The Good Shepherd Passage: we love this. So much assurance and comfort here...the Lord knows us. The Lord protects us and keeps us. The Lord lays down his life for us.
"I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice."
This sixteenth verse is challenging to us. Who might Jesus be talking about? Who might we consider outside the group of believers---outside the saved---that Jesus must bring in? It seems that Jesus' requirement is that they listen to his voice? What might this look like to us---in the world? Perhaps, Jesus is talking about people who follow the Way of Jesus---the way of forgiveness, compassion, love, mercy, and reconciliation---even if they haven't been to Sunday School or church or....?
What do you think? Can people live the Way and come to know Jesus in a different way than we have? Can people live the Way without knowing the Way? What about someone like Mahatma Gandhi? He seems to have lived in a way of reconciliation, mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness....and he wasn't Christian. Might he be one who "do not belong to this fold" and yet Jesus "must bring them also?" Or is Jesus, here, simply referring to the Gentiles? This is a challenging verse. What will we do with it?
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