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Bible Readings for Sunday, May 15th, 2011 – The 4th Week of Easter *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Acts 2:42-47 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

44. All who believed were together and had all things in common;

45. they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

46. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

47. praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Psalm 23 1. [A Psalm of David.] The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

3. he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

4. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff– they comfort me.

5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long. 1 Peter 2:19-25 19. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.

20. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

21. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

22. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

23. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

25. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. John 10:1-10 1. “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.

2. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

5. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

6. Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.

9. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

10. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. – Acts 2:46-47

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. – 1 Peter 2:24

So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. – John 10:7

“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved…”

John 10:9 (ESV) I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

It’s passages like John 10:9 and John 14:6 that have convinced millions of Christians that the only way to be saved is to “believe” in Jesus Christ.

But what if these passages have been watered down, even misused? What if what is being communicated is so much more than a simple “requirement of belief”?

As you can see below, it is my fervent stance that there is a lot more than meets the eye in our English translation of the Greek. Further, this over-simplification of what Christ “means” to the world is not only foolish, but actually opens the believer’s heart to evil.

John 10:9 (Trig’s translation) ἐγὼ εἰμι ἡ θύρα· δι’ ἐμοῦ ἐάν τις εἰσέλθῃ σωθήσεται καὶ εἰσελεύσεται καὶ ἐξελεύσεται καὶ νομὴν εὑρήσει. “I am the door. You can cross through because of what I am and you will be healed, you will cross through and come out to find the fulfillment of the law.” John 14:6 (Trig’s Translation) λέγει αὐτῷ Ἰησοῦς· ἐγὼ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ. Jesus said to him, “I am the journey, I am divine truth revealed to man, and I am the source of life in God. Nothing at all comes to God, or from God, but through me.”

I expect the first critique will be, “Trig, you can’t just add meaning where there is none.”

Yes, I can. New Testament Greek is an amazing language. In just a few Greek words, depending on form of the word, entire sentences of English meaning can be communicated.

“Only through me…”

For example, “δι”,which appears in both passages is most often translated as “enter” or “through”. However, those two little characters communicate so much more than that:

“δι” or “διά” Definition: (a) through, throughout, by the instrumentality of, (b) through, on account of, by reason of, for the sake of, because of. (1223) 1223diá (a preposition) – properly, across (to the other side), back-and-forth to go all the way through, “successfully across” (“thoroughly”). 1223 (diá) is also commonly used as a prefix and lend the same idea (“thoroughly,” literally, “successfully” across to the other side). [1223 (diá) is a root of the English term diameter ("across to the other side, through"). Before a vowel, dia is simply written di̓.]

It implies so much more than simply “entering or passing through”, but it implies that it is being done for the sake of, action of,or because of someone, and even who or what someone was.

This implies that not only is Jesus the gate, but that the gate is only possible because of God and what Jesus was. The gate is not of your doing, nor for your sake.

You cannot simply enter because Jesus was, or rather, existed. But we enter on account he taught and did, and what is now expected you could be and what you could do (the way of Christ).

“I am the life…”

In our next example we examine the word, “ζωή”, or “zoe-ay”, which means “life” in our translations above:

“ζωή” Definition: life, both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence. (2222) 2222 zōḗ – life (physical and spiritual). All life (2222 /zōḗ), throughout the universe, is derived – i.e. it always (only) comes from and is sustained by God’s self-existent life. The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life.

So, you see, when Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life“, he is not only referring to the promise of eternal life, but he is also referring to the quality and source of this life now. And the key to this “life”, is that it comes from God, as a gift of God to us. This life of ours cannot be derived by any other means but from God. To make this reference only about “salvation” is to rob Jesus of one of God’s key concerns: the Kingdom of God manifest on the Earth. This is only possible through the life that is now, and is the promise of the life that is to come.

“…and find pasture”

Next, we will look at the word for “pasture” in most bible translations, which in mine I translated as “fulfillment of the law”. I did this because the Greek word “νομὴν”, or “nomēn” (3542), is only used twice in the whole New Testament! In the other passage. it means “an all consuming disease”, like cancer or gangrene!

Clearly , in John 10:9, “nomēn” is a play on words.

Another clue is the fact that the word it so closely resembles is “νόμος”, or “nómos”(3551), which means “the law of scripture”, particularly the “law of Moses”.

So I chose to use the implied meaning of “consuming” and “grazing” in a “pasture”, made my own pun of “what happens when we are full”? We are full-filled. “Nomēn” implies “the law” is “fulfilled”, which we hear echoed by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 5 17. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”.

“No one comes to the Father…”

Last but not least, many people will be upset by the fact that I chose to make Jesus’ proclamation a “two-way street”:

John 14:6 “Nothing at all comes to God, or from God, but through me.” (Trig’s translation)

However, I would argue that the key word here is “ἔρχομαι” or “erchomai”(2064), which means both “I come” and “I go”. We see this reflected in the use of a related form in John 1o:9, “εἰσελεύσεται καὶ ἐξελεύσεται”, in which the same two words are attributed alternate meaning, “and will go in and out”.

I chose to reflect this usage of both alternate meanings. I think this choice better echoes John’s understanding of Christ as the Word of God:

John 1 3. All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made.

And So… Exclusive becomes Inclusive

Boy, Jesus sure is a lot of things. Shepherd, door, gate, pasture, the way, truth, life, lamb, the Father…

It is in the multitude of what the bible tells us Jesus is, that we begin to realize why: Jesus cannot be contained to one definition, one perspective, or one doctrine.

Jesus is a “both/and” kind of guy. God is a “both/and” kind of God.

Jesus is both the journey (way) and the destination.

Jesus is both the door/gate and the way through it.

Jesus is both the life now and the life that is to come.

Jesus is both divine truth and the our revelation of it.

Jesus is both shepherd and the lamb.

Jesus is both the liberator and the oppressed.

Jesus is both human and divine.

Jesus is both finite and eternal.

Jesus is both the Son and the Father.

The “Father” God is both male and female.

God is both the eternal Word and the Spirit.

God is both one and in all things.

God is both within and separate from us.

If all of these things are true, how can we say that the only meaning of our passages above is “to believe”?