The Good Shepherd Seeks and Finds His Sheep

Our text for this morning is from . In this text are two familiar parables to us: The Parable of the Lost Sheep () and The Parable of the Lost Coin (). As we will see, the focus of the parables isn’t actually on the sheep that was lost, nor the coin that was lost, but rather on the shepherd who finds the lost sheep and the woman who finds the lost coin. Thus, they would be better known as The Parable of the Good Shepherd or The Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, and The Parable of the Good Woman or The Good Woman and the Lost Coin. That way the main characters and actors show up prominently from the outset.

Lying behind the parables in are a number of passages from the Old Testament. We will look at two in particular this morning: and .

God is the Good Shepherd

“Restores my soul” is literally, “brings me back” or “causes me to repent” in Hebrew. God is the active agent.

“Leads me in the paths of righteousness” assumes that previously David was wandering the paths of unrighteousness.

“I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” is literally, “I will return to the house of the Lord for the length of days.”

Behind both the Parable of the Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep and the Good Woman and the Lost Coin is (this is also true in regard to the third parable, The Parable of the Good Father and His Lost Sons, but that particular parable we have already examined and is not the focus for us this morning).

says,

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We observe a few things here. First of all, as in , David opens with a shepherd. And though in Jesus’ day, shepherds were looked down upon, David, who was himself a shepherd, says that God Himself is a shepherd. He is indeed a Good Shepherd, for He goes after His wandering, straying sheep.

In verse 3, David says of God, his Shepherd, “He restores my soul.” Often we think of being refreshed in spirit, as in, “I was depressed, the Lord restored my soul. I am no longer depressed.” (Bailey, Finding the Lost, p. 68) However, this is misleading. In the Hebrew it reads: נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב (naphshi yeshovev), which come from the Hebrew words נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh), which means “soul” or “self,” and שׁוּב (shuv), which means “to turn back” or “return.” שׁוּב is the great Hebrew word used throughout the Old Testament for “repentance.” And so what David is saying about God, his Good Shepherd, is that He “brings me back” or “causes me to repent.”

This will show up in , as we will see. David also says of God, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” The implication is that the psalmist has been wandering the paths of unrighteousness. God the Good Shepherd came after David when he was wandering the wilderness of unrighteousness and brought him back, or caused him to repent, and thus leads him in the paths of righteousness. And, finally, David confesses in faith that “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall return to the house of the Lord for the length of days, that is, all the days of my life.” As we find in the parables in , there is a returning to the house of the shepherd, as well as a celebratory feast that likely take their imagery from .

contains God’s critique of Israel’s shepherds

God Himself will search for His sheep and rescue them

God will judge between sheep and sheep. The shepherds of Israel are also sheep and the sheep are not innocent in their wandering.

God will raise up for Himself His Servant David (Jesus) who will be the Shepherd of His people. Here the foundation is laid for Messiah being the Shepherd of God’s people. Jesus is declaring He is Messiah and God when He takes for Himself the title of the Good Shepherd who searches for His lost sheep.

is our Old Testament reading for this morning. Hear it again in light of and :

Ezekiel 34:11–24 ESV

11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. 17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet? 20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.

We make some observations from this text as well. In there is only one Shepherd and He is a Good Shepherd. In , the bad shepherds are introduced and contrasted with the Good Shepherd. In , God tells His prophet, Ezekiel, to chastise the shepherds of Israel because they were not shepherding the people as they were supposed to be doing. The “shepherds” are the spiritual and religious leaders of Israel. The people are the “sheep.”

God then says in ,

“Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

And again God says in verses 15-16,

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”

And one more time from , God says,

“…I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.”

In these passages we see that God says through the prophet that He Himself will search for His sheep and bring them back (again, a picture of repentance) and rescue them. He will also judge between sheep and sheep. The shepherds of Israel were themselves sheep. And not all who belonged to Israel trusted in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and His Messiah. The sheep are not innocent in their wanderings from God. But God, the Good Shepherd, will go after the lost sheep and bring them repentance and restore them and rescue them.

We also hear in this passage a promise of the coming Messiah. Jesus is spoken of here in Ezekiel, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, as God’s servant David. David himself was long dead by this time. And so this kind of a reference is to the promised Messiah, who was to be the Seed of David, the one who would reign on David’s throne forever. This is Jesus. And very interestingly, God speaks of this “David” who is to come, His Messiah, He will be the Shepherd of Israel and He will bring the lost sheep back from their wanderings and feed them and bring them to faith: God will be their God and His Messiah their Prince.

All of this should bring to our minds then, all that Jesus says in the Gospels about His being the Good Shepherd (), about Him being the one who goes after the lost sheep of the house of Israel and those outside of the house of Israel ().

Indeed, when Jesus claims to be the Good Shepherd and the one who goes after the lost sheep to bring them to repentance and restoration, He is not only claiming to be God’s Messiah, He is claiming to be God Himself. From passages like and , the Pharisees of Jesus’ day would have heard that claim loud and clear.

The Pharisees claimed to maintain their purity by not eating with the “people of the land”

They are upset with Jesus because He welcomes sinners (the people of the land) and tax collectors (those who collaborated with the Roman oppressors). Both of these are fellow Jews with the Pharisees.

The parables of are told in response to the grumbling of the Pharisees

Luke 15:1–3 ESV

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable:

Luke 15:1–2 ESV

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 15:1–2 ESV

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Once again this morning we meet the Pharisees and the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the “people of the land.” We were introduced to them a couple weeks ago. These are the ones described by the Pharisees as “sinners.” There were Jewish communities like those that lived at Qumran–where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found–that sought to maintain their purity by living in isolation from other people and they had strict community rules and standards. This is how they defined and enforced their piety and purity. Others, like the Pharisees, were fine living among the “people of the land” and working with them and engaging in commerce with them.

The way they sought to maintain their purity was by scrupulously following the Law–hear that from their perspective: this includes rabbinic tradition and all the rules and stipulations that they added to the Law of God–and a major part of their maintaining their purity (in their minds) was that they would not eat with the people of the land, nor tax collectors, nor would they welcome them into their home, except in rare circumstances.

The tax collector was especially despised because they worked for the Roman government. In the minds of the Jews, the Romans were the oppressors and the enemy, and so tax collectors were considered traitors to their own people by accepting employment from the Romans and collaborating with them.

And we remember that the Gospels make a strong case that Jesus was among the Pharisees and they would have seen Him as one of their own–thus Jesus eats with Pharisees and is invited to their dinner parties. This would not have happened if Jesus was among the “people of the land.” And so this helps us to understand why they were so upset with Jesus. A fellow Pharisee receives tax collectors and sinners and eats with them! This is why they are grumbling against Jesus. Knowing that they were grumbling about this, Jesus tells them a parable.

We should note that the text tells us in verse 3 that Jesus told them a parable–singular. Jesus then goes on to tell three parables. This tells us that the three parables that Jesus is telling in are all connected. He is telling them the same message in three successive ways.

We know this parable as The Parable of the Lost Sheep. A better name would be The Parable of the Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep. This keeps the shepherd in focus and he is the main actor.

The emphasis is on the price paid by the shepherd to bring his lost sheep home

Repentance is pictured as the sheep being found by the shepherd

The 99 in the wilderness have an ambiguous status: we don’t know what has happened to them, whether they die in the wilderness or whether they make it home.

The 99 in the wilderness are lost, but they don’t know it.

The celebration is in honor of the shepherd and his success in bringing the lost sheep home.

The first is about a shepherd and his sheep. Jesus says,

Luke 15:4–7 ESV

4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 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 that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Immediately, we should hear and in the background. We remember from those texts that God is described as a Good Shepherd who goes after His lost sheep and brings them back, that is, causes them to repent, and brings them back to His house. God said through His prophet Ezekiel that He Himself will go after His lost sheep and rescue them. And not only that, He will also send His Messiah, Jesus, to be the Shepherd of His flock and go after the lost sheep and bring them to repentance and restoration to God. And this is exactly what Jesus is doing.

What’s more, the Pharisees would have known the Old Testament, and so they should have been expecting this and they should have rejoiced with Jesus that He was going after the lost and bringing them back to God. In fact, this is what they should have been doing all along. And yet, not only are they not going after the lost sheep, they are grumbling and complaining about Jesus doing the very thing they should have been doing and the very thing He was sent to do and promised to do.

We remember also that God said He would judge between sheep and sheep. These shepherds of Israel were also sheep themselves. And so in the parable as well we have two groups of sheep: those that are in the wilderness and the one that is lost.

The shepherd in the parable starts out as a bad shepherd. Jesus clearly blames the shepherd for the lost sheep. This doesn’t mean that the lost sheep is innocent–it certainly wandered off. But Jesus intends this as a criticism of the Pharisees. They are bad shepherds. They should have gone after the lost sheep but they didn’t.

The shepherd then becomes a good shepherd. He goes after the lost sheep until he finds it. And having found it, he lays the sheep on his shoulders, rejoicing that he found his sheep.

In this, Jesus gives us a picture of repentance. Repentance is pictured as being found. When a sheep gets lost, it basically has a nervous breakdown. It can’t function anymore and it starts bleating and making noise, which, of course, attracts predators. When the shepherd finds such a lost sheep, the sheep will not come to the shepherd. It will not respond to his call, it does not run to the shepherd. It’s frozen with fear and can’t function. The only option is for the shepherd to go to the sheep, pick it up, and place it on his shoulders and carry it home.

The sheep is helpless. This is the picture of us in our sin: we are helpless. We cannot assist God in saving us. We cannot bring about our repentance. Only the action of the shepherd alone can save the sheep. This fits very well with what David wrote in : God causes the sinner to repent by going after the sinner and bringing him or her safely home. Repentance is being found. And it is brought about by the action of the shepherd.

And so the shepherd returns with his lost sheep. He then throws a party and calls together his friends, or companions, and we should hear the word haberim, here, the same word that the Pharisees used to describe themselves.

The party is thrown by the shepherd in honor of the shepherd. This is important. The sheep is not being celebrated. Rather, the shepherd is being celebrated. He was successful in rescuing his sheep and thus he has not brought shame on himself by losing a sheep. In the Old Testament, God’s love and His holiness are brought together. And so it isn’t that the shepherd doesn’t love his sheep–he does. But also at work here is that his own internal integrity will not allow him to abandon his sheep in the wilderness.

So what of the 99 in the wilderness?

It is commonly held, it seems to me, that the sheep in the wilderness are equated with those who are “safe” or are “found.” In short, they are compared to those who are Christians and in church regularly and the one that is lost is the one who is an obvious sinner and not in church.

However, we should note that the 99 in the wilderness are lost as well. This is seen in the light of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The older brother is just as lost as his younger brother, only he doesn’t know it. So it is with the 99. Jesus says that there is greater joy in God over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

We know from the Scriptures that there are no righteous persons who don’t need to repent. Indeed, Isaiah says that

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And so what Jesus is saying is that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who don’t think they need to repent. They presume their own righteousness and so think they don’t need to repent. This is the case with the 99 in the wilderness. Their status is ambiguous because they’re still out in the wilderness. There cannot be any rejoicing over them because they haven’t gotten home yet. They may yet be found and brought home by the shepherd but as of yet they are lost in the wilderness.

Jesus is here speaking again of the Pharisees. They thought they were righteous and did not need to repent. Jesus’ message to them was that they are lost, while the ones they despise and consider unholy before God are the ones being brought to repentance and welcomed into the Kingdom of God.

We know this parable as The Parable of the Lost Coin. A better title would be The Parable of the Good Woman and her Lost Coin. The title keeps the focus on the woman–she is the main actor.

The emphasis is on the price paid by the woman to find the lost coin.

Repentance is again pictured as being found.

The celebration is of the woman and her success in finding the lost coin.

Jesus is doing something unique at the time by taking a scenario out of the life of women and by having a woman be the hero of His parable. He is affirming the dignity and worth that women have by virtue of their being created by God in His image.

The second parable that Jesus tells is found in . In this parable Jesus does something unexpected: the hero of His parable is a woman. This was unheard of in the culture of the time. Just as Jesus used an example out of the life of men: shepherding, so He uses an example out of the life of women: tending to the house. By doing so, He elevates the status of women and demonstrates that they are just as much made in the image of God as men and dignifies them by using a woman to teach the Pharisees and us something about God.

Jesus tells this parable:

Luke 15:8–10 ESV

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

A woman loses a coin–this coin would have been a days’ wage, so it’s no small thing. Now, houses at that time in Galilee were made of basalt, a black rock. The windows would not have been very big and so light from a lamp is needed to search the cracks between the slabs of stone.

The woman finds her coin. Again, the coin doesn’t do anything to be found. The woman does the finding. We get the same picture of repentance as we do in the first parable. The woman then throws a party to celebrate her success in finding the coin. Again, she calls her “friends”–hear again haberim. The Pharisees should have been rejoicing that Jesus was finding the lost and restoring them to God. Instead, they are complaining. Jesus then gives the same explanation as He does in the first parable: there is joy before the angels–which is to say that God rejoices–over one sinner who repents.

Conclusion

Repentance is a gift of God. He brings it about by the actions of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, and His life, suffering, death, and resurrection on behalf of sinners.

We understand Jesus’ suffering and death as paying the price of costly love to find and redeem the lost. He pays the price to find them () and He pays the price to bring them home ().

Though we wander, we can be sure that our Good Shepherd Jesus will come after us and bring us back to His house where we will dwell forever.

So what is Jesus teaching us through these parables? As we have seen, Jesus teaches us about the nature of repentance. Repentance is not something that we accomplish or bring about. Repentance is worked in us through God’s actions toward us: specifically in His kindness toward us in sending His Son to bleed and die on a cross to forgive our sins. This is the Gospel: Christ crucified for sinners. And St. Paul tells us both that the “kindness of God is meant to bring us to repentance” () and that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” ()

Repentance is a gift from God, worked by His Holy Spirit through His Holy Word. It is not our doing.

We also learn what Jesus’ suffering and death were all about. We learn from the first parable that the lost sheep is saved because the shepherd searched for the sheep and paid the price to bring it home. The shepherd demonstrates costly love toward the undeserving sheep, who was certainly at fault for having wandered away from the shepherd.

We learn from the second parable that the lost coin is found because the good woman paid the price of costly love to find that coin.

Both of these together teach us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Good Woman who searches for the lost and finds them, and pays the price of His suffering and the shedding of His holy and precious blood to bring them to repentance and faith and return them to the house of the Lord forever.

Jesus has done this for you, and for me. He has sought you out when you were lost and brought you to repentance and faith in Him. He is your Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you. There is a certain comfort in knowing that your Shepherd will come after you if you wander. It would be difficult for a sheep to trust its shepherd if the shepherd didn’t go after the lost sheep and bring them back. In that case, no sheep is safe.

But as we learned from , Jesus is your Good Shepherd who continually comes after you when you wander and brings you back to His house. And so you will remain in His house all the days of your life. And having been brought by your Shepherd back to His house, that is, being forgiven of your sins and made one of Christ’s own, you are now free to live in His house and turn your gaze toward you neighbor in love and service.

And so be of good cheer, your faithful Shepherd keeps watch over you and comes after you when you stray and brings you back so that you may forever dwell in His house.

The Good Shepherd Seeks and Finds His Sheep

The Old Testament Background to .

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Conclusion