Jesus Is, We Are To Be, The Gate - John 10:1-10 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
Three friends die in a car crash, and they find
themselves at the gates of heaven.
Before entering, they are each asked a
question by St. Peter himself, “When you are in your casket and friends and
family are mourning, when they look down, what would you like to hear them say
about you?”
The first guy says, “I would like to hear them
say that I was a great doctor and a great family man.”
The second guy says, “I would like to hear
that I was a wonderful husband and schoolteacher.”
The last guy replies, “I would like to hear
them say…LOOK!!! HE’S MOVING!!!”
Tonight, we continue to examine “I Am”
statements of Jesus.
We remember these statements were controversial
to those who heard Jesus speak them. When
God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent Moses to bring the Hebrew
people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses asked, “When the people question who sent
me, who shall I say, “what is your name?”
God replied, “My name is I Am that I Am, tell them that I
Am has sent you…you shall teach this name to all future generation, and it
shall be My Name forever.”
The Hebrew people listening to Jesus would
have known this, and upon hearing Jesus say, “I am…” would felt that He was
equating himself with God…we know that Jesus is God, but they would not have
heard it that way, they would have heard and accused Jesus of blasphemy.
We have also considered that as we hear Jesus
make these “I am” statements and we come to understand that we, as the Church,
are the Living Body of Christ, we are to continue to be for the world the truth
of these statements that Jesus makes about himself.
We heard Jesus say, “I am the Bread of Life,”
and understand that Jesus reveals Himself, as God, to be the only thing that
can truly fill the empty holes in our lives that leave us hungering, not simply
physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
As the continued presence of Christ in the world, the Church is to be
the Bread of Life, providing sustenance to those who are hungering…not only
sharing food with those who are hungry, but also sharing with them the Gospel
of Christ, introducing them to the God who can fill that void that leaves us
hungering for something.
We heard Jesus say, “I am the Light of the
World.” As the light of the world, we
know that Jesus is the one who brings God’s creative order into the chaos of
our world, illuminates the path we are to travel on, reveals our intentions and
our sin, gives life to God’s people, and draws those who love God together. We know that as Christ’s presence still on
earth, the Church is to be this same presence—offering peace, revealing God’s
way, confronting sin in order to redeem, giving life, and drawing God’s people
together.
At least once or twice a year, if not more
often, I get an email containing jokes about folks getting to heaven and running
into St. Peter standing outside Heaven, at the Pearly Gates, and suggesting
that there is some kind of test or quiz that must be passed in order to get
into Heaven, or maybe a review of our lives that determines how our lives will
be once in heaven, what type of robe, house, or car we will have once inside
the Pearly Gates. We have these images
of Peter acting like the hostess of Texas Steakhouse, Snapperz, or Amos
Mosquito’s, determining whether or not we can get in and be seated.
How did we come to think this way? It is as if someone has taken images from
John’s Revelation with images of the gates of heaven being pearls, the
references to the Book of Life, and the fact that Peter was the initial leader
of the followers of Jesus after the Day of Pentecost and combined them into the
image of Peter being the gatekeeper, determining who gets into heaven and who
doesn’t. This image, though humorous at
times, is not Biblically accurate.
Jesus, however, gives us the image of a gate,
actually, “The Gate.” The image He gives
us is that He, Himself, is The Gate…He is The Gate that leads to pasture and
abundant life.
How often have we heard the phrase, “the grass
is always greener on the other side of the fence”? Urbandictionary.com suggest that this comes
from the idea that when we stand on our own land and look at someone else’s
yard, their yard always appears to be greener, healthier, more attractive. Yet, it is not usually the grass that we are
looking at. It is usually some other
aspect of someone else’s life that we think that if we have, then our lives
will be as great, or greater, than our neighbors. We look at our own lives and are
dissatisfied, and think, if we just had that, we would be happy.
Maybe it is our house…we think to ourselves,
if I just had a nicer house then we would be truly happy. This is the idea behind shows like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In that show, we would see a family that was
in some type of dire straits and whose homes left a lot to be desired…then
through the generosity of this show and its sponsors, these home designers would
swoop in, send the family away, work feverously while we watch, and present the
family with a newly redesigned, larger, fancier home. Everyone’s would be excited, tears of joy were
shed, the family is on the other side of the fence in its greener pasture, and
the show is over. However, in articles I
have read, those tears of joy have often turned to tears of sorrow as larger
utility bills and other expenses have forced many of those families out of
their dream homes.
Maybe it is our car…we look at the car we have
had for years and think, if I could just get rid of my old jalopy and get a new
car, I’d be truly happy, my life would be complete. Yet how many times have we finalized the deal
and driven that new car off the lot and suddenly found something we didn’t like
about it or realized that something was wrong with it that was not covered by
the remaining warranty (if it was a used car).
It may simply be that we go from a vehicle that is completely paid off,
to having to make car payments once again.
Maybe it is our job…we are unhappy with our
job and think, if only I had a better job, one making more money or having
better hours, then I would truly be happy.
So, we apply for promotion and get it, only to find that the stress
level is not worth the pay increase.
Maybe we change careers, thinking this other field of work is easier,
only to find out while there are less demands, there are also less
benefits. Maybe we leave a hard job with
a good boss to find ourselves working an easier job with a harsh, demanding
supervisor.
In the end, if we are unhappy with the pasture
that we find ourselves in, and try to find the good life by passing through the
gates of this world, houses, cars, careers, politicians, or anything else, we
are going to find that the grass on the other side of the fence, if we are
blessed, is the same shade of green, but often we may find that it is drier and
more brittle than where we were.
There is only one gate through which we pass
that will bring us true happiness and abundant life. Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will
come in and go out and find pasture…I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.”
Jesus says,” if you are looking for a way out
of the unhappiness and misery in which you find yourself trapped, nothing else
in this world is going to truly fulfill you.
Like a thief that will come in, steal, kill, and destroy, those things
will still leave you troubled, struggling, and empty…they will always leave you
searching for a greener pasture. However,
if you come to me, I will help you find yourself in a place that will give you
not only peace, but abundant life.”
Paul would experience this. Paul tells the church in Phillipi, “If anyone
has reason to be confident in the flesh, [if anyone has reason to find security
and happiness in the things and accomplishments of this world], I have more,
circumcised on the eight day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor
of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”[i] A biography I listened to as an audiobook
earlier this year suggested that Paul would have probably come from a wealthy
background as well. Yet Paul says, “Yet
whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of
Christ. More than that, I regard
everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the
loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain
Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes
from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ….”[ii]
It is only in Jesus that we can find true
happiness, true joy, true abundant life.
It is in knowing the love of Christ in our lives, the salvation He
brings to us, that we can find true contentment in whatever circumstance we
find ourselves in this life. He is the
place where we can know and experience the love of God right where we are and
know that nothing in this world is greater.
Everything else is fleeting and temporary, but it is only in Christ that
we find life everlasting.
My brothers and sisters, too often we think of
eternal life as beginning on the other side of a fence, the other side of the grave.
We think of it as beginning when we die.
However, the eternal life that Jesus speaks of in his conversation with
Nicodemus in the third chapter of John is life that is filled with the Living
Water that Jesus shares with the Samaritan woman at the well and the Bread of
Life that we discussed a few weeks ago.
Life eternal is the abundant life that Jesus speaks of in our reading
today. It is not about the quantity of
life that is to come, but about the quality of life we can experience right
here and now in knowing the grace of God surrounding us each and every moment
of every day. It is knowing that God
loves us enough that He came to us in Jesus Christ and voluntarily laid down
His life for us, atoning for our sins, and freeing us the threat of death and
eternal separation from God. In that is
abundant life, a life of contentment and peace that we find passing through the
Gate that is Jesus Christ.
How do we become that gate? We become that Gate as we share with others
that true peace, contentment, and fulfillment is found not in what someone else
has, but it is found in what God has given us.
It is in offering them the acceptance that God has given to us, it is in
offering them the forgiveness that God has given us, it is sharing with them
the love that God has freely offered us, and in our life together we will find
that we have life and have it abundantly.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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