John 10:7-10 (NIV)
Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The Pharisees who were listening to Jesus did not understand Jesus’ illustration of the sheep pen, so He continued to flesh out the illustration to help them to see things more clearly.

Jesus had pointed out that those who try to enter the sheep pen of God’s people by climbing over the wall instead of coming through the door were clearly up to no good. Now he clarified that He Himself is the door to the sheep pen, the only legitimate way to enter. The Pharisees as a whole rejected the idea that a person, even a miracle-working person such as Jesus, could provide direct access to God, preferring instead to rely on their own efforts, their own self-made righteousness, to gain access to God, and to be one of His people.

Jesus’ judgment on these religious leaders is harsh, and justifiably so. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law (scribes) had built their lifestyles by putting themselves high up on pedestals, building godly reputations that they believed made the common people, the “people of the earth” as they called them, beholden to them.

But, as Jesus points out here, the people didn’t actually listen to the voices of these leaders or follow them in their ways. A big reason for that was that the ordinary people saw no way that they could attain the supposed holiness that those leaders claimed to possess, and so proudly flaunted in public. The people’s reaction was less awe and reverence than it was a shrug and “well, I guess that’s fine for them.”

But now that the true shepherd had shown up, now that the true gate into the kingdom had appeared, the people were flocking to Him. They recognized in the teachings of Jesus the voice of their true shepherd. It wasn’t that the people were abandoning the traditional leaders; it was that most of them weren’t truly following them in the first place.

But now that Jesus had come, the way into the kingdom had been opened to all who would enter through faith in Him. Not only the religiously sophisticated Scribes and Pharisees, but even the lowly people of the earth could come in, find spiritual nourishment, be led and cared for by Jesus Himself, and experience a truly abundant life. But to do so, everyone had to humble himself or herself, and come in through Jesus.

Father, the same way into Your kingdom is available to all of us today. Through faith in Jesus and His finished work (and only through Him), anyone can come in, find pasture, and live a truly abundant life. Thank You so much for helping me to find and enter through the true gate, so that I can live all my life following the genuine shepherd as one of Your flock. Amen.