Part 17b – John 10
You may be asking at this point, ‘what is the fold, is it heaven or just a safe place for us to hole up when life gets tough?’ I don’t think that Jesus told this story with the intention of making the fold some kind of aspirational place where we can find safety at the end of our physical lives. I believe what Jesus is saying is “you want safety and security now, in this present moment, then you have to come through me into this place of sanctuary and we can walk in and out together, and find pasture that will enrich and sustain you and in the confidence and security of knowing that I will look out for you”.
Jesus is very clear with what he is saying. Remember he is still speaking to the religious leaders who are supposed to know God and who also claimed to understand scripture. They had just witnessed a blind man receive sight and yet when hearing this story about sheep in a fold waiting for their shepherd they still fail to grasp the truth. So Jesus goes on and in John 10:7 he says “I am the door of the sheep.” This fold is not some kind of place that is for the afterlife, it is not about fitting us or preparing us for a heaven somewhere else, it is all about enabling us to live freely and to confidently go in and out and find pasture in the safe knowledge that the “good shepherd” is here with us now.
Jesus says in John 10:10 that he has come to give us life and not only give us life but enable us to have life in all its fullness, a life in abundance. This is freedom now, oh what joy. It is only when we grasp this verse in all it’s reality that we begin to live a life of abundance. At this point I want to be clear that does not mean a life of health, wealth and prosperity. I believe abundant life means a life that knows the purpose for which it was created. Our created life has the sole purpose throughout eternity to bring glory to the non-created being we call God. We are given life in order for us to radiate God’s wonderful goodness and grace.
To live this “abundant life” we first must enter through the door that is Jesus, into the fold. That implies that there are other souls in the fold who have not entered through the “door”. We then need to find our security in a world that is volatile, selfish, ruthless and violent inside this sheepfold we call home. The only way to do that is to recognise that God in all His glory has come down and has made a way so that we can freely go out and into the fold in order to find pasture without the fear of getting lost.
There is no other way to an abundant, fruitful life than to give up the fight and scramble of trying to get into the fold by some other means, we must accept Christ and enter through his wonderful provision of a sacrificed life.
Isaiah 43:1 says “Jacob I have created but Israel I have formed.” Just like Jacob (See jacob-to-israel-a-life-transformed-1) we are a project in formation, entering the door into the security of the fold, giving up our struggle to find happiness outside of Christ and His care is part of the formation.
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