Also, the Good Shepherd imagery in the gospels forms a community that transcends boundaries: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” This challenges exclusionary systems and calls for a radical inclusivity that crosses lines we create from our human differences. We are invited to participate in this vision, gathering diverse communities into shared care and mutual responsibility. To embrace Jesus as the Good Shepherd is to reject apathy and complicity in injustice. It is to embody a form of solidarity and community rooted in courage, compassion, and a relentless commitment to the well-being of all.
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This is Part 2 of the series The Imagery of a Good Shepherd
(Read this series from its beginning here.)
In our reading this week, though, Jesus is more than the good shepherd. He also declares, “I am the gate,” an image that is both pastoral and political. In the ancient world, a shepherd sometimes lay across the entrance of the sheepfold at night, becoming a living gate and both protector and point of entry. This metaphor speaks not only to spiritual care most often associated with this imagery in a religious context, but also to questions of belonging, access, and safety, concerns that are central to justice in any kind of community.
To say that Jesus is the gate is to say that access to the abundant life John’s Jesus preached flows through a posture of protection, solidarity, and care for the vulnerable. Jesus as gate is not a barrier designed to exclude the marginalized; rather, it is a safeguard against forces that exploit, harm, and dehumanize them. Jesus contrasts himself with thieves and bandits. These are those who “climb in by another way” (John 10:1). These figures can be understood as systems (religious, political, social, economic) and individuals in positions of power that prey on the weak, hoard resources, and deny others humanity. They can also represent unjust structures that maintain inequality while claiming legitimacy.
By identifying himself as the gate, Jesus centers the well-being of the sheep. For the Johannine community out of which this gospel emerged, this metaphor is about the well-being of the community over gatekeeping for the purpose of protecting and preserving of power. The gate exists so that the sheep “may come in and go out and find pasture,” a phrase that evokes freedom, sustenance, and flourishing. This is not mere survival; it is the Gospel of John’s “abundant life.”
This applies to justice movements today. We can echo this vision as we seek not only to alleviate suffering but to create conditions where all people can thrive, not just a privileged few, and where we work together to create a world that is a compassionate, just, safe home for all.
This image of a gate also brings to mind the subject of access and how it is controlled. Who gets to enter? Who is kept out? Jesus redefines these boundaries by aligning himself with those on the margins. The gate does not serve the powerful; it protects the vulnerable from them. In this way, Jesus subverts systems that use “gates” to exclude, again, whether religious, political, economic, or social. More on this in Part 3.
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