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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent
Meditation for April 9th
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reading: John 10:1-18
‘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.’
Meditation by Jeremy O’Neill
Although many may recognize this passage of Jesus’s “sheep discourse” in John, it is certainly not one of Jesus’s most clear and concise moments of teaching. Jesus tells the disciples that he is both the gate and the shepherd. How can he be both an inanimate object as well as a person? The easy answer is that he is Jesus and Jesus is full of contradictions, but it might be more helpful to think of it as a metaphor for the different ways Christ is present in our lives.
As the gate, he is responsible for keeping the sheep in line but also for protection, hence the warning of those who might enter by other means. This is meant to serve not as a literal guide for how to keep a flock but as a call to beware of those who might try to put themselves in the position of Christ. Our lives are full of people telling us how to be, what to consume, who to love and so many other judgements. But these human judgements do not measure up to the judgement of Christ. Ultimately, we are more accountable to a higher power than we are to societal expectations, and we must remember that the Good Shepherd is always watching out for us.
That being said, many of Christ’s guidelines have to do with how to be in relationship with one another - one of the principal jobs of the shepherd is to make sure that the sheep are treating each other well. But Christ’s role is not simply as a disciplinarian who makes sure we don’t wander too far away from the flock. The best thing the Good Shepherd does is lay down his life for his friends.
This profound act of love is what we have to look forward to in the celebration of Easter. God loved the world and loved us so much that he sent Christ to die for us. Even as we are directionless sheep wandering in the wilderness, we are never far from Christ’s love. Jesus is willing to lay down his life for us, and this is cause for celebration.
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