The world uses the word “sheep” to criticize those who (allegedly) blindly follow a leader, a brand, or a movement. “Don’t be sheep,” they say. 

The Bible, including Jesus himself, uses the term “sheep” a lot, too. We are sheep that have problems. We desperately need a good Shepherd to rescue us.

The world tells you to stop being a sheep, to change your thinking. If you want to escape the pitfalls of the sheep life, it’s up to you to stop being a sheep. But the truth is “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves” (Collect for the 2nd Sunday in Lent), and we depend on the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to save us from the power of sin. By grace, Jesus, through his death and resurrection, becomes for us the door into God’s flock. In belonging to him, we need not fear … well, anything! His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out. No matter how many times we fall.

In learning to hear and obey our Good Shepherd’s voice, we sheep also learn how to belong to one another. In belonging to one another, we have the privilege of making God’s never-failing grace and love real to one another, and we learn to more fully know and love and belong to God.