The Parable of the Lost Sheep

A Sunday school teacher was teaching the ten commandments to her class of five and six year olds. After talking with them about the fourth commandment, and honoring our fathers and mothers, the teacher asked, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Without missing a beat, a little boy speaks up. “Thou shall not kill.”       Jesus said, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Today we begin a new sermon series. Although we still find ourselves looking at, and focusing on the gospels, we are now going to spend some time with some of the parables that Jesus tells in his teaching.

Parables are wonderful things. And what they teach is even more wonderful. A parable will often tell us something specifically about God or God’s kingdom. And this something is usually something that should have an impact in the way that we live our lives.

Today’s parable is one that we know well. If a man has one hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

If you have ever had the experience of losing something precious, then you can relate to the shepherd in this parable. There is that moment of dread when you realize that you are missing something. Then you begin the search. You look everywhere you can possibly think of. By now you have become consumed with the hunt. At this point you are no longer aware of the passage of time. You may even find yourself returning to the same places again and again. As if you would not have noticed it there the last twelve times you looked. But when you finally find it, there is that great relief and maybe even a little celebration.

This is a parable that ultimately describes the great love that God has for his people. Regardless of whether or not we find ourselves among the 99, or as the one who is off wandering around, God’s love for us is such that as Jesus says, “It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”  

You see, the context here has to deal with the people of the church and the way that they live life together. The way that we live our lives together is important. We are not simply here as individual members of the same club. We are not here together in the same way that you might go to a movie or a sporting event with other fans. In those locations and situations your connection with the others goes little beyond the particular event that you are participating in.

It is not the way in the church. In the church we are members of the body of Christ. We are sisters and brothers in the faith. We are united to each other in a way that is absent in other organizations.

Thus the way that we live life together comes out of the relationship that we have with our God, and it also gives witness to what it means to live life in relationship with our God. We spend some time talking about this, learning about it, and thinking about it, because the witness that we give is important. It is not that living this way makes God love us more, or earns us forgiveness, life and salvation. We already have those for the sake of Jesus. But living this ways says something about our God, and that is why it is important. Because the world needs what God offers in Jesus. And we get to show that to the world.

So these verses are about life lived together. And they begin with the disciples approaching Jesus. Can you imagine, of all the things that you could possible ask Jesus when he is right there in front of you like that, and they ask him about who is the greatest? Here is the one who truly does know all the answers to all of those life questions, and instead they ask him about which one is best.

Of course they probably didn’t like the answer he gave very much. Whoever humbles themselves like this child is the greatest. What? Did he really just say that? I mean come on, Jesus. That can’t be right. What about the ones that walked with you this whole time? What about the ones whom you called first?  What about the ones who gave up the most to follow you? What about the ones who went to Seminary and have an education? What about the ones who put money in the offering and pay the bills? What about the ones who volunteer and work hard to make ministry happen? Aren’t we the greatest? Shouldn’t we be considered the greatest?

Now, to be sure, these things are not bad. Not in the least. The point of this is not to say that there is no value in these things, or that we should all begin to behave like children. Rather the point is to have the humility of children. Children are dependent on their parents to provide them food, clothing and shelter. They trust in the love and care of their parents to provide them with those things. Because the parents give these things to all their children, there is no room for one child to claim that they are better than the others (although that doesn’t necessarily stop them from trying).

Then, in response to the disciples’ question, the same is true for the church. Even though we may find ourselves with different gifts, skill, abilities and positions there really is no room for one to claim that they are any better than the other. Every single one of us is dearly loved by our God. So much so that it is kind of like a shepherd who left his 99 sheep to go looking for one who had wandered away.

Only our God did not just go looking for us, but he became a human being. He became one of us in Jesus. Jesus is God with us. He is our Immanuel. He completely fulfilled the requirements of God’s law on our behalf. He paid the price for our sins on the cross. He rose victoriously from the grave, forever defeating the power of sin and death and the devil. This is ours and we have it. You have this not because of your gifts and skills and abilities. It is not because of what you bring to the table. But you have this because God loves you so very much.

So if God loves you this much, if God loves us this much, then which of us is the greatest? It is a question that really need not be asked, because it doesn’t matter which is the greatest. We are all dearly loved by our God, regardless of what we bring to the table, or how much we do, or how good we are. God loves us all. The one who comes every single Sunday is not more important in the eyes of God than the one who comes at Christmas or Easter. God does not favor one over the other. The one who gives is not more important than the one who does not. God does not favor one over the other.

Again, these are not bad things. There is great blessing in worship and participating in worship. There is great blessing in giving tithes and offerings. But these things do not make God love us or favor us. There is great blessing in striving to live our lives in accordance with God’s will, as much as we are able to as imperfect people. That striving does not make God prefer us over those who don’t strive that much. You see, when we understand the love that God has for us, and we understand the love that God has for our brothers and sisters in the faith, then that changes the way we see ourselves and one another. It changes the way we treat ourselves and one another. And when we live this way, we are living differently from the rest of the world around us. This different life is a life that comes from and is rooted in the love of God.

A love so great that not only is he like a shepherd that goes after one lost sheep, but he goes to the cross, and then to an empty tomb in order to redeem us and make us his own dearly loved sons and daughters.

Understanding this love that God has for us and our sisters and brothers that will motivate us to then be reconciled to one another when we tend to stray from each other. This is what Jesus is getting at in the verses following the parable. It’s not that we ignore sin. Jesus makes that pretty clear with the graphic and hyperbolic amputation verses. But instead, when one of us sins against the other, we go in love and humility, not to bring about justice and wrath and punishment, but to bring about reconciliation and restoration.

This is not always an easy thing to do. But this is what it means to love one another. When we live life this way we don’t have to worry about being perfect or pretending to be perfect. We can truly be ourselves. And if we do have something against someone, we know that they are not going to harbor a grudge, but we will come together and work together in order to be reconciled to one another. Life lived in this way is life that is rooted in the love of the God who goes through great lengths in order to reconcile us to himself.

Is this easy? No. It is much easier to take our complaints to other people. The wheels of the rumor mill are much easier to turn. But I promise you, nothing will choke the life out of a congregation like a rumor mill. How much better is it to have the trust of one another? Again, not easy, but easier than letting the rumor mill run wild and get out of control. Because remember, this too is to be rooted in the love that God has for us and for one another.

The call to follow Jesus is not always an easy call to answer. But it is really and truly life. It is life as it was meant to be lived, and life better than anything we could ask or imagine for ourselves. May this life be abundant among us as we live life together as sisters and brothers in Christ, bearing witness to the great love that God has for us. And may this be a blessing to you, now and always.  Amen.