936) When I was small, the house where my family and I lived had a fenced yard. I suppose, as a parent, it was a handy thing when your children are small. The gate protected us from going anywhere outside the fence and getting hurt. This same gate protected us by stopping people or animals from entering our yard that would hurt us as well. When we got older, we disregarded this protection by leaving it open and sometimes standing on the bottom of it and “swinging” back and forth. The gate sagged from our weight because this was something it was not made for.

In John 10:7-10, Jesus calls himself “the gate;” one who keeps out those who will destroy his sheep and one who allows others in, who recognize and acknowledge him.

There are those who disregard this gate as we did with ours when we were small. This could be when someone denies that there is a gate; that there are no such things as requirements for going in and out of it and they assume the keeper of the gate will allow anyone in and out just because he’s a nice guy. There is also the assumption that there are many gate keepers and all gate keepers are alike so going in will be no trouble at all, as long as you are “connected” with one of these many gate keepers.

Jesus said that he is the gate. He did not say he is one of many gates and it’s clear in this chapter that Jesus has the right and authority of allowing (or preventing) those to enter. Make note: gates are important.