For Sunday
Easter 4A
Collect
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Jesus compares himself to a shepherd. Then to the gate. We could choose to find this switch confusing. Rather than acknowledge that Jesus was rabbi, not a shepherd and human, not a gate.
Of course, we know that. But I’ve also found that we can get really stuck on metaphors. We easily associate Jesus with the Good Shepherd. Less so with the gate.
Jesus, of course, is using analogy to instruct. In one sense, speaking to the way he leads and in another the way he protects. And it is to that protection metaphor I’ll draw our attention.
Gates are an interesting concept. Seen one way: they provide an entrance. We put a gate as an access to a fenced-in yard. Without the gate, no one gets in.
Seen another way, however, is that the gate is part of the fence and provides a barrier. When closed, the gate becomes the fence. Thus protecting sheep from wandering off or wolves from wandering in.
I think we all get what Jesus is saying about protection. But I know some struggle with further implications of the analogy. About how the gate might restrict access for some sheep who want in. Or for for those former wolves who are now sheep (a concept that can only make sense in Jesus-speak).
While these are valid concerns, they are ultimately assuaged by Jesus’s constant refrain about how open the gate is. How just a judge he is. How forgiving and merciful he is.
And, I think, even more to the point, how just and forgiving and merciful we are to be, too. So that everyone might feel welcome to the backyard barbecue.