Skin in the game

“Skin in the game” is an aphorism popularized by Warren Buffet referring to the benefit of executives using their own money to buy stock in the company they’re running. It’s to have a personal risk, or stake, in the outcome. It’s a simple fact of human nature that we take something more seriously when we have an ownership stake.

This is the very point Jesus makes when he describes himself as “the good shepherd” in this week's Gospel reading from John 10, echoing Psalm 23. His people are the sheep he both loves and owns. The incarnation and the cross mean God has skin in the game.