Religious buffet?

"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."

Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 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" (John 10:1-10).

I don’t know about you, but I like buffet-style dining. Why be forced to order a few things from the menu when you can sample all sorts of different things without restriction? Not only that, but for one fixed price you can eat as much as you want of the foods you like best. Of course, there are a couple of drawbacks to this kind of dining—buffets are generally more expensive than ordering from the menu, and when you can eat as much as you want, most people consume more calories than they should.

Buffet-style dining is just one example of how the world has changed to offer us all sorts of variety. When I was a kid, there were little grocery stores scattered all over town; you never had to walk more than three blocks to pick up canned goods, fresh meat, and dairy products. Of course, your selection was limited; these mom-and-pop stores only stocked the basics. I remember how excited my parents got when the first big grocery stores began opening; there were only a few of them in town, but they offered an amazing variety of fruits, meat, and freezer items. Of course you had to use the car to go shopping; the stores were too far away to walk, and you probably bought more than you could carry home anyway. But there was a down side to the big food stores. When you walked to get your groceries, you made several trips each week—good exercise for the heart, and it saved on gas. And as the big stores grew more successful, the little corner shops eventually closed their doors and went dark—they could not compete with the large retailers.

When you go shopping these days, the amount of choices available to you is staggering. You can spend hours shopping in a mall or wandering through the departments of a super store. If you can’t find the exact item you want or the price you’re looking for, you can search countless stores and auction sites by logging onto the Internet. Almost every day, some company or another sends you their newest catalogue in the mail, making you hungry for something that you didn’t even know you wanted. But having all these options available to us causes some problems. We buy things that we don’t need. Our homes get so crowded with stuff that they are hard to keep clean, and soon we are buying bigger homes or putting up storage sheds. Worst of all, we spend money that should be saved for the future or donated to charity.

Multiple choice also extends to the field of higher education. By the time you’re a sophomore in high school, the guidance counselor is pushing you to think about your future and choose electives accordingly. By your senior year, there are any number of colleges, universities and trade schools that are waiting for your enrollment. These days, you can major in almost anything—some schools even encourage you to design your own course of directed study. Of course, these kinds of choices come at a price—huge tuition fees, and the need to prop up the bloated egos of some deans and professors.

Regrettably, our world also offers a great deal of variety when it comes to religion. There is Judaism and Islam and Hinduism. There is Mormonism and Scientology and atheism. And even Christianity is fragmented between Lutherans and Catholics, Baptists and Methodists, and so on. This variety encourages experimentation. We are so used to shopping around for the best deal that we treat religion the same way. A recent study showed than nearly half of the people in our country make a religious switch some time during their lives. We are so used to putting what we want on our dinner plate at a buffet that we treat spiritual teachings the same way. Many people assemble their own belief system by adopting bits and pieces from many different faith traditions. I remember a classmate in high school who grew up Lutheran, but decided that it wasn’t the right religion for him. He tried out several others, before settling on one that matched his views and priorities. That faith was Baha’i, a religion that combines elements of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.

We are used to having a lot of choices to pick from, but sometimes all those options simply overwhelm us. When this happens, we make decisions without fully understanding the long-term consequences. This is especially critical when it comes to religion—what we believe not only affects how we live today, it will also determine what happens to us when we die.

In a world of seemingly endless choices, few ask a very important question: what if one religion is right, and all the other religions are wrong? This is a very uncomfortable question for many to consider; they would prefer to see good things in all religions and cherry-pick the best from each, like a diner going through the buffet line. If you believe that only one religion is correct, your choices evaporate. This way of thinking does not sit well with the American consumer.

Most people aren’t comfortable with the idea of one religion alone being right. Modern thinkers claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth; what is true for you might not be true for me, and what is true for you now might change with the passing of years. For decades now, college students have been taught that the situation determines whether a certain behavior is right or wrong. For example, breaking into a grocery store and stealing food might be justified if you were living in New Orleans during the days following Hurricane Katrina. People with adjustable morals don’t want to hear Christians say that stealing is a sin, period.

Political Correctness is another problem. Some people are very uncomfortable when the claim is made that only one religion is correct. These days, there is more pressure than ever for individuals to be tolerant of each other, and labeling a religion as false seems very intolerant. Claiming that your religion is the right one can make you a lot of enemies. Just consider what happened to Stephen when he dared tell the Jews that they must believe in Jesus to be saved—he was lynched by an angry mob. No matter how gently you try to explain the truth, some will call you unloving, arrogant, narrow-minded, or a fanatic.

But how many paths actually get you into paradise? Are all religions equally valid? Jesus said, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. Elsewhere in John, our Lord also said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Jesus leaves no wriggle-room—heaven is accessed exclusively through Him.

I am the gate for the sheep. Back when Jesus spoke these words, sheep pens did not always have a gate that you could close and latch. Many times the shepherd would herd his sheep into the enclosure, then lay across the entrance to sleep. In a very real sense, the shepherd was the gate for the sheep—access to the sheep pen was exclusively through him.

What about religions that do not recognize Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lay down His life for the sheep? Our Lord calls them thieves and robbers. Those religions try and steal us away from Christ and take us someplace else. Jesus warns that their goal is to kill and destroy. Religions are not all the same; they do not all lead to the same destination. Jesus is the only gatekeeper to the realms of eternal light.

What makes Jesus so special? How can He claim sole authority to judge the living and the dead? Jesus earned that right on the cross. We were spiritually dead because of the sinful thoughts and desires that rule our lives; hell awaits all who anger God by failing to love Him or obey His commandments. But Jesus accepted the moral responsibility for our sins, and God punished Him in our place—punishment so severe that it killed the Son of God. But by willingly doing this for us, God the Father rewarded Jesus—rewarded Him with resurrection from the grave and the authority to sit in judgment over every human being. Jesus alone decides who will be forgiven and who will be condemned—and He makes His decision based solely on one thing: faith in Christ. Jesus said, Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16). Our Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep, and now He is the gate for the sheep.

Jesus said the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them…his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Why should we follow Jesus, and not someone else? Psalm 23 gives us many good reasons. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Look at all the blessings! Our needs taken care of. Peace. Guidance through difficult decisions. Protection from the forces of evil. Support in the face of death. Eternal life with God in His kingdom. And it’s all free—it is by grace you have been saved, through faith (Ephesians 2:8).

No other religion offers its benefits for free. Every other religion demands that you do something to earn your blessings. But Christianity is different. Our Good Shepherd knows how weak we are, a truth that Paul affirms in Romans chapter 6: you are weak in your natural selves. Jesus knows that we are incapable of earning God’s favor, as Isaiah makes clear: all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (chapter 64). So Jesus took action to save us, without expectation that we could or would repay Him. He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy (Titus 3:5). Unlike other religions, Christianity is for people who know how flawed they are, and are fully aware that they do not deserve God’s love. We realize that we are sheep who desperately need a Shepherd.

Jesus is the gate for the sheep; whoever enters through Him will find pasture. No other religion truly offers God’s forgiveness, rescue from hell, and life everlasting. Is it unloving to speak of this uncompromising truth with other people? No—the true act of love is to warn people of hell and introduce them to the Savior, before they die and are condemned eternally. Of course, we must offer the truth as gently and winningly as possible—no one likes to be told that what they believe is wrong, and we must respect other people, even if their beliefs are dangerously flawed.

We have grown up with all sorts of choices to make. But when it comes to our relationship with God, there is only one choice to make—accept Jesus as Your Lord and Master, or reject His outstretched hand of welcome. Don’t listen to the false shepherds calling out their lies to you. Don’t let them trick you into wandering away from the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you. Jesus is the only gate that opens into eternal happiness. Remember His promise in Revelation chapter 2: Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.