NOTES for Joh 10:1-9

Christ often “calls” Himself some inanimate object. At one time it is a stone, at another bread, then water, and today a door. Each time He compares Himself to an object that we encounter practically all the time. Nowadays it is quite difficult to live without constant “contact” with a door. For the obvious truth that anyone who enters a room through an opening not specially intended for that purpose is a thief and a robber requires no special proof. And our Lord Jesus Christ is precisely the door through which we can enter the house of our Heavenly Father. The way to God passes only through Him: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me,” the Lord will say a little later (John 14:6). One can try to climb through windows, go down the chimney, or dig a tunnel, but why? Perhaps one can approach God by roundabout ways, chase after some “special grace,” try to make something of oneself, and pretend that we ourselves can do at least something for our own salvation, but why? Why, when the way is straight? “Make His paths straight” (Matt 3:3). Straight does not mean easy. Everything will not instantly improve as though by the wave of a magic wand. But the main thing is that the Lord “calls His own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3). He will lead us, blind sheep, “by a road they do not know; along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them” (Isa 42:16).