Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, February 18, 2026
by Rev. Dr. Miles Hopgood, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Christ is not only the Good Shepherd; he is also the Gate. Combining these to images helps us know how God draws us in through Christ and what a joy it is to repent.
Today’s gospel passage and the accompanying psalm evoke one of the most popular appellations for Jesus: Good Shepherd. The reason why is not hard to draw out from these readings. Christ is the Good Shepherd because he lays down his life for us, his sheep and in so doing gathers all flocks into the one-fold of God. It is a powerful image both of the power of God to save and the promise of a new reign of God which will is to come.
Given the power of the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd, you would be forgiven for missing that there is a second image Christ presents of himself in this story, one which garners significantly less attention. I am talking about the image of Christ as the gate for the sheep. Though perhaps less poetic, the image of Christ as the gate is worthy of attention. Like the image of Christ the Good Shepherd, the figure of the gate offers a vision of security with God (v.9). However, unlike the image of the Good Shepherd, the image of Christ as the gate helps us understand how we are oriented towards God through Christ. Those who climb the wall are thieves and bandits coming to kill and destroy, whereas the one who passes through the gate is the shepherd leading the sheep safely to pasture and back, that they may have abundance.
The image of Christ as the gate not only offers us a deeper sense of how we are oriented toward God through Christ but of how God imputes righteousness through union with Christ. Our status before God is not determined through a path of moral self-improvement or spiritual awakening. We are brought into the fold simply by passage through Christ. There is no superiority that accompanies being a part of this fold; we are simply those who were brought through Christ. The potential for the thieves and bandits of this world to become part of this flock is ever present, not requiring a hero’s journey or great feat of strength but simply that they repent of scaling the wall and be brought through the gate which was always open to them. The image of going in and out to pasture echoes this well: just as in baptism we daily die to sin and are raised to new life, being brought through Christ is a constant rhythm in which God is constantly active. It connects the dramatic act of Jesus laying down his life for us with the daily act of journeying with us and claiming us as his own.
Here the day of Ash Wednesday comes squarely into focus. Today’s liturgy is dramatic—we mark our foreheads with ashes in remembrance of our own mortality and begin a season which culminates in the death and resurrection of God. But it is also a season of repentance, which for the Christian is not an occasional dramatic act but the whole of our lives. Using this passage to open up the daily and mundane character of God’s shepherding love will help set us on the right path and guide us into this season with a renewed spirit.
