I’d like to talk a bit about animals in the Bible. Sheep, goats & cattle to be specific.
Jesus used a parable, a kind of word picture/teaching tool, to describe two different groups of people.
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When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
— Matthew 25:31-33
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Sheep and goats. What comes to mind is how stubborn and cantankerous goats are, and how gentle and unassuming sheep are.
Sheep = good, goat = bad. Sheep one way, goats the other. Either get right or be left. Sounds harsh, but the choices are, inherit the Kingdom or be cast into darkness.
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I’d like to throw one more class of animal in there — the cattle. I believe this third group has emerged as a result of churches operating for 2,000 years.
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Cows are more like sheep than goats. Docile, with no natural enemies — except the butcher.
But there is one huge difference between the two. Sheep are led, cattle are driven. If you want to move a flock of sheep from here to there, you get in front of them. If they know and trust you, they will follow. To move a herd of cattle, you get behind them and drive them. You put horsemen and dogs on the sides to contain them.
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Picture that, in your mind, if you can. You’re a cow, in a herd on the move. If you stay in the middle, you get moved along, oblivious to the driving force. If you’re in front, you have no idea where you’re going, you have no motivation, except that you’re being pushed forward. If you’re on the side and you begin to stray, the dogs come up and bark at you until you get back in line. Oh, to be a cow.
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I think too many churches treat their patrons like cattle. They do things by rote, according to tradition, regardless of who’s in the pews. In an environment like that, you may never get a glimpse of your destination, but you know when you’ve strayed from the path.
The dogs come at you and bark at you until you get back in line. Lots of mainline denominations teach their clergy the ‘get along little doggie’ style of ministry — round ‘em up and move ‘em out — because it’s the only way they know. My challenge to the church of today, is to not fall into that.
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Which brings us to the importance of the shepherd to the sheep.
The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.
— John 10:2-5
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This is Jesus talking. Jesus, the good shepherd, does not say “You go there.” He says “Come, follow me. You won’t have to go anywhere I haven’t already been.” And we are compelled to follow, if we know Him.
He goes on to say:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
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 10:11-14
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Have you seen that picture of Jesus with a lamb wrapped around His shoulders? Why is He carrying it? That is the lamb that strayed from the flock. Because of the terrible dangers that lie outside the shepherd’s protection, he will do a remarkable thing. Maybe not so much today, but in the time of Jesus, a shepherd would break a leg so the lamb could not wander off, and then carry that lamb until the leg healed. By then the sheep would know his shepherd so well that he would never stray again.
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What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?
— Matthew 18:12
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Which would you prefer, to be pursued relentlessly by a loving God, and carried by Jesus the Good Shepherd until you heal, or to be barked at by dogs all the time?
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