Good Shepherd

A sheep named Baarack received a much-needed shearing after rescuers in Australia found the abandoned animal with more than 75 pounds of wool weighing it down. A video of his transformation on TikTok has more than 18.5 million views. After rescuing Baarack, sanctuary staff gave him the long-overdue shearing and found the fleece clocked in at about 78 pounds.

According to Kelly Dinham with Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary, sheep need at least yearly shearing to keep their coats light enough for the animals, otherwise it will continue to grow. Despite his heavy fleece, Baarack was actually underweight after being sheared. The wool around his face impaired his vision, too. Dinham said they found grit and debris "pooling in the gap between his cornea and the lid." And a grass seed stuck in there had caused an ulcer.

If a sheep goes for an extended period of time without adequate care, the overgrown wool can lead to build up of manure and urine that then could lead to infection, according to a North Dakota State University fact sheet on sheep shearing.

Possible Preaching Angle

This illustration easily applies to the Chief Shepherd and his sheep (and the undershepherd and their flock). As the sheep of his pasture, we need to be under the care of our Shepherd, otherwise we can wander off (Luke 15:4) or be attacked (Acts 20:29). We need those peaceful streams and quiet pastures, and his loving care (John 10:1-18; Psalm 23:1-6).

In the film Greyhound, actor Tom Hanks plays the captain of a US destroyer that is commanding the escorts of a 37-ship convoy. They are crossing the Atlantic in 1942, at the height of the “Battle of the Atlantic.” The story focuses on the three-days that the convoy is in the “Mid-Atlantic Gap,” where they do not enjoy the benefits of air-cover. The convoy is subjected to relentless attack by a U-boat “wolf pack.” The U-boats sink seven ships from the convoy and one of the accompanying escorts. The escorts in turn sink a number of the U-boats. The majority of the convoy makes it through, delivering essential troops and supplies.

The intensity of the combat is unrelenting. Hanks is on the bridge of his ship throughout. A running motif of the film is that he never gets to eat. His stewards keep preparing him food, and bringing it to him, but when it arrives there is yet another attack and the food almost invariably crashes to the deck. In a poignant scene towards the end, he changes his boots for slippers because his feet are bloodied by standing for such a long period.

The film is based on the book The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester, and the title indicates the spiritual symbolism of the story. Hanks’ character is clearly a committed Christian, who is shown praying at his bedside, and he has a prominent sticker of Hebrews 13:8 in his cabin.

Possible Preaching Angle:

C. S. Forester must have realized convoy escort duty is a good parallel for the work of Christian ministry. Pastors and leaders are called to protect their flock from the attacks of the enemy and ensure that they reach their destination safely.

In a post on Facebook, Emily Clarke wrote that she and her husband “encountered one of the most severe storms” while driving through North Queensland, Australia, saying that a truck driver helped them safely through it:

The water was lapping both sides of the highway and in some parts, it was over the road. We noticed a (semi-trailer) truck moving over to the left ahead of us. I asked (my husband), do you think he is pushing the excess water off the road for us? It was so bad that I could see only his brake lights at one point. It was unsafe to stop so I tucked in behind the truck and he guided me, braking frequently and putting his indicator on the side that there was an upcoming hazard.

She said she had a sick feeling that if they stopped on the road, even to let her husband drive, they would be in more danger, so they followed the truck until he turned off at a pub just before Mackay. She wrote:

My husband got out of the car and met him as he got out of his truck to thank him. His name is Footie and he is from Melbourne, and just so humble. We thanked him from the bottom of our hearts for helping keep us safe.

Footie told us, “I could see more than you, and if you were my family, I would only hope that another truck driver would do that for you.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

Christ is our guide through the dark and dangerous valleys of life (Ps 23:4). He knows the way because he has been there before us. He clears a path for our safe journey, as Heb. 12:2 literally says “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer/trailblazer and perfecter of our faith.”

Daniel McNeely is a pediatric neurosurgeon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, so he’s used to fielding questions from nervous parents and patients. But it was a first for him when an 8-year-old patient had a specific request as the child was being wheeled to surgery while clutching his stuffed animal: “My bear is ripped. Please stitch him up.”

The boy, identified as Jackson McKie, has a cyst on his brain and a chronic condition called hydrocephalus, according to Global News. The surgery was to drain fluid and relieve pressure on his brain.

McNeely assured the boy he would, and he took the task seriously. After McNeely performed surgery on the boy’s brain, he placed the bear on a table, put on blue gloves and used leftover stitches from the child’s surgery to repair an underarm tear on the bear.

Then in another first, McNeely — who had never tweeted before — went on Twitter Sunday to post a photo of the moment that had been captured by a resident. He wrote, “Patient asks if I can also fix teddy bear just before being put off to sleep... how could I say no?”

“He’s one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met,” Jackson’s father, Rick McKie, said of McNeely. McKie said his son was thrilled when he woke up to see his stuffed buddy, which he takes with him everywhere he goes, had been stitched up just like him. McKie said that his family deeply appreciates McNeely’s medical care over the years, as well as his human touch. “When we get there we’re terrified to death, but every time we talk to Dr. McNeely we feel better.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Gentleness; Good Shepherd; Humanity of Christ - Jesus was tender and gentle with children, as well as the weak and fearful. In our deepest need, he puts our mind at rest with his personal attention. 2) Renewal; Restoration—Christ not only forgives our sins, he also restores our lives by stitching up our brokenness.

Mary McLaurine has an unusual condition called developmental topographical disorientation, or DTD. This means she can't form a mental map or image of her surroundings. Unlike most people, Mary has no internal compass. Here's how she described a typical incident of dealing with her DTD:

I was staying a friend's home and decided to take their dog Otis for a walk. As I started back, I had no idea where I was. I was only blocks from where I had started my walk, but I was lost. Fear and adrenaline pulsed through my veins and I began to sweat profusely. My surroundings looked completely unfamiliar. It was as though I'd been dropped into the middle of a foreign land.

I hadn't written down the address of the home where I was staying. Walking in any direction would be just a guess: Am I getting closer to or farther away? Would I have had to knock on someone's door to use their phone to call the police? How could I expect them to return me to a place if I had no address to provide?

Fortunately, Mary found someone to guide her back to her house. With DTD there is no brain injury—no car accident, no brain tumor, or stroke. People who have this condition, basically get lost every day in the most familiar surroundings. Mary continues: "Those of us struggling with this disorder are often left with feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and self-doubt."

Possible Preaching Angles: Spiritually speaking, we all have a profound case of DTD. 1) Good Shepherd; Guidance; Spiritual Direction– In much the same way, Thomas (and many believers) worry about finding their way through life to heaven. Jesus reassured him that he "is the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:1-6) and that he would bring him safely home. 2) Lostness; Rescue; Witness– The unsaved are truly without direction and hopeless without someone to guide them.

The Telegraph, a British newspaper reported that a flock of over 1,300 sheep "had to be rounded up by police in the Spanish city of Huesca after their shepherd fell asleep." The article continued:

According to city authorities, the police were alerted to the presence of the extremely large flock attempting to negotiate the streets in the center of Huesca at around 4.30am on Tuesday when a local resident dialed Spain's 112 emergency number.

The dozing shepherd was meant to be keeping the animals in check outside the environs of the city while he waited for the clock to strike 7am, when he was due to guide the sheep northwards through Huesca towards Pyrenean uplands where his flock will graze during the hot summer months.

The police eventually found the herder, who was still peacefully slumbering. Together the embarrassed shepherd and police officers were eventually able to extract the sheep from the city and return them to their pastures.

Here's what Psalm 23 looks like when we remove the Shepherd from our lives:

1 my ... I shall be in want.

2 me ... me

3 my soul ... me

4 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear ... me ... me.

5 me in the presence of my enemies ... my head ... my cup

6 me all the days of my life ... I will dwell

Paul Miller concludes:

We are left obsessing over our wants in the valley of the shadow of death, paralyzed by fear in the presence of our enemies. No wonder so many are so cynical … Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The cynic focuses on the darkness; the child focuses on the Shepherd.

In Palestine today, it is still possible to witness a scene that Jesus almost certainly saw two thousand years ago, that of Bedouin shepherds bringing their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Often those flocks will end up at the same watering hole around dusk, so that they get all mixed up together—eight or nine small flocks turning into a convention of thirsty sheep. Their shepherds do not worry about the mix-up, however. When it is time to go home, each one issues his or her own distinctive call—a special trill or whistle, or a particular tune on a particular reed pipe, and that shepherd's sheep withdraw from the crowd to follow their shepherd home. They know whom they belong to; they know their shepherd's voice, and it is the only one they will follow.

"The Lord is my Shepherd" is written on many more tombstones than lives.

—Dallas Willard, U.S. philosopher and writer (1935—2013)

Why do sheep have shepherds? Because it is the nature of sheep to stray and get in harm's way, whether that be from hungry wolves or steep canyons. For centuries, shepherds have used various methods—from staff to dog—to keep sheep from straying from the safety of their care.

In recent times, shepherds have turned to other, more sophisticated, methods. One method is a metal, hoof-proof grid that is built into the ground around the sheep's territory. The animals cannot walk over the grid, which is eight feet wide. This works well in keeping sheep in the protection of the pen.

Shepherds in Yorkshire, England, found that they had a group of sheep to care for that were not only stubbornly prone to stray, but also crafty. One of the sheep figured out a way to transgress the boundaries: it laid down and rolled over the grid. The other sheep in the herd followed the example of the stray leader, and soon the sheep had spread over the countryside and found their way to neighborhood gardens, where they ate the food and flowers of local residents.

The shepherds eventually gathered up the troublesome sheep and returned them to their pen. But again they escaped and got into trouble. And again. While the special knowledge of escape of this entire herd of "black" sheep may have seemed like an exciting adventure, it actually placed the animals into harm's way, as several sheep wandered onto nearby roads, or were accosted by local residents' dogs.

Thankfully, our Good Shepherd found another way to deal with stubborn, straying sheep. "We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

A shepherd owns the sheep and marks them. In some cases, sheep are branded. Although some sheep are branded, that's really not a popular thing because it damages the wool. Even if the brand is placed through the wool and into the hide of the lamb, the wool can overgrow it so the brand won't be seen. Today the ears are pierced with identification tags, but that's a fairly modern invention.

For thousands of years, shepherds around the world marked the ears of their sheep by notching their ears with a sharp knife. Each shepherd had his own distinctive notch for the ear of his sheep. If the sheep gather in a cluster, he can see even from a distance which ones are his.

I think all of this is a lot like being a Christian. For Christians are also those who admit to being owned and marked by Jesus Christ--sometimes marked painfully through suffering and difficulty. It must be painful for Jesus Christ to allow those marks to be burned, pierced, and notched into our lives.