How Much Are You Worth?

Think about this: somebody offers you a hundred dollars to watch  over a dozen sheep for one night. Then a wolf slinks by. He intends  to devour you. Would you keep that hundred dollars or would you  abandon the cash and run away and not get eaten? Would you  chance it for two hundred dollars? How about a thousand? How  much are you worth? How much are those sheep worth to you? 

I cooked two lamb chops for dinner. On the label, they cost $8.51.  They had a lot of fat, which I gave to the dog. Heike doesn’t exactly  look like a wolf, but he’s got the focused crouch of a border collie  that says “Don’t mess with me” after I put meat in his dish. How  much is my right hand worth? 

In the midst of sautéing and determining the monetary value of  sheep and feeding the dog, I wonder about the surprising turn in  today’s Gospel. Jesus first describes the hired help who abandon the  sheep. Then he suddenly switches to laying down his life. Where  did that thought come from? Were there Jewish folk tales about the  heroic love of the lone shepherd on the hillside who died defending  his sheep from a pack of hungry wolves? If so, how much were those  sheep worth? 

The Gospel account seems to assume that we know those  background stories, for Jesus presses on to talk about voluntarily  laying down his own life for us, as that brave shepherd would lay  down his life for his sheep. Why? He knows us. He looks at us as  more than lamb chops. He cares for our welfare. Like the hero on  the hillside, he is the Good Shepherd, willing to die—for us. If that is  the case, then how much are we worth? 

Consider/Discuss 

• Sometimes we place a monetary value on people: how much return on  investment do you get from gaining a dozen more paying customers;  what is the corporate value of an increased retention of employees; how  can we alter the message to gain more voters . . . the list goes on. This  monetization is needed to gauge effectiveness in each of those respective  disciplines. But how can we avoid the temptation to look at people as  numbers? What worth does God put on a human life? 
• The bond between sheep and shepherd can feel a little distant to those  unfamiliar with herding. What if we altered the story to speak of one’s  small children or little nieces and nephews? How much money could  someone pay you to save their lives? Would you run away when they were  in danger? How much are they worth?

Living and Praying with the Word 

Jesus, Good Shepherd, we think that we are worth something.  We may even boast of our importance. But we have no idea of the  inestimable value that you place on us. Our wildest imaginings of  our own worth are only a drop of water compared to the ocean  of what you see that we are worth. Can this be? Do we matter so  much? Do we matter so much to you? Do we matter so much to you  that you would die to defend us? All we can do, Lord, is fall to our  knees in amazement. Thank you!