For years and years Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep has moved me, inspiring me to be like the persistent Shepherd, Jesus himself. Now it’s speaking to me afresh.
Just prior to Jesus telling of this parable, Luke describes tax-collectors and sinners coming close to Jesus to listen to him– prompting negative reactions from the Pharisees and scribes.
“Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’”(Luke 15:1).
I assume Jesus tells them all this parable, which begins with a question that seems to assume each would answer in the same way.
“What person among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he/she finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Lk 15:4-5)
I notice a few details that catch my attention.
First, in response to the religious people’s disgust that he is receiving and eating with unclean, undeserving sinners—the “them,” Jesus puts the responsibility on the shepherd for having lost the sheep in his parable, not on the sheep for having gotten lost.
Even though the lost sheep clearly designates individual tax collectors and sinners (at least from the perspective of the Pharisees and scribes), separated out from the collective categories of “tax-collectors and sinners,” Jesus refuses to blame them (even if the lost sheep could represent a Pharisee or a scribe)!
Regardless of who the lost sheep designates, if Jesus represents the shepherd in the parable, he takes the blame for having lost each individual sheep. If Jesus includes the Pharisees and scribes as among the “shepherds of Israel, then it looks to me like he actively seeks to inspire them through this parable to seek after lost sheep until they are found as core to their vocation.
Jesus’s shepherd example evokes the prophetic critique of the shepherds of Israel, though he refuses to put them on blast as Ezekiel does:
“Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?… “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered…. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them” (Ez 34:2, 4-5, 6).
Second, Jesus knows that his listeners (familiar with the shepherding business) would see a non-human possession like a sheep as highly valuable. He hopes to help his audience (including you and me) see that any one person viewed as being separated from the flock is equally valuable enough in Jesus’ eyes to be sought after until found– regardless of whether they’re devoted believers, sinners or criminals, even if that means leaving the 99.
Third, there in the setting of the parable, Jesus hasn’t just been out seeking and finding lost sheep. Rather, tax-collectors and sinners are “coming near to him to listen to him.” And Pharisees and scribes are there listening too.
Yet in Jesus’ parable he describes the shepherd bringing back and celebrating the sheep he found in a way that brings his listeners right back into the house where they are gathered:
“And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ (Lk 15:6).
There Jesus is gathered with tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees and scribes, all together. Who are the equivalents then and there of the shepherd, lost sheep, friends, and neighbors?
In the opening verse of Luke 15:1 the tax-collectors and sinners are coming close to Jesus, listening to him. He’s receiving them and eating with them. The Pharisees and scribes are there too. However, they are not celebrating what Jesus is doing. They are grumbling. Unless they change their way of thinking, they won’t find themselves represented in the parable— except if they’re among the 99 sheep left in the open field (who feel no need of repentance). But Jesus the Good Shepherd is there with them too!
Jesus first speaks personally to his listeners; “I tell you that…,” before enlightening them about how the joy of the successful shepherd aligns fully with the priorities of heaven—the Kingdom of God:
“In the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk 15:7).
Jesus’ pastoral brilliance astounds me. He refuses all judgment, inviting his listeners, sinners and religious adherents together, to consider the work of God. Will they (you and me included) engage in the work of seeking, finding, bringing back, and celebrating the return of people, one at a time, who have been lost? Will we join Jesus at the table in joy, celebrating those who have been found, brought back, or drawn close to listen?
Might the shepherd here in this parable be “the one sinner who repents,” by leaving of the ninety-nine to seek after the lost one until found? Will we, ourselves repentant, become part of Jesus’ movement of proclaiming a baptism of repentance, for the forgiveness of sin?
Might we also be one of those lost sheep, whose repentance might consist of surrendering to the Shepherd, who brings us back to celebrate our being found? And if so, what might that repentance look like?
In Jesus’ parable, the lost sheep that was found by the shepherd does not visibly repent. The only active agent in the parable is the shepherd himself, who clearly functions as a kind of agent of repentance.
We can change our way of thinking and acting in alignment with Jesus by becoming more active disciples. We can let the Good Shepherd deputize us, and join him as he embodies God’s mission to seek and to save that which is lost, as in Ezekiel 34.
“Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for my sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day…. I will feed my flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick” (Ez 34:11-12, 15-16).
We can also join the company of tax-collectors and sinners and draw closer to Jesus to listen to him now. If we find ourselves grumbling against Jesus like the Pharisees and scribes, we can repent, changing our minds and hearts (the true meaning of metanoeo- to repent) as we are touched by Jesus’ active pursuit, embrace, and celebration of us (and them), joining heaven’s celebration as the repentance movement grows.
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