BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: John 10:7, 9-10
9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Several points here:
1 - life and to the full. This isn't some ascetic thing. There's joie de vivre implied here.
2 - the gate as a metaphore implies entrance and exit, as does his statement in 9[a]. What do we make of that? Probably nothing, but ...
3 - he sets himself up in comparison against a thief. Who's the thief?
If we move on and don't over-isolate on this passage, we see later Jesus makes a comparison that he is the good shepherd.
I get it when the jews say he's raving mad. Some of these things make my brain hurt.
4 comments:
So what kind of gate, I mean I am sure this was culturally relevant imagery. So start with the gate. Then let's move on to what the thief steals. Is it a pasture gate? Thief comes to steal sheep? That is familiar Sunday School/church imagery...I just want to make sure that is really what we are talking about.
When I think of all of Jesus' "I Am" statements, they make my brain ache.
Not because they don't make sense, but because I don't understand them ;-)> .
Part of the problem is that I don't have language to express what I'm really trying to ask.
I just feel like we're only scraping the outer layer of this onion. Maybe I'm trying to make simple things complex.
No, I think genuine growth happens when we start to ask the tough questions. It may get messy...It may shatter what we were taught. That's OK.
"they make my brain ache" - Oh, man, that's a good sign! I'm sure that's the intent!
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