Jesus tells three loves stories involving sheep that we are going to read today. The first one is recorded in Matthew 12:7-15:
7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
Mercy here is defined as love and this exchange is neat. Jesus has just been accused of breaking the law. He has been accused on working on Saturday, on the Sabbath, which is prohibited then and there.[1] He responds by quoting Hosea 6:6 and then he proceeds to provoke his rivals by not only continuing to work on the Sabbath but also by doing so right in synagogue (their near equivalent of church) for everyone to see. It would be like if a police officer ticketed you for J-walking and then when he was done you left him by J-walking right over to the police station.
Jesus’ rivals take the bait and they ask him, they accuse: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Now, like Jesus’ adversaries, some contemporary Christian commentators have accused Jesus of breaking this law by working on the Sabbath. They, however, have come to the conclusion that either it was okay for him because he was Jesus or that the law was no longer relevant since the arrival of Jesus. This doesn’t really seem quite right. It really doesn’t seem to be what Matthew is conveying through Jesus’ sheep speak here.
When they accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath – not everyone was accusing Jesus, just those who had that opinion. And in Jesus time many educated, religious, and other people had many different ideas about what could be done on the Sabbath.[2] Priests worked on the Sabbath and they did not get another Sabbath day off in lieu. [3] Some in that synagogue would have held that it is quite alright to heal on the Sabbath. In Jewish communities even today, hospitals are open on Saturday.
Even then – as Jesus tells us plainly in this sheep speak - many shepherds would save their sheep on the Sabbath. And as Matthew records Jesus as saying elsewhere, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them (Mathew 5:17). Rather Jesus is showing his accusers here that when we interpret our traditions, our culture, and our religious practices, God’s love needs to be the centre of it.[4] God’s love needs to be the centre of God’s law and God’s love needs to be the centre of our lives. That is what Jesus is telling us here.
Some similar examples from not too distant church culture could be when people feel unwelcome in church because of the way they are dressed or smell. One person told me that she remembered that her family was only allowed to sit at the back in the balcony so others wouldn’t see them in church; I had one friend tell me once that The Salvation Army was the only place she felt welcome because she was a single mother. Whatever rules people have for church, they – we - really need to interpret them through the lens of love so that we can bring people to God’s love and not turn them away from it. That is what Christ is about and that is what we the church are supposed to be about.
This brings us to our second of our three sheep love stories today, Matthew 18:10-22:
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.[11]
12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Jesus, Matthew records, says that if one of a flock wanders off, you go and get them; then he explains what it means. If someone gets caught up in sin; if someone gets stuck in a sin; you do what it takes to free them from it because you love them. First you try to help them out by yourself like a shepherd would try to help his sheep from a pit. Then, if you can’t help them by yourself and you need to go get assistance from one friend or a whole bunch of friends to help them out of sin and return them to safety, then that is what you do. You do whatever you can to help them return and if they don’t wish to be a part of you then treat them like you would treat pagans or tax collectors; What does it mean to treat people like tax collectors?[5] Who is a famous tax collector in the Bible? Matthew is saying, 'treat them as Jesus treated me' – with the love God – hoping that indeed at some point they will return to the flock.[6] This is what the second parable for the love of sheep is telling us. And even more Peter asks how many times must we forgive someone who sins against us, always? Always times forever Jesus replies.
Jesus, the Church and Christians aren’t about attacking people with random laws to punish them, we are about loving them so that they can experience God`s salvation. The vulnerable and the little ones’ messengers always see the face of God.[7]
A couple of weeks ago, we got back from Florida. We thought Heather was a good age to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We had been to Florida before Heather was born, a long time ago now, when Rebecca and Sarah-Grace were about her age. This time Susan, Sarah-Grace and I went Kayaking with Manatee and Alligators.
7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
Mercy here is defined as love and this exchange is neat. Jesus has just been accused of breaking the law. He has been accused on working on Saturday, on the Sabbath, which is prohibited then and there.[1] He responds by quoting Hosea 6:6 and then he proceeds to provoke his rivals by not only continuing to work on the Sabbath but also by doing so right in synagogue (their near equivalent of church) for everyone to see. It would be like if a police officer ticketed you for J-walking and then when he was done you left him by J-walking right over to the police station.
Jesus’ rivals take the bait and they ask him, they accuse: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Now, like Jesus’ adversaries, some contemporary Christian commentators have accused Jesus of breaking this law by working on the Sabbath. They, however, have come to the conclusion that either it was okay for him because he was Jesus or that the law was no longer relevant since the arrival of Jesus. This doesn’t really seem quite right. It really doesn’t seem to be what Matthew is conveying through Jesus’ sheep speak here.
When they accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath – not everyone was accusing Jesus, just those who had that opinion. And in Jesus time many educated, religious, and other people had many different ideas about what could be done on the Sabbath.[2] Priests worked on the Sabbath and they did not get another Sabbath day off in lieu. [3] Some in that synagogue would have held that it is quite alright to heal on the Sabbath. In Jewish communities even today, hospitals are open on Saturday.
Even then – as Jesus tells us plainly in this sheep speak - many shepherds would save their sheep on the Sabbath. And as Matthew records Jesus as saying elsewhere, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them (Mathew 5:17). Rather Jesus is showing his accusers here that when we interpret our traditions, our culture, and our religious practices, God’s love needs to be the centre of it.[4] God’s love needs to be the centre of God’s law and God’s love needs to be the centre of our lives. That is what Jesus is telling us here.
Some similar examples from not too distant church culture could be when people feel unwelcome in church because of the way they are dressed or smell. One person told me that she remembered that her family was only allowed to sit at the back in the balcony so others wouldn’t see them in church; I had one friend tell me once that The Salvation Army was the only place she felt welcome because she was a single mother. Whatever rules people have for church, they – we - really need to interpret them through the lens of love so that we can bring people to God’s love and not turn them away from it. That is what Christ is about and that is what we the church are supposed to be about.
This brings us to our second of our three sheep love stories today, Matthew 18:10-22:
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.[11]
12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Jesus, Matthew records, says that if one of a flock wanders off, you go and get them; then he explains what it means. If someone gets caught up in sin; if someone gets stuck in a sin; you do what it takes to free them from it because you love them. First you try to help them out by yourself like a shepherd would try to help his sheep from a pit. Then, if you can’t help them by yourself and you need to go get assistance from one friend or a whole bunch of friends to help them out of sin and return them to safety, then that is what you do. You do whatever you can to help them return and if they don’t wish to be a part of you then treat them like you would treat pagans or tax collectors; What does it mean to treat people like tax collectors?[5] Who is a famous tax collector in the Bible? Matthew is saying, 'treat them as Jesus treated me' – with the love God – hoping that indeed at some point they will return to the flock.[6] This is what the second parable for the love of sheep is telling us. And even more Peter asks how many times must we forgive someone who sins against us, always? Always times forever Jesus replies.
Jesus, the Church and Christians aren’t about attacking people with random laws to punish them, we are about loving them so that they can experience God`s salvation. The vulnerable and the little ones’ messengers always see the face of God.[7]
A couple of weeks ago, we got back from Florida. We thought Heather was a good age to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We had been to Florida before Heather was born, a long time ago now, when Rebecca and Sarah-Grace were about her age. This time Susan, Sarah-Grace and I went Kayaking with Manatee and Alligators.
It is the same with us and God. That is why we are always to forgive and to try to restore each other to holiness: not to punish or to be mean to people but to save each other from the alligator of sin that wants to drown us eternally. Just as I never gave up, time and time again, pulling my daughter from the water’s edge, none of us should ever give up on anyone we know; we need to keep pointing them to God’s love and His Salvation. That is the point of the second of our sheep speaks today. And that brings us to our third of Matthew’s sheep love stories - the parable of the sheep and the goats.[8] Matthew 25 again from Verse 31:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
To the sheep, Verse 40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did for me.’” You are welcome in my Kingdom. The goats, who (equally unknowingly) did not do these things, miss out on the Kingdom. The sheep are in; the goats are out.[9]
When we were in
While Rebecca, Heather and I were visiting the petting zoo at Disney, all of a sudden the sheep left the goats. They were all in one place and then the sheep just split like an invisible hand was separating them. They all ran away from the goats. Rebecca (my teenage daughter) and I noticed this and so we decided to go stand with the sheep.
I then spoke to Heather, my six year-old daughter, asking her if she remembered the parable of the sheep and the goats and how they are separated. It was at this point that one of the Disney employees must have heard part of our conversation as he told me that they do this by themselves. He doesn’t know why but every once and a while the sheep just separate themselves from the goats.
I thought about that comment – that the sheep separate themselves from the goats – and recalled Matthew 7:18, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” This is true.
Our actions are the fruit that broadcast to the world whether we are a good tree and a sheep or a bad tree and a goat. If we are sheep and good trees we will naturally feed the hungry, water the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the imprisoned. Just like a good tree cannot produce bad fruit; so too we who love God will naturally produce acts in keeping with repentance and salvation. God won’t make us commit those acts against our will and we will not have to master our own will to do those things. As we love God we will naturally show our acts of love to God and to our neighbour just like good trees naturally produce good fruit and good sheep naturally move from the goats.
Today, as we have been looking at Matthew’s Sheep Love Stories, I encourage us to that end. Let us love the Lord our God and show mercy and forgiveness to one another. Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts and then as we love Him and as we love our neighbour, God will naturally transform us as easily as He separates the sheep from the goats.
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[1]M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 279:
[2] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 131
[3] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 132
[4] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 279.
[5] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 213-215
[6] Daniel Hetherington, SJ, Sacra Pagina, The Gospel of Matthew, 272,
[7] Cf. NT Wright, Matthew for Everyone Part 2: Chapters 16-28 (NT for Everyone: Louisville Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004),, p. 30-31
[8] But cf. D.A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VI. Opposition and Eschatology: The Triumph of Grace (19:3-26:5)/B. Fifth Discourse: The Olivet Discourse (24:1-25:46)/6. Parabolic teaching: variations on watchfulness (24:42-25:46)/e. The sheep and the goats (25:31-46), Book Version: 4.0.2:
[9] Cf. Jim Wallis ‘ Matthew 25 in the Age of Trump’ (Red Letter Christians: January 6, 2017) Online: https://www.redletterchristians.org/matthew-25-in-the-age-of-trump/
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