Our Sheepgate is Our Good Shepherd, the Father's Beloved - Shepherding Us to the Father's House

The Fourth Sunday of Paschaltide is Good Shepherd Sunday. Through the three-year-cycle of the Church’s Liturgical Calendar (Cycle A, Cycle B, Cycle C), we go over John 10 as below, reflecting what it means that Jesus is our Good Shepherd:

John 10:1-10 (A) – I am the gate for the sheep (John 10:7), and whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture (John 10:9)

John 10:11-18 (B) – I am the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, who knows his sheep and they know him (John 10:11, 14), just as the Father knows him and he knows the Father (John 10:15).

John 10:27-30 (C) – The Father and I are one (John 10:30).

First, we need to keep the contextual background of what prompted Jesus to identify himself as the Good Shepherd. In response to the blindness of those who did not believe in Jesus for his miraculous sins performed on a man born blind (John 9:1-41), Jesus spoke the Good Shepherd Discourse (John 10:1-21). And on another occasion, those who did not believe Jesus continued to attack him, accusing him for blasphemy, because Jesus explained his signs and his identity as the Good Shepherd, in his relation to the Father (John 10:21-42).

Right off the bat, Jesus rebuked those whom he called “blind” for not believing, by saying that they were like thieves and robbers who do not enter a sheepfold through its gate (John 10:1). In contrast, he said that the shepherd enters through the gate (John 10:2). And he identified the Father as the gatekeeper, who keeps the gate open for the shepherd, whose voice the sheep hears, and who call the sheep by name (John 10:3). Outside the sheepfold, the shepherd leads the sheep, who follows him (John 10:4).

Those who accused Jesus as a sinful man because of their “blindness” to the Christological truth in Jesus and his relation to the Father (John 9:16, 40-41) did not understand the contrast Jesus was making himself against them (John 10:6). This is the distinction between the true shepherd and false shepherd (i.e. Zechariah 11:4-16).

Then, Jesus first identified himself as: I am the gate for the sheep (John 10:7), and whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture (John 10:9). What does it mean that Jesus is the gate for his sheep (John 10:7)?

In juxtaposing the sheepfold (John 10:1) to the Father’s house (John 14:2), we may understand that Jesus as the gate of the Father’s sheepfold in connection to that Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:7), besides being the truth (John 14:7; cf. 14:17; 16:13; cf. 1 Corinthians 5:8) and the life (John 14:7; cf. John 1:4; 3:15; 6:33,48-49,51. 53-54, 63; cf. 10:10b).

In addition to being the sheepgate (John 10:7,9), Jesus further unfolded his Christological identity as the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11, 18).  For this Peter sees the Good Shepherd as the one who reaches out to find lost and scattered sheep, redeeming them back to his heard and who is the guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25; cf. Matthew 18:10-14)

While we, like lost and scattered sheep, wondered away from God, because of sins, God placed our guilt on Christ (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24; cf. Zechariah 13:7-9; cf. Matthew 26:31), and he, like a lamb led to the slaughter, he submitted himself to shearers (Isaiah 53:7; cf. Isaiah 50:5-6).

There is intimacy between the Good Shepherd and the sheep because he knows the sheep and they know him, just as the Father knows the Son and he knows Him (John 10:14-15). And the Good Shepherd has other sheep that he intends to bring to his fold so that they may be one with ones in the Father’s sheepfold (John 10:16; cf. John 17:20-21). These sheep that Jesus referred to are those whom he wants the disciples to evangelize and make disciples in all nations (Matthew 28:19; cf. John 14:12), bringing them in the sheepfold of the Father(i.e. Isaiah 2:2; 56:7). And this is exemplified by the works of the apostles from Jerusalem to all the ends of the earth throughout the history since the day of Pentecost.

Jesus has already expressed his intimate relation with the Father, as the gatekeeper and the shepherd (John 10:1-3), knowing each other mutually so well, projecting to his intimate relation with the sheep (John 10:14-15). This is why the sheep only listen to him and follow him (John 10:3-4). He, then, further spoke of his intimacy with the Father, who loves him for his commitment to the sheep, especially for laying down his life for them (John 10:17; cf. John 5:20; 15:10;17:24; cf. Matthew 3:17; 17:5).

This intimate love that binds the Father and Jesus the Good Shepherd is absolute and inviolable (i.e. John 19:11), and this makes it possible for him to die for the sheep and be raised by the Father’s love (John 10:18; cf. Acts 2:24; 4:10; Romans 1:4).

To this Christological revelation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the beloved shepherd by the gatekeeper, did those who were “blind” to the truth of Jesus come to believe? No. They called him “possessed” (John 10:19), as they remained “blind”.

On another occasion, during the feast of Chanukah (feast of dedication)(John 10:22), those who obstinately refused to believe instigated Jesus, demanding him to tell if he was the Messiah (Christ) or not father plainly (John 10:24).

In response, Jesus basically reiterated what he had said about himself, as the sheepgate and the Good Shepherd, who is loved by the Father, and who lays his life for the sheep, as it was the Father’s will (John 10:1-21) , summing it up in these words:

The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one (John 10:25-30).

The work of Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, as well as the sheepgate, are in the Father’s name, as they are according to His will. And they make him who he is Christologically. Those who believe and follow him – those who listen to the Good Shepherd and follow – are his sheep. And the Good Shepherd feeds them with his flesh and blood (i.e. John 6:51, 53-58) rather than grass. For he is the guardian (i.e. 1 Peter 2:25b), no one can take them from the Father. And, the Father the gatekeeper and the Son the Good Shepherd are one – in consubstantial hypostatic union, being in perfect homoousios -sharing the same “οὐσία/ousia”(substance, essence).

The Good Shepherd works for his sheep, the Father’s sheep, to keep them as one with him, just as he is one with the Father. And this oneness with Christ the Good Shepherd, as the Father and he are one, makes him the gate to and the way the Father and His house. For this, he is our guardian, assuring that we have eternal life as long as we listen to him and follow him obediently, just as he is so to the Father.

We are so grateful to God for having sent us the Good Shepherd out of His love (i.e. John 3:16). Now he is shepherding us to the Father, and we have nothing to fear, trusting our Good Shepherd, as reflected in Psalm 23.