Climbing Up

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1)

I saw something in this verse today I have not noticed before. The alternatives to entering the fold through the door involve climbing up somehow. If one goes through the door there is no need to climb at all. Isn't that interesting?

The context for this verse is really a continuation of Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees and the former blind man who had just given an incredible testimony for Jesus before very stubborn religious leaders. As Jesus looked up the healed man to encourage him and allow him to reconnect more closely with Jesus, the ever-present Pharisees overheard what Jesus said about blindness and threw out a question about their own condition. In response Jesus not only up-ended their assumptions about God's attitude toward people with disabilities but went on to further explain how heaven views religious leadership. He changed the metaphor but continued to press home the point that He alone is the only accurate revelation of the real truth about God in contrast to the distorted teachings of most everyone else.

As Jesus develops this metaphor it becomes clear that the main Shepherd is Himself. But it also seems that He may be referring to others who might be viewed as under-shepherds, people in positions of leadership who also are supposed to be representing God to those who are looking up to them for guidance. Jesus is making it clearer here that if someone claims to represent God but conveys the idea that you have to climb up to get inside God's fold of protection, then that person is very likely a counterfeit, a fraud, a very suspicious person who should not be trusted.

Not only is such a person to be viewed with suspicion but Jesus says that anyone who is involved in climbing to try to get into God's fold is going to be one who is only interested in stealing things of value from you and will be a threat to your safety just as a robber is likely to use violence to take things away from you against your will. Most of us are not too interested in having a known thief who actively robs people to be our spiritual leader; at least not unless we want to be in training to be thieves and robbers ourselves. Generally part of the qualifications for being trusted to guide others safely as a spiritual leader representing God and teaching people how to connect with God involves having more integrity and moral character than a thief or a robber.

Yet in this verse Jesus equates the idea of trying to climb your way up into heaven with the notion of stealing and robbing. A few verses later He emphasizes the fact that thieves only have the desire to steal, kill and destroy in contrast with the motives of Jesus which is to offer people abundant, extravagant life. Rather than take from people what is of value, Jesus wants to bring to us everything that is truly life-giving, all that will make us more fully alive and will cause us to thrive.

But the kind of life that Jesus offers for us to enjoy, the abundant kind of living, does not involve climbing up to achieve entrance into God's kingdom. While there are walls of protection around God's family which are intended to keep harmful things away from them, there is also a door through which both the Shepherd and the sheep can come and go without needing to scale any obstacles. A true shepherd, one who is in union with the great Shepherd of our souls, never needs to climb over a wall to avoid presenting himself to the doorkeeper for recognition. If a person is a true shepherd that can be trusted by those in charge of the fold, then they have no reason to find some other way to gain access to the sheep of God.

This raises immediate questions in my mind about the popular notion of our need to climb up Jacob's ladder to reach heaven. But as I reflect on that dream that Jacob had I remember that he did not see any people on that ladder. All that he saw going up and down the ladder were angels coming to minister to those on earth who needed their help and blessing. When we stretch things beyond what God intends with such representations we often get into trouble and begin to weave false ideas into the simple truths that God intends for us to know for coming back into unity with heaven.