Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. – John 10:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (December 1, 2020): John 10

I have an uneasy relationship with keys. It has been a lifelong struggle. Yes, I have places where I know that I am supposed to put my keys; they just, on occasion, miss that spot. I leave them in coats or on desks. Pants pockets sometimes claim them before the garment ends up in the exile of the weekly wash pile. Then, there are the occasions when the keys end up somewhere that even makes me scratch my head. As a teenager, I missed attending a football game with a friend because of lost keys. We had intended to meet at the stadium, but I missed the appointment because I couldn't find my keys. Sometime during the third quarter of the game, I found my keys under the basement ping-pong table. The mystery of how they got there is still unanswered decades later.

And, on one cold day, I was carrying copy paper into my office from my car when the door to my office swung shut and locked. For some unknown reason, I had taken my jacket off and laid it on a chair in my office. My keys were safely ensconced in the pocket of my coat. I can remember trying to get into my office through a window but failed. Eventually, I gave up and walked home, in search of someone else with keys.

Sometimes I am tempted to rewrite this passage from John. "Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, has lost his keys." But I understand Jesus's point. Usually, an authorized person is not seen skulking around, looking for an alternate way into a place. We just enter the building, knowing that we have every right to be there if someone sees us.

John is alone among the biblical writers in using the "double amen" in his writing. Twenty-five times, he writes, "amen, amen," as he begins an argument. The New International Version translates this "double amen" as "very truly." In the King James Version of the Bible, John's "amen, amen" is translated as "verily, verily." It has the force of describing the highest quality or degree. In the same way that "King of Kings" describes a King among Kings, the "double amen" stresses that this is very true or that it is "most assuredly" is correct.

John is convinced that God confronts us in our lives because he is supposed to be there. Satan and his minions skulk around the outside edges of lives because he knows he is the intruder. Satan tries to catch us when our defenses down and lead us into actions that we would never consider under normal circumstances. He whispers his lies in our ears while standing in the shadows so that we don't notice who it is that is doing the whispering and, just maybe, accept the lie as truth.

And because John knows that this is true, he adds his "double amen," stressing that we know this to be true because we have experienced Satan's schemes in our lives.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 12