Door

“Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:1).

The Good Shepherd (Ancient)

When we hear the words that Christ is the Good Shepherd, most often we think of someone who sits around watching sheep all day while having a picnic lunch by a stream and enjoying the pastural landscape.

But sheep are not really like that and shepherds have much more to do other than sit around idly all day…

“Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep... I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’” (John 10:1-10).

You see, sheep are actually incredibly stupid animals.  They do not understand what they should be afraid of.  They do not know how to lead the way (and the flock needs to be led).  They do not learn easily.  And if their lack of intelligence was not enough of problem for sheep, sheep literally cannot survive on their own in the wild.  You see sheep need to be shorn.  If a sheep is not shorn, their wool will continue to grow until it literally blocks their mouth preventing them from eating and weighs them down so that they are crushed under its weight, suffocating them.

Understanding this about sheep makes it a little more significant when Christ told the parable of the Good Shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one that was lost.  You see, the Good Shepherd was not only rescuing a wayward sheep from a bit of discomfort, he was rescuing it from a slow and painful death by starvation and suffocation over a period of years.  He was rescuing it from predators that it would not even recognise and would certainly have no defence against!  And furthermore, he was committing to the work of shearing that sheep all the days of its life, even knowing that it might wander off again one day and he would need to leave the others to search for it….

And shearing sheep is not easy.  Sheep shearing is incredibly demanding work today – and we use electric shearers, but twenty centuries ago it was even harder work!  The sheep must be wrestled into position and held in place.  The shearer must bend over the sheep and trim its wool without cutting it or harming it while it wriggles and moves.  And the shearer must repeat this multiple times per year and on all the sheep in his flock.  He cannot ignore one of them that is annoying.  If there is a feisty sheep who moves around more, or if the shearer has hurt his back, still he must shear the sheep because without that shearing the sheep will be come sick and die…  And the work is heavy, hot and intense.

But there is more to the parable than that.  You see, Christ said that the Good Shepherd is the DOOR of the sheep.  This does not mean much to us in a modern sense, but historically, the shepherd could not leave the sheep even for a short while.  The shepherd was required to stay with the sheep day and night.  You see, there were no fenced paddocks to house the sheep while the Shepherd was away having a rest for the night in a nice warm bed…  Instead, the shepherd would move the sheep into a little pen that was bricked in each night and he would literally lie down across the doorway of the pen so that no sheep could get out and no wolves could get in. 

The Good Shepherd literally gave his entire life to the sheep to keep them safe.  He could not duck out for a party or because he was feeling unwell.  He could not leave them for an hour or so and go elsewhere to have a break or get out of the heat or because he was bored.  He spent all day with the sheep and all night too…

And that is how my Beloved is with me – all day and all night too…  Giving His life for mine, so that I will be safe!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.