Jesus said, “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.” And later he says in vv. 27-28, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” When we of the well-churched variety hear those words we like Pavlov's dog are conditioned to think it's about that pop-Christian gospel which says if you make the self-saving decision to believe the right things about Jesus, your immortal soul will go to spend eternity in Heaven when you die.
Well, there’s a problem when we hear these passages that way – basically, we miss what Jesus is actually saying. He is not talking here about what happens to us after we die. He is talking about our life in him right now. Yes, Jesus says that whoever enters through, with, and by means of him will be saved, but saved doesn’t necessarily have to mean “going to heaven when you die.”
A better way to think of these passages that fits more with the context of this whole passage is that whoever enters through, with, and by means of Jesus will be kept safe. Jesus is the gate by which the sheep come safely into the fold and safely go out to find pasture. He is also the shepherd who keeps them safe, safe from thieves while they are in the fold and from the wolves while they are at pasture. He is both the gate and the good shepherd of the flock. Safe keeping in life for his followers, for us, is at the heart of what Jesus is getting at here. You see, God’s people at that time were not being well kept and protected by those who were shepherding them and keeping the gate so to speak.
Something we need to take into account here is that Jesus is saying all this Good Shepherd and Gate stuff in the context of a dispute with the religious authorities particularly the Pharisees. The dispute was over who can be included in the people of God. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, a man who had been born blind. The religious authorities back then believed that because this man was born blind he was utterly cursed, born punished by God for terrible, secret sins committed by his parents. So, they wanted to know who had done this act of healing, this work, on the Sabbath. They just couldn’t see, couldn’t perceive that God was present and at work in their midst. Well, they had the man brought before them, put him through the 10thdegree and in the end they drove him out of the synagogue making the verdict that only someone working by the power of the devil could have healed a man so cursed on the Sabbath. They were totally wrong so Jesus calls them blind themselves because they could not see who he was or that the healing was an act of God. They were thieves, wolves, the hired hand Jesus refers to and that man, a healed child of God, was not safe among them.
In response to the failings of the Pharisees, if I might understate it that way, Jesus begins to explain that he is the gate by which people can find the blessed life, the abundant life, that God promised to his people and that begs the question, “What is abundant life?”. If we were to get our definition for it from the context of Jesus’ healing this blind man on the Sabbath, then life abundant has something to do with participating in God's own Sabbath rest, God’s reposing over his good Creation and saying “This is the way it’s supposed to be.” Also, because this healing was of a man utterly cut off from community, we can say that abundant life has something to do with restoration to full human dignity and community. And, from the way Jesus came to the defence of the man, we can say that abundant life has something to do with being kept safe from those who would destroy our faith and relationship with God in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Finally, as Jesus is the Gate, this abundant and eternal life is only available in, through, and as Jesus Christ. So, abundant life, eternal life is healing, rest, restored dignity, true community, and safety and it’s all available in fellowship with Jesus.
If we want to take another passage into account, in John 17:3 Jesus blatantly defines eternal life saying, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life, life abundant is rooted in a relationship with God in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit and it is available to us now.
When I think of what this abundant and eternal life looks like in real life, I think of the description of the common life that the early church shared as it’s described in Acts 2:42-47, which reads: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
The abundant life is the common life of Christian community. It is filled with worship, sharing meals, sharing our stuff so that none of us has need. It's life gathered around the table to learn, eat, pray and to share in the Lord's Supper. It is life filled with awe where God frequently does signs and wonders that point us towards the day when he puts all things to rights. It is life filled with hospitality as the Lord brings more and more people to himself through the community of faith and we welcome them in his name.
Abundant and eternal life is the fellowship that grows when Christians get together and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is in our midst. Jesus is the gate to human community that is filled with the communion of God the Trinity. Community filled with God's own fellowship is what Jesus in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit creates and safeguards among us forever. Abundant community filled with the presence of God is what the Christian faith is all about.
So to wrap it up, this passage isn't about dying and going to heaven. It is about the fellowship that God has placed here in our midst of our congregations. I think this is something we have become acutely aware of the last couple of weeks here in social isolation both as we have stepped up to help and look out for one another but also as we find ourselves longing to see each other and worship and fellowship together. As God is being-in-communion, (you know the loving communion of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Three-in-One/One-in-Three) so community in his image is what we as congregations are all about. The way we love one another is the face of God to the world. As small congregations, we are intensely relational in nature and this can be our boon or our bane. Large congregations have to work real hard to have the sense of community that comes easy but so also we can be hard for new people to settle into. Regardless, the abundant life, eternal life is in our midst at present, right now. Oddly, I’m sneakily suspicious that this time that we are having to abstain from gathering together will only serve to strengthen our bond in Christ. If that’s the case, then it may just awaken our surrounding communities to come looking for the abundant life that’s here in Christ. That’s my hope. That’s my prayer. Amen.
