Break a leg?
I’ve heard this teaching more than once about how shepherds would break a sheep’s leg to not only keep it from wandering away, but to then nurse the sheep back to health and thus gain its love. Each time I heard this teaching, red flags would pop up in my mind. Firstly, the teaching in not biblical. Do we really want to take an extra-biblical idea like this and apply it to Jesus? Secondly, it makes no sense. Anyone who knows anything about animals knows that harming an animal does not create a sense of love and trust, but rather the exact opposite.
I was going to write my own article on this teaching, but I found that several others have already done a good job with it. See the links and article below….
Related articles: The Shepherd Breaking His Sheep’s Legs- Myths That’ll Preach; The malignant myth of the leg-breaking shepherd; Shepherds break a lamb’s leg on purpose?
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
It is well-known in Christian circles that before the shepherd placed the lamb on his…
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