ritual. This uncompromising
assertion of His own authority He makes in parabolic language; but that
no one may misapprehend His meaning He Himself appends the
interpretation. And in this interpretation it will be observed that,
while the great ideas are explained and applied, there is no attempt to
make these ideas square with the figure in every particular. In the
figure, for example, the Door and the Shepherd are necessarily distinct;
but our Lord does not on that account scruple to apply both figures to
Himself. The rigidly logical explanation is thrown to the winds to make
way for the substantial teaching.

I. First, then, Jesus here claims to be the sole means of access to
security and life eternal. "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture," Prompted by
consideration for the feelings of the blind man, this expression would
by him be interpreted as meaning, These arrogant Pharisees, then, can
after all do me no injury; they can neither exclude nor admit; but only
this Person, who has shown Himself so compassionate, so courageous, so
ready to be my champion and my friend. He is the door. And this simple
and memorable claim has remained through all the Christian centuries the
bulwark against ecclesiastical tyranny, not indeed preventing injustice
and outrage, but entirely robbing excommunication of its sting in the
conscience that is right with its Lord. Outcast from the fellowship and
privileges of so-called Churches of Christ many have been, who had yet
the assurance in their own heart that by their attachment to Him they
had entered into a more lasting fellowship and unspeakably higher
privileges.

By this claim to be the Door, Jesus claims to be the Founder of the one
permanent society of men. Through Him alone have men access to a
position of security to association with all that is worthiest among
men, to a never-failing life and a boundless freedom. He did not use His
words at random, and this at least is contained in them. He gathers men
round His Person, and assures us that He holds the key to life; that if
He admits us, words of exclusion pronounced by others are but idle
breath; that if He excludes us, the approval and applause of a world
will not waft us in. No claim could possibly be greater.

II. Jesus also claims to be the Good Shepherd, and sets Himself in
contrast to hirelings and robbers. This claim He proves in five
particulars: He us