This Week

(Jesus said) "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter 
the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief 
and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of 
the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep 
hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 
When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and 
the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not 
follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not 
know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech 
with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 
So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the 
gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; 
but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever 
enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go 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 10:1-10

The great path has no gates,
Thousands of roads enter it.
When one passes through this gateless gate
He walks freely between heaven and earth.	 		
----Mumon

In the second section (vs. 7-10) the imagery shifts, and the focus 
falls on Jesus as the gate of the sheepfold. On the one hand, a warning 
is given about the thieves and bandits who appear before the gate, but 
whom the sheep do not heed. On the other hand, an invitation is issued, 
promising salvation, nurture, and abundant life to all who pass through 
the Jesus-gate. Jesus has come not as the thief to kill the sheep and 
leave the flock in disarray; he has come to give fullness of life. The 
repetition of the phrase, "I am the gate" places emphasis on the 
exclusiveness of Jesus as the way to eternal life. It is a prominent 
motif in the Fourth Gospel, and no doubt helped to establish the peculiar 
identity of the Johannine community in distinction from the synagogue. 
They were a people who saw no hope apart form the Good Shepherd, whose 
voice they had come to know. 
---- Texts for Preaching  

This interpretation of Jesus as the gate to salvation makes its appearance 
very early in patristic exegesis, for Ignatius says: "He is the gate (thyra) 
of the Father, through which enter Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets 
and the Apostles and the Church." There is a parallel to the Johannine 
picture of the gate to salvation in Matthew 7:13 where Jesus speaks of the 
narrow door or gate pyle) into the kingdom of God is gthe Son of God; no man 
[sic] can enter otherwise than through the Son. 
----Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John. The Anchor Bible. 

Thyra: qðuðrðað  the door to a house or building. 
---Greek English Lexicon

"I am the door." (John 10:7, 9) The origin of the metaphor has been much 
debated. Some scholars see a misreading of the Aramaic "shepherd of the sheep"
 as "door of the sheep." Others trace the influence of pre-Christian 
Gnosticism. Yet Old Testament models for the shepherd -image, for going in 
and out, and for door-predication form a more obvious basis. In analogy to 
"I am the way" in 14:6, "I am the door" develops the thoughts in 10:1-2. 
The lesson of v.9 is that Christ alone mediates membership in the messianic 
community and reception of its blessings of salvation and eternal life. The 
lesson of v.7 is that he alone mediates the authentic pastoral office. 
----Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. 
It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside!
----Rumi

Then there’s my life philosophy: why go through an open gate when you can 
climb the wall? 
----Patricia Rydeen



Questions:
 How is Jesus a gate, a door?
 The Buddhist idea of the gateless gate is (at least one way of perceiving it) 
	a gate one passes through that then disappears behind you, as if it wasn’t 
	there. How is this different from John’s use of gate for Jesus?
 Are you inside, outside, or in the middle of the gate?
 Is the gate open or closed?
 Is it possible to climb over the wall? What do you learn when you do that?