Summers in Minnesota can be rather hot and humid. This year has been no exception. So putting on something made of heavy wool is the farthest thing from our minds. But summer is nonetheless a time when many sheep are washed up, groomed, and sheared. Why? They need to be made ready for the fair. 

Over the summer, each county has their respective fair, where plenty of sheep, along with goats, llamas, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, rabbits, horses, cattle, the occasional camel, as well as a quirky carnival worker or two, are on display.

Those who show their animals at the fair seek the coveted prize “Best in Show” and a ticket to The Great Minnesota Get-Together—the Minnesota State Fair. They choose their best genetically gifted animal and begin preparing it for show. Sheep are sheared, cows are trimmed, horses are groomed, pigs are washed, and chickens are plucked. The animals are made clean and pristine. Then they’re brought before the judges to be evaluated according to the prescribed standards.

Worst or best in show?

To be sure, it would be an oddity to see someone take a lame and unkempt animal into the show ring. Can you imagine what the judges would say if an un-sheared, manure-covered, limping, disease-ridden sheep was brought in and presented before them?  The “Best in Show” is awarded to the animal that measures up most closely to the judges’ standards of the ideal (or perfect) animal.

This can help us understand how we are judged before Almighty God. Left in our sins, we stand before the Almighty Judge as an unkempt, filth-ridden, diseased, death-bound human being. The standard of our judge is nothing less than absolute perfection. Sadly, try as we might, the “best” that we attempt to muster will only “show” our imperfections even more. As Isaiah reminds, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Jesus: best in show for us.

The fact is there was only one who could have truly received “The Best in Show”— that was Jesus Christ. As a human, He lived a perfect life, loved the Heavenly Father completely, and obeyed God utterly and wholly, all so that wayward sheep (you and me) might be sheared of sinfulness.

Yet Isaiah declared that when He was put on display in front of the crowds and before His earthly judge (Pontius Pilate) “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isaiah 52:14).  The bloodied and beaten Lamb of God was stricken with our sinfulness, smitten with God’s wrath, and afflicted with the death we deserved. “Yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

Crucified, dead, and buried, Jesus Christ paid for our sins. Ironically, it is by blood that the stains of our sin are removed. In fact, by the blood of the Lamb, our sins have become white like wool. Now when we stand before the Almighty Judge, the resurrected Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God makes us clean with the wool of His forgiveness.

Day by day, our filth, our imperfections, and our sins are all replaced with His everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Now He gladly stands beside us and baptismally places on us the title “Best in Show” that He earned for us. Now we live confident of how He sees us and how we can therefore see others, as His precious sheep. 

In the joy of Jesus,

Pastor Lucas

Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford
President
Minnesota South District, LCMS
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