Scripture: Matthew 18:12-14
What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone
astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one
that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the
ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that
one of these little ones should be lost.
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So today, I want to talk to you about something serious. Something important. Something that, in my humble opinion as a man faith, principle, and education, we absolutely can’t go another day without talking about in depth.
That’s right.
I’m talking about sheep.
That’s right. Sheep.
You know, fuzzy, white, generally adorable little critters who make for great examples of group behavior and even greater sources for premium-grade sweater material.
So right now, I’m sure you think I’m completely crazy, but I assure you that I’m 100% serious.
You see, the problem of sheep first came to my attention when I was much younger, ‘round about middle school or so. At the time, one of the adults in my life told me about their own childhood experiences with their abusive and, frankly, insane family when they were growing up. They environment in which they had been raised was crazy, traumatic, violent and painful but, through a combination of love, kindness, and absurd determination, they managed to break the cycle of abuse and cruelty, and make for themselves a decent life, complete with a loving family, nice house, 2.5 adorable kids; that whole American dream.
But what stuck with me was the way a joke this person made, where they referred to themselves as the “white sheep”of their family.
This was meant to be funny, in no small part because this person was, just like me, so very white. But it was also meant to be funny because it took the whole idea of the “black sheep of the family,” a phrase we often use to describe that one member of a group who goes off the rails into a wildly different life than the rest, breaking away from the group and “doing their own thing” in ways that are shocking in their difference, and offensive to the gentle sensibilities of the rest of the group.
The basic idea behind this little dad-joke-esque comedic tool, whether you turn it on my head as this adult did or use it as intended, is to establish (usually to unassuming kids) this strong, built-in societal idea that the world consists of two groups: the “white sheep” who are part of the crowd and dutifully fit in, and the “black sheep” who absolutely don’t.
Of course, as a kid, I had this bad habit of asking all sorts of wildly inappropriate questions, poking holes in all the stories, theories, and ideas that adults kept trying to “teach” me.
This, you can imagine, made me an absolute treat in Sunday school.
But when presented with this idea, I had just…a LOT of questions.
Aren’t most sheep actually black, brown, or at least some shade of grey?
Why are the Black sheep the bad guys here? What did they do, other than have the wrong color wool? I mean, I like black sweaters as much as the next guy. What’s the big deal?
Well, if you’re at all acquainted with Western culture in general, and American culture in particular, you know that we have something of an investment in this idea of a large “white” group existing in perpetual opposition to a smaller, “black” group that is outside the bounds of society, othered, or in some indistinct way generally “wrong” somehow.
So, when we talk about this idea of “white sheep” verses “black sheep” in English, we’re usually approaching it really as a simplified analogy of in-group/out-group dynamics, where white equals good and black equals bad.
Of course, you know, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything; it’s just a benign cultural perception, and a not a subtle cultural archetype that presents any terrible real-world consequences or anything.
But the real truth here is that, in whatever environment it manifests, this underlying idea of in-group/out-group dynamics pervades how we look at not just conveniently amusing anecdotes delivered by anonymous adults from my childhood, but how we look at a great many of our personal and cultural perceptions, often to the point where where we can find ourselves looking at some other sheep-related or sheep-adjacent social constructs and manage to miss the point so hard that we wind up understand them as somehow saying the exact opposite of what they really say.
Let’s take today’s reading, for example. Coming from Matthew 18:12-24, we’re hearing one of Jesus many parables, teaching us some key and important truths about life, the universe and everything.
So what did you hear, in the scripture reading today? What images did that passage bring to mind.
For a good number of us, especially if we have both grown up in the church and chosen to remain in the church, when we hear of that passage we start thinking about that one lost sheep in deeply, almost insultingly empathic terms.
“That poor, lonely, lost sheep,” you might think, “Sure he’s made some terrible decisions, and left the safety and security of the nice, white group, but isn’t it wonderful that Jesus took the time to quick slip away, find that silly, errant sheep, and kindly and correctively bring it back to the loving embrace of his fluffy white brethren?”
Notice the immediate assumption of perspective here. Notice how quickly we jumped to assuming that the lost sheep was somehow the bad guy here. Notice how quickly judgement just…oozed into what we heard and understood from the scripture. Immediately, we made the assumption that:
a) Jesus was a really great guy for bringing that sheep back to the flock, and
b) That sheep clearly had some issues, going off on its own like that.
Of course, if you’re someone who has ever been in the position of that lost sheep, you might well have had a very different, much more visceral reaction to this passage. You might have the unenviable experience of having this passage weaponized, turned against you as a means of judgment; even a justification for pushing you out of the community entirely. You might have been called a “lost sheep” not as a sign of affection, not as a call to love from a people truly determined to love as Jesus loved, but as words of judgement; words of condemnation.
The truth is that this passage has been used far more often than we would like to admit by churches, against other people for a wide variety of reasons. If you’ve experienced this, it was probably because your church (or whatever church group you were interacting with)had decided that you exhibited such terrible bad behaviors like:
- Being a member of the LGBTQUA+ community
- Being a female and doing…well basically anything other than dressing like a nun, and
locking yourself into your bedroom praying constantly that you’d never, ever,
ever see anything that was even vaguely sexual. EVER.
- Maybe just being black, brown, or otherwise just a little too…ethnic…for the church to
feel comfortable with you being around.
- Maybe you were like me, and just had a bad habit of asking really pointed and
annoying questions
- Or maybe you let slip once that you were thinking of voting for a Democrat. God
knows that’s a quick way to become a “lost”sheep in many of these would-be
Christian communities!
Now I could spend days upon days taking apart each and every one of these absolutely ridiculous prejudices that churches and church folks have tend to have in the American “Christian” context; and given enough time I probably will eventually, if I’m being honest. But for today, in what little time we have, I would like to take apart this passage in particular, and look at some of the things we tend to assume from it, but which you might have noticed, aren’t actually present in the text.
First of all, you might think that the phrase “lost sheep” in the text refers to someone who wanders off of their own accord; someone who makes “bad” choices.
But the thing about sheep is that when one gets lost….it isn’t always because that one wandered off. Often, what happens is that the flock wanders off! What’ll happen is that a few sheep, usually somewhere near the head of the pack, will get spooked. Maybe they’ll see something they think is a predator, or a bush will rustle just so, and they’ll freak the heck out. And, governed by fear as they are, they’ll suddenly start moving in unexpected, even dangerous ways. Of course, group dynamics being what they are, the sheep around them will follow suit, and before you know it the whole flock is funning haphazardly towards a cliff.
This is actually a big part of what shepherds do, by the way; they’re there to guide the sheep, making it so they don’t run off a cliff or something when these odd, erratic moments of fear take over the group mind and compel them to these moments of insanity.
So the lead sheep will bolt in fear, and the crowd follows, with the shepherd running alongside to make sure no one dives off a cliff or something, but off in the distance there’s this one sheep who wasn’t filled with irrational fear. One sheep who was just trusting the shepherd, munching quietly on the grass, and generally being the best sheep it can be. And when the dust settles, that sheep finds that the group, in its fear, has abandoned it completely.
You see our human, cultural biases want us to make this all about that one, crazy, lost sheep, but the truth is that it’s just as likely that the flock got lost, while the one sheep got lost by quietly sheep-ing along like a good lil’ fluff ball.
Yes, the term here to “go astray” assigned to the “lost sheep” is often used to paint said
lost sheep as the one at fault, and in being honest, it is possible to understand the
Greek word used here (πλανάω) as meaning that. However, in the context of the
Septuagint, the greek words are often being used as stand-ins for Hebrew words and
concepts (a common technique in the Hellenistic period) In this case, πλανάω is
standing in for תָּעָה, which means “to wander about, or to roam” in its primary definition.
I would suggest that we have the freedom here to take some interpretive measure,
given both the nature of sheep and the nature of toxically exclusive group dynamics in
the present age!
Now, another thing you might be thinking is that Jesus’ highest goal in this passage is the safety, security, and integrity of his group of 100 sheep.
This is an easy position to take, truth be told, because we want Jesus to be for everybody. We want Jesus to bring the same level of care and support to everyone equally, regardless of any other factors.
But remember in the Gospel of Mark, when he sat at table in Levi’s house, surrounded by tax collectors and other sinners? What was it he said?
Oh yeah. He said, ““Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
This is a tough one for a LOT of us to struggle with, especially those of us who have been seated at the banquet table of American Christianity for a few generations now, but Jesus isn’t here for you. At least, not in that way.
Consider our parable here; the good shepherd doesn’t, at any point in the story, see to the safety and security of the 99 sheep. He doesn’t find another to watch them, rustle up a couple sheep dogs, or navigate them safely down to a nice comfortable grassy plain.
No. Jesus straight-up leaves them on the mountain. Remember what I said earlier about how sometimes, unattended flocks of sheep can just…go nuts? Forget about predators (who, I might add, LIVE in the mountains), there is a non-zero chance of that flock getting freaked out and going straight over a cliff!
If you take nothing else away from this sermon, I hope you’ll take at least this one point: Jesus had absolutely no qualms about abandoning the nice, conforming, great white flock to go join up with a single rebellious sheep.
Of course, you might think that this makes perfect sense, because Jesus prioritized the lost, which is why he brought them right back to the safety and security of the flock.
But I want to invite you to take a look at that passage again. You can read it, or you can just skip this video back to when we played it earlier.
Go ahead. Button’s down here. I’ll wait.
Good. Welcome back.
Did you notice the part where Jesus brought the sheep back to the flock, and returned it to the welcome embrace of institutional conformity?
No?
Well I hope not, because THAT DOESN’T ACTUALLY HAPPEN IN THE TEXT!
At no point does Jesus even suggest in this parable that the point of the exercise is for the “lost” deep to return to the flock.
Jesus doesn’t come to the sheep to correct it, or say that it’s choice of lifestyle, grass selection, or general attitude are somehow wrong. (PIP SCOLDING)
Jesus never lectures the sheep about how “going astray” was a terrible life choice that it should absolutely feel ashamed about.
And at no point does our good shepherd pick the sheep up and return it to the flock.
No. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Jesus finds that sheep and rejoices over it, over and above the joy he has in that boring mass of caucasity he left sitting precariously on that last mountainside. He sees that one lost sheep, puttering away and doing it’s sheeply thing, content to just be awesome at sheeping, and he is completely overjoyed. He finds this one fuzzball, and is just overwhelmed with happiness at how it is just maximum sheep.
And that’s IT. No reunification, no forcing the “lost sheep” to change its ways, come on over to the more crowded mountainside, no lectures on the benefits of being just like everyone else. Just…happiness…at how awesome this unique and wonderful sheep is.
And if you’re thinking that this seems out of character for Jesus, if you were expecting him to have more care about fitting in, to be more concerned with making sure that everyone behaves in a certain way if they’re meant to be part of team Jesus, then let me remind you of something.
Jesus of Nazareth was a great many things:
The son of a carpenter,
Really named “Josh”
A real fan of women named Mary
A world-class cheater when it comes to hide-and-seek
But Jesus was most certainly not a conformist.
Jesus was all about turning all our ideas about community and piety completely on their heads. Most, if not all of his parables and teachings were about exactly this. The Beatitudes, for example, were basically his Buzzfeed list of the “top ten things that ought to be different.” Jesus was vividly anti-authority, anti-imperialist, and a stolid opponent of following the leadership of unjust, blind groups of people just trying to fit in under other people justifying their power by dictating who does and doesn’t belong.
So that’s the message for you today, I suppose
If you’ve been pushed out by your church community, if you’ve been told you don’t belong. If you’ve been told that you’re not righteous, good, or pure enough to belong, then you’re in good company, because Jesus felt the same way.
Jesus rejoices in those of us who are different, celebrates those of us who are outside the group. Jesus leaves the great white masses sitting on a mountaintop somewhere so he can come celebrate with the lost, the forgotten, and every beloved child of God who these imperfect and insane churches have thrown out into the cold.
Remember. YOU are the beloved sheep, favored and chosen of the most high. God formed you and made you, shaped you with divine purpose and intentionality to be precisely who and what you are.
And those who said you weren’t good enough, weren’t meant to be loved for who God made you to be?
They can flock right off.
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