For those who live in urban or suburban settings, the language of shepherds and sheep can feel a little alien. Indeed, Jesus’ agrarian context can seem very distant from modern life’s extended supply chains and pre-packed food. Sadly, fewer and fewer people have extensive experience of farming or as fisherfolk.

Nevertheless, for those of us who are regulars in church the language of sheep and shepherds is very familiar. We are used to the fact the Bible has plenty to say about shepherds. We are used to Jesus’ use of ‘shepherding analogies’, drawing on images from scripture he would have known and loved.

Jesus, of course, has a genius for surprising us. His use of shepherding metaphors does not stop with familiar images of God and Israel. He takes metaphor to the next level. His statement, ‘I am the gate for the sheep’ creates all sorts of resonances. Whilst I know that many people in the world do not see Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, surely even for the most cynical it is hard to deny that Jesus had a genius with words. For me, the statement ‘I am the gate for the sheep’, is an example of his brilliance, full of possibility and strangeness. What on earth was he talking about?

If concepts of sheep and shepherds feel a little distant to some, the idea of a gate is surely immediate and contemporary. It is something both everyday and somewhat comforting, yet at the same time it has complex and troubling resonances for our divided world. ‘Gates’ can make us think about beautiful gardens, but they can also bring uncertainty and concern. ‘Gates’ also have implications of boundaries, they can mark the line between what counts as ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ or ‘public’ and ‘private’. Sometimes we need a security code to get through a gate, if we lack the code we cannot gain access. Increasingly, we seem to live in ‘partitioned’ communities.

It would seem that we live in a time where barriers, gates, walls - all of those things that act as boundary markers - seem to have become cultural and political issues, even weapons. Some politicians seem keen to erect physical walls along borders or feel the need to police ever more ruthlessly, the attempts of some to cross sea and land borders in search of a different, better or safer life. This week’s elections will see thousands disenfranchised by the need to provide specific photo ID they don’t have, whilst those who proposed this idea refuse to allow identity cards which would solve this problem because ID cards don’t fit with their political beliefs. The boundaries of inside/outside or public/private are increasingly policed. In 2023, ‘gates’ have a social or political significance.

So when Jesus says, ‘I am the gate for the sheep’, some may, in the light of modern political obsessions, see him as the gatekeeper who polices the boundary between those who are in God’s kingdom or God’s Church and those who are beyond the pale. Can this be right? Is Jesus really a security guard, policing a protected area?

I don’t think so. He is not a gate that requires a security code or pass or any other kind of special access. To the disappointment of some, no doubt, he does not represent some elite club. He is the Son of God, who wants everybody to have abundant life. To have it, one simply needs to meet him and trust.

I suspect we could all come up with a list of threats to our own flourishing. Our society holds within it the capacity to be as exploitative as any other in history, including Jesus’. Sadly, in our society, as much as in Jesus’ time, there are those who wish to take advantage of us and lead us away from what makes for a good and full life, open to all.

When we come into relationship with Jesus, we enter a place of welcome and safety where those who would exploit and abuse us cannot come. He offers not only a safe place to rest, the sheepfold, but total freedom to come and go into abundant pasture. This is Jesus not as gatekeeper, but as the one who genuinely brings the fullness of life, accessible to all. ‘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.’

With every blessing,

Christian