Consider Jesus: Door

Let us continue to “consider Jesus.” (Heb. 3:1) 

John 10:7-9“Jesus therefore said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.  9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

Doors mean access. Both in the scriptures and daily life we often figuratively speak of doors being open or shut (1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col 4:3). Open doors imply access, welcome; closed doors imply rejection and alienation (Rev. 3:7). Jesus opens the door, stands at the door and knocks, and on evil, closes the door.

But in John 10, Jesus isn’t just the one who opens the door for us, but He says that He is the door for us. Of course this is figurative, a metaphor, since Jesus doesn’t really hang on hinges and swing in the frame. But He really is our access to the Fathers, and in the parable in John 10, the access to the flock of God and the shelter of the fold. 

We don’t get to God except by Him. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.’” (Jn. 14:6) He is one and only way, door, to the Father. So, as He said using door in a slightly different figure: “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)