“Jesus the Good…Gate?”
Preached Sunday, April 30, 2023
Let’s start today’s sermon with an English lesson….Okay, I wasn’t sure what your reaction would be to that. Who liked English class? Who didn’t?
Alright, either way - bear with me.
Now, for the start of our English class - what is a metaphor? (answers)
That’s right, a metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated.
Can anyone give me any examples of metaphors? (answers)
Life is a highway, she has a heart of gold, he is a tall drink of water…
Okay, second part of our English class - what is a mixed metaphor? (answers)
So a mixed metaphor is when you take several metaphors and use them together in a way that would make no sense given a literal reading.
This one is a little harder but can anyone give me an example of a mixed metaphor? (answers)
Mixed metaphors are things like: “When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm.” “We need to iron out the bottlenecks.” “I’ll be here until the cows come to roost.” We…kind of know what they mean, right? Cause we’re familiar with all these metaphors, but when you put them together, they don’t really make any literal sense.
Now, let’s switch over from English class to theology class: What are some of your favorite metaphors for God? (answers)
What about God as Fortress, God as Mother Hen, God as Gardener, Holy Spirit as Dove, Wind, Fire, Jesus as Brother, Friend…
So now, more English class meeting theology class, what does it mean to say all language for God is metaphorical? I’ll go ahead and answer that one on my own: All the ways we talk about God are metaphors because there is no finite human language that can fully encapsulate an infinite God. Metaphors get to the sense of the thing…but they don’t fully get the thing. And we want to know God and relate to God, to this holy Divine mystery which we can barely begin to grasp knowledge of…and so we use metaphor, to understand God in terms of what we know.
And so, in a way, all language for God is also a mixed metaphor as God is all these things, and more, at once. And today’s Gospel text is certainly a mixed metaphor. In it Jesus calls himself the gate, the shepherd, and the gatekeeper - all in the same metaphor. So he is the gate, the one who opens the gate, and the one who walks through the gate… And then we get this really really great line of Scripture:
“Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”
Well, duh! Jesus, your mixed metaphors are confusing and any English teacher would have taken points off your writing assignment had you turned this in! I am the gate, the gatekeeper, and the Shepherd. Huh?
This passage of Scripture today is confusing so I don’t want my sermon to muddy the waters anymore so I am going to come right out and tell you what I want you to hear for today’s sermon takeaway:
Our God is always bigger and more than one thing. Our God cannot be contained in any one figure of speech or metaphor or idea of what or who God is. Our God can’t even be contained by as many metaphors and descriptions that our finite minds could ever come up with in the course of our lifetimes. And anytime we get content with our image of God, when we get comfortable with who we’ve decided God is to us, it is then that we should challenge ourselves and each other to expand our view of God.
Let’s take today’s Gospel lesson and sermon for example - Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It always is the fourth Sunday after Easter, where we focus on texts from Scripture that use this metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. From the 23rd Psalm, and partially in our Gospel lesson today. The famous “I am the Good Shepherd” is actually the very next line after today’s Scripture reading ends but still Jesus in today’s reading is calling himself the Shepherd who calls the sheep by name and they know his voice. And there are other Scriptures throughout the Bible that refer to Jesus as the Shepherd.
Jesus as Shepherd, as the Good Shepherd, is certainly a metaphor for God that sits comfortably with us and is comforting to us. And there is nothing wrong with that! I’m not saying to give up metaphors for God that are meaningful to us. The metaphor of God as the Good Shepherd is a deeply meaningful and beautiful one. And today, we won’t be diving into it more deeply because we have done so in the past and I am sure there will be occasions to do so in the future…so what about the other metaphors in this Gospel passage?
If I’m being honest with you this morning, I would admit that the metaphors of Jesus as the Gate/Gatekeeper make me deeply uncomfortable. So much so that I debated just…skipping over this passage for today. Maybe preaching on the 23rd Psalm or the Epistle lesson…anything else so I wouldn’t have to touch Jesus as Gate with a ten foot pole…Which is exactly why I pushed myself to preach on this passage and to expand my understanding of and metaphors for God.
Now, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as gate because I have primarily heard it used in an extremely exclusivist way. Used in a way to close all other dialogue or even, combined with a misuse of the thieves and bandits line, used in an anti-Semitic way against our Jewish siblings.
But, here’s what I found out when I dived deeper into the metaphor of Jesus as the Gate…The passage immediately before this in Scripture, is Jesus healing a blind man. You might remember him from a couple months ago during Lent. He’s the man who, upon seeing him blind, the disciples asked the wrong question of “Who sinned?” and upon seeing him healed, the Pharisees never believed he was blind in the first place and the Scripture says, “they drove him out.” Outside of the community. Outside of the gate.
And then Jesus says… “I am the gate.” In other words - you can’t exclude this man. You can’t exclude anyone. Because I am the gate and you may shove people out, but I invite them all in, through me, to an abundant life. This blind man had never known a place to call home, a community that accepted him, and Jesus is now offering that to him and making it clear that through him, there is always room to come and enter abundant life.
And in the passage right after this, Jesus says “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Which works against using Jesus as gate in exclusivist terms.
I’ve also seen Jesus as the gate as the protector of his sheepfold - such as when Jesus and disciples were praying in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus the Gate stood between his disciples and the arresting soldiers, protecting them and keeping them safe in the garden.
AND gates are not like doors - you can see through them. And this made me think of, and excuse me for throwing another metaphor into the mix, sieves. That Jesus as the Gate is the sieve (hello mixed metaphor) that helps us filter out all the things in our lives and world that keeps us from abundant life.
So Jesus as the Gate is Jesus as the one who invites all who have been excluded into abundant life, Jesus as the Gate is the one who protects those who follow him, and Jesus as the Gate is the one who filters out that which keeps us from abundant life.
In conclusion, for me, by pushing myself to dive into a new metaphor for God, by challenging myself to expand my view of God, I now understand God just a little bit more - I’ve gained an understanding of Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd…but as the Good Gate too - mixed metaphors and all. And perhaps you have too.
May all of us ever strive to know God better, to dive deeper, to claim new metaphors, and to never stop seeking to know God more.
Amen.
Our God is always bigger and more than one thing. Our God cannot be contained in any one figure of speech or metaphor or idea of what or who God is. Our God can’t even be contained by as many metaphors and descriptions that our finite minds could ever come up with in the course of our lifetimes. And anytime we get content with our image of God, when we get comfortable with who we’ve decided God is to us, it is then that we should challenge ourselves and each other to expand our view of God.
Let’s take today’s Gospel lesson and sermon for example - Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It always is the fourth Sunday after Easter, where we focus on texts from Scripture that use this metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. From the 23rd Psalm, and partially in our Gospel lesson today. The famous “I am the Good Shepherd” is actually the very next line after today’s Scripture reading ends but still Jesus in today’s reading is calling himself the Shepherd who calls the sheep by name and they know his voice. And there are other Scriptures throughout the Bible that refer to Jesus as the Shepherd.
Jesus as Shepherd, as the Good Shepherd, is certainly a metaphor for God that sits comfortably with us and is comforting to us. And there is nothing wrong with that! I’m not saying to give up metaphors for God that are meaningful to us. The metaphor of God as the Good Shepherd is a deeply meaningful and beautiful one. And today, we won’t be diving into it more deeply because we have done so in the past and I am sure there will be occasions to do so in the future…so what about the other metaphors in this Gospel passage?
If I’m being honest with you this morning, I would admit that the metaphors of Jesus as the Gate/Gatekeeper make me deeply uncomfortable. So much so that I debated just…skipping over this passage for today. Maybe preaching on the 23rd Psalm or the Epistle lesson…anything else so I wouldn’t have to touch Jesus as Gate with a ten foot pole…Which is exactly why I pushed myself to preach on this passage and to expand my understanding of and metaphors for God.
Now, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as gate because I have primarily heard it used in an extremely exclusivist way. Used in a way to close all other dialogue or even, combined with a misuse of the thieves and bandits line, used in an anti-Semitic way against our Jewish siblings.
But, here’s what I found out when I dived deeper into the metaphor of Jesus as the Gate…The passage immediately before this in Scripture, is Jesus healing a blind man. You might remember him from a couple months ago during Lent. He’s the man who, upon seeing him blind, the disciples asked the wrong question of “Who sinned?” and upon seeing him healed, the Pharisees never believed he was blind in the first place and the Scripture says, “they drove him out.” Outside of the community. Outside of the gate.
And then Jesus says… “I am the gate.” In other words - you can’t exclude this man. You can’t exclude anyone. Because I am the gate and you may shove people out, but I invite them all in, through me, to an abundant life. This blind man had never known a place to call home, a community that accepted him, and Jesus is now offering that to him and making it clear that through him, there is always room to come and enter abundant life.
And in the passage right after this, Jesus says “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Which works against using Jesus as gate in exclusivist terms.
I’ve also seen Jesus as the gate as the protector of his sheepfold - such as when Jesus and disciples were praying in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus the Gate stood between his disciples and the arresting soldiers, protecting them and keeping them safe in the garden.
AND gates are not like doors - you can see through them. And this made me think of, and excuse me for throwing another metaphor into the mix, sieves. That Jesus as the Gate is the sieve (hello mixed metaphor) that helps us filter out all the things in our lives and world that keeps us from abundant life.
So Jesus as the Gate is Jesus as the one who invites all who have been excluded into abundant life, Jesus as the Gate is the one who protects those who follow him, and Jesus as the Gate is the one who filters out that which keeps us from abundant life.
In conclusion, for me, by pushing myself to dive into a new metaphor for God, by challenging myself to expand my view of God, I now understand God just a little bit more - I’ve gained an understanding of Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd…but as the Good Gate too - mixed metaphors and all. And perhaps you have too.
May all of us ever strive to know God better, to dive deeper, to claim new metaphors, and to never stop seeking to know God more.
Amen.
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