In the tenth chapter of John's Gospel is recorded the attractive parable of the sheep, the sheepfold, and the shepherd. A vital and enduring significance pertains to the symbolic message of the parable, which begins with a warning (verse 1), "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." What are the distinctive features that make this door the only accredited entrance to the sheepfold?
In the course of the parable, Christ Jesus states explicitly (verse 9), "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Obviously he did not refer to his finite, human personality, which would be only a temporary door at best. He must have alluded to the identification of himself made by his disciple Simon Peter (Matt. 16:16), "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It was on the basis of his Christlike nature, his spiritual selfhood in constant and joyous unity, or oneness, with the Father, that he could think of himself as the door.
When today we come to a turn of the road in our human journey, that is, when we approach a new adventure, do we enter upon it by discerning through the Christly door our true selfhood, the spiritual self, which God has created and delineates individually? This self is always present, though often it seems buried beneath hard crusts of materiality and selfishness. From time to time through some good thought or act it makes itself heard in our consciousness, and we proportionately come to know and love our only real selfhood. It is the self not of glamour, but of glory. The two concepts of selfhood, the material and the spiritual, are as different from each other as are tinsel and gold.
