+ Easter 4 – May 3rd, 2020 +
Series A: Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We’ve probably all heard of a Lutheran church named after Christ the Vine, or Good Shepherd. But I’m guessing we’ve never seen a church named Christ the Door Lutheran Church.
And yet, that’s the title Jesus gives himself here in John 10:
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Although we usually call this 4th Sunday of Easter, “Good Shepherd Sunday”, today we could just as call it Christ the Door Sunday. For Jesus is both our Door and our Shepherd.
And in this world of danger, Jesus our Good Shepherd, leads us through the door of his death and resurrection to dwell with him.
In our daily life, doors come in all shapes and sizes: round doors that lead to holes in the ground, automatic sliding doors that make you feel like a Jedi knight, doors that open into a room or a whole new world that’s bigger on the inside. In the Scriptures, however, the door comes in a particular shape: the cross of Jesus.
It is a narrow door through which the last come first; a narrow door where we lose our old, sinful fallen life, in order to find a new life in Christ; a narrow door where we are stripped of our idols that we might fit through it. Perhaps you’ve noticed, as I have these past few weeks, that one of the good things that has come out of our time in quarantine and isolation is a revealing of just how many idols we have, how many things we fear, love, and trust in above our Lord and his promises. And, along with that, a revealing that the voice of our Good Shepherd is what we need most of all.
And yet this door of Christ Crucified is also wide. Wide enough for us wayward sheep to enter and find rest in Christ’s sheepfold. For Jesus’ death and resurrection is always greater than your sin, my sin, and the sin of the world. Jesus’ cross is a door large enough to swallow up all of our death, guilt, and sin.
In this world of danger, Jesus our Good Shepherd, leads us through the door of his death and resurrection to dwell with him.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, 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.
It’s comforting to know that when Jesus reveals Himself as a shepherd, He does so in a dangerous world. When Jesus spoke these words, life wasn’t full of kittens, unicorns, and rainbows; he was on his way to the cross. So, Jesus opens the eyes of His disciples to how dangerous their world truly is. He calls attention to the false shepherds and the hired hands, to the thieves and robbers, and wolves which surrounded them. In the midst of danger, Jesus reveals Himself as a shepherd: Our shepherd. The One who came that we, “May have life and have it abundantly” (10:10).
For Jesus, this world of thieves and false shepherds wasn’t imaginary or figurative. It was real. He was betrayed by a thief, crucified under the rule of false shepherds and buried in a tomb. But He rose from the dead to assure us that He is the Gate, the Door, and the true Shepherd who leads us to everlasting life.
On this 4th Sunday in Easter we find ourselves once again in a dangerous world. And yet, Jesus our Door and Good Shepherd comes to us as surely as he was with his disciples.
The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Jesus, our good shepherd knows us by name and promises to be with us always. Everything we experience in this dangerous, fallen, sinful world, Jesus has already experienced for you. Isolation. Pain. Sorrow. Death.
Jesus knows the agony of suffering. He endured the loneliness of death. Surely he has borne our sins and carried our sorrows, and by his wounds you are healed.
Today, Jesus our Good Shepherd declares that he’s also our True Door; and he leads us through the gate of his death and resurrection to be the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today, although we may not know much about what comes tomorrow, or what lies ahead, we know our Good Shepherd, we hear his voice, and more than that, he knows you.
Today, as many of us, no doubt, feel distant from one another and closed off from one another, Christ our Good Shepherd, and Christ our Door lived and died and rose to ensure the way to the Father, that the gates of paradise, that the door to his sheepfold is opened for you.
Today, no matter how many burdens or cares or worries we carry in this pandemic, we have a Good Shepherd who carries us through the door of his cross to everlasting life
Today, the voice of our Good Shepherd rings out “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.”
A blessed Easter to each of you..
In the Name of + Jesus.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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