Access and Egress
Access and Egress by Rev. L. John Gable
February 17, 2019
Can you recall ever having the experience of knowing exactly where you were when you heard a new word and learned its meaning? For some reason, I can recall many such occasions, but two in particular come to mind as they relate to our Scripture lessons this morning.
The first was as I was standing in line to enter the ancient ruins at Philippi, as in Philippians, in Greece. I am admittedly a little rusty on my Greek, although I had to gain some mastery of it in seminary, so each time I’ve traveled there I try to read the directional signs in Greek before I look at the English translation. So standing in line to go through the turnstile in Philippi, where Paul and Silas were imprisoned and so on, I started to sound out a sign hanging on the wall. E-k-o-d-o-s. Ekodos? Exodus! Exit signs in Greece read “Exodus”, which literally translates “the way out”, as in our Old Testament lesson this morning when God hears the cries of His people who are in the bondage of slavery in Egypt and provides their “way out”, their “exodus.”
I learned the second while I was sitting in a meeting with an architect as we were making plans to build a new sanctuary when he began speaking about “access and egress”. I assumed we were talking about points of entry, I still don’t know why he didn’t just call them “doors”, but he referred to them as points of “access and egress”. Jesus does the same, referring to Himself, in our lesson this morning from John’s Gospel.
We are continuing our study of Jesus’ “I AM” statements and here in chapter 10 He says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus is “our way in and our way out”. He is our point of “access and egress”.
As Jesus was so adept to do, He uses common, everyday items and activities to describe Who He is and what He came to do, and here He describes the function of the sheepfold beautifully. In that semi-nomadic culture shepherds would take their sheep out into what was commonly referred to as the wilderness, describing any place that isn’t suitable for agriculture, to feed and drink during the day, and since it is a harsh, semi-desert region, they would often have to wander some distance in search of adequate vegetation, too far to return home at night. So, scattered throughout the wilderness region were sheepfolds or open enclosures made of rock and sticks in which both the sheep and the shepherds could sleep at night, safe from harm. Typically they were round enclosures with only one entryway, and once all of the sheep were in the fold at night, the shepherd, or the gatekeeper, would lie down across the opening and quite literally become “the gate”, the only point of access and egress.
As we listen to Jesus’ teaching, He explains the role of the shepherd or the gatekeeper, and notes that any who attempt to enter the fold by any means other than through the gate are thieves and robbers, up to no good. There is only one appropriate way to enter the fold. The other insight He gives is that on any given night there might be several shepherds, each with their own herds, encamped in the enclosure, all mixed in together. How would they keep them apart? They wouldn’t, until morning, when each shepherd would individually call, or whistle, or sing, or play an instrument, and his or her particular sheep would recognize the call and go out (exodus) from the sheepfold just the way they had gone in. So Jesus teaches, “When the shepherd has brought out his own, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
It is a beautiful little teaching, but when Jesus asks His disciples if they understand what He is talking about as it relates to Him, they confess that they do not. I love the honesty of the Gospel writers who are willing to own up to their confusion and lack of understanding. It gives us good room as well.
So, Jesus repeats His teaching, even more simply, when He says, “I am the gate for the sheep.” Jesus is the point of “access and egress”, the way in and the way out, to what? For those who are entering in, He offers access to a right relationship with God. He says, “Whoever enters by Me will be saved”, healed, restored, reconciled with God. We literally pass through Jesus as we enter in to the Kingdom of God and join the company of the people of God. As we “enter in” Jesus is the means by which we are restored in to a right and saving relationship with God. And for those “going out”, He offers access to “find pasture”. Think here of the 23rd Psalm, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.” In our lesson from Exodus God delivers the people of Israel from the bondage of slavery and leads them to the Promised Land, to “a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Friends, Jesus comes to offer us passageway to the fullness of life. Jesus is the way in and the way out, our point of “access and egress” to the kind of life that only He can give, all others who claim to offer “the good life” are charlatans, thieves and robbers, making promises on which they cannot deliver. Jesus alone “came that we might have life and have it abundantly.” In this, He alone is “the gate”.
As I reflected on this somewhat familiar saying I found myself thinking about something that I had never considered before, and honestly couldn’t find any commentaries to help me think through it, so I’ll ask that of you.
The presence of a gate implies that there is also a fence or a wall that needs to be breached, or opened up for passageway. Unfortunately, that image has become politicized and polarizing, so believe me when I say I am not intending to go there. Recall I chose this passage months ago and Jesus spoke these words millennia ago, but one has no need for a gate unless there is also a wall or a fence, and the gate, by definition, offers a break or a means of passage through it.
I believe Robert Frost was right when he wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” A wall, by definition, is a boundary or a barricade that separates one party from another. It creates or at least acknowledges that there is an “inside” and an ‘outside” thus there are “insiders” and “outsiders”; there is an “us” and a “them”, those who “belong” and “those who don’t belong”; that there are those who are granted “access and egress” and those who are not. The presence of a wall indicates the “keeping out” of some and the “letting in” of others.
When I was in seminary I served one of my field education experiences as a chaplain in a maximum security prison in Philadelphia. There was an inmate there who wrote a poem that I wish I had kept in which he described himself as being incarcerated on one side of a cell door while the prison guard was similarly incarcerated on the other. He masterfully raised the rather provocative notion that, in fact, both of them were being held captive by the wall which separated them.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” So the creation of a gate or an opening breaks down the continuity of the wall thus allowing for access and egress, coming in and going out, and as I pondered this notion, I realized that this is what Jesus came to do for us.
In the second chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes, “Jesus is our peace; in His flesh He has made both groups in to one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (2:14). Paul was thinking of the wall of separation which existed between Jews and Gentiles, over the appropriate use of the Law and admission, or not, in to the body of believers. In Christ, the wall is breached and all are welcome. He is “the gate” by which, and through which, those who once were separated are brought back together and reconciled with one another, and so with God, “making the two in to one.”
I wonder with you, what dividing walls have we erected that need to be torn down today? What fences of separation have we built up that need to be opened up by the adding of a gate, a point of “access and egress”?
Our walls of division today are likely not between Jew and Gentile, but they still may be racial or ethnic or religious in nature. We must acknowledge and confess that we too have built “walls of hostility” which separate us, one from another; walls of bias and prejudice and racism; walls of inferiority or superiority; walls created out of fear and mistrust and misunderstanding; walls that we have inherited and those that we have created for ourselves; walls that we think are intended to keep us safe by keeping others out when, in reality, they keep us imprisoned as well. Dr. King and so many others who have been, and still are, active in causes of civil rights and justice frequently use language drawn from the Scriptures, from the teachings of Jesus, as they speak of “walls of division” which must be torn down in the name of peace and justice, reconciliation and righteousness. In what ways can we allow, or better embrace and live out, the teachings of Jesus; in what ways can we allow Him to be “the gate” which opens the way between us and those from whom we have separated ourselves?
Perhaps the wall of division is between you and another: a spouse, a child, a parent, a neighbor, a friend, a classmate, a co-worker. There has been some hurt or harm or betrayal of trust that has caused a wall of division to arise between you. In what ways can the teachings of Jesus about humility, forgiveness, grace, acceptance, open the door between you and the other? We who claim to be “sheep” must learn the ways of the Shepherd, and if we do not, it is not because He is not the Good Shepherd, but that we are disobedient and undisciplined sheep.
Or perhaps, the seemingly impervious wall of separation is between you and God Himself? Some past experience or hurt or un-repented of sin; some misused theology or false teaching; some unkind word spoken or action taken by someone who was supposedly speaking or acting on behalf of God has somehow closed the door of your heart to God or your understanding of His great and unchanging love for you? Friends, Jesus stands ready to be “the gate” which swings open wide to welcome you home to the Father’s love, and all we need do is walk through it.
So, this is my prayer with and for you today: that you will allow Jesus to be who He says He is, so that as you “enter in” you may be “saved”, restored once again into a right and loving relationship with God; and as you “go out” you may find “find good pasture”, the kind of life only God can offer. That is His desire for you because Jesus is “the gate”, the way in and the way out, our means of entrance and “exodus”, of “access and egress” to the “abundant life” which He alone can offer.