What Did He Call Me? – On the Significance of Being the Sheep of the Lord

We’re so used to hearing that the Lord is our Shepherd and we are his sheep that sometimes we miss the humor of the Lord calling us sheep.  The Lord could have said we’re strong and swift as horses, beautiful as gazelles,  or brave as lions. But he said we are like sheep. I guess I’ve been called worse but it’s a little humbling and embarrassing really.

What of sheep? What are some of the things we can meditate on. In the end it is not all humble pie we have to eat.  There are higher qualities we can admire. But let’s start with the humble and move to the higher.

1. Sheep are WAYWARD animals. It means that they just tend to wander off. Now don’t tell me that doesn’t describe us. All we like Sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). A sheep will nibble here and browse there and get lost lost, he doesn’t know how to get back to the sheep fold unless the shepherd goes and brings him back. Sheep just keep on going and don’t come back. Dogs and cats can find their way home, The horse can find the barn, But not the old sheep. This is how it is with us. We get easily lost. We need the sheep fold of the Church and we need the shepherd who is Christ ministering through his Pope, bishops and priests. Otherwise we just wander here and there.

2. Sheep are WITLESS –  That is to say they just plain dumb. Ever hear of a trained sheep?  We train dogs and birds, horses and even lions. But the sheep cannot be trained! Now we human sheep like to think we are so smart. Sure we’ve been to the moon and we have all this technical computer stuff. But too many of us aren’t even smart enough to pray every day, get to Church on Sunday and follow God’s basic directions for life. We’re so stupid that we even do things that KNOW harm us. Even the simplest directions from God we either confuse or get stubborn about. We cop an attitude and say “We know a few things too.” That’s right, we do know a very few things. We’re so dumb we think we’re smarter than God! We think we have a better way than God’s way. No that’s really dumb.

3. Sheep are WEAK– A sheep just has no way to protect himself. The mule can kick, the cat can scratch,  the dog can bite, the rabbit can run, and the skunk…you know what he can do. But the old sheep? Without the care of the Shepherd and the dogs, the sheep is history. The wolf comes and all he can do is stand there and get killed. And so it is with us if it were not for the care of Jesus the Good Shepherd. The world, the flesh and the devil have got us cornered. And if it were not for the Lord and the power of his grace we would be toast. We like to thin we’re strong. We have armies, we amass political power, monetary power, star-power. It all gives us the illusion that we are strong. But then the slightest temptation arises and we fall. We need the Lord and his grace and mercy or we don’t stand a chance because by our self we are weak and prone to sin.

4. Sheep are WORTHWHILE animals. The sheep is a valued animal. In Jesus’ day many a man counted his wealth by sheep. Sheep give meat and milk, produce lambs and wool. Shepherds made many sacrifices in Jesus’ day  to breed, herd, and protect these valuable animals. And so it is with us. We may not feel worthy at times but apparently we were worth saving because the Lord paid the price of our redemption. He saw the price and paid it all. And not with any diminishable sum of silver and gold but with his own precious blood.

5. Sheep WALK together – Sheep flock together and thus are safer.  To be a solitary sheep is dangerous. It’s a good way to get devoured. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The scriptures also say Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up (Eccles 4:10). Sheep are not supposed to go off on their own, neither are we. We are called to part of a flock and to be under the care of a shepherd. Most of us realize this in a parish setting. But in the wider sense we are under a bishop’s care and ultimately the care of the Pope who is the chief Shepherd and the one representative of Christ the Good Shepherd.  The Lord Jesus said there is to be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). God wants us to be in the protection of the folk with a shepherd watching over us. An old spiritual says, “Walk together children. Don’t you get weary. There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land.” Now too many like to say, “That old Pope doesn’t know this or that.” But again I say, to wander from the care of the flock and the Shepherd is a mighty dangerous thing.

6. Sheep are WARY– Jesus says, “He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10″11-14).  Sheep have the remarkable quality of knowing their master’s voice and of instinctively fearing any other voice and fleeing from it. In this matter sheep are smarter than most of us. For we do not flee voices contrary to Christ. Instead we draw close and say, “Tell me more.” In fact we spend a lot of time and money to listen to other voices. We spend huge amounts of money to buy televisions so that the enemy’s voice can influence us and our children. We spend large amounts of time with TV, radio, Internet. And we can so easily be drawn to the enemy’s voice. And not only do we NOT flee it, but we feast on it. And instead of rebuking it we turn and rebuke the voice of God and put his word on trial instead of putting the world on trial. The goal for us is to be more wary, like sheep and to recognize only one voice, that of the Lord speaking though his Church, and to flee every other voice.

OK fellow sheep face it. We got called a sheep and it is deserved. But remember it’s not just the humble qualities, it’s the higher ones too. And the final beauty is this. If we are sheep, that means we have a Good Shepherd:

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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 10:14-16)