Postkiwi

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down its life for the sheep.”
John 10

I must admit I haven’t been much of a fan of the shepherd/sheep metaphor. For two reasons.

One reason is the over-sentimentalised lamby pamby lovey dovey approach in which children are encouraged to see themselves as helpless little lambs in the care of Jesus. There’s a song that goes “I just want to be a sheep”. Well I just don’t want to be a sheep smothered by sweetness!

The other reason is that I grew up on a sheep farm that was a lot different to the fenceless operation of the Middle East. Male lambs are castrated at an early age. All lambs are tailed. In Australia merino sheep are ‘mulesed’ - parts of their skin are cut off to avoid fly strike. Sheep in this part of the world tend to be left to themselves most of the time. And when they are mustered in, they tend to be either shorn or sent off to the freezing works. Not a great image for the relationship with Jesus!

Maybe a better image down under would be the relationship between farmer/stockman and dog. Of course that wouldn’t have been right for 1st century Palestine. But here there’s a sense of comradeship, care and loyalty.

Having said that, there is still something about being part of the flock, protected and cared for by the good shepherd as expressed in John 10. The sheep in Jesus’ company have quality of life because of their relationship with the shepherd. Note the focus on abundance of life rather than ‘eternal life’ as in John 3:16. The two approaches to life should really go together. Sadly they’re often taken as mutually exclusive goals by different branches of Christianity.

Imagery I’ve been looking at this last week includes the one included above, Christ the Good Shepherd: A 5th century mosaic from the tomb of Galla Placidia, near Ravenna in Italy, in which a clean-shaven Greek-looking Jesus cares for the flock, wielding his cross as shepherd’s crook. The tomb is now the church of Santi Nazario e Celso.

Howard Schroeder of Painted Psalms has in the image, Lost Lamb, at the top of this post, included a foot stamping on a snake, thorns in the foreground, safe sheep in the background, and religiously enhanced mountains!

(Don’t confuse Howard with the other artist of the same name, Howard S. Schroeder, the now deceased Delaware landscape artist, or his son, Howard A. Schroeder, a sculptor in North Carolina.)