The Gift

In Chapter 10 of John's Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is the gate; whoever enters by Him will be saved.  I wonder how many people think about what He is the gate to.  When we enter by the Gate, what do we enter?  Where are we going?  What does He mean that we are "saved"?

I love, love, love being "here," at this stage of my life, for being able to look back over so many years (which now seem so few) gives me a perspective that cannot be had from the age of 30, 40, or even 50.  Looking back now, I see myself at 30, for example.  I was a "good person," from the natural standpoint.  I went to church regularly; I (kind of) obeyed the commandments; I didn't deliberately hurt other people -- though what I was doing without knowing it was terrible.  But something was still missing from my life, and I did not know what it was.  I remember searching desperately for that something that I could not identify.  I tried yoga; I tried Hari Krishna; I tried faith-sharing groups; I tried Universal Unitarianism -- all alongside my basic Catholic beliefs, which were great and wonderful.  But I knew there was something more.

I have told the story many times of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on me in a hospital room in 1977.  I don't need to re-tell how that Gift of the Holy Spirit entered my soul and changed me forever, giving me continuing peace, joy, truth, and goodness from above, satisfying the deepest cry of my heart.  In addition to deep and genuine peace, the Holy Spirit gave me access to the Word of God for the first time in my life.  Now I had a hunger and thirst to know the Bible, what it says, what it means.  Scripture says that when Jesus ascended into heaven, He bore with Him 'gifts to man.'  To each one of us, gifts are given for the common good.  Some He gives as apostles to the nations; some He gives as prophets, as teachers, as administrators, as givers, etc.  He distributes gifts to all as He wills, according to His wisdom.  I am sooooo grateful for the gift of Scripture which I have been given --- and I know that I have not used the gift the way I need to, but it has so enriched my own life that I cannot express enough how grateful I am. 

But none of these things is the Gift that I speak about today. Today, I am thinking about Jesus' words, "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved."  The Gate.  The Gate to.....?? 
I know the answer is "the Gate to eternal life."  But that answer is too abstract, too much "in the future" for people struggling today with not enough money, for children with health problems, for marriages falling apart, for sons in prison, etc.  My question today is What does the Gate open to us today?  What is the Gift that Jesus gives us today, as well as the promise of 'eternal life'? 

Jesus did not come to 'teach us how to live,' to give us better principles or guidelines than those given in the Old Testament, etc.  He was not a great moral teacher, a better prophet, or whatever "men say about Him."  I mean, He was all these things --- but that is not The Gift He came to give us.  If we stop there, we have missed everything, for then everything depends on us, just as it did in the Old Testament.  Then He need not have died on the cross. 

When Jesus says He is the "Gate," He means that those who enter through Him enter into the same relationship with the Father as He Himself has --- that is the Gift He came to give us:  If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (Jn. 14:23).  The Gift Jesus offers us is the Indwelling Presence of Himself and the Father.  He is the Gate to a new kind of existence -- the presence of the Father who loves us, the presence of the Son Himself dwelling in us and bringing us to the Father, the Gift of the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son, now bringing us into the same relationship of love that energizes all of creation. 

It is not at all about us being "good people," or obeying the law, or going to church.  Rather, the Gift of entering through the Gate is that we will 'find pasture' for our souls (Jn.. 10:9) in the peace and joy of being in relationship with God Himself.  That was what was missing from my own life before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Jesus coming to me.  Now that the Spirit of Jesus dwells within me, I know the Father as He knows the Father; I learn the Scriptures as he shows them to me; and I have the same relationship with other people that He has with them. 

If we only knew the pasture, the rest, the peace and the joy that lies on the other side of the Gate, we would all run to it and through it!  At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "I am telling you these things that my joy may be in you."  What is "his joy" but the love the Father has for Him and for the world?  That is the joy that He shares with us on the inside whenever we enter the world He experiences through the Gate