The Door to Eternal Life – Easter 4

The Door to Eternal Life

Easter 4 T John 10:1-10

INI

A couple weeks back, Pope Leo the fourteenth was before a crowd of Catholics and Muslims gathered at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa. And he said something pretty controversial. He said that the Muslim and Catholic faiths had common ground with one another – and that communion and unity between the two faiths was shared through Mary. He said her “maternal love” acts as a bridge between two faiths to be brought before God.

Sounds nice doesn’t it? Many different ways to get to God? Surely that will promote the kind of peace that Jesus was about, right?

Afterall, why does it have to be exclusively through the Christian Gospel that one finds peace with God? Can’t anyone get to God through their own means, their own method, because aren’t we all made in his image anyway?

That’s definitely the spirit of our age. And it sounds like compassion to our ears. It sounds humble, peaceful, tolerant. It sounds nice to our itching ears.

But today is Good Shepherd Sunday. So instead of asking what sounds good to us, what does Jesus say?

He says “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture (John 10:7).” Jesus says, “Come through me.” Not Mary. Mary’s maternal love isn’t the gate to enter into the green pastures of paradise. Neither is my sincerity. Not MY peace or tolerance. Not my good works or good intentions.

Jesus is the door to God for the sheep. And He alone. And by going through that door, true peace is found, true humility, true transformation to be like Christ, our Good Shepherd.

            Our Gospel text comes right after Jesus healed the man born blind in John chapter 9. After Jesus healed that man, he confessed that Jesus was from God. That He is the prophesied Son of Man. And for that confession, the Pharisees kicked him out of the Temple – the place where God promised to dwell. And its right after that that Jesus starts talking about sheep, shepherds, and doors.

            This is to say, Jesus is explaining what just happened. The Pharisees thought they were the true shepherds of Israel. They thought they knew the RIGHT way to get to God – and that it would always and forever be through the Temple in Jerusalem. And that they were the gatekeepers to who was given access and who wasn’t.

            But here in this text, Jesus corrects their misunderstanding, and explains the true spiritual realities. He says, “The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep… the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” And that just happened – Jesus entered the Temple gate, and called the blind man out. The blind man heard the voice of Jesus and followed Him.

            As a result, the blind man was cast out of the Temple – the place of God’s presence. But in reality, he was closer to THE DOOR that gave access to God. Because he followed the voice of the Good Shepherd. He was numbered with His flock, even though it cost him something.

And the same is true for us. Faithfulness to Christ will cost you something. Whether it’s approval, or a relationship, or a convenient situation, or your reputation. But the suffering you endure is on account of the confession of Jesus – that He is the exclusive door through which mankind enters to have eternal life. And by following His voice spoken and preached through the Scriptures, you crucify your desires, the way YOU want to live, and rise to new life, looking more and more like Him in what you say and do. And if you should suffer for being like Christ, or for preaching the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, then any suffering is counted as a gracious thing in God’s sight – which we heard this morning from Peter’s epistle.

            So, the teaching that Jesus is the only way to heaven isn’t just an abrasive teaching that flies in the face of sensitivities. It’s a necessary teaching to the Gospel itself. Anything outside of it is a false teaching. Jesus makes that clear in verse 7 “I am the door of the sheep. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers… the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.”

            And that’s the truth. Jesus is the door. And doors are exclusive by nature. A door isn’t one of many options to get into another room. It’s the only way in. And Jesus leaves no other alternatives.

Later in John 14, Jesus double down. He says “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” So, Jesus makes it clear – there aren’t many paths to God. There’s one door. And that door is Jesus.

Now, that’s offensive to our world. Because it sounds too exclusive, too narrow, too unloving and intolerant. But think of it this way – if a house is on fire, and there’s only one door to go through to get out of the fire, it’s not loving to tell people to “find your own way.” It’s loving to say “Go through this door. This is the only way to get out of the burning building!”

And that’s what Jesus is teaching here. He says “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:7,10).”

Luther once said, to the effect, there’s only two religions in the world – the religion of works or the religion of grace. The religion of works says “do better. Do more. Try harder. Impress God and others with your life. Be more this, or that. And only when you perform, God will love you or listen to you.

But none of those things are the door through which we enter into eternal life. Only Christ is the door that opens to eternal life.

And He embodies the religion of grace, which says something entirely different. It says, “It is finished.” Christ has taken your sin, and His righteousness is given as a gift. The Father’s favor isn’t earned by you – it’s given to you, through His Son.

So, the question is this: what other gates do we try to go through to access the Father? Do we invent some other version of the religion of works? Do we try and build another gate through which we pass into eternity?

What does Jesus have to say about others that ignore Jesus as the gate, and try to sneak into the sheepfold in some other way? He warns, “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber (Jn 10:1).”

            In the immediate context, Jesus’ referent is the Pharisees who kicked the blind man out of the Temple. They were trying to lead the sheep by another way – a way not grounded in the mercy of God given through His Son Jesus. That’s why they kicked the blind man out – because of his confession.  And the sin that remained was not the blind man’s – the sin was the Pharisee’s unbelief. They sought salvation by another way, another gate.

            And even still today, that sin remains. By showing union between Muslims and Catholics through the Virgin Mary, and that its HER love which unites, the Pope offers a false hope, a false Gospel. For he leads people away from seeing Mary’s SON – Jesus – as the only author for godly peace, as the only gate through which we have access to God.

            All throughout the Scriptures, we’re warned about such false teachers. Jesus says “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-16).” And Peter warns “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction (2 Peter 2:1).”

This means, we must be discerning. We must learn which voices come from the Good Shepherd, and which voices come from wolves in sheep’s clothing. There’s many different voices in the world that all claim God’s authority – how will we know which ones are right?

Here are some questions that we can ask to help in discernment – Does this teaching point me to Christ, or to myself? Does this teaching comfort my repentant conscience with the forgiveness of sins, or does it leave me wondering if I need to do more?  Does this teaching agree with the clear words of Scripture, or does it soften the blow, or reinterpret what the plain words say? Does this teaching drive me to find God in the promises He’s instituted – like Word and Sacrament – or does it direct me to find God outside of His promises? Does this teaching distinguish Law and Gospel – showing me my sin and not letting me off the hook – but also when repentance and confession happens, is Christ actually given? Or does it confuse the two and leave me burdened?

These questions are important. Because discernment isn’t just about avoiding false teaching – it’s about actually being brought to Christ.

And here’s the comfort in all this – Jesus doesn’t just tell us where the door is. He IS the door. He’s the shepherd who calls you by name in your Baptism. He’s the one who was cast outside of the Jerusalem city, so that you’d never be cast out from the presence of God. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” That’s why His voice matters. Because to follow it, is to enter through the gates to eternal life.

So today, hear Him. Not the voices that promise a peace without the wounds of Christ. But the voice of your Shepherd. The one who calls you to Himself, to receive Him through Word and Sacrament.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston