A shepherd was herding his large flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Cadillac SUV came roaring toward him and skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit and Gucci shoes, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"
The shepherd looked the man over, then looked at his huge flock, and calmly answered, "Sure."
The young man whips out his notebook computer, connects it to his cell phone, and downloads a NASA page from the internet. He enters data from his handheld GPS satellite navigator system, opens up a data base and Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas. He sends out an e-mail, and after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech, miniaturized printer and declares to the shepherd, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep. "
"That is correct, take one of the sheep," says the shepherd. He watches as the young man carefully selects one of the animals and bundles it into his car.
Then the shepherd says, "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?" "Sure, why not," answers the young man.
"You are a consultant," says the shepherd. The man replied, "That's right, but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required," answers the shepherd. "You turned up here though nobody called you. You want to get paid for the answer to a question I already know, and you don't know anything about my business. Now give me back my dog."
Most of us don't know much more about sheep than that consultant. That's a problem because sheep and shepherds are among the most common metaphors in both the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels. In Jesus' time and place sheep, by far, are the most common livestock. Practically everyone tended sheep or lived next door to someone who did. Sheep were as common around town as cats and dogs are in our neighborhoods today. The nature and behavior of sheep were common knowledge in those days. They're not now. If we're to understand what Jesus was driving at when he spoke of people as sheep we need to know something about sheep.
Sheep are gregarious. Sheep will always band together and pretty much stay together when they graze or move about. It's not because they like each other, but because they find security in numbers. Among sheep, separation from the flock causes extreme stress. They communicate their anxiety through high-pitched bleating which shepherds recognize immediately. When they hear it they go in search of the separated, lost sheep.
Human beings are gregarious. As far back as we can go in history humans always gathered food and hunted in groups because there was security in numbers. The need for community is hardwired into us. The anxiety created by feeling cut off from the human flock is communicated through the high-pitched cries of loneliness, addiction, and depression. It's no surprise the Unibomber and most serial killers are described as "loners". Without some sort of herd to belong to we are vulnerable and may become dangerous to ourselves and others.
Every one of Jesus' healing miracles resulted in something else besides restoration of physical health. Every one of Jesus' healing miracles restored the afflicted person to community. Numerous lepers, the woman with the hemorrhage, and dead Lazarus were brought back into the human flock. The Lord is bringing all the lost and hurting sheep of the world back together. We better not get in the way.
When Jesus was asked by religious leaders if he was the Messiah it was a question about belonging and security. The Messiah was expected to bring together the whole flock of Israel and protect it from the hated Roman oppressors. Jesus has a different take on the tradition. His is not an exclusive flock. Earlier in the same chapter of John Jesus speaks of "other sheep that do not belong to this fold" who he also longs to bring in. That would include Gentiles such as the despised Roman soldiers. It was a call to expand the flock; to bring more and more people under the protection, grace, and love of the Good Shepherd. This is a warning to those of us who, in a weak moment, think we know who is - and who is not - to be numbered among God's sheep. We might be surprised to discover how many varieties and breeds there are in the flock of the Lord.
Here we might learn from sheep. A big headache for shepherds was keeping the flocks of different owners separated from each other. Sheep are not selective. They'll congregate with any other sheep who happen to be in the area. Color, bloodline, or home farm makes no difference to sheep. Martin Luther King called eleven o'clock on Sunday morning the most segregated hour of the week. We've made some progress, but we've got a long way to go. I pray we will become more like sheep in their openness and lack of distinctions.
Sheep are intelligent. This comes as a shock to me. A shepherd I knew years ago told me sheep are extremely stupid. He said a sheep might wander into the corner of a fenced pasture and, not being able to turn right or left and not being smart enough to back up, would just stand there stuck. He would have to physically turn the sheep around before it would return to the flock. I'm sure I worked the alleged stupidity of sheep into a sermon at some point in the past. I was wrong. Sheep are not stupid.
Scientists in Cambridge, England have demonstrated sheep have rather high IQ's. They rank just below pigs and are about equal to cattle. They also have long memories. They are able to pick out a particular face from a line of photographs if the face is associated with food. Some are able to remember as many as 50 faces for as long as two years. Sheep are smart.
Except when they're scared. Fear causes a flock to disintegrate. When sheep are driven apart they are more vulnerable to predators. Frightened sheep will run headlong into jagged rocks and tumble off cliffs. To make matters worse, sheep are afraid of just about everything. Dr. Keith Kendrick, who has studied the intelligence of sheep, thinks this is how they got a reputation for stupidity. He says, "Any animal, including humans, once they are scared, they don't tend to show signs of intelligent behavior."
Don't we know the truth of that? When we're at our worst most of the time we're acting out of fear. Scared of not having enough respect and love we become covetous and stingy. Scared of rejection we become manipulative or callous. Scared of failure we don't try. Racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry of all kinds are, at the core, fear responses. Anger is almost always a defense born of fear of injury, physical or emotional. We prefer to identify with lions, panthers, eagles, and bears. The University of Maryland wants people to "fear the turtle" which is a bit comical, but that makes the point. We would like to be fearsome. The rarely admitted truth is there's a bit of sheep in all of us.
That, too, Jesus recognized. Speaking of and to his human sheep Jesus says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never parish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." These are words of assurance intended to calm our fears. Even when the worst happens we can rely on the Good Shepherd. How much more can we rely upon the Lord when an aggressive driver cuts us off, a boss doesn't accept our proposal, or a friend lets us down?
We can listen to words of assurance. But sometimes the Shepherd calls us to follow him through the valley of the shadow of death, or self-denial, or self-sacrifice, or to resist injustice and oppression. Then we sheep may not hear so well. We get scared, and when we're scared, like sheep, we do stupid things. We take a wrong turn. We make poor decisions. We become self-destructive.
In this battled and fearful world we have a Good Shepherd. Listen to his voice calling you and me and all God's people into his flock. Listen to his voice calling all the lost, hurting, and lonely. Listen to his voice of comfort and assurance. Listen to his voice calling us away from danger, away from our own destructive impulses. Listen to his voice calling forth the Peaceable Kingdom on earth. Listen and follow.
Amen.