![]() It is about a shepherd who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost. It appears in the Gospels of Matthew ( Matthew 18:12–14) and Luke ( Luke 15:3–7). The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. So, when our Good Shepherd wants to pursue another lost lamb, the 99 who are in the fold can joyfully support the rescue.Parable of the Lost Sheep (right) in St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland If He had not taken the initiative, no one could be saved (John 6:44). We were all lost at one time, and the Lord came after us. The parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8–10) and the parable of the lost son, also known as the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32), continue the theme of God as a pursuer of lost people. In Luke’s gospel, two other parables follow the one about the one lost sheep, and both of them reinforce Jesus’ main point, which is the value of individuals. And a good shepherd always goes after the lost sheep. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” The 99 are still important to Him, but He knows the flock is not complete without the lost sheep. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish no one will snatch them out of my hand. Then in verses 27–29 He says, “My sheep listen to my voice I know them, and they follow me. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (verses 16–17). In John 10, Jesus again refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, saying, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. ![]() We finally submit to our Shepherd, who carries us back to the fold (Luke 15:5). It is often in the bleakest of circumstances that we finally surrender our demands to have our own way. So the Good Shepherd pursues the lost sheep, woos them, calls to them, and allows circumstances into their lives designed to make them look up. But His heart aches for those not yet in the fold. They are already safely in His kingdom, attended by His angels, and guided by His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14 Hebrews 13:5). Where’s Karen? Where’s Abdul? Where’s Jose? The Father sent Jesus on a rescue mission “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). ![]() He rejoices that some are safely in Christ, prepared for eternity and nestled near His heart. Gasping for air, he squints through the smoke to count kids: “Tim, Sally, Angel, Jojo-where’s Lilly!” He is missing his youngest, three-year-old Lilly. He deposits the sleepy children on the grass a safe distance away and then turns. Calling to some and carrying others, he stumbles down the stairs and out the front door. Panicked, he races to his children’s bedrooms and begins to rouse them. The father awakens to find his house filled with smoke and the sound of flames and crackling timber coming nearer. We might consider the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the 1 this way: a father and his five children are asleep in their home when the smoke detectors go off. It seems strange that a shepherd would leave his flock to search for one missing sheep. The people of Jesus’ day understood the relationship between shepherds and sheep, but the significance of a shepherd going in search of one lost sheep is sometimes lost on us. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12–14). So Jesus told them a story, as He did many times in order to explain spiritual truths: “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? 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. He seemed to be from God, yet He rebuked the outwardly righteous and welcomed the wicked. When Jesus came along, His methodology confused them. They had added so many rules and regulations to God’s law that no one could keep them all, including the ones who drafted them. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day had structured their system to exalt the self-righteous and exclude anyone who did not live up to their often arbitrary standards (Matthew 23:28). Jesus gave this illustration in response to the Pharisees who were incensed that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). Both Matthew 18 and Luke 15 record Jesus’ parable about a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in the fold to go in search of one that had wandered away.
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