Like Lambs Among Wolves
This week, Jesus tells us:
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Lk 10:3
How dreadful it is to be sent among the ferocious creatures defenceless?
The famous Aesop tale of the Lamb and the Wolf illustrates the story of an unjust wolf that eats up the innocent lamb. The wolf being a tyrant and unjust finds all kinds of excuses to seize the lamb.
Lambs are meek and gentle whereas wolves are ferocious and rapacious animals. The Lambs represent goodness in the world like Christ whereas the wolves represent all that is evil. So how then do the lambs defend themselves?
John Chrysostom tells us that we as lambs can be victorious as long as we depend on Christ.
“As long as we are sheep, we overcome and, though surrounded by countless wolves, we emerge victorious; but if we turn into wolves, we are overcome, for we love the shepherd’s help. He, after all, feeds the sheep not wolves, and will abandon you if you do not let him show his power in you.”
God is not sending us into the world with worldly armour but rather with His spirit in us. He tells us to rely on His strength and His providence to carry out the mission set before us. He only feeds the lambs and not the wolves.
The lambs are not defenceless, they are also smart creatures that move in the herd and listen to the voice of the shepherd. So too must we listen to His voice and be smart enough to support each other in our faith and mission. We live in a dangerous world where wolves also disguise themselves as sheep and hence we need to rely on God’s grace and strength to not fall prey.
For the day may come when false prophets shall arise, and delude the people, and by this shall we be able to discover them; if they claim anything beyond what Christ has revealed, put them aside, for they are false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Spirit only teaches us that which Christ has taught beforehand either by Himself or by the inspired apostles. — Charles Spurgeon