Parable of the Lost Sheep

Have you ever been lost? Separated from your group? What did you do? How did you react? Were you scared? Were you worried? Were you ???????

Matthew 18:10–14 NIV

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. 11 12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Matthew caries a pastoral focus in this parable, concerned about finding these little ones, the lost members of the Christian community that have gone astray. Jesus is warning the apostles not to treat members of the congregation with contempt. Even if they are occupying the lowest niches of society, they are still precious in God’s eyes.

Sheep are not the brightest of animals. They can easily wander away. The shepherd knows each sheep and is not willing to let one go, but is also wise enough to make sure that nothing they do will endanger the sheep any further.

THE WANDERING SHEEP

Dr. Andrew Bonar tells of how in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they can't get out of.

The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can't jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death.

"Why don't they go down there when the sheep first gets there?" I asked.

"Ah!" He said, "they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!"

And that is the way with men; they won't go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way.

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/77592/the-wandering-sheep-by-gordon-curley

Let’s take a look at the same parable in Luke’s gospel:

Luke 15:1–10 NIV

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. 8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke’s focus is much more missional. Luke’s focus addresses the Pharisees and emphasizes the joy of finding and welcoming sinners. I think it is helpful for us to think about both aspects of this parable this morning.

The point of the parable should be obvious, yet I think we often overlook it too easily.

The kingdom of God is like a good shepherd who has a flock of a hundred sheep who, losing just one of them, will leave the others and go after the one that is lost until he finds it and brings it back to the fold.

It’s a simple point, really. Yet, looking closer, the parable hits home in a number of unexpected ways, and that’s what I’d like for us to think about this morning. Specifically, what does this parable say about the nature of God; what does it say about us; and what does it say about our relationship to each other?

Our whole lives are based on an acceptable percentage of failure. We start every school year knowing there will be a certain dropout rate. Not everyone will graduate. Marriages start out with a predictable rate of divorce. Not every marriage will make it. We’re happy when the unemployment rate is below five percent. We don’t expect everyone to be able to keep a job.

You get the point: As far as we’re concerned, losing only one sheep out of a hundred is not so bad. You might even say it’s remarkable. But with God, every sheep counts. And that’s the first lesson of the parable: With God, nothing is lost.

The shepherd cares for those sheep already a part of the and longs for those not yet welcomed in.

The shepherd knows each sheep individually and cares for each one apart from the whole. Losing one is not ok........

William Barclay tells a little story in his layman’s commentary that I just love. It’s a little dated – set, I’d say it’s set in the 19th Century, but it makes a good point. A young doctor was backpacking across Europe. He’d traveled for several weeks – much of the way by foot – so that, from his outward appearances, he looked like a bum. He hadn’t shaved, his hair was long and matted, his clothes were dirty and worn. For some reason – I forget the circumstances – he became seriously ill. A couple of strangers found him lying half conscious by the side of the road and got him to a hospital. The attending physicians examined him and shook their heads. One looked at the other and whispered in Latin, “What a worthless bloke. We’d do him a favor to let him die.” The young doctor lying on the table understood every word. He looked up and replied, also in Latin, “Never call a man worthless for whom Christ has died.”

So often, we give up too easily. When others fall through the cracks, we’re quick to write them off: “You can’t win ’em all.”. Not so in the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like a good shepherd who has a flock of a hundred sheep who, losing just one of them, will leave the others and go after the one that is lost until he finds it and brings it back to the fold.

The parable strikes at the heart of our value system and confronts us with the magnitude of God’s infinite mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. Not one of God’s sheep is worthless - are are valued in God’s eyes and should be in our eyes if we are letting God transform us.

Being lost has to do with our connection to each other. We’re interrelated. So that to talk about one who is lost is, at the same time, to talk about the effect one who is lost has on the others. Like the man who said, in the wake of his wife’s death, “It’s not only that I’ve lost her, but that I’m lost without her.”

This is a correlation I’ve come to appreciate more and more over the years: The more intimately we’re connected to another person, the more we agonize when we’re separated; the less we’re connected, the less we’re affected. Remember the pictures of missing children they used to put on milk cartons? They evoked a little sadness, I suppose, but I doubt that they caused us to lose much sleep. But if it were your child? Now, that’s another story!

The sheep could not be lost if it was not already part of a flock. Community and intimate connection with each other and with God is vital to our participation in God’s Kingdom purpose.

This is the essence of the Kingdom of God – we’re family – brothers and sisters in Christ, joined by our common allegiance to him. And because we belong to the body of Christ, when only one is missing, something about us is missing, as well.

The kingdom of God isn’t complete until everyone is safe and secure and accounted for.

This is why it’s so important for us not to give up on those who’ve dropped out of the church or fallen by the wayside or gone astray. It’s not simply that they’re lost, but a part of us is lost, as well. We live in community with each other, or we don’t live at all.

When you think about it, there are lots of reasons why people drop out. Some get angry and upset and bent out of shape. Others get their feelings hurt over something that was said or done. Sometimes people drop out because of something they’ve said or done to alienate themselves from others. And sometimes people drop out because they just get out of the habit.

One Bible commentator said sheep tend to nibble themselves lost – they graze from one tuft of grass to the next all day long with their heads down and, when they look up, they don’t know where they are or how they got there, and they certainly don’t know how to get back to the flock. It’s not that they’re particularly stubborn or rebellious or stupid, it’s simply their nature: Sheep stray and, when they do, they get lost.

The Good News is the good shepherd comes looking for them, and he searches until he finds them, and, when he does, he brings them back to the fold. That’s a model we’d do well to follow in the life and witness of the church – not to be content with those who show up on Sunday morning, but to be persistent about reaching out to those who don’t. The only way that will change is if we take the Great Commission seriously and make Christlike disciples. We need to be building relationships with people and inviting them into a relationship with God when we can, discipling them along the way. We should never be content - our co-mission with Jesus never ends as long as their are people who are lost and broken, in need of Jesus. We can always know Jesus more.

Alford Branch brought this parable to life in a new way one Saturday at the Presbytery meeting. Rev. Branch is the pastor of the Holmes Chapel Presbyterian Church in Monticello. He said the Holmes Chapel Presbyterian Church is located within a few blocks of one of the diciest neighborhoods in town. He said that just to walk down the street is to invite drug dealing, prostitution, gambling and violence.

Long story, short, Rev. Branch said he felt that the Spirit was leading him to go down that street. He didn’t want to go. He wasn’t interested in what the folks down there had to offer. Plus, he was concerned about what his parishioners would think if he was seen on that street. He put up quite a fight, but, in the end, he went where the Spirit led him.

He said he drove his truck down the street and parked by the curb and asked the Lord, “Now what?” He sat there for a while, and slowly, people started coming up to the window and talking to him. They all knew who he was. They wondered what he was doing there. When they were convinced he wasn’t there to condemn them or cause trouble, they began opening up to him.

He came back to his church the next Sunday morning and told his congregation what he’d done. At first, they were pretty upset. “Why are you wasting your time associating with those people?” they wanted to know. He said, “Because some of those people are your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, your aunts and uncles.” He wasn’t kidding, and they knew it.

In time, it transformed the church. They started taking food to the neighborhood one day a week and feeding all who’d come a delicious hot meal. As they ate together, people started talking to each other. But, before long, reconciliation began to take place, relationships were restored, and lost souls were brought back into the community of faith.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep speaks to us best when we hear it in the context of the MIAs – those individuals and families we know and love with whom we have, for whatever reason, become disconnected. It speaks to us best when we think about those around us who we know need Jesus in the middle of their brokenness, but do we invite them and build relationship with them? Just remember this:

• Each one of them counts, whether already a believer or not. In God, nothing is lost. No matter how lost and broken they may seem, God still sees them as a valuable part of his creation.

• What’s more, they’re family. As long as they’re missing, a part of us is missing, as well. There is always room for new and returning members of the body.

• And finally, it really doesn’t matter what they’ve done or why they’ve strayed. All that matters is that we go to whatever lengths are necessary to reach them and be reconciled to them and bring them home.

That’s the nature of the Good Shepherd. It ought to be the nature of any church that bears his name.

Remaining Calm Amidst a Good Shepherd

One glorious autumn…I spent an afternoon climbing with a friend who grew up raising sheep in the Alps. We were climbing near the bottom of a ski area …[near] this steep green slope where [a] delightful flock of sheep [ate] all week, their bells ringing as they gaze and munch the lush Alpine meadow…[When I got close to the them] I tried to speak gently… and though this was their slope and not mine, their food and not mine, their country and not mine, my presence was no comfort to them. They began talking loudly to each other and instantly fled from me as if I were a wolf.

So later that day I’m climbing with my friend Martin, and at one point I’m just hanging from the rope…Then I notice, far up the slope, a man and his son walking down the mountain, passing through the sheep. Suddenly the man says a few German words. He isn’t shouting or cajoling; he’s just speaking.

The effect, however, is immediate. All the sheep come running toward him, first the older sheep and then the lambs. Their bells are really ringing now as some of the sheep are running toward the shepherd. When they’re all within spitting distance of the shepherd, he walks down to the ski area parking lot, and they follow.

From there, he leads the sheep through town, right through the main street, where some people are sitting down to eat ice cream and roasted chestnuts and where other people are buying their clothes and doing their banking. Right in the midst of all these terrifying people-sheep! And on they walk, in the middle of commercial chaos, as fearless as American tourists because of the presence of their shepherd.

Richard Dahlstrom, O2: Breathing New Life Into Faith, Harvest House Publishers, 2008.