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. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
-- John 10:7-11 (NRSV)
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Doors are interesting things. While mailing a package at the post office recently a woman asked me to help her with her car door because it wasn't working properly. "Do you know anything about doors?" she asked. I almost told her, "Well, as a matter of fact I've been working on a sermon on Jesus the door and I'd be glad to tell you all about the nature of this spiritual door," but she seemed interested in more practical matters, so I temporarily fixed the latch in the car door and advised her to get to a garage and have it repaired. As she drove away I thought, "Doors are very important to us, but we generally don't think about them unless something goes wrong with them."
Think about doors with me for a few minutes. They can be used to keep people in or to keep them out. They can be used to guarantee privacy, if they are closed, or to invite people in if they are open. How many doors do you have in your house? Count them. Maybe you have ten or 12, maybe more. Are they for keeping people out or inviting them in?
Some doors are made of glass; some of metal. Most doors are made of wood. We focus here on wood doors. When doors are made of wood, then a tree had to lose its life in order for a door to be made. Jesus was a carpenter by trade and knew the story of the death of trees in order to produce wood for doors. Jesus gave up his life in order to become the door to life for others.
Jesus came to serve. He set his face toward Jerusalem toward the end of his life. It was there, on a tree, that he spent his last lonely hours as a servant and stricken slave in order to give people eternal life and set them free. He spoke eloquently about how service would carry him to death -- even as his followers were arguing about greatness:
... Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
-- Matthew 20:26-28 (NRSV)
Jesus, like a tree, was killed in order to become the door to eternal life. When the Gospel of John uses the term "life" (John 10:10) or "eternal life" (John 3:36), it means a special quality of life on both this side of the grave and on the other side.
Jesus Is The Door To Abundant Life Here And Now
There are many voices promising happiness for the present. People buy books, go to lectures and spend millions of dollars trying to find the elusive bird of happiness. There are many false prophets who promise it. False prophets do not deliver it.
Jesus said, "I am the door." He didn't just point to the door. He said that he is the door to life. You can tell false religious teachers because they point to themselves or to their teaching as the door instead of pointing to Jesus as the door. Jesus is the only one who has made the ransom by giving up his own life that others may have life. All other doors, no matter how ornate or attractive, are entrances to the kingdom of death. Jesus, the door, leads to the kingdom of abundant life. What is life? How is it received?
John 3:36 points us to the answer to the first question. Abundant life is a quality of life which Jesus gives: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life." Note the present tense of the promise. Faith means having a living relationship with God now. The Gospel of John calls this relationship eternal life. Eternal life is not just something we go to when we die, but something we experience here and now through faith. The present experience of eternal life is imperfect because of sin, but the point is that eternal life is not just reserved for out yonder in heaven.
How do we receive this abundant life? It is accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross. It is appropriated by faith in Christ's suffering and death. We appropriate what Jesus has accomplished.
Jesus accomplished the task of giving us life in abundance. In Eastern countries in Jesus' time the shepherd literally laid his body in front of the flock as the door, providing safety from prowling and marauding dangers and giving a full life to those he loved -- his sheep. Full life is what is offered here.
Seductive promises from the world are hollow. It is through Christ that we have love. It is through Christ that we have true peace. It is through Christ that we have eternal life.
Lively life is what Jesus has accomplished for those who come in and go out through him. Our part is to appropriate what has been accomplished.
Here, for instance, is a man -- let's call him John -- who has been in the church all his life, but has had only a ritualistic, rigid kind of faith. Frequently judgmental, he has maintained an official Christian "stance," but has none of the fruits of true faith -- no true love for anyone but himself, no true peace or joy. His religion is a religion of true doctrines and moral behavior, but there is no joy, no abundant life. He is a humanist who calls himself a Christian. He is a good man but he has no relationship with Christ. One day, while in the hospital, he realizes the hypocrisy of his life and places his life in God's hands. Thus he learns to "come in and go out" through Christ and experiences for the first time in his life the fullness of his baptismal relationship with God. In baptism, God claimed him for one of his sheep, but not until later in life -- through suffering -- did John appropriate the power of his baptism to "come in and go out" through Christ, the door.
A man named Legion (Mark 5:1-20) approached Jesus one day and discovered that his inner, divided nature could be healed by this man who claimed to be the door to life. How many people are like Legion -- divided, lonely, feeling no worth, striking out at people around them!
Jesus showed Legion and has since shown the legion brothers and sisters of the divided world how to find wholeness and life -- through trust in him by "coming in and going out" through him.
A recovering alcoholic friend told me, "I get up every day and tell God that I am completely in his hands. I cannot stay sober without him. I must lean on and trust in Christ or I am lost." That's what it means to come in and go out through the door. We come into a world of faith in God through Christ the door, and thus when we are safe in the fold, or out in the dangerous world, we are under the watchful eye of the Lord.
Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." I believe that he was talking about transformed lives this side of the grave and transformed lives on the other side of the grave.
Jesus Is The Door To Life After Death
A man once asked me, "Is Christianity a religion for the here and now or for after death?" "Yes," I replied. Christianity is not centered in one or the other. Jesus gives transformed life now and life with God after death. Jesus is not only the door to the more abundant living now, but also the door through which we go on the way to life after death.
I met a man on a plane one day who, when he found out I was a minister, shared his reservations about eternal life with me. "I've been a Presbyterian church member all my life," he said, "and I've even served on our church council, but I've never been able to believe that Jesus came back to life after death or that anyone else can." As we talked, it became increasingly obvious not only that he had doubts as many Christians do, but that he was judging Christian doctrine by the yardstick of his own reason. The moral teachings of Jesus worked, so he believed in them. The spiritual elements of faith -- especially life after death -- troubled him because they could not be verified by reason.
I'm afraid that there are many church members of every denomination who have the same trouble. They want to use Christ to have a happier life here and now, but they exclude those parts of Christianity which do not fit into the scheme of things as judged by reason. Reason for them becomes the idolatrous altar before which they worship. That kind of faith is anything but trusting Christ as the door through which we go to God.
On the other hand I have known hundreds of radiant Christians who not only see the value of Christ for the here and now, but truly trust him and his words about the world to come. I have seen what a difference that trust makes when it comes to suffering and death.
At the funeral service for the Rev. Robert Parker, a former associate pastor of mine, I said, "He was a man who was a cheerleader for God and who trusted the promises of God including the ones about life after death." Bob Parker was a leader of cheer. Just recently someone told me, "Pastor Parker was the most Christlike person I have ever known. He had many limitations as we all do, but his love for people caused children and adults to gravitate to him. He knew and reflected the abundant, eternal life in the here and now and anticipated eternal life to come." In the face of the obstacles to life, Bob had a way of charging problems which sometimes brought good results. I said this at his funeral service.
Pastor Larry Warren, another pastor on our staff, was our cross bearer at that funeral service for Bob Parker. He led the procession at the beginning of the funeral and the recession at the end of the service, only at the end he went out the wrong door. When he got back to the sacristy, he wrote a note on the blackboard: "Before thou chargest, looketh where thou goest."
Many people try wrong doors to get to eternal life. They are the man-made ones. The only door which leads to eternal life is Jesus Christ. Jesus knows where he is going. Therefore he can show us the way.
Jesus gives us an advance look into where we are going after death so that we go the right way. He is the right door through which we proceed to the Father. Bob Parker wanted to live, indeed through his faith and the intercessory prayers of his friends he lived for two years beyond what his doctor had predicted, but he also knew that it was just a matter of time before he would walk through Christ the door to the kingdom of God beyond.
Think of yourself as only having a limited time to live. After all, that is true for all of us. Think of yourself as one who has a living relationship with God through Christ now, imperfect though you may be. Think of yourself hearing the Lord speak these words personally, "I will see you again, on the other side of the grave. I know the way. I will be with you."
Or, think of yourself in a church building that is on fire. You rush to one of the doors, only to find that it is locked. Over that locked door and on every other exit you see a flashing neon sign: "No Exit." Now picture yourself looking around for some way out and seeing the Lord standing in front of the altar beckoning you by name: "Come unto me...I know the way...I am the way...I am the door through which you find life."
When you walk through a door from now on, perhaps you will think of Jesus.
Questions For Reflection Or Discussion
1. Have you ever cut down a tree? Did anything unusual happen?
2. How is Jesus like a tree?
3. How many doors do you have in your house?
4. How is Jesus like a door?
5. In what ways is your life abundant?
6. In what ways is it less than abundant?
7. If you knew you had only a limited time to live, how would you spend it?