Book of Common Prayer
The call to the world, and the failure of Israel
14 So how are they to call on someone when they haven’t believed in him? And how are they to believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear without someone announcing it to them? 15 And how will people make that announcement unless they are sent? As the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of the ones who bring good news of good things.”
16 But not all obeyed the good news. Isaiah asks, you see, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of the Messiah.
18 This might make us ask, did they not hear? But they certainly did:
Their sound went out into all the world,
and their words to the ends of the earth.
19 But I ask, did Israel not know? To begin with, Moses says,
I will make you jealous with a non-nation;
and stir you to anger with a foolish people.
20 Then Isaiah, greatly daring, puts it like this:
I was found by those who were not looking for me;
I became visible to those who were not asking for me.
21 But in respect of Israel he says,
All day long I have stretched out my hands
to a disbelieving and disagreeable people.
The good shepherd
10 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” said Jesus. “Anyone who doesn’t come into the sheepfold by the gate, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and a brigand. 2 But the one who comes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. 3 The doorkeeper will open up for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all that belong to him, he goes on ahead of them. The sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; instead, they will run away from him, because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.”
6 Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what it was he was saying to them.
7 So he spoke to them again.
“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All the people who came before me were thieves and brigands, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone comes in by me, they will be safe, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—yes, and have it full to overflowing.”
The shepherd and the sheep
11 “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus continued. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 But supposing there’s a hired servant, who isn’t himself the shepherd, and who doesn’t himself own the sheep. He will see the wolf coming, and leave the sheep, and run away. Then the wolf will snatch the sheep and scatter them. 13 He’ll run away because he’s only a hired servant, and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and my own know me— 15 just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep, too, which don’t belong to this sheepfold. I must bring them, too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, and one shepherd.
17 “That’s why the father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it again. 18 Nobody takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to receive it back again. This is the command I received from my father.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.