INDIFFERENCE;
APATHY; JESUS CHRIST: HIS DEATH

I once heard a very fine speaker, an effective preacher, describe what he had found in the emotional responses of an audience. He said he had told the story of a faithful old sheep dog. In the midst of a great storm, the herder knew that 11 young lambs were missing. Once, twice, three times he sent Old Shep, the dog, out for the missing lambs. And again and again, until the weary but faithful dog had returned with 10 of the lambs.

Once again the master took Old Shep to the door. “One more, Shep, one more,” he said. “Bring him in!” The dog, utterly exhausted, went out into the storm again. Much later he returned, bearing the missing lamb. The old dog slowly placed the weak, wet lamb on the floor, then slumped to the floor himself.

As the shepherd finished caring for the stray lamb, he turned to Old Shep to express his gratitude. But it was too late. Shep was dead. The faithful dog had given his all to rescue the lambs.

The preacher who was describing his telling of the story said his audience was in tears as he finished. To that audience, then, he made the gospel application, deliberately and intentionally. He told of the faithfulness of the Son of Man as He was led to Calvary. He described the kind of love that motivated Jesus to die on Calvary’s cross.

“I painted the picture of Jesus as vividly as I could,” said the preacher in recounting the experience. “I let the Savior hang there for men and women to see.”

And what was the result? “An obvious look of stony indifference came over those people,” the preacher concluded. “They had been moved by the story of the faithful dog. They had been moved to tears. But the Savior’s dying on the cross? They had heard that before—and they were no longer stirred by it!”

Matthew 27:27–31

Jesus, Author of Our Faith, 37, 38.