The lost sheep

How often do you mislay items that are valuable, necessary or just significant to you? It’s easy to do; you put your keys down somewhere while thinking of something else … and then can you find them again? How many of you would throw a party when you’ve found it? Possibly if it’s something really valuable to you, then there might be text messages sent round telling people that what was lost has now been found. Of course, in New Testament times, then it would be impossible to send a text, so when the shepherd found his lost sheep and the woman her coin (see Luke 15), they did the equivalent: called together their friends and neighbours saying ‘rejoice with me, for I have found what was lost’. I have always assumed there was some kind of celebration, although I’m not sure it’s quite what was said in the text.

What the text actually says is determined to an extent by the culture of the past. It is very easy to read the Bible with our own culture in mind, but that may well lead to mis-readings. The culture of the New Testament might imply different readings to those which our contemporary eyes assume. In this case, how exactly did shepherds look after their sheep? How likely was it that one got lost? Would shepherds operate on their own, or in a group? How many sheep were in an average flock? Was 100 sheep common, or was it a lot or a little compared to other flocks? Whether or not these change the meaning of the parable (see Luke 15:7), I’m not sure. But it would affect how we see it, and how we apply it.

For instance, were the 99 sheep left alone in the wilderness, or did one shepherd look for the lost sheep, leaving the others in the care of his fellow shepherds? How valuable was the one sheep in a flock of 100? Were lost sheep common, or would the shepherd have been condemned for losing it? Some of these may be more important questions than others. I’m not sure that it matters exactly how valuable that one sheep was; the point of the parable is that it was worth looking for. The implication given in the parable is that any shepherd would go and look for a lost sheep; it seems that Jesus is using a common experience to teach his listeners about why he receives sinners (see Luke 15:1,2). To be honest, this parable has highlighted for me my lack of knowledge. So why am I writing about it?

The point of these parables in Luke 15 is in verses 7 and 10, which have the same message: the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. It brings to mind, also, Luke 19:10, where Jesus points out that he has come to seek and to save the lost. Both passages are responding to incidents where the religious authorities are condemning Jesus for spending time with sinners. In Luke 19, this has a very real impact in Zacchaeus’ change of heart, and his redistribution of his wealth. I’ve often wondered how much of his wealth Zacchaeus had left, once he’d given half of it to the poor, and restored four-fold to anybody he had defrauded. Maybe that was the point.

My point is not about biblical scholarship or intriguing questions, though. My point is about how we respond today. Do we, like the religious people in Jesus’ own day, condemn and exclude the lost and the sinner? Or do we go out, like the Shepherd, to seek and save them? How do we respond, not to just to those in our local area, but also to those in the media, those groups that are sidelined in our own culture, as tax collectors were in Jesus’ day? It’s not a case of whether they’re guilty or not; Jesus is clear that he is spending time with people who need to be saved. Zacchaeus had, presumably, defrauded people, and must have known that. It is Jesus own approach to him that brings him to repentance. (We are not, of course, told what happened long term).

The question is worth pondering. Do we go out to seek the lost? Do we welcome them when they turn up at our churches? Are our services accessible for those who may be lost? Whom do we term ‘lost’ in the first place, and where do we seek them? It is worth bearing in mind that the religious authorities may well have been just as ‘lost’ as Zacchaeus was; see, for instance, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14. Spending time acknowledging our own ‘lostness’ and dependence on God may well be essential preparation for going out to seek the lost; coming from a position where we are aware of our own failings rather than assuming that we are better people than ‘those others’, as the Pharisee did in the parable.

Knowing our own lost-ness, our own vulnerability is not easy. It means being honest with ourselves, and letting God in far more deeply than we may be comfortable with. But if we are followers of Jesus, it is needed, it is part of the path we are following. Our own lost-ness is part of our experience; it may, or may not, reflect the truth; it may be simple to resolve, or it may be a complex issue that we have to live with. But it is in that space, that knowing that we are lost, which brings us closer to Jesus, where we can truly follow him.