The Gray Monk

4th Sunday of Easter 2005
Tewkesbury Abbey
17th April 2005

+ In the name of God the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

As a child, this story had a somewhat difficult image for me. On the one hand, I could certainly identify with the image of the pen – in Africa these are often circular enclosures made of thick thorn bush fences. Only a fool or a desperate man would attempt to go into one through any means other than the gate, unless he could make a hole in the fence itself, but only a thief would do that. On the other hand, the concept of the sheep being inclined to follow closely behind the shepherd without the aid of a dog or two to keep them together, simply did not gel with my observations of the tough and rather independent minded Merino sheep I often saw on farms we visited.

Most African shepherds in the East Cape Border Region that I knew as a child rode sturdy Basuto ponies and used dogs and whips to round them up – certainly at odds with the image given in our Gospel of a shepherd who knows his sheep by name. I very much doubt that any of the sheep I knew then had names at all! If they did they certainly kept them secret. It was not until I was older that I learned that Biblical Shepherds had a different system – and even later that I learned that they were almost pariahs in the Jewish Society of Christ’s day.

I am sure that I do not need to explain to a congregation of people living in almost rural Tewkesbury that sheep are very attention intensive. They need constant supervision and monitoring – not because they are stupid, but because they have a propensity for falling ill, dropping lambs, and generally getting into trouble which is almost unrivalled by any other animal – except us! This is why, I suspect, that our Lord chose the analogy of the Shepherd and the sheep as an image of how he cares for us and watches over us.

I would have to say that it was not until I visited the desert in Kuwait several years ago that the aspect of the Shepherd leading and the sheep following made sense, for it was there that I saw, for the first time, shepherds with their flocks in the desert. Nor will I forget how when two shepherds, having met and their flocks mingled, moved off in different directions, and a few minutes later each flock had sorted itself out and was following their own shepherd. It was a graphic and very personal reminder of this passage, one more piece of the puzzle that makes up faith that dropped into its proper place. One more thing about Our Lord’s teaching finally understood.

“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.”

The desert shepherds do indeed know their sheep – and their sheep know them. They know that when they pen the sheep for the night, and make their camp at the entrance to that pen, any who come to steal the sheep must enter at some other point; those who come to the gate, must pass the shepherd’s campfire – and desert courtesy demands that they stop and make themselves known. Thus, our Gospel says clearly, he who enters by the gate is known to the shepherd and therefore to the sheep.

Those who first heard this story probably did not realise that Jesus was speaking metaphorically; they certainly recognised the problems with the sheep and possibly the shepherd, but could not relate it to themselves. In fact it is only when we consider the sheepfold and the gateway in terms of the tomb do we really begin to understand it ourselves! Inside the fold is our present life! Outside it is the life hereafter. Christ is therefore both the shepherd tending his penned flock, and the gate to the greater life beyond!

The thief comes to steal the flock. As he cannot pass the shepherd and through the gate, he must resort to climbing over the fence – and therefore can steal only one or two at a time. Yet, being as sheep, we are also tempted to escape the fold – the grass is always greener where you are not – but our good shepherd does not simply write off his losses; being a conscientious guardian of the sheep, he follows and, when the opportunity is there, will endeavour to recover the lost or stolen sheep.

As St Peter told the Jerusalem crowd in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, “God has raised this Jesus to life” and in so doing he has changed us as well. We are now both sheep and shepherd, since in the Holy Spirit we receive also the mantle of the shepherd, and that means we have now the duty of caring for the flock as he did.

It is in that “raising to life” as well that we find the fulfilment of the statement “I am the gate”. For his resurrection is truly the gate through which we pass to eternal life. Through Jesus the Shepherd and the Gate we pass from the tomb to life, from the sheepfold to the wide open spaces of the life beyond.

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia