Sheep Without a Shepherd

 Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

July 21, 2024

 

Jesus the Good Shepherd
Ted Rogers

The disciples are back from their travels

and they’re excited to tell Jesus what they’ve been up to.

 

Jesus and the disciples are getting big.

The word is spreading and people are coming out

from far and wide to see him.

He’s being mobbed like a TV star in Hollywood.

 

So Jesus suggests that they all go

and get away from the crowds

and go to a deserted place

and get some well-deserved rest.

But again, they’re recognized and there’s a crowd around them.

 

It says that Jesus looked at that crowd

and he had compassion for the crowd

“Because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

 

Now, I think I probably have had an idealized view

of what the people who followed Jesus around were

like, I think a  lot of us do.

I think paintings and movies have portrayed

these people as disheveled, forlorn, unwashed, and sad, yes,

but generally patient, good natured, and thankful.

A basically unified crowd, all ripe for discipleship.

But Jesus saw them as “sheep without a shepherd.”

 

As I’ve said, you have to read up on sheep when you’re a pastor.

Without a shepherd, sheep get lost very easily,

they’re frightened and they run from one thing to the next.

They are not calm and level headed and placid.

They don’t know where to go, they’re libel to run off a cliff.

They don’t know where their next meal is coming from

Sheep without a shepherd can be very anxious and lost.

They get cranky and they run around, and they do a lot of bleating.

The sheep farming site I looked at said:

“Another thing worth noting is that sheep get spooked easily.

They are afraid, even of the smallest things you can think of.
But this doesn’t mean you should mess around with them!
They can be dangerous if provoked. They chomp and they head butt.”

 

So “sheep without a shepherd” is not a great compliment.

It doesn’t describe a “dirty but good hearted” group.

The reality is that crowd of people Jesus encountered

was most likely cranky, short tempered, impolite, and rude

and maybe even a little dangerous when provoked.

 

Situations change over the centuries.

But people have not changed.

people are still the same today.

 

People are not normally sweet and humble  

when they are anxious and lost.

When they don’t have stability and don’t know where their

next meal is coming from.

When they don’t feel grounded and secure.

When they’re threatened constantly.

Oftentimes people in that situation are desperate.

Sheep without a shepherd often make bad choices

and when they’re anxious and lost too long,

they can make very bad choices .

 

Sometimes when church people first start doing

direct service projects with people in tough situations, 

they get annoyed by people’s attitudes. They think everyone should be outwardly

kind, patient, and thankful. Some people get very turned off

to service because the people receiving don’t behave

how they expect them to behave.

 

And other parts of our society

tells us that we should look on people in need with contempt.

Some would even say to shame them or harass

them would be the best course of action.

Like that that would somehow shake them up

and change their lot in life. (As if people in need are there 

just in need because they don’t do the right things.)

 

There’s a sense that people should just pick themselves up by their

bootstraps (whatever those are) and fix their own lot in life.

At the very least, we should not be coddling or fraternizing

with these people. Because they could get the wrong impression.

Like we approve of them, or we actually love them as they are,

and maybe they wouldn’t be motivated or change or become like us.

Or worse, we could get dragged into their shepherdless sheep ways.

 

But Jesus, it said, looked at these people and he had,

not disappointment or contempt, but compassion.

Compassion. We know what that means. The definition is:

“Sympathetic pity and concern

for the sufferings or misfortunes of others”

It means to hurt for someone else’s pain.

 

The word that is used here is translated

as compassion because that’s the closest in English,

but the word in Greek is much more descriptive.

The word is splanch-ni-zo-mai

It’s  kind of a euphemism  more than just a word

it actually means bowels.

There are other words in Greek to convey compassion

that don’t have quite this meaning.

But what Jesus felt was this kind of compassion.

Bowel compassion. Deep low in the stomach.

You know that feeling.

A combination of sadness, pain, and deep love.

 

When do you remember ever feeling that,

deep in your bowels?

I feel it at funerals of people who have had sudden

and unexpected deaths of a loved one.

I feel it every time there’s a mass shooting,

Or when there’s a natural disaster and you can see

people’s whole world gets destroyed and torn apart.

 

Deep pain for the suffering of another,

deep emotions for another person

and a desire to change the situation.

 

Jesus felt compassion for them. Deep bowel pain.

Because they were like sheep without  a shepherd.

And, it says, “he began to teach them many things.”

Meaning he spoke with them, he spent time with them,

valuable time.

 

No doubt they weren’t all saints.

No doubt they weren’t all kind or gentle.

No doubt some of them were dangerous when provoked.

But he still spent his time with them.

 

Now they didn’t have to do anything to win Jesus attention.

It doesn’t say they showed promise, it doesn’t say they 

were instantly thankful and subservient, they didn’t pick themselves

up by their bootstraps, they weren’t showing initiative.

They didn’t have to do anything good to win Jesus attention.

All they did was be anxious, directionless people.

Lost sheep.

 

That tells us a lot about Jesus and about God.

 

I have a few friends and acquaintances

that have serious doubts about God.

They look at the church’s behavior or

the behavior of Christians and they assume that God is the same.

 

They see the most prominent Christians in the world

judging, shaming , harassing or ignoring others.

Trying to impose their beliefs and practices on others,

by force if they deem it necessary.

And lots of people think that is a reflection

of the whole church and of God.

 

But Jesus is the way we know God.

And Jesus looks at the worst of this world

and doesn’t react with judgment, shame, contempt,

manipulation, coercion, an eye roll, or even by turning away.

Jesus reacts with splach-ni-zo-mai.

Bowels. Deep pain and sympathy.

 

I believe that God looks at the horrors of this world,

the violence, the lost people, the addiction, the apathy,

the racism, the animosity,

the endless ways we hurt each other and ignore each other, and

think we’re so much better than each other.

God looks at us, and at the whole world with

a deep bowel pain for these symptoms of a lost humanity.

 

Even when we have contempt and hatred,

God has compassion.

Even when we roll our eyes,

God opens his arms.

Even when we have no more compassion to give,

God has more.

 

Last week, I told you about those two tables.

The ones we have to choose from every day.

The table of the empire and the market, the one which excludes,

which is run by contempt and fear and gluttony,

which is controlled by money and power,

and which often ends in violence.

 

And the table of Jesus, which is ruled by grace,

and forgiveness, understanding, and love,

which includes and sends no one away hungry.

 

Jesus means to shepherd us from the first table

to his table, not with coercion or force,

but with compassion.

 

We have all been lost sheep.

Humans lose their way on a daily basis.

We follow fame and politics

and power and money with religious zeal.

We are prone to callousness, despair and cynicism,

We have all made some bad choices.

We have all made deals with the devil and

traded in good things for bad.

We all have forgotten where our shepherd is,

and we can sometimes be dangerous if provoked.

 

But when we get lost,

we just need to remember that

Jesus is our shepherd.

 

And it is Christ’s splach-ni-zo-mai,

Christ’s compassion, and his love,

mercy and forgiveness that will

heal us, guide us, and bring us home.