Theme: The Good Shepherd
Amazon-MGM Studios' new release, The Sheep Detectives, is one of those rare word-of-mouth films which delights all ages, making this PG movie a box office hit. The story is an old-fashioned “who done it” mystery. George Hardy, a typical outcast character, lives on three hundred acres with his beloved flock of sheep. These digitally rendered, live-actions creatures decide to solve the mystery of George’s sudden and untimely death. With a combination of wit, wisdom, and warm heartedness the movie tugs the heartstrings when love and loss enter the story.
It would be easy to characterize The Sheep Detectives as a fairy-taleish, whimsical, captivating story with its talking sheep and storybook setting, but to do so would be a tragic mistake. If one steps back and looks “along and through” not just “at” the movie (C.S. Lewis), they will see and hear echoes of the greatest story ever told. A story of love and loss, sacrifice and atonement, exile and return. These are the themes tugging the heart; for it is there that the great story was inscribed before the foundation of the world (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
The Good Shepherd
In the Biblical account of the Good Shepherd (John 10), Jesus contrasts the good shepherd with the hireling, someone who is not truly a shepherd, who abandons the sheep to a wolf. The Sheep Detectives' opening scenes are a “play” acting out this Biblical drama.
George Hardy is the good shepherd who loves his flock and is intimately acquainted with each and every one. Believing they are the kindest creatures on earth, he takes excellent care to feed, groom, heal, and entertain them. He knows each one by name for he has spent time in getting to know their individual personalities and name them accordingly. His flock is made up of all different breeds (kinds and colors) of sheep. He does have two special ones, Sebastian a ram who George describes as most like himself, and Lily an ewe who is revealed to be named for his late wife.
The hireling appears in these early scenes; his name is Caleb and he has leased three hundred acres of adjacent land from George. There is an angry unseen altercation between the two men which rattles the flock of sheep. George has cancelled the lease after discovering Caleb is “abandoning” his flock to the local butcher Ham (the wolf) and sharing in the profits.
In John 10, Jesus makes it perfectly clear he is the good shepherd and he has come that his sheep might have abundant life. He loves each one so much he is willing to lay his life down to protect them. He knows his sheep intimately and they know his voice and will follow where he leads. Jesus also speaks of other sheep not of his fold which he must bring in under his loving care, making them one flock. These are the lost sheep who live in exile.
Winter Sheep
In Luke 15 Jesus has tax collectors and sinners coming and listening to him, which provokes the religious scribes and Pharisees and they begin to grumble. Jesus’ response is to tell three parables about things which have been lost, the very first one being a sheep.
Early in the opening scenes of The Sheep Detectives the lost lamb is introduced as a “winter lamb”.1 Unlike the bouncy spring lambs who are accepted by the flock, a lamb born in winter is rejected. Living apart in a type of exile they often wander off and are lost. George takes special care of this little spotted lamb always living on the outside looking in. He bottle-feeds the little reject and whispers to it that winter lambs are really the best.
Who are the winter sheep in The Sheep Detectives other than the unnamed lamb George cares for? As the story unfolds Sebastian the ram who often wanders off from the flock is revealed to have been born in winter. That is how he ended up in a carnival and was abused until George came and bought his freedom. Laying the big ram on his shoulders, he carried him home and made him part of his flock. George has said that Sebastian is most like himself, thus implying he is also a winter sheep living in exile from the village of Denbrook. Certainly, the unloved, unnamed flock of Caleb are all winter sheep with no shepherd and vulnerable to wolves. Lastly the two lost lambs, George’s twins given up at birth, to whom he is now in hopes of reconciling with and has paid a great price to try and find are winter sheep.
By far the best portrayal of a winter sheep in the Bible is found in the fifty-third chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Here are some phrases and words describing one particular lost sheep who in the New Testament is revealed to be Jesus himself: a root out of parched ground, no stately form or majesty, despised and forsaken, stricken, smitten, afflicted, oppressed, silent and cut off out of the land of the living.
The Death of the Shepherd
The main plot of The Sheep Detectives movie centers on the mysterious death of George Hardy. The story has barely begun when a stormy night occurs and, in the morning, Lily finds her shepherd dead. She thinks it’s a game he is playing until Mopple, the wisest of the flock arrives and tells her no, he is truly dead. George’s sheep have taught themselves not to remember unpleasant realities. However, Sebastian arrives and refuses to let the sheep forget the shepherd who saved his life and made him part of the flock. The threesome of Lily, Mopple and Sebastian become the “sheep detectives” and set off on a journey to solve the mystery.
Who Is God?
In the middle of the movie there are two small seemingly insignificant scenes which are the acme and pivotal moment in the whole story. The three sheep detectives leave the flock to investigate the crime of George’s murder. Sebastian who is George’s counterpart now becomes the shepherd of Lily the smartest and Mopple the wisest. He has roamed beyond the boundaries of George’s land before, they have not.
The scene is probably the funniest in the movie, so light-hearted that it's overlooked for any significance. Coming to a road is something Mopple and Lily have never seen before; they freeze. This is a “crossing the threshold” moment. In the Hero Journey, the hero leaves the ordinary world and crosses a threshold into the special world from which one day he/she shall return but will never be the same.2 This is that momentous moment for the two sheep.
As they enter the village of Denbrook, Sebastian the shepherd becomes the tour guide and the first place he points out is the church. This brief exchange between the tour guide and the tourists is the high point of the movie; everything that has happened leads up to this moment and everything that follows flows from it.
Sebastian: This is a church.
Mopple and Lily: What’s a church?
Sebastian: God lives there.
Mopple and Lily: Who is God?
Sebastian: He is a shepherd, a lamb, he’s invisible and he’s bread, he damns things.
Mopple and Lily: Like a beaver?
Sebastian: They eat him on Sunday.
The question the movie is asking and answering is Who Is God. The shepherd and lamb have been revealed; the invisible and bread are yet to come.3
Sebastian’s Sacrifice
Toward the end of the movie Lily and Mopple believe Caleb is to become their new shepherd, so they go over to his field to meet the new flock. Crossing this threshold is a descent into the darkness of death. They discover exactly what Caleb and Ham have been doing . . . butchering sheep. Fleeing in horror, being chased by vicious dogs, Sebastian suddenly appears to save Lily who has fallen behind. Having been used to fight dogs in the Carnival, the powerful ram triumphs but is mortally wounded. Lily lays down alongside him as she did George.4 “Why did you come back?” she queries. “You are my flock . . . I had to,” he replies. The winter sheep ransomed by George now gives his life for Lily and in doing so saves the lives of two flocks. With his dying breath he comforts her, “I see you . . . I see George”.
His Hands
Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Sacrificial Lamb of God gave his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). In the Gospel of John chapter ten he makes it perfectly clear he is laying his life down of his own initiative and he has the authority to take it up again. In the resurrection scenes which follow his crucifixion, it is always his nail pierced hands now very much alive that he shows to his disciples (Luke 24:30). These are the hands that multiplied the loaves of bread, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, restored sight to the blind, and were pierced for others' transgressions (Isaiah 53:5).
After Sebastian’s death, Lily and Mopple return to the flock to warn them about Caleb, but being “sheep”, they chose to not remember unpleasant news and go off to graze. Dejected Lily goes to her spot in front of George’s caravan, and to her shock he lovingly makes his resurrection appearance. Comforting her in her loss of Sebastian he reminds her the most important clue in murder mysteries is the victim. Instantly Lily sees the answer is in George’s hands.
In the Bible blue is the color of divine revelation, God’s grace and eternal presence. Yellow the color mixed with blue to get green is symbolic of sickness, deceit, impurity, betrayal, and cowardice. It is often depicted in the robes of Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus resulting in his death. Green is as one would expect the color of life, growth, prosperity, and God’s provision.
When George’s dead body was discovered, his left hand was blue, the color of the medicine he made for the sheep. His right hand had grabbed something yellow and turned his hand green. Lily knows, and with the help of the winter lamb and Mopple exposes the true murderer to be Eliot the dyed blond newspaper reporter who was really George’s other long lost twin, Peter Van Buren. He was scheming to get far more than Judas’ thirty pieces of silver. His murder motive was George’s thirty million dollars estate.
The Glorious Restoration
The beautiful part of George’s colored hands is they too are resurrection hands. The blue “medicine” right hand absorbed the “wicked” yellow dye and transformed it into a whole new life-giving color of green. George’s estate passes to his daughter as he had intended in his first will, and because she was the next of kin to her evil brother, his inheritance of the three hundred acres came to her as well. Coming joyously over the hill, she brings Caleb’s freed sheep with her to become one new flock. And Lily whose heart has become like George’s after her long hero journey retrieves the winter lamb, and introducing him to the flock bestows the honor of a great name, they all love . . . George.
As the glorious sun sets Rebecca Hardy (her new name and true identity) puts on her father’s jacket, picks up the handbook he wrote on the care of sheep and starts reading the nighttime story to “their” flock.
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Notes:
- The parable of the lost sheep is being preached when George enters the church. One of the church's stained-glass windows is the lost lamb.
- The Hero Journey, or Mono Myth is the one story found in all places at all times. For an in-depth study, see The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler.
- Jesus Christ is The Good Shepherd (John 10:11), The Lamb of God (John1:29), and The Bread of Life (John 6:35).
The etymology of the word belong has the sense of “laying alongside“ of. When Lily lays down alongside of George and Sebastian she is demonstrating that she belongs to and with them, which is exactly what Rebecca reads at the very end of the movie. “Sheep cherish belonging and allow themselves to belong to us . . . so we belong to them.”
