Friday, November 13
So far in our look at Jesus as our Good Shepherd, we’ve been thinking entirely in individualistic terms. Our Shepherd knows us better than anyone else. He loves us more than life itself. But Jesus makes a rather mysterious statement in John 10:11-18 that should turn our eyes outward. Specifically, it’s v. 16:
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Although I was raised in the church and accepted Christ at age 9, I didn’t read the entire Bible for myself until I was a young adult. I remember reading v. 16 and thinking, “Is Jesus talking about life on other planets?”
It may disappoint some of you to learn that, no, He’s not. So what IS He talking about? When God first appeared to Abraham, He made some astonishing promises. This childless 75-year-old would become the father of a great nation. Whoever blessed his offspring would be blessed; whoever cursed them would be cursed. And this one as well: “All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). All peoples. It’s common to call the Jews the chosen people, and they are. But chosen for what? God doesn’t love Jews more than He loves Argentines, Somalis, or Koreans. The “chosenness” of Abraham’s offspring wasn’t a privilege, it was a responsibility. They would be the vessel through which He would accomplish the redemption of the world. As He said in Isaiah 49:6, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
And, to a certain extent, it worked. There are stories in Scripture of people who were drawn to the light of Jerusalem in both the Old and New Testaments (The Queen of Sheba, for instance, and the Ethiopian official in Acts 8). And we know there were Gentile converts (proselytes) by the time of the apostles.
But, seven hundred years after Isaiah, and thousands of years after Abraham, God’s salvation still hadn’t come close to reaching the ends of the earth. All families of the earth were not yet blessed. So when Jesus speaks of other sheep, not of this fold, and His desire to gather them so that the flock might be one, He’s talking about non-Jews who need to hear the Gospel. To put it another way, it shows that Jesus is the shepherd of all the lost sheep.
So what does this have to do with us? Well first of all, as a non-Jew, I am glad that Jesus decided not to scrap the whole Gentile-salvation project. Aren’t you? But there’s another, more pointed truth here. Few individual Jews saw it as their responsibility to bring Gentiles into the family of God. Most avoided contact with their pagan neighbors as much as possible. It was seen as a sign of righteousness to not sully oneself in that way. Even after Jesus ascended, and the Holy Spirit came, it took many years, and the stubborn needling of Paul, to convince the other apostles to put the Gentile mission on the front burner.
Jesus left us with a mission, too: ”Be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). The thought of Jesus as our Good Shepherd is a comforting one, no doubt. But if we’re not actively helping Him bring people into His flock, can we truly say we’re following Him?
“Lord, I pray that your Spirit would fill us with a love for those outside our flock, and an urgency to see them come home. Grant us opportunities to be your witnesses, and the wisdom to know what to say. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
