Meditations from Zion

John 10:16
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

These agrarian references to shepherds and sheep are probably not the best for westernized, contemporary people. I mean, face it, when was the last time you saw a sheep? Of course, we get the idea, but I don’t think it really resonates. And then there’s the other wrinkle: those “other” sheep.

I’m pretty sure, in Jesus’s time, the other sheep were people like us: non-Jews. We would have been outside that culture, we would have been outside the group of the original chosen. We keep forgetting that. We’re the ones who had to be grafted in. [Romans 11:17-24] We’re the “also-rans.”

Instead, many western Christians seem to think they have the inside track on being a Christian, a follower of Christ. We have lost the meanings of many of the things Jesus and his contemporaries shared because we are so far outside that culture. And, now, we have created our own “culture” that keeps others outside.

If Jesus was willing to take in the “other sheep,” shouldn’t we be equally magnanimous? Who are the other sheep today: the homeless, the poor, the gangs, the “different.” Those other sheep may not look, talk or act like us, but if they hear the voice of the shepherd, who are we to close the gate?