St. Paul had been a senior Pharisee and the local Jews might have first thought of him as a visiting celebrity. Imagine their horror to find him preaching about Jesus and preaching to the pagans too. St. Paul makes clear that he has come not to his fellow Jews but to all who will accept Jesus. St. Paul paid for his radical ways over and over again as he was repeatedly ejected from places where he preached, was imprisoned multiple times and was finally executed.
Our second reading, from the book of the Apocalypse, describes John’s vision of the great crowd of the saved from all nations. Again this reinforces the idea of Jesus as the Savior not just of the Jews but of the whole world.
In the Gospel passage Jesus uses the metaphor of sheep and their shepherd. He promises that His sheep will be cared for; and that these sheep will not just be cared for in this life, but will have eternal life and can never be lost. We are lucky enough to be part of that great flock of sheep. Through the actions of the apostles and their successors, God’s word has been made available across the world. And over the centuries it has spread to people of all nations. We are promised the greatest gift of all: not just a level of love and mercy in this world which is beyond our deserving, but the promise of eternal life. All we are asked to do is to listen to the word of Jesus our shepherd.