Therefore Jesus said again, ”Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
In the first parable (verses 1-5) the key elements are a shepherd, a gate, sheep, and the thief. In this second parable, we have the gate, the sheep, and the thieves. It is getting harder to ignore the obvious point Jesus is making. Instead of speaking of himself in the third person, he changes tactics and speaks in the first person: “I am the gate…” There are only two other groups in this parable; the sheep and the thieves. Where does that leave the Pharisees…? Even they must have been able to pick up on that!
Let’s Discuss: What is it about the gate that applies to Jesus?
He is the only path to relationship with God, now or for eternity.
Jesus was telling the Pharisees and others that He was the only way into the fold. Elsewhere He told them you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
The Pharisees were on the outside by their own choice.
As the gate Jesus set the standard for access which the Pharisees rejected.