17
April 2005 St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
Easter
4 – Good Shepherd Sunday Vienna, VA
Jesu Juva
“The Door is Open Again”
Text: John 10:1-10 (Psalm 23; Acts 6-7; 1 Peter 2)
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father,
and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus said: “I am the door. If anyone 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.”
It
is usual to take these words of Jesus and apply them to modern day life; to
what we see and hear happening around us today.
And that is not at all inappropriate, for there are many thieves and
robbers in our world today, seeking to rob Christ’s Church of His sheep;
seeking to deceive us and mislead us; seeking to get us to follow them
and their promises for real and abundant life. I could list many examples; and I’m sure you
could too.
But
I don’t want to do that today. Instead,
I want to go in the opposite direction.
Instead of taking these words of Jesus and moving them forward in
time and applying them to our situation today, I want to take them and move
them back in time. I want to
apply them to the situation all people of all time have been in
since the very beginning. I want to
apply them not only to the current manifestation of thieves and robbers
that happen to be in our world today, but to the thief and robber that
has been attacking Christ’s Church since the very beginning. And that, I think, will give us a greater
appreciation for these words. For the greater the sin, the greater the salvation. The greater the enemy, the
greater the Saviour. The greater the problem,
the greater the triumph.
And
so what happened at the beginning? You
know. The thief named Satan had come,
and he stole and killed and destroyed.
He stole our innocence; he killed our parents; and he destroyed
Paradise. By sin. And after Adam and Eve sinned, they could no
longer stay in the Garden of Eden. They
were kicked out of Paradise. No longer
would they have all that they wanted, and a peaceful, abundant life. Now they would have to toil and struggle and
live in the wilderness of sin. And as
they did, you could be sure that they longed for what they had. That they looked back
longingly to what they had – in foolishness – forfeited. But they could not go back in. The door had been shut. And to even try to re-enter meant sure
and certain death. For as we hear from
Genesis: “Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like
one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take
also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the Lord
God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was
taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden
of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to
guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis
3:22-24)
The
thief had come and done his work. His wretched, miserable, destroying, life-stealing work. His work that not only
stole life from Adam and Eve, but from you and me too. Because of sin, the door to life, abundant
and eternal, is shut tight. To all. . .
. But now, Jesus says, I have come to open
the door again. I have come, indeed, to be
the door. The door, that Paradise may be
opened again. So that life may be given
again.
The
problem, as we heard though, is that any man who tried to go through that door
would be killed. Sinful man cannot eat
of the tree of life and live forever in sin.
And so when Jesus says that He is the door, He knows full well what that
means. He knows full well that when He,
as a man, bearing our sins, goes to that door, that portal between Heaven and
earth, between God and man, between wilderness and Paradise, it will mean His
life. The flaming sword of God’s justice
will fall upon Him. He knows full well,
and that’s why He goes. To take it. The Good
Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.
And so suspended on the cross between God and man, He becomes the
door. The door to
Paradise that we would not have, if He did not open the way for us.
And
so when Jesus says, “I am the door” this is what He means! He is not speaking of earthly things, but of
His death and resurrection – the death it took to re-enter Paradise, and the
life on the other side He gives through His resurrection. He is the door, for there are not
many doors, but one door. He
is the door, for all other doors are really no doors at all, but are thieves’
doors – false doors – and lead only into the flaming sword of God’s justice and
judgment, and therefore to death. But He
is the door, for only in Him and through Him is the entrance to
Paradise, and to life, abundant and eternal.
And entering in Him, we not only are saved and find pasture,
we are the sheep of the Twenty-third Psalm.
Sheep restored to Eden. Without want. Lying in green pastures.
Beside still waters. Our souls restored. Walking in the paths of
righteousness. Our heads anointed
with oil. A rich feast prepared at His
Table. And dwelling
there forever, in confidence and forgiveness, never having to fear
expulsion again.
And
that door is here for you! It is not far
off and hard to find. It is not secret
or something you must find on your own effort.
It is here, for your Saviour and Shepherd are
here for you. Even though, as we
heard from Peter, we often are like straying sheep, leaving our Saviour and following our own ways; in His Word our
Shepherd is calling to us, calling us back, calling us to follow Him. And His sheep know His voice. Even though we are sheep who love
to wander, following the allurements of our eyes and getting lost in the
wilderness of sin and temptation, our Shepherd leads us back to the quiet
waters of our baptism, to confess our sins and drink deeply of His absolution, and
the gatekeeper, the Holy Spirit, opens the doors of our hearts and the door of
Paradise. And even though we
are sheep who now live in the midst of many and
great dangers, in a world full of sin and evil, and with hearts full of sin
and evil, our Shepherd prepares His Table for us here in the midst of our
enemies. And even though we do not live
in Paradise yet, our Saviour brings the fruit of
the new Tree of Life out to us here, as we eat and drink His body and
blood. And in these we have life, for in
these He gives us His life.
And
as we eat and drink His body and blood, as our Shepherd continues to give His
life to His sheep, the cherubim that once guarded the door to Paradise
are here too – only no longer with the flaming sword of God’s justice, but now
singing the praises of our Saviour, who opened
Paradise again! For as we hear each
week, we gather here with the angels and archangels and all the company of
Heaven. And it’s true! They are here with us, because here for
us, is the door. They on the one side,
we on the other, all united around our Saviour, who
is here for us. And the door is open,
for the tomb is open. For if the tomb is
open, death is defeated. If the tomb is
open, Satan is defeated. If the tomb is
open, our sin is defeated! And if the
tomb is open, then Paradise is open again.
That
is what Stephen saw as he testified to the Jews about Jesus. He saw Heaven open. He saw the door to Paradise open wide. Those without faith in Jesus could see no
such thing, for to them the door is shut.
But to all who by faith are in Christ Jesus, the door is open. His sheep hear His voice, they know Him, and
they follow Him. And you will follow –
not only in this life, but even into the next.
For that is the goal of your Shepherd – not only life now, but life
eternal. And so while our life now
may be a struggle – living in the midst of enemies, struggling against sin and
doubt, wandering through the valley of the shadow of death – we do not
fear. “For Thou art with me, Thy
rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”
For
we have a Good Shepherd. A Good Shepherd
who was not content to simply help us make the best of our lives here and now,
in the wilderness – but who will accept nothing less than leading us back into
Paradise. To lead us through His body as
the door, for in Him we are safe; in Him we are forgiven; in Him the justice of
God has been executed, and now there is life.
And when you, like Stephen, fall asleep in death, it is this door that
you will see, opened wide. The door to Paradise.
And you will go in, and dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.