Gatekeeper
Imagine there was no door to the room where your treasures are stored and you have to stand and sleep there to keep people from getting at them.
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 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. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” - John 10:1-18
In Jesus' day, the sheep pen was a walled in area with an opening, the gate.
It was the job of the gatekeeper to literally man the gate, to be the door, preventing animals from getting at the sheep, and preventing the sheep from straying.
Jesus wants us to see salvation as life within the walls, saved from the forces of evil and death. And he is the gate.
Jesus is committed to the job of protecting the sheep. He will not run away when the wolf comes. He puts his life on the line for the sheep.
Jesus wants us to know that no hired hand would do what Jesus does. The hired hands are the leaders of the faith who just go through the motions of the job without caring about the people they serve.
Jesus has come to show us the way to the Father is through him, and him alone.
Now, people may find that difficult to accept, but who would you rather trust, the one who lays down his life for you or the hired hand who runs away?
The way Jesus lays out the image makes it clear to anyone that he is the one to trust.
More to come...