Sorting out the Fat Sheep

 

Reflection 22^nd November 2020

 

In Hebrew Scripture (what we call the Old Testament for the most part) God (“Yahweh”) is often depicted as the good shepherd who provides for the flock’s every need. It is an image that still resonates for us thousands of years later – even though most of us have never had direct contact with shepherds or sheep. After all, if I asked you which is your favourite Psalm, I’m sure many of you would say Psalm 23 which affirms that even as God’s sheep “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” they need not fear for God is with them as protector and guide.

For many Christians, Jesus assumes the role of the Good Shepherd. As Gail O’Day puts it in her commentary on John’s Gospel

“the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has a perennial hold on Christian imagination. Some of the most popular pictures of Jesus are those that depict him a shepherd, leading a flock of sheep”.

In ancient Israel, kings were expected to “tend” their subjects justly, especially those who were most vulnerable to abuse: widows, orphans, the poor, the infirm, and displaced. Israel’s past shepherds (kings) neglected such responsibilities as Ezekiel states:

⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. Ezekiel 34:4

Ezekiel reminds the people that God, the Sovereign Lord says:

¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, ¹⁶ I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

Ezekiel then goes on to say that God will deal with “the fat sheep”, those that bully the weak sheep out of the way and prosper at the expense of the weak. The fat sheep will be subject to God’s justice. However, perhaps what is surprising is the way God will dole out his justice. For God will dole out his justice as a good parent imposes discipline. And how does a good parent impose justice? Not so much by punishment but by teaching what is right and wrong.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of Ezekiel as being hell fire and brimstone. I’d expect any teaching on justice by Ezekiel to be harsh. We imagine Ezekiel would say “Vengeance is mine says the Lord”. (Hebrews 10:30) It might be, but not yet, is what Ezekiel is saying.

God means business. God will not let injustice go unanswered. But Ezekiel shows us that God has a way of dealing with injustice that is very different from how we would deal with it. And what is that?

Ezekiel says:

¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

My emphasis on those words. God will destroy the unjust. He will transform them by feeding them justice.

²⁰ Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

Then God speaks to the “fat sheep” (the fat cats maybe??) directly:

 ²¹ Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, ²² I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

Isn’t it a bit odd that God will sit down with the unjust “fat sheep” and “feed them justice”? Shouldn’t those who have been treated unjustly be fed? Aren’t God’s priorities wrong?

What are we to make of this?

God wants the whole flock to come to him. He wants all to be fed by his love. His grace. He wants all to know that love – even the fat sheep. That is why God sent his son our Saviour Jesus Christ into the world to call all to himself.

²³ I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

That is a bitter pill for us to swallow. In our eyes it’s not fair that God is going to sit down with the fat sheep, those who act unjustly, those who exploit, and feed them his justice.

In our eyes we’d prefer the fat sheep to be like the goats in the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25: 31 – 46). We’d like them to be punished. We want the fat sheep, the goats, the sinners, to go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.’ Matthew 25:46

But the passage in Ezekiel says that God offers the disobedient sheep, the fat sheep, the opportunity to be transformed in order to be saved. That is the purpose of Christ coming into the world. As Jesus says in Luke 5:32

³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Perhaps a meal of God’s justice will satisfy the hunger the fat sheep never knew they had? Redemption is still possible even for those who pushed with flank and shoulder and butted at all the weak animals. That is what is so amazing about God’s grace. That is what is so hard for us to accept looking through our eyes.

God wants above anything to have all come into his kingdom – provided they have sought forgiveness.

That is not to say we as Christ’s followers should ignore injustice. We must not. We must work to right injustice. We must speak out against it. We must remind the fat sheep of the values of the Kingdom of Heaven. But ultimately it is for God to deal with them.

A mother of eight children was once asked if she had any favourites. "Favourites?" she replied. "Yes, I have favourites. I love the one who is sick until he is well again. I love the one who is in trouble until he is safe again. And I love the one who is farthest away until he comes home." That is what God is like. God is a Divine Parent whose love never stops, a Parent whose love will never give up. You may stop loving God, but God will never stop loving you. You may run away from God, but you will soon find that your legs are too short. You can't get away from God. And that is not a threat, but a promise! God is out on every road where people, like sheep, get themselves lost, earnestly and tenderly seeking them and calling them back home.