---
title: John 10:16
description: Explore the meaning of inclusion and belonging in Jesus' teachings, and how modern challenges reflect the call to embrace diversity in faith communities.
---

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# John 10:16

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OK, I admit it!

Sometimes when I am having trouble kick starting a thought process, I’ll put a text into Google. I also admit that I’m not very skilled on a keyboard.

So, in a clumsy attempt to search John 10:16, I simply typed in the numerals 10:16 without the John and discovered that these digits were the name of a song by heavy metal band Spiritbox; and down the rabbit hole I went.

Now, I am by no means a heavy metal fan and about five seconds of Spiritbox was about four seconds too long, but in the process of extricating myself from this particular rabbit hole I stumbled across another Spiritbox song, *The Beauty of Suffering*.

The accompanying commentary on this song (which was helpful because I couldn’t understand the vocals) informed me that the lyrics explore the *psychological pain of conforming, wearing a mask, or changing oneself to satisfy someone else's expectations*. I began to wonder; was this an insight into what Jesus meant when he said “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.” John 10:16.

Jesus is speaking into the domination system of his day. It’s easy to work out what a particular domination system is by observing the make up of the vast majority of political, business, and religious leaders in any given culture.

A domination system will always make belonging conditional on “fitting in”, conforming, and compliance. A domination system will always interpret phrases like “one flock and one shepherd” through its own unique lense. Jesus’ qualifying words in the beginning of the verse disrupts the natural processes of the system, and the system doesn’t like it as evidenced in John 10:20 “Many of them were saying, ‘he has a demon and is out of his mind’”.

Throughout the Bible there runs a tension between two modes of being, exclusion and inclusion, what Walter Brueggemann calls the texts of rigor and the texts of welcome. The reason it runs through the Bible is that the very same tension runs through every human society. Who to include and who to exclude is the deeper issue the lies at the heart of the question, “Who is my neighbour?”

In a 2022 article Brueggemann writes, “We are, for now, deeply situated in a *crisis of the other*. We face folk who are quite unlike us, and their presence among us is inescapable. We are no longer able to live our lives in a homogenous community of culture-related “look alikes.” There are, to be sure, many reasons for this new social reality: global trade, easier mobility, electronic communication and mass migrations among them.

We are thus required to come to terms with the “other,” who disturbs our reductionist management of life through sameness. We have a fairly simple choice that can refer to the other as a threat, a rival enemy, a competitor, or we may take the other as a neighbour. The facts on the ground are always complex, but the simple human realities with each other are not so complex.”

From the very beginning the Christian community has been challenged to include rather than exclude. The challenge began with the gentiles, and it continues today. Perhaps the ultimate challenge may be to choose God’s kingdom over our particular view of sacred community.

Brueggemann goes on to warn, “The new thing emerging among us is a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-racial, multi-gendered culture in which old privileges and positions of power are placed in deep jeopardy.” To some ears, that could sound a bit like the kingdom.

Although I do wonder if the commentary on Spiritbox’s *“The Beauty of Suffering”* may also be prophetic.

Because being made to fit in by being forced to wear a mask or having to change the essence of oneself to satisfy someone else's expectations, is a cause of psychological pain. It is spiritual abuse and cannot possibly be an instrument of the Kingdom of God.

When we hear Jesus say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd.” John 10:16.

We can interpret his words through our own domination system, or we can wonder who we may welcome and how they may change us in our ever-transforming journey into the Kingdom of God.

 

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