“And the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
This Murmuring of the elders of Israel set the stage for a series of parables on loss and recovery. These parables teach some difficult lessons. On one hand a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is told to “…keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27) and is warned “…whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). On the other hand, our Lord ate and socialized with some of the most sordid people in Jewish society. This shocked the Pharisees and became a reason for them to gossip and aim slander at him. But Jesus knew their hearts and perceived their thoughts. The Pharisees had a self-righteous attitude toward sinners, which they assuredly thought they personally were not! The question is: How do we convert sinners and bring them into the household of God? The three parables in Luke 15 supply the answers.
The lost sheep (Lk. 15:4-10)
In the writings of the rabbis there is a parable about the loss of an animal and its recovery, but the story has quite a different “punch line” from the one told by Jesus Christ. In the story, as told by the Jewish sages, there once was a man who had twelve animals laden with wine skins being driven to market in the city. As the man drove his animals through the narrow streets of the ancient city, he suddenly realized one of the animals was missing.
He immediately tied all the other animals together, leaving them with one of his children while he mounted a thorough search of the city. He enlisted the aid of others and proceeded more and more frantically, trying to find the animal. His great concern was that the animal would wander into a wine shop of a Gentile and the Gentile would take the wine and mingle it with his own.
The loss of the wine is not the primary thing that worried the man, but rather the mingling of his kosher wine with the wine of Gentiles. The use of wine in many pagan rituals made it imperative for a Pharisee never to drink Gentile wine, and to this day a good, faithful orthodox Jew will observe this same precaution. To mix kosher and Gentile wine was defilement! Hence the moral of the Rabbinical parable is to avoid defilement. The loss and recovery of the animal was secondary, if not altogether irrelevant.
The Lord’s emphasis on the animal
The focus of the parable, as Jesus tells it, is all on the animal. First, he makes the herd a lot bigger so the loss is only one out of hundred. This one percent loss might not seem like much, and in fact it is tempting to say: Why did the man leave his other ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep? Jesus does not spare a single word to spell out what provision the man had taken to put the other ninety-nine sheep in the care of someone else while he was searching for the one lost. The man’s entire attention is on the lost one
The loss occurs “in the wilderness” (Luke 15 4) which scripturally symbolizes being lost m the way of the present world. As the Apostle Peter said, “For we were as sheep going astray” Without the gospel of Christ we were all lost in the wilderness at one tune or other in our lives, but now we are “returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
Some of us were prevented from being lost in this wilderness because we were born to faithful parents, others recovered by the teaching of a friend, neighbor or colleague. But the fact remains someone had to be our shepherd (cp. Rom 10:14); only in the rarest of cases have people joined our community by coming to a complete realization of the Truth on their own. Similarly, the one sheep, who was lost in the wilderness, would hardly have found its way back on its own. That circumstance would have been most unlikely.
In this parable the one (lost) sheep was originally part of the household flock and had now wandered off into the wilderness of the world It is tempting sometimes, when we see this m the ecclesia, to say “Oh, it’s only one member It is more important that we concentrate on the bigger task and worry about the concerns and needs of the great majority who are here and active in the ecclesia!”
A first-principle issue
We are unlikely to leave the 99 and search until we find the one that is lost. Often the disfellowshipping of a member for their having wandered off into the “wilderness” ends up being equivalent to, “out of sight, out of mind.” While many ecclesias have made provision for shepherding their flock (i e 99), rare indeed is the ecclesia that has made extensive continued efforts to recover the one lost, until it finds that one, and brings him back to the fold.
Notice what the parable does not say. The story could have just as easily given the shepherd a slightly different character He could have taken the stance that I have 99 sheep to worry about. I will continue to keep a look-out for the lost one and if it has an inclination to wander back in the vicinity of the herd, I will go over and bring it back into the fold. This would have been entirely reasonable, but it would have missed the point of the parable. God cares for every member of the flock and so must we.
It is the duty of the strong to help the weak, in fact, it is a first principle of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul said to the Galatians (6 1,2): “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ ” In effect, this parable is teaching in a very practical way to work out this first principle
Bearing a heavy burden
Upon finding the lost sheep, the shepherd does not drive it back to the herd but puts it on his shoulders and carries it back – bearing the burden of the animal’s weight on his own body The Greek word used is “sheep” and not “lamb,” this animal must be viewed as a fairly heavy burden.
The idea is perfectly in keeping with the exhortation of Paul to the Galatians We must carry one another’s burdens not only when they are light, but also when they are heavy Someone lost to the world usually does have heavy burdens or they probably would not have been lost in the first place The shepherd did not complain of his burden, but rather rejoiced that he was able to bring the lost one back to the flock Whenever recovery is needed it should be done with this same spirit It will do us little good m the recovery process if we place the blame on the lost one It will do us little good if we don’t lift the burden the other is carrying, taking the weight off his shoulders We will do far better if we approach recovery with a spirit of rejoicing, not as a chore we’d rather not undertake but are doing it anyway.
The whole group rejoices
Eventually, the shepherd rejoices with the whole ecclesia (Lk 15 6) and all are glad Again a powerful lesson How hard it is for someone who has been away from meeting to come back – cold He is not sure how he will be received Perhaps he is feeling guilty while at the same time annoyed at something that he perceives the ecclesia has done to him How important it is for someone to shepherd him back and prepare the way How important also that the ecclesia accepts him back with the right attitude – the attitude of rejoicing together.
“There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth ” That is one of the great lessons of this parable The Pharisees had no such joy m their teachings, in fact they taught “There is joy before God when those who provoke Him perish from the world” The focus of religious life for the Pharisees was to avoid defilement from sinners The idea of associating with sinners as a means of recovering them was not m their mode of thinking It is tempting to place ourselves strictly m the category of the “ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.” But to do so would make us no better than the Pharisees, we would be worse, since, unlike them, we are responsible having put on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The scriptures teach “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10) We are all susceptible to sin and at one time or another in our lives we are capable of being lost and m need of recovery As Paul put it, ” considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal 6:1) But thanks be to God who has given us the ultimate victory by saving us from the wilderness of sin through His Son, that great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One