The Door That Is a Man

Fourth Sunday of Easter

May 11, 2014

John 10

The Door That Is a Man

In the name of Jesus.

I.

If you have a job where there are doors that can talk to you, then you probably can't talk about it. Movies show us high-tech doors that scan your retina or your hand print or your voice before opening for the right people.

But the more high-tech the door, the easier to get in. Think about all those movies with the fancy door. Why was the door in the movie? Because the wrong people were successfully breaking into it.

Never has the threat and reality of identity theft been greater. I'll bet you have ten, twenty, thirty or more passwords. That seems secure, but you live in fear of having your life invaded by thieves and robbers.

II.

Doors in Jesus' day were much less fancy, and much harder to trick. In His day sheep usually spent the night outdoors inside a circular wall of rocks. The door wasn't really a door; it was just an opening in the wall. And this opening is where the shepherd slept. There wasn't a door or gate of wood or iron. He was the door.

John 10:7-10

I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

With Jesus it's simple. He's the door. You're the sheep.

You didn't want to go in.

You didn't want to follow Him.

But He called with His voice and you became one of His sheep and you follow Him. You learn His voice and enter safely into His fold. You know His voice and follow Him out into the world.

III.

Because Jesus is the only way in, the only door, this coming in and going out is an apt description of our lives that follow Jesus.

We come through the Door, through Jesus, through His voice calling you in Holy Baptism. And so you come into the Church to hear His voice calling you to repent and to receive His forgiveness. He calls you to remember our first mother Eve who rebelled against His voice. Then through God's voice she came to trust that her Savior was coming into the world to save her. He calls you to remember His mother Mary who trusted His promise that she would give birth to her Savior from her sin. And He calls you to remember His violent and shameful death on the cross. This is where He laid down His life for His sheep, for you. Jesus predicted His own death that would destroy the power of Death, saying,

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

IV.

Jesus' dear sisters receive great comfort in His voice. Whether they are mothers with children, mothers without husbands, women without husbands, wives without children, or widows whose children have grown up, they hear the voice of the Door that opens for them, and they are glad, even though they may be weeping and sad.

You, dear sisters, come in and go out by the Door who is the Man. He opens for you.

Why?

Because He knows you.

Come in and go out by hearing His voice in Word and Sacrament this morning. Come in and go out by hearing His voice in your prayers at home.

Our man-made doors break and can be tricked. And we often run into the our own doors that we make ourselves. We trust in our children or our husbands or our independence. We trust in the belief that Jesus wants us to be lonely by depriving us of good families. These doors lead to empty rooms without any promise.

And then we hear Him. Our Door to life calls us, sometimes sternly with a rebuke, but often gently with His sweet voice that says, “You have entered by Me and you are saved. I have come to make you alive and have life to the full.” This full life is only in Jesus.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.