Sunday Meditation: The Gatekeeper of the Sheep

Are you a smelly sheep like I am?  The Fourth Sunday of Easter is for you then.

 

Jesus said:

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate

but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,

as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has driven out all his own,

he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,

because they recognize his voice.

But they will not follow a stranger;

they will run away from him,

because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."

Although Jesus used this figure of speech,

the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

 

So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,

I am the gate for the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved,

and will come in and go out and find pasture.

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."                Jn 10:1-10

Jesus is the Good Shepherd and I in my fleshy stupidity truly feel like a sheep needing to be shepherd.  I like Brant Pitre’s exegesis on this passage.

 

Did you know about the connection to that passage from Ezekiel?  I didn’t.  Now that is enlightening.  That is a thorough explanation of the passage, and so it seems that this line, which catches my attention and seems to stick out of place, now makes sense:

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly." 

Take a moment to meditate on that.