Pictures of HeavenSample

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

This short parable kicks off Luke 15, an entire chapter where Jesus tells the religious leaders and a group of sinners multiple stories about lost things being found. What He’s doing is super intentional to both confront the Pharisees and comfort the sinners. Don’t miss this! 

In this example, Jesus tells us to imagine we’re a shepherd who has a bunch of sheep; 100, to be exact. If one gets lost, what would a good shepherd do? Won’t he leave the 99 and go after the one? And when he finds it, he carries it home on his shoulders. Then he calls all his buddies and throws a party, inviting others into his joy and celebration. 

What is Jesus concealing in order to reveal in this story? To start with, let’s understand the social contrast between the Pharisee in Jesus’ audience and the main character of His story. Shepherds were hard workers and played a vital role in society, but really, they were social outcasts. They were the definition of “unclean” when it came to the standards for ceremonial cleanliness that the Pharisees lived by in order to perform their duties at the temple. Keep that in mind. 

The use of sheep is also really significant. They had a tendency to wander and make the same errors over and over again. In the past, the prophets compared the nation of Israel, even the human condition as a whole, to this tendency in sheep. 

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lᴏʀᴅ laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:6 NLT

This passage from Isaiah—that the religious leaders would have known all too well—pointed to the Messiah who was standing in front of them sharing this story. In one stroke, Jesus is revealing who He is and what He does. He’s zooming out the lens to remind the Pharisees and the sinners of the heart of God. People have continually wandered from God, pursuing other things, other kings, and other gods, but like the shepherd in this story, God never stops pursuing us. He relentlessly pursues people who’ve turned their backs on Him over and over again. And that’s really good news for the sinners listening to this story. God was willing to come after us before we were anywhere near cleaned up. And that fact confronted the Pharisees. God, our holy God, was willing to get dirty in order to bring us home. He was willing to play the part of the shepherd, an unclean social outcast, in order to rescue the one sheep who’d gone astray. He stooped down to pick it up and carry it home on His shoulders. 

We serve a King who will never get tired of bringing us home. One who, in the greatest act of humility, stepped off His throne and into our story. He got His hands dirty. And this fact comforts sinners, challenges Pharisees, and confronts us all with the relentless love of God. 

Prayer: God, thank you for pursuing us. Thank You for never getting tired of bringing us home. Thank You for the incredible lengths to which You were willing to go to be associated with us and ultimately rescue us. Thank You for embracing me as I am, meeting me where I am, and welcoming me home. Help me join you in the joy and celebration of welcoming others home too.