Day 161: Following the Prime Example

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."  John 10:1-3

This passage spoke to me while I was reading today.

It made me think about all the different scams that we encounter these days.  It reminded me about the adage: it's too good to be true.  Just at its base value, the above passage can be applied to almost everything in life.  When we take shortcuts, we will not get what we want.  When we steal and lie to get to a position of power, the people under us aren't going to listen.

As I read further, I started thinking about how this passage applies to our churches today.  It reminded me of the fact that a life of faith isn't meant to be easy.  It's not about self-harm, but at the same time, it's not going to be a walk in the park.  But, at the same time, we have many out there who preach that everything is going to be easy, that to have money is to be blessed and to be poor is to be cursed.  There are some who have continued the rude tradition of preaching that to be sick or to be disabled in any way is to be cursed by God for any number of reasons.  Once again, the above passage shows us that it's not about breaking through the window or going through the open back door that will bring us to salvation; it's finding our way to the door that will.

Again, I realized another important fact by reading this above passage: we have a savior who is our true shepherd.  For the longest time, I didn't feel much whenever people would repeat the phrase, "Jesus is the good shepherd."  What does that have to do with me?  I certainly don't work on a farm, and I don't see myself doing that anytime soon.  Even more, nobody would care to explain that to me.  I'd just hear that same phrase over and over again.  In my reading today, I learned that Jesus is our good shepherd not because he rules over us and oppresses us with his supreme authority but because he has gone through everything that we will face in life, and he continues to go through all of that with us today, right now.  This passage is a great explanation because it uses a metaphor that is so good for us.  Jesus, the shepherd, walks through the same door that we walk through.  Jesus walks with us.  Rather than just appearing out of nowhere in the sheepfold, Jesus walks the same way we do, and he leads us.  It's up to us if we want to follow the person who has gone through that door and knows what lies beyond or the ones who just appear there for a moment and then jump the fence to escape.