Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
April 26, 2026
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras

Easter 4A

The Good Shepherd Comes From
God And Leads Us Back To God

So Jesus said again: Amen! Amen! I say to you that I am the door for the sheep. All those who came before me are thieves and thugs. But the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me he shall be kept safe, and he will go in and out and will find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

—
Beloved in Christ let us go out on a limb this morning and have another look at today’s gospel lesson about the Good Shepherd.

Many sermons have been preached on this gospel and the outcome is always right, namely that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, who leads us in paths of righteousness, who prepares a Eucharistic table before us, even as our enemies watch in dismay. He walks with us through “the valley of the shadow of death” and takes away our fear, and he anoints our heads with the oil of gladness, which is his Holy Spirit. This LORD and GIVER of LIFE who is both the unstoppable force, and the immovable object. And he is these things for us.

And so while “we walk in danger all the way” as the church sings, we spend our lives in green pastures, and resting besides still waters, because our confidence is in the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, and took it back up again, so that he could impart his indestructible life to us.

Now today’s sermon could end here and we would all go home well fed. But let us take a closer look at these dominical words so that we might begin to understand the many moving parts of what our Lord says.

The question has always been “who’s who” in this text, as well as “what’s what”. Let’s start with who’s who.

Jesus is obviously the good shepherd, who stands over against all the bad shepherds of which there is no shortage. In our day they are the false religionists who depart from the church’s ancient doctrine AND practice.

In Ps. 80:4 the psalmist asks, “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?” The answer seems obvious.

That the LORD God will be angry with them as long they depart from the Spirit-inspired liturgy of the ages, in which, and by which, the incomparable gospel of Jesus Christ is acclaimed and distributed in all of its goodness, truth and beauty.

Likewise it appears that the antagonists that the Lord names are the religionists of his day. They are the Scribes and Pharisees with whom the Lord has had a running battle in chapters six, seven, eight and nine of John’s gospel; and continues here in chapter ten, and extends to chapter eleven and twelve as well. No holds barred.

They refused to accept him as the Christ promised by Moses and the Prophets; though he gave unmistakable evidence of the same.

But rather than submit and worship him, they were more interested in their own money, power and glory, and were not willing to share it with another: although the Lord outwitted them at every turn, and not just by a little bit. Which made them all the more rabid!

And then there is the question about the “courtyard of the sheep,” the “door” and which way the traffic was flowing. This is big.

This text has always been understood to take place in the pasture. In the fields where “shepherds watched their flocks by night,” and fought off the wolves who would devour them.

But according to at least one of our seminary professors, who wrote a beautiful three volume commentary on St. John’s gospel – the venue is not the countryside, but the temple in Jerusalem.

If this is the case then many things fall into place.

Firstly just what door does Jesus enter through? And where is that door? It has always been assumed that he entered the sheepfold door from outside, and came inside.

But what if that is not the right door?

What if the door he is talking about refers to the temple, and that the door he has in mind is the door/curtain that marked off the Holy of Holies. The place where God dwelled on earth, the place where only the High Priest could enter once a year to make atonement for the people’s sins.

And what if the entrance he makes is by that door, not going into it, but coming OUT of it, to the people who dwell in what Jesus calls, “the courtyard of the sheep.” Which means that God has left the holy of holies and come out to his people! Which he so obviously has in Christ the Good Shepherd.

And what if when it says “he leads them out” his reference is to leading them from the outer court, INTO the Holy of Holies? Where redeemed sinners can enjoy the Holiest Communion of all, with the incomprehensible blessed Trinity; who dwells in unapproachable light. (1 Tim. 6:16)

This may be why Jesus criticizes anyone who enters by a different door. Different than the door that stands between the holy of holies and the courtyard of the sheep. Those who are the Lord’s faithful people who wait for him to “appear in his holy temple.” While the one who enters by another door is a thief and a thug. Yes, thug. Because that is what the original Greek really indicates. Not a “robber” but a violent thug who inflicts GBH or death on those he was meant to protect?

And who were these sheep who know his voice? In Jesus’ day they were the ones who when reading Moses, saw Christ, and faithfully awaited his coming. They knew his voice because they searched the Scriptures and understood them to “testify of him.” (Jn 5:39)

Not so the religionists of Jesus’ day, as we have said above. They only wanted to steal and kill and destroy. The word “kill” here isn’t the normal word for taking a life. But a word that means to kill something so that it can be offered as a sacrifice. Which means that these thugs were willing to sacrifice men’s lives, on the altars of their own egos.

And how often do the religionists of our day do the same; those who no longer teach the Law and the Gospel of God because they care nothing for the sheep?

But the sending of the Good Shepherd has been God’s program from the beginning, indeed from before the foundation of the world. And in John Chapter Ten we see it come to its fullness.

Not just in theory, but in practice because the Good Shepherd still comes out from the “true tent” (Heb. 8:2) and meets his sheep, in the flesh, at the “altar of the Most High” (Ps. 84). The “courtyard of the sheep.”

Here in this “courtyard” we commune with the Living God who draws us into the everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness which marks the Holiest Place of all. The place we will dwell all the days of our lives.

Glory to God in the Highest.