Fourth Sunday of Easter

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April 25, 2021

At first I laughed at the video. It seemed pretty funny for awhile. However, after the third or fourth time the video looped through, I was overcome by a sense of deep sadness.

There was something terribly wrong with that poor sheep. Something drove that animal to act in the way that it did. The poor sheep had placed itself in bondage. It most likely could not have freed itself. The sheep was lucky, a kind shepherd freed the poor thing. No sooner than it was set free, it jumped into the same trench. It was lucky this time, no bones were broken. However, it may not have been so lucky. If the fall into the trench broke a bone, the sheep could have died a slow agonizing death stuck in a trench.

I felt sorry for the sheep. A sheep like that is of little value to the shepherd. He would have to watch and rescue that sheep constantly. It would rob the shepherd’s other sheep of the attention they needed. There is probably nothing that shepherd could do for that sheep. I wondered whether that sheep was ultimately put out of its misery.

This little video and its star point to a more dire and tragic situation. It brings to mind people we may know or see around us that behave like that sheep. The video points to people who engage in activities that are as reckless and as dangerous as the sheep’s. There is something that we cannot see or comprehend that drives them to act this way. In BC we have an opioid crisis. People of every class and strata of BC society take opioid drugs that plunge them into the valley of the shadow of death. Thankfully, for the lucky ones, a shepherd sees them fall into the trench and administers Naloxone, literally pulling them out of that deep dark trench and setting them free from bondage to death. The shepherds who intervene are typically fellow addicts, social workers or paramedics. Like the shepherd in the video, these shepherds must watch the sheep they just freed from death run off and take opioid drugs again and throw themselves into the valley of the shadow of death once again. An addict’s shepherd is as powerless as the shepherd in the video to change the behavior of the sheep bent on self destruction. The best our society can do is to provide harm reduction measures: clean needles, safe injection sites and better supply of drugs that reduce the possibility of bad side effects (being plunged into the valley of death). We can hope that addicts will come to their senses and change.

This dire situation brought these words to mind: “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 9:26). Jesus had just declared that it was impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples were astounded by Jesus’ declaration and asked: “Who than can be saved? Jesus promised that God could intervene and save a lost rich man.

God intervened through Jesus. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ….. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. (John 10:14-15, 17-18) Shortly thereafter, Jesus, the good shepherd, jumped into the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus jumped into the deep dark valley burdened with our sin. He died and rose again.

When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, some sheep, including rich men and opioid addicts, are given the grace to see themselves as the sheep in the video. This image breaks their heart. Shame, regret, sorrow, contrition, and repentance fill their hearts and souls. The Holy Spirit inspires a desire for change and produces the needed change within them. The Apostle Paul reminded the Church at Corinth that the greedy and the drunkard will not see the kingdom of heaven. In the same breath he reminded them: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

This is the message that sheep that jump into ditches need to hear. This is the message that their shepherd’s need to hear. This is a message that the church, and every member of the Body of Christ, must experience, believe and proclaim.

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