Paul Walker, “Actually, We Know A Lot About Sheep”

Today is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. The collect, the psalm and the gospel reading all refer to the Lord as our Shepherd. How is Jesus our Good Shepherd? 

     This is what He says. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd.

     So, we have sheep, wolves, hired hands, and shepherds. We may not know much about sheep, but most of us have some experience in shepherding. Parents shepherd children, pet owners shepherd pets, children shepherd their toys. People of all stripes shepherd their own hopes and agendas. Men and women try to shepherd their career paths. Think for a minute. What or whom are you trying to shepherd right now? 

     We may not know much about sheep, but we do know about wolves, at least metaphorically. We know about the bad things that threaten to harm us or the people we love. I’m reading a novel right now about a family trying to cope with the father’s chronic depression. The man refers to his depression as “The Monster.” Wolves come from the outside. But sometimes they come from the inside. What is the saying? A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Again, think for a minute. What are the wolves in your life right now?

      Well, we may not know much about sheep, but I think we all know about hired hands. I take hired hands to be the people in some kind of authority over us, or over our situations that we don’t really trust. A teacher, a doctor, a police officer, a minister who seems more interested in themselves than their charges. Anyone, really, that you are depending on.

     I’m sure there are times when you feel like a hired hand yourself. Times when you don’t really trust yourself with the responsibilities in your life. One more time – think for a minute. Who are the hired hands in your life? Where are you the hired hand?

     It seems to me that with all the wolves out there, and all the hired hands that hightail it when the wolves come, being a shepherd of anyone or anything is exceedingly difficult. I was struck by an op-ed by Esau McCaulley in the New York Times the day after Derek Chauvin’s verdict. McCaulley is a black man, father of 4, and a professor at Wheaton College, which is arguably the country’s leading and most intellectually rigorous evangelical college.

     McCaulley writes about trying to shepherd his idealistic college students through the tumultuous events in our nation. And more poignantly, trying to shepherd his 9 year old black son through the realities of racism. 

     “In that moment,” McCaulley writes, “we were not just father and son but a Black boy and a Black man trying to make sense of the task of living that stretched out before us.”   McCaulley feels inadequate to protect his son against the dangers of the world, dangers that are particular to young black men. Again, in a world filled with wolves and hired hands, not one of us is up to the task of being a good shepherd all the time. 

     I’ve said repeatedly that we may not know much about sheep. That’s actually not true. I was just trying to set you up. (Some shepherd I am!) We know a ton about sheep. Because we are sheep. Even those of us who are supposed to be shepherds. We are all sheep.

     That is what the bible calls us. There are over 500 references to sheep in the Bible. We are likened to sheep over and over and over again. What is commonly known about sheep? I’ll give you just 3 quick characteristics. Sheep have no sense of direction. This is often true for us, isn’t it? How often and easily do we lose our way?

      What else do we know about sheep? Sheep are totally defenseless. They are vulnerable to the wolves and entirely dependent on their shepherd. Who can’t relate? No matter how hard you try to circumscribe and control your life, there will always be threats that are way out of your control.

     Finally, sheep are not meant to carry burdens. Donkeys are the beasts of burden. Jesus doesn’t call us donkeys, even though we often make jack-asses of ourselves. He calls us sheep. And sheep are not meant to carry burdens. Sheep collapse under the weight of burdens. Their legs are too skinny, their bodies too ill-proportioned to carry burdens. 

     Last question in this interactive sermon. What burdens are you carrying right now? What would it be like to give those burdens away? How would it feel to give those burdens to the One who is meant to show you the way, to protect you from wolves, and to carry your burdens for you?

     Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Picture for a minute the image of Jesus you know from Sunday school, or the cover of a children’s bible, or the print hanging in a nursery. How is Jesus pictured? The scene is bucolic. There is a crook by his side. And what is in his arms? A lamb, of course. He carries the sheep. He not only bears the sheep’s burdens, he cradles the sheep securely in his grip.

     You are a sheep. You are that sheep. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for you on the cross. He became the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And now, that Good Shepherd carries you today.

     Amen.