Have you ever heard the term “Sheeple”? What does that mean? Is it a compliment or an insult? Ever hear phrases like “dumb sheep”, or “led like sheep”? Nobody likes to be called a sheep. Sheep are very useful livestock, providing wool, protein (delish), keeping fields from being overgrown. But sheep are high maintenance, the get lost easily, and they can’t find their own way back home. They have delicate digestive systems; When a pasture is depleted, they are unable to find a new pasture on their own. They can only drink clean, stagnant water, not too cold or too hot, & not moving streams/rivers, that knock them over! They’re filthy animals, everything sticks to their wool coat (lanolin) & they have no way to clean themselves. They’re easy, juicy targets for predators. Sheep are sweet, useful animals, but man are they pitiful. Why does Jesus call us sheep? Spiritually we’re just like sheep, easily distracted, lost, vulnerable, we need shepherds.
