3rd Saturday of Lent (March 14). Come in and go out

Prepare to Listen.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
 
Prayerfully Read John 10:7-10
7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  8All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them.  9I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.  10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
“I am the gate.”  I once thought this meant that Jesus is the entrance to heaven.  If I go through Jesus, I’m set for all eternity.  End of story.
 
I wasn’t paying attention to the passage or thinking about the “universally evocative symbol” of gate.[1]  We all know gates; they take us from one place into another.  When we can’t see what’s behind the gate, we’re intrigued and want to discover.  Jesus invites us to walk through him, and discover.  We’ll discover that, “Whoever enters will be saved.”  Before you conclude I was right about going to heaven, keep reading.  Jesus added, “and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  In and out!  This isn’t a future reality after we die.  It’s about now and we don’t enter a prison.  We are free to go in and out whenever we want.
 
Being saved, as Jesus used it here, has to do with being safe and secure, unafraid of the thief and bandit who steal, kill, destroy, lead us astray.  A heaven-when-I-die concept of salvation, isn’t helpful for living in the present on earth.  I lived with fear, not security, always afraid I’d be deceived and led by the “thieves and bandits.”  I avoided people whose morals were suspect, and books that didn’t support my biblical interpretations.  I lived in a prison, never free to go in and out because of my many fears.  I hadn’t entered through Jesus’ gate.
 
That wasn’t the end of the story for me.  One day I did enter the Jesus gate and discovered fulness of life in the freedom to go in and out and find the good pasture promised by God.[2]  Have you discovered this freedom and God’s good pasture?  Tell that story.
 
Prayerfully Respond
Jesus, the Gate, thank you for freedom to come in and go out, knowing I’m safe and secure in your salvation.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Freely and often come in and go out.
[1] Newbigin, Lesslie.  The Light Has Come.  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.  1982, p. 127.
[2] Ezekiel 34:14.