John 10:1-10 (Good Shepherd Sunday)
St. John, Galveston 4/26/26
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    Today is the 4th Sunday of Easter, which is also observed each year as Good Shepherd Sunday. The image of Jesus as our Good Shepherd is perhaps one of the most comforting and endearing of images depicted in the Bible, the caring and compassionate relationship Jesus has with us, His sheep. He’s the Good Shepherd and were the sheep. He is not a hireling, who cares very little for His flock. Rather, He is the Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Whatever threat may arise to endanger His flock, He puts Himself between the threat and His flock in order to protect and save them. Most notably, of course, He put Himself between you and the devil, between you and sin and death.

    Today’s Gospel reading, from John 10, focuses on Jesus as our Good Shepherd, but it does so from a little different angle, and even with a little different tone. In the passage before us this morning, Jesus says, “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.”

    As is always the case when we read the Scriptures, a bit of context proves very helpful in understanding any given passage, including Jesus words here in John 10. In chapter 8 of John’s Gospel, Jesus upset the Jewish leaders at the Temple in Jerusalem. In fact, they were ready to stone Him to death for His teaching.

He was there, in Jerusalem, to observe the Feast of Booths, which was an annual harvest festival where the people of Israel gathered to remember their forty years of wandering in the wilderness after they were delivered from bondage in Egypt. The feast celebrated the ingathering of God’s people into safety and foreshadowed the final homecoming of God’s people. The gathering place was referred to as the “courtyard of the sheep” or “the sheepfold.” There was much celebrating around the Temple as the people remembered how they moved from temporary tents in the wilderness to a permanent temple, a dwelling place for God.

    It is likely that during the feast, Psalm 118 would have been sung by the people as they processed around the altar area on the seventh day of the festival. “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD and the righteous shall enter through it” (Psalm 118:19-20). The “gate of righteousness” referred to the entrance to the Temple atop the stairs which led from the court of the women to the court for burnt offerings. The significance of that bit of Jewish custom will become evident when we get back to this morning’s Gospel reading.

    After leaving the temple area back in chapter 8, in chapter 9 Jesus went on to perform a miracle, in this case, the healing of a blind man, giving him both physical and spiritual sight. After healing the blind man, He told those who claimed to have sight that they were, in fact, blind, meaning, they were blind in spiritual sense. Of course, the representatives of the Temple got angry at what Jesus said about them. His intent though was to draw the people of God away from the Temple to Jesus Himself.

    As we move to the reading for this morning, Jesus again takes the focus away from the Temple and places it squarely on Himself. Much to the shock of the religious leaders, He referred to His Word as the voice of the Shepherd (a divine claim!) and He said that He is the door through which the sheep must enter into God’s life-giving presence! In other words, here in John 10, Jesus incorporates the song sung by the Israelites in the Temple, Psalm 118, to Himself. Those who do not enter the door of the sheepfold, that is, who do not listen to His voice and follow Him are thieves and robbers. But, the sheep, like our blind man, who had received sight, listen to the voice of Christ, they follow Him, and they enter, through Christ, into the life God prepared for them where they receive salvation and pasture.

    We could say that Jesus words in John 10, that He is the door of the sheep pen, are ultimately about the way of the righteousness. Remember, God is righteous, meaning He is holy and perfect. Consequently, no one will enter into His presence without also being holy and perfect. Now, many people think that requirement of God is not really all that difficult. And that, because they tend to think of righteousness, or holiness, in a comparative sense, that is, in reference to others. A person can always find an example of another person who is less holy than they are, at least in their own estimation. So, as long there are others who are a miserable example of what it means to be a human being, then you average Joe must be in pretty shape with God.

    But that’s not how God judges righteousness. At the end of Matthew, part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “be ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So, there is the righteousness God demands. Perfection! “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD and the righteous shall enter through it.” The Psalm was sung, and the people walked into the Temple through the Courtyard of the Sheep.

    In John 10, when Jesus says, “I am the Door to the Sheep pen,” He is literally saying to you, I am your righteousness! I am your holiness and your perfection! It’s really an amazing thing, the Gospel, that is, because it declares to you that God willingly and freely gives to you what you could never attain on your own.

    I’ve harped on this issue from time to time, but I think I’ll do again here, because it relates to what were talking about. I’ve seen a Christian witness tee shirt that says, “Not holy, just forgiven.” I think the person wants people to know that they still sin, but that God forgives them. I get that. But the message is not a good one Scripturally speaking. The point being, as a Christian, as the baptized of God, you are more than just forgiven. In the eyes of God, you are holy, you are righteous, you are perfect, because you are the Bride of Christ, you have entered into His presence through the blood of the Lamb, who is the door to the sheep pen.

    Maybe the best way for you to think of this righteousness, this holiness that you have in Christ, through an image that Isaiah reflected on some 750 years before Jesus came into the world. Back in chapter  of the Isaiah, the prophet wrote, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise 
to sprout up before all the nations.”

    You are righteous before God because He has clothed you with the righteousness and purity of His Son. In that, in that gift of God, you now “have life and you have abundantly.” Why? Well, because as your life relates to you and God, it is no longer about striving, it isn't about trying to win God’s favor. After all, you cannot win what has already been freely given to you. Indeed, “I am the door (Jesus says). If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +