The One

The Pharisees were outraged that someone who claimed to be following God, let alone claiming to be His son, would be eating with unclean non-believers. The Jews believed that just being in the presence of someone who didn't follow the food laws of Moses, would desecrate that person. To try to make the Pharisees understand His ministry, Jesus tells them three parables in Luke 15. The first parable is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep and loses one. The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and seeks out the lost one until he finds it.

More than likely, you have been taught the lost sheep represents a lost person; someone who does not follow Jesus. The lost sheep isn't one of us, but some despicable person in the sinful world. That is partially correct, but is we look a little closer, the lost sheep was part of the 100 that the shepherd owned. If we focus on that aspect, the lost sheep would be a believer who has back slid. The lost sheep is us! We either get distracted by the world around us, or we simply rebel and separate ourselves from the rest of the flock. We don't look at it as we are lost, but that the other 99 are lost and misguided.

W. Phillip Keller explains some nuances in his book "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" that we overlook in this parable, because we have not been exposed to ancient sheep herding. There's a reason we are associated with sheep so much in the Bible. Our mannerisms are very similar. Sheep are extremely social animals and like being around other sheep, so one wandering off is very strange activity for them. Something has happened to that one sheep. It either became distracted and simply wandered off and when it finally looked for the flock, it could not find it. The other possibility is that the sheep is just rebellious and decided it just wanted to do what it wanted to do on its own. Once a sheep cannot find its flock again, it will give up, lay in some tall grass to hide, and will eventually die. Even if the shepherd comes within a few feet of them, they will not answer. The shepherd has to physically bring them back to the flock himself. We are bombarded with distractions every day. Social media, work, family, obligations, depression, and so many more. We focus on those distractions so much, we lose sight of Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Many times, when we figure out that we have let these distractions change our focus, we are too embarrassed to seek help or return to the one place where we can find forgiveness and comfort, and we just spiritually die. Keller explains that a rebellious sheep has to be treated differently than the distracted sheep. The rebellious sheep will continue to run, so the shepherd will break one of its legs, so it cannot walk. The shepherd would then carry that sheep on his shoulders until the leg healed. During this time, the sheep hears the shepherd's voice, feels his heartbeat, and is comforted by his breathing. By the time the leg is healed, the sheep has become so attached to the shepherd, that he follows him like his own shadow. When we rebel against God, he will discipline us in a way that cripples us (look what he did to Saul before he became Paul). We then become completely dependent on God to see us through that hard, disciplined time. Once we come through it though, we are so completely in love with Jesus, that we want to be with Him all the time, and seek out ways to become closer to him.

The next time you go to church, look to see who is missing. Check on them and make sure they haven't gotten distracted. We are family, part of one body, and we need to look out for each other. Let the missing person know they were missed and they need to come back home. For the ones who are going through a difficult time, let them know you are praying for them and that they are not alone. In this parable, Jesus said there would be more rejoicing in Heaven for the return of the lost one, than for the righteous who did not stray.