descriptive of the shepherd's commitment to his flock. He would guard it with his very life.

"Over my dead body" takes on added significance when you consider that this is exactly what Jesus did for the world. In order to protect the sheep from the wolf who would have us for time and eternity, Jesus wrestled with this wolf and allowed his blood to be shed so that ours would not be. Yet, the wolf did not win because Jesus robbed him of his prey, giving himself instead. In this titanic struggle, the wolf was defeated forever. Death was undone as this shepherd rose victoriously on the third day. Jesus protected you with his dead body and now protects you with his resurrected body! He did what no earthly shepherd could ever do or had done.

The Formula of Concord, one of our confessional Lutheran documents to which we bind ourselves as being the truth of God, declares:

Thus the entire holy Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, directs all men to Christ as to the book of life in whom they are to seek the Father's eternal election. For the Father has decreed from eternity that whomever he would save he would save through Christ, as Christ himself says, "No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6), and again, "I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved" (John 10:9).¹

The thief is the false teacher who seeks to steal the sheep. How ironic that these false teachers are standing right in front of Jesus as he speaks these words! They are the ones of which Isaiah spoke and still speaks:

"The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all." (Isaiah 56:11, ESV)

The times have not changed as the wolves still try to attack Christ's flock with their false teaching. Anyone who teaches that one may be saved apart from Christ by God's grace through faith, is a thief and a robber. Anyone who contradicts the clear Word of God is a false teacher. And Jesus emphasizes:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep." . . . "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." (John 10:7, 9, ESV)

The sheep know and hear his voice and they follow him. Some years ago an American traveled in Syria and had the opportunity to spend time with a shepherd. He observed that three shepherds had flocks drinking from the same brook. After a while one of them got up and called out, "Men-ah! Men-ah," which is Arabic for "follow me." His sheep came out from among the other sheep and followed him up the hill. The same thing happened with the next shepherd. The traveler asked the remaining shepherd to give him his turban and his crook and called out the same words. Not a sheep moved. They did not know his voice.

You know the voice of Jesus because he has called you by name in Holy Baptism, echoing what the prophet Isaiah had foretold centuries beforehand of Jesus as our Good Shepherd:

"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1, ESV)

Let's go back to our illustration for a moment. The same American asked the Syrian shepherd, "Will your flock never follow anyone but you?" He replied, "Oh, yes. Sometimes a sheep gets sick and then he will follow anyone." If we continue this line of thought, then we would have to ask how one gets sick. Very simply, when a Christian no longer listens to the voice of Christ in Word and Sacrament he can become sick and then becomes prey to the thief and the robber who are waiting on the edges of the Church for such sick and straying sheep. These false teachers "use the vocabulary of faith" said Luther, but they produce no fruit. "Their chief aim is to attract men to their false opinions."²

You know the voice of Jesus. And you know where to hear it! You hear his voice in this place, through this mouth by which I am speaking to you. True, I am only a man, but when the called and ordained pastor speaks as Christ has commanded him, you may be sure that it is the same as if Christ himself were speaking to you. Again listen to Luther:

This is the first attack Paul makes against the false apostles, who ran when no one sent them. The call, therefore, is not to be despised. For it is not sufficient if a man has the Word and the pure doctrine. He must also have the assurance of his call, and whoever enters without this assurance enters only in order to kill and destroy (John 10:10). For God never prospers the work of those who are not called. Even if they teach something good and useful, it does not edify.³

What is the pasture of which Jesus speaks and promises that you will feast upon? First, it is only through him, "The Door." There is not another way. "Spirituality" as it is often touted in the media be damned! If it is not Christ, it is poison which will harm your soul, eventually killing you. The pasture of which our Lord speaks is his Word purely proclaimed and his Sacraments administered according to his institution. In a few minutes you will again be fed by your Lord Jesus as he gives you his true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins and your growth in faith and love. Here is the good pasture you need and which God, in his mercy, provides for you. Here is the table he has prepared before you in the presence of your enemies [Psalm 23.5].

Don't listen to strangers! Listen only to Jesus because only he has laid down his life for you and risen again for you. Through his flesh he has redeemed you. Through his undershepherds he feeds you and watches over you to bring you at last to the kingdom. Then you will be able to rejoice with David, having come in through "The Door," who is our Lord Jesus Christ:

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:6, ESV)

¹Theodore G. Tappert, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 627 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000, c1959).
²Martin Luther, vol. 26, Luther's Works, Vol. 26 : Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 26:20 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1963).
³Martin Luther, vol. 26, Luther's Works, Vol. 26 : Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 26:19 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1963).