THE DOOR

Jn.10:2,3 – But the one who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Jn.10:7 – So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

In John’s gospel the Lord is constantly calling us in closer, He is looking for communion that leads to intimacy and worship. The Lord plays off of an image that is common to everyone in His world, He is comparing our walk with God to the relationship of a shepherd with his sheep. This also draws from the familiar picture of Psalm 23, the Shepherd’s Psalm. Barclay gives us important information in his comments that unlocks this passage for us.

“He began by saying: ‘I am the door.’ In this parable, Jesus spoke about two kinds of sheepfolds. In the villages and towns themselves, there were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night. These folds were protected by a strong door of which only the guardian of the door held the key. It was to that kind of fold Jesus referred in verses 2 and 3. But when the sheep were out on the hills in the warm season and did not return at night to the village at all, they were collected into sheepfolds on the hillside. These hillside sheepfolds were just open spaces enclosed by a wall. In them, there was an opening by which the sheep came in and went out; but there was no door of any kind. What happened was that at night the shepherd himself lay down across the opening, and no sheep could get out or in except over his body. In the most literal sense, the shepherd was the door.”

In the first passage we see ourselves as His sheep that have access to Him by listening to His voice. He speaks to us from His word and brings us in to His pastures. The second picture is even more revealing, Jesus Himself is the doorway into this life. He goes on to say that He came to give us life more abundantly. The un-renewed mind can’t understand this; He is not talking about physical things when He speaks of abundant life. He is speaking of Zoe life, the very life and essence of God. When we enter in through Christ the door, we step into the incredible life of God, this is where your life really begins.