Shamar the Holidays 4

John 10:7-10

Our children, like most, had some rules to follow at our house. Don’t go out in the street. Don’t go where I can’t see you. Stay away from the electric fence, and so on. These rules put limits and boundaries on our children, but they were not intended to be limits to their fun. Rather, these limits were meant to ensure good health and long life. Some people hate rules and can’t always see the benefits of the limitations.

Jesus has encountered some criticism and resistance to his teachings and healings (what else is new?) and so offers the response of today’s reading. To what does Jesus compare himself? To what does he compare the false teachers and leaders from before? What are the benefits (verse 9 and 10) to living within the confines of Christ?

Many non-believers criticize Christianity by claiming that it is a religion of restriction and criticism. What they misunderstand is that these erroneous attitudes are the wrong attitudes of some religious people, people who rob and steal the joy of life from others. They are not the true intent of God.

By his own words Jesus describes himself as the gate for the sheep. He is that entry point, that access, to a life that is filled with goodness and joy. Like a gate in a sheepfold, it is a passage from an unsafe place to a safe sanctuary.

By accepting Jesus as our Lord and Master, by living according to his teaching and by observing the commandments of God, we are brought from a life of emptiness and spiritual peril. We are brought into a new life, a life of God’s love, forgiveness and mercy.

And as we live within the confines of God’s laws, as we live within the walls and boundaries of life in Jesus – a life of faith and assurance, peace and kindness – we can enjoy the freedoms and goodness of that life. We can “come in and go out, and find pasture” – that is, we will have what we need.

The gift of salvation through Jesus and the gifts of life from God are not there to limit and restrict us. They are meant to give us freedom – freedom from fear and worry and sin and death. And with that freedom comes a fullness of life, an ability to celebrate our work time, our family time, our Sabbath time and our holidays, knowing we are a people forgiven and recipients of God’s goodness. Jesus has given us life, and life to the full, that we may celebrate the goodness of God in all we do.

DAILY CHALLENGE: Have you entered through the gate of our Savior? Is there someone you know who needs to be invited in as well?