Other Sheep I Have
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.” - John 10:16
The metaphor of sheep is a particularly humbling one, always needed by us all.
But Jesus as our shepherd is particularly comforting - when we see our wandering.
Rejoicing in Jesus' gathering of others, shows we hear his voice.
The book of Jonah shows our natural desire for the destruction of other sinners.
It also shows God's desire to forgive all who repent.
The people of Jesus' day had not learned from Jonah - they still hated Gentiles like you and I. Jesus' words in John 10 speak of his bringing us into his fold, as Isaiah foretold (49:5-6).
Our flesh always tends toward excluding others from Jesus' healing and forgiveness.
Only by Jesus' Spirit entering us, are we changed to rejoice in his gathering of others.
Jesus felt sorrow over the people of Jerusalem refusing to come to him (Mt.23:37), yet
John was ready to burn up a whole village of Samaritans. Which am I more like?
Does our thinking upon scripture result in thoughts like,
“but this multitude that knows not the law is accursed!”? ( John 7:49)
When our eyes are fully opened, our illusions of being distinctive and superior vanish. A sensitive ACU professor asks us:
“Who are the people, from whom I can get nothing, that have come into my home regularly?”
Jesus calls us to himself, to lose our life, then find it changed, with desires like his.
We may have been fed smugness by self-feeding shepherds (Eze.34) , or preachers like Jonah.
Jesus still calls us to follow him alone, one flock, one shepherd.
“Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” – Hebrews 4:7
8/14/06,#58