2021.04.25 | The Good Shepherd
“The Good Shepherd”
Fourth Sunday in Easter
April 25, 2021
Long ago and far away, I was a freshman in college and enrolled in my first college-level religion class--Hebrew Bible. Back home, we would have called the subject matter by a name more familiar to us--Old Testament.
I don’t remember a lot about that class or even my college experience. I can barely remember life before COVID-19. But I remember that my grandparents sometimes called me on Sunday evenings to see how I was doing. During one of those calls--the call that I remember most clearly--Grandpa asked me, “Are they teaching you anything?”
That last question was a showstopper for me, because of course I was learning a lot. But I was stymied by the challenge of how to sum up a month of college for two people whose economic circumstances had prohibited them from graduating high school.
Then this idea popped into my head, and I said, “I’m learning that city kids don’t have a clue about the Bible, because they weren’t taught the things that you were able to teach us, and because they don’t know the first thing about nomadic or rural life.”
The Bible isn’t just old. It’s filled with images and metaphors from nomadic and rural life that are opaque to people who grew up in cities and suburbs. So I learned in my first OT class that before the preacher exegete the Bible, she needs to exegete the nomadic and rural metaphors.
As an example, it’s tough to appreciate the full meaning of John’s description of Jesus as “The Good Shepherd” if you have never met a shepherd and you do not know much about sheep. Comprende?
So in case there are any city kids or suburban kids in the congregation today, I’m going to help you develop the linguistic and cultural competencies that you’re going to need for understanding the Bible and acting on the teachings of the prophets and apostles, and Jesus himself.
II
Most of what I know about sheep and shepherding I learned from my father and the other sheep farmers and ranchers that I grew up around.
Let’s begin with some basics:
Sheep are not the brightest animals on the farm/ranch, and to make matters worse, when one gets a bad idea, the others are quick to imitate the one who is behaving badly. This is because sheep are born with and bred to have a strong herd mentality. Sometimes this herd mentality works to their advantage, because sticking with the flock is a form of defense for sheep. But at other times, this herd mentality can be detrimental. For example, many breeds of sheep have such a strong herd mentality that they literally follow the leader off a cliff.
Another fundamental principle that my dad taught me about sheep is that a sick sheep is a dead sheep. Physical ailments among sheep are as contagious as their notoriously negative herd behaviors. My dad used to say that the best defense against sickness in the herd was to quarantine the sick ones.
Sheep are “grazing machines.” They graze on pasture for an average of 7 hours a day, usually at dawn and dusk, and they snooze through the middle of the day because eating is exhausting. This means that in arid climates one sheep may need up to an acre of pasture to feed on, in order to meet its basic needs for maintenance and growth.
III
It’s no accident that there are numerous references in scripture to sheep and shepherds. Our ancestors in the faith were what social scientists refer to as “nomadic pastoralists.” They raised sheep, and unlike modern Western shepherds, they did not fence ‘em in. They herded them from one pasture to the next following the rainy season where the pastures were lush.
In an ancient nomadic family like Abraham and Sarah’s, the patriarch and matriarch of our faith, every able-bodied person was a shepherd. Shepherding in those days involved tending and guarding the flock.
Watering the sheep tended was considered women’s work, while the nomadic herding of sheep was more likely the responsibility of younger men, who guided their families’ flocks from one pasture to another. These pastures were typically several miles from their camp or a settled village, so the shepherds were often away from their families for weeks at a time.
A shepherd’s primary role in biblical times and today involves protecting the flock. Keeping sheep alive and healthy until they were sent to market or slaughter was no small task. Sickness, injury, and predatory threats abound, particularly for nomads. The most common threats to sheep (and goats) in biblical times were wild animals, theft, and extreme weather conditions.1
The shepherd had to decide every day where she or he would take their flock to graze and drink water, or the sheep would die. The shepherd typically knew the area surrounding his home base, but in biblical times, shepherds could not solely rely on their home-base pastures. They had to migrate seasonally to provide for their flocks. Shepherds had to guide their flocks many miles over harsh terrain, and sometimes had to stop in caves for protection.2
A shepherd’s only protection from the elements and wild animals was their wits, a slingshot and stones, and a wooden stick with sharp pieces of metal protruding out of it. Shepherds also typically carried a wooden crook that was used to rein in an errant sheep and to help rescue an animal whose leg had been trapped in loose rocks on a hillside.3
If a flock was large and required more than one shepherd, shepherds set up camp near water and returned with the flock each night, where they would scan the herd for sickness and injury, and build a fire to warm themselves and ward off predators. A sheepfold constructed of stones was often built around a central campsite.
For those who haven’t seen a sheepfold, imagine a giant corral made of rocks piled waist high with a gate at one end. The corral was built to keep the sheep from scattering, if startled by a howl or a crack of thunder, and to keep predators away, but it was not a fool-proof way of protecting the sheep. So during the night, the shepherds took turns keeping watch over the flock and warding off predators.4
A shepherd in biblical times had to withstand, if not enjoy, a fairly solitary life, because they would spend numerous hours, even days, alone or with only one other shepherd and the sheep.
One of the interesting things about sheep is that they have a natural ability to recognize human faces and clue in on sounds and other sensory information, so they typically recognize their shepherds’ signs and signals, sort of like well-trained dogs and horses.5
Another fun fact about sheep is that the more you know about them, and the more you know about people, the more you can appreciate why our forebears in the faith were moved to describe people as sheep and Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Sheep and shepherds demonstrated many human-like qualities.
To ancient audiences, the parallels between a herd of sheep and a group of people didn’t need to be spelled out, but today that’s probably not the case. Some examples follow:
On our best days, most of us are capable of thinking for ourselves and making healthy decisions, rather than following a zealot like lemmings to the sea. But on our bad days, not so much. Hence the phrase, “All we like sheep have gone astray,” comes to mind. That passage was not only made famous by Handel, who set it to music in Messiah, but we all likely have sufficient data from our own experience to confirm the veracity of the statement.
In addition, the pandemic has highlighted some other similarities between people and sheep, such as how quickly communicable diseases can move through a herd and a population. That’s why our public health officials have been quick to apply--old fashioned, but highly reliable methods to contain COVID-19--quarantine and isolation practices.
A further similarity between sheep and people shows up for us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, and that similarity has to do with how much God cares for all of us--sheep and people. Each of us, animals and people alike, are part of God’s creation. Each of us are inherently loved and valued.
In this way God, and Jesus, are like shepherds for all of us. They offer guidance, protection, rescue, love, compassion, and care. When one of us wanders off, God searches for us. When one is injured, God offers healing to those who open their hearts to God’s presence. When one is threatened, God is ready to advocate and protect.
Similarly, like sheep, on our best days, we are aware of the value of strengths in numbers and sticking together. On our best days, we listen and watch for our shepherd's guidance. And, we trust that God will lead us to greener pastures.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel, the God we worship is no “factory farmer.” No, our God, and our example, is a nomadic pastoralist and a family farmer who knows us sheep by name. Our God is like a small-time rancher who counts their sheep every morning and evening, and she travels to the end of the earth in search of the least, the last, and the lost. And, yes, our God is like the Good Shepherd who leads us to greener pastures, when we open our eyes and ears, and listen and follow the divine guidance that is offered to us. Amen.
Madeline S. and J. Lane Miller, Harper’s Encyclopedia of Bible Life, third ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978), p. 142.
Ibid, 142.
Ibid, 143.
Ibid, 143.
Ibid, 144.