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Thursday, June 09, 2005

Sheep, sheep, sheep...camel?

Why did Jesus suggest that we should picture stuffing a camel through the eye of a needle? When He tells us a parable, it's usually "cue the sheep!"

In a post in a great Evangelical Christian blog called From The Morning, the blogger was talking about his reaction to Joel Osteen, the ubiquitous TV preacher and author. The comment thread drifted, as they are wont to do, and someone made reference to Jesus' parable to the rich man found in Luke 18:18-27 (and elsewhere).

In it, He looked at the rich man, obedient to the Law, who was truly asking what he could do to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and, loving him, replied "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

God knows we're sheeplike: we huddle together, we're kind of stupid when we all think together, we can be picked off by a host of Enemies. The Old Testament promised a Messiah who will "feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)

So why didn't He give us the mental picture of passing a sheep through a needle's eye? If you picked up a sheep and told it you were going to insert it into an impossibly small aperture, the sheep would probably blink earnestly and say "duh, uh, okeydokey." It might even attempt to help, not being overloaded with brains.

But no, we are given the picture of a camel. A hard-footed, mean, biting, kicking, smelly, spitting, stubborn, uncooperative and unreliable animal. Camels never dash into burning buildings to bark the families awake. Camels never curl up around lost children and keep them warm in the winter's blast. They have nothing to recommend them but strength, stamina and a kind of grisly courage.

My heart IS that camel. Rebellious, selfish, greedy, uncooperative. I don't so much lead it gently as I haul it around, snorting and protesting and pulling against the lead every chance available. Just when I thought I was getting to be a pretty cute Christian, too.

Great story, Lord.

4 comments:

MTR said...

And I need to think of my Osteen analysis in terms of the Camel Parable. Jesus and the Bible say a lot about money--most of it with regard to the evil it can bring about when it becomes desired in place of God.

Rogue said...

I know what you mean about sheep. I frequently refer to "sheeple" in my blog.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/tommason/

Anonymous said...

Sometime or other somewhere or other (I believe this was before everyone had a blog, so it must have been on a maillist) someone or other relayed a story of having made a trip to the Holy Land. While driving around, he saw a large flock of sheep on one side of the road, one sheep on the other side of the road, and a shepherd headed in the direction of the lone sheep. The observer thought he was going to see a replay of that sentimental painting where Jesus carries the lost sheep back to the fold on his shoulders. Not quite. The shepherd kicked the sheep as hard as he could in the hind end and the sheep was back with the flock pronto. Not a great Kodak moment, but probably a reasonable image for some of us faithful to keep in mind.

MTR said...

BTW-
Thanks for the link and use of the word "great". Its apprecaited! :-)

 

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