Sheep-Dipped in the Blood of the Lamb

In 1830, a Scottish sheep farmer named George Wilson was having a terrible time with his sheep. Half his flock had died from skin parasites and the diseases they caused. The other half was continually plagued by mites, and sheep lice. These bugs would burrow down in the sheep’s thick wool and into its skin, and were very hard to remove, causing intense suffering to the animals and lessening the amount and quality of wool the farmer could harvest.

So, in desperation, Wilson took powdered arsenic, mixed it with water in a big tub, literally dunked each sheep in the tub until they were completely wet. Sheep Dip, it was called.

Of course, arsenic was just as likely to cause poisoning to both sheep and farmer, so over the years, other formulations of sheep dip were used to treat the parasites. The practicing of dipping sheep was discontinued only in the early 2000s, when oral medications and other systemic treatments became the norm.

Now, you didn’t come here for a lesson on sheep farming and I’m not qualified to give it. My point is that the familiar and beloved picture of Jesus with the little white lambies and clean fluffy sheep following after him is a metaphor. In reality, sheep get and stay dirty, are kind of greasy, and are prone to flies and parasites, requiring some pretty serious intervention.

And it’s OK to hold those two images in our mind simultaneously. It’s more than OK. Because what are Christians if not stinky and filthy, matted with the dirt of the world, greasy, plagued by the devil and other parasites,  tangled up with sin, torn and ragged and tired? Look, we know dirty sheep living in a dark world because we are them. We know the sin, the grief, the anxiety in our lives, in our own hearts.  

As if we didn’t have one single seemingly-unrelatable image today--look at the second lesson. It is hard to see how the vision from Revelation, of hundreds of thousands of people in clean white robes singing praises to the Lamb could have anything to do with our daily life. It seems like another one of those Sunday School images that when you hold it up against the major headlines of the media, just doesn’t line up in any way at all.

But the host in white described in Revelation 7 are people of every tribe and language and nationality who have come out of the great ordeal and have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Robes made clean with blood. A great ordeal that was survived. I remember seeing pictures of the Egyptian church in Cairo that was bombed on Palm Sunday in 2017. Even with parts of the photos blurred, I still knew what those pinkish stains were: evidence of a great ordeal these Christians had to endure for simply being Christian.

Such murderous evil happens to Christians across the world, and innocents in every land. We hear the news and shake our heads and and it’s just beyond comprehension or explanation.  All we can do is point to the words of Jesus in John 10, when he declares that no one will be able to steal his sheep. Nothing will be able to take them away from him. Not evil, not sin, not the devil, not death. Not bombings or terror attacks, or random gun violence.  Not anxiety, fear, stress. Not economic uncertainty. Not one thing can separate us from God, "for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Some may say this is too easy. That it's bland food meant to keep the sheep satisfied and quiet, with their eyes on heaven, doing nothing in the face of evil. Christians sometimes get accused of being too quiet about the evils in this world, too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. But the heavenly vision of the great host robed in white, holding palm branches in their hands is not a naive picture. It is not a pie in the sky remote hope.

What is depicted here is all those people who have suffered in, for and with Christ. The saints who have gone before us, from every time and place. They include my parents, my teachers, and those who I have had the privilege to commend to the Lord, and millions unknown to me who loved the Lord and were great witnesses to the faith. They proclaim with us that God is stronger than evil; that love is stronger than hate.

We sing with them around the throne of the Lamb because we, too, have been sheep-dipped in the blood of the Lamb of God and branded with the cross of Christ forever. His blood, his death makes us certain that in this life, and in the life to come, we are his. We exchange our dirty, greasy wool for his clean, white wool. We are covered over with his righteousness. We are literally baptized into his blood—baptize, a Greek word that means “dipped.”  Dipped in his blood, no evil can overcome us.

And when we die, we who have been dressed in white at our baptisms will again be covered over in white, lying under the great white cloth of the funeral pall, which drapes our coffins even as Christ has draped his love and his life over us. Not even death can separate the sheep from the Shepherd. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff, they comfort me.

So because of this, we do have an answer to evil. And it is not to wring our hands and wonder where God is and how he could let this all happen. It is also not to ignore evil and just set our hearts on the next life only. Our answer to evil, and sin and death and hell is this: "by the blood of Christ, you are defeated. You may not know it yet, that you have lost; and like a cornered, wounded wild animal, you may fight on, but you are finished."

It was finished on the cross by the Lamb who shed his blood to be our Good Shepherd. His blood makes us clean forever, and gives us the strength to live through any ordeal, seeking good, working mercy, loving justice and laying down our lives in service to those around us. When we do this, we live in and love this broken world, as well as the broken people around us, then we are truly hearing our Shepherd's voice, then we are following him in the way of his cross, giving ourselves away to others out of love and obedience to Christ.

And when our hearts are bleak, and the news is filled with terror and anxiety, take comfort: God is with us. Nothing snatches us out of his hands. In our ears is the song of heaven: "Blessing, honor glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever! Amen.” And in our minds is the peace of God which is beyond all human understanding. And in our hearts is goodness and mercy, which follow us all the days of our life as we follow the Lamb.

No, we are certainly not sheep out of a pretty painting,  but we know our Shepherd and he knows us and he has promised that, dipped clean in his blood, listening to his voice, we will dwell in his house forever. Amen.