By Joshua Olds
“Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.”
“And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”
~~Luke 15:5-6~~
The difference between Bo-Peep and Jesus is quite astonishing. Even on the surface, we see Jesus telling a story about a Shepherd obsessed with the one sheep that was lost, the desperate lengths gone to in order to save it, and the unbridled rejoicing when the sheep is returned safely. Given Jesus’ context, it becomes obvious that He is talking about the lengths God will go in order to save the lost. But like most of Jesus’ stories, because they are spoken by and towards a first century Jew, we lose something in translation. So what is it that we miss that really drives the story home?
First, a less-concerned shepherd, say Ms. Bo-Peep, would have just let the sheep go. Leave’em. They’ll come back. Wagging their tales behind them, as if tails could be wagged any other place than behind. That would have been the Pharisee’s belief. Their philosophy of salvation was wrapped up in rules, regulation, and ritual, all performed in order to get closer to God. God running after them and seeking after them – especially those that were running from Him – was completely foreign to their notion of God.
There were two reasons a sheep would wander away from the shepherd. One, it just flat-out got lost. Sheep are stupid like that. It’s why Jesus referred to people as sheep so often. Or two, it was a rebellious sheep running away from the shepherd. This is the kind of sheep Jesus is talking about.
The shepherd would find the sheep and discipline it by breaking its legs. While the legs healed, the shepherd would be forced to carry the sheep. This concept is something King David remembered from his shepherd days, when he lamented his affair with Bathsheba: “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” (Psalm 51:8) David, who had probably been the shepherd in this situation, now found himself the sheep on the shoulders of the Great Shepherd.
During the healing process, the sheep spends its time in the close communion with the shepherd. It was dependent on the shepherd for its very survival. It learned intimately the call of the shepherd’s voice. It learned to trust implicitly. Sheep that had their bones broken often proved to follow the shepherd most closely afterward.
To those listening to Jesus’ story, the illustration was powerful. The Pharisees did not believe God cared for these sinners, but Jesus countered that message by saying that God cared for them so much that he would save them by putting them on his own shoulders. Jesus would later demonstrate this Himself when He shouldered humanity’s sin on the Cross.
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The point of the shepherd carrying the sheep, because he would break its legs is something I have never encountered before. It adds another dimension to the parable of the lost sheep; it gives me something new to consider. I appreciate that very much. Excellent post.