We’re very used to hearing Jesus compare himself to a shepherd, talking about “his sheep”, and so on. At first we might think today’s reading from John’s gospel (Jn 10:1-10) is another one of these accounts.
But it’s actually rather different. In this case Jesus is not casting himself as the shepherd caring for his flock. His metaphor is a bit more obscure – he’s referring to himself the gate, the way in and out of the sheep pen. This may put us in mind of another, better recognized, saying of Jesus: “I am the way (and the truth and the life)” (Jn 14:6). This is Jesus as the link, the point of connection, between us and the Father.
The fact that Jesus is described as telling this story to the Pharisees is significant. The caring leader, described as a shepherd – this is not a new concept. The idea of God as a shepherd – the shepherd of Israel, the shepherd leading us by restful waters, etc – that was very familiar before Jesus. It might be shocking that Jesus would claim equivalence with God via his assumption of the role of shepherd, but it was easily understood. However the metaphor of Jesus as the gateway was radical in a different way. That was why the Pharisees didn’t understand it at all.
For the Pharisees, and for any devout Jew, the way to God was via the Law. That was the whole point of the Law, and why it was God’s great gift to the people of Israel. It was the way God had made connection with His people, and through the Law the people were connected back to their God. For sure there could be arguments about what exactly the Law required, or what the consequences were if one diverged from the Law, but the fundamental, structural, role of the Law in the relationship between God and his people was absolutely foundational. And it is this foundation that Jesus is upending. It is not the Law that makes the connection between God and his people, but Jesus himself. A person, not a set of precepts. This wasn’t blasphemous, as Jesus’ claim to be shepherd might be considered – horrendous, but comprehensible. This was so radical as to be incomprehensible: “the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them”.
We are not particularly troubled or challenged by this example of Jesus’ radicalism. In part the Christian church moved on so rapidly from the centrality of the Law because Paul finished the demolition job so thoroughly. But we should perhaps be careful in moving on too quickly or thoughtlessly. The Church has often sought to place laws, systems of definition and control, at the center of its mission and identity. But what Jesus taught is that our relationship with God is not based of that sort of framework, but on personal relationships – most fundamentally on the relationship he has with the Father on the one hand, and with us on the other. Only through him can the sheep move between the safety of the sheepfold and the pasture where they can eat. Only through him can we live in the world, as we must, and also live in the Kingdom.