The Lost Sheep: Running for His Life

By David Ryser

I was hanging out with Cliff, a former student of mine who ministers powerfully in the country of Uganda.  He was regaling me with tales of his adventures while preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom of God in a culture quite different from our own.  He noted that the culture in Uganda is similar in many ways to the culture in which Jesus ministered during His time on earth.  As a result of Cliff’s exposure to this culture, the preaching, teaching, and parables of Jesus have been cast in a fresh light for him.  As an example, he cited the Parable of the Lost Sheep recorded in Luke 15:3-6.

As we talked about it, I realized this may be one of the most preached--and least understood--of Jesus’ parables.

Part of our difficulty interpreting this parable comes from our misunderstanding of the context in which Jesus spoke it.  Whom was Jesus talking to, and what was going on at the time?  We must interpret what He said in light of the situation that prompted Him to speak.  Luke 15:1, 2 tells us that Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and scribes because they were criticizing His ministry over the fact that the spiritual riff-raff (tax collectors and sinners) were being drawn to Him in order to hear Him.

This parable had one important thing in common with the rest of Jesus’ ministry of preaching and teaching:  He spoke to the people who were there (Luke 15:3).  I have searched the Gospels and have discovered that Jesus never preached to people who were not present.  He never preached to, or even about, the Romans or Greeks, for example.  If our preaching follows the pattern of Jesus, we will preach to the people in front of us. 

This may seem self-evident to us until we realize that a great deal of the preaching in our churches is directed at people who are not there (unless your church is filled with homosexuals, abortionists, politicians, and other assorted "miscreants" whom we blame for all of the world’s problems).

So what did Jesus have to say to the religious people who were offended that the “bad people” were coming to Him and entering into the Kingdom of God?

First, Jesus established the worth of the people whom the Pharisees and scribes considered to be worthless (Luke 15:4a).  He tells of a man who has 100 sheep, and one of the sheep has wandered off.  Why is this such a big deal?  The man still has 99 sheep left.

So why all the fuss over one sheep?

It may help to know that in Jesus’ day, a man was considered rich and successful if he had 100 sheep.  Any less, even 99, placed the man in a lower class of wealth and achievement in the eyes of the community.  So the one sheep is of great value relative to the rest of the flock because without him the total value of the flock is significantly diminished.  Jesus’ first lesson to the Pharisees and scribes:  These people you consider to be worthless have great value both to God and to you.

Second, Jesus notes where the flock is when the lost sheep wanders off.  And He does this in a way that gets their attention by saying, “What man of you…does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness…?” (Luke 15:4).  In fact, no one would leave 99 sheep in the wilderness.  The wilderness--by definition--is a place without food, without water, and full of predators.  And what are these sheep doing in the wilderness in the first place?

No shepherd in his right mind would take sheep into the wilderness to feed and water them; rather, he would seek out a lush pasture and an ample water supply for them.

So why were the 100 sheep in the wilderness?  For the same reason that the Pharisees and scribes were wasting away in their religion rather than feasting and drinking from the life and presence of God available in Jesus (John 6:48-58, among many others).

But not everyone is content to suffer spiritual hunger and thirst with the rest of the religious crowd.

Third, so now we know why the one sheep had wandered off.  He was hungry, he was thirsty, and his situation was not getting any better by hungering and thirsting along with the other 99 sheep.  He had gone to search for food and water.

He was running for his life!

You see, the lost sheep was lost only in the sense that he had not found what he was looking for.  He didn’t know where to find food and water, but he knew for sure that neither was to be found where the other 99 sheep were.  (Does this sound like dead and dry religion?)  He was searching for food and water, and he was looking for the shepherd, but he didn’t know where to find them.

In other words, he was in the wrong place for the right reason.

The shepherd, meanwhile, is searching for his lost sheep (he already knows where the other 99 are).  When the shepherd comes on the scene, the sheep does not resist him.  The sheep is not running from the shepherd; he is running from the dire situation he was in when he was with the rest of the flock.  The shepherd picks up the sheep, puts him on his shoulders, and carries him out of his wanderings (Luke 15:5).

At this point, we drift away from the scriptures and assume the shepherd carried the sheep back to the flock along with a stern admonition not to wander off anymore.  We even have a hymn we sing during “revival” meetings to welcome the lost sheep back into the fold.  The problem with this view--and the song--is that the shepherd did not take the formerly lost sheep back to the others.  The shepherd took the sheep to His home where there is great rejoicing over the sheep (Luke 15:6).

Then Jesus springs the trap on the Pharisees and scribes.  He concludes the parable by saying there is more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over 99 who have no need of repentance (Luke 15:7).  The Pharisees and scribes are caught because they know that no one is without need of repentance.  Their eyes are immediately opened to their spiritual condition (at least in the opinion of Jesus).

And they now have a choice to make.

The Pharisees and scribes, and their ilk, are the 99 sheep in the wilderness.  The tax collectors and sinners are the lost sheep.  Jesus is the shepherd.  The flock was hungering and thirsting in the wilderness of dead, dry religion.  The tax collectors and sinners had left the religious system to seek life elsewhere.  In the midst of their wanderings, Jesus came on the scene.  They recognized He was what they had been looking for.

He gathers them up and takes them home; they enter into His Kingdom where they are fed, watered, and cared for.

And the other 99?  What about the religious people?  They are still in the wilderness starving and thirsting to death spiritually.  They don’t even know they’re lost.  How can they be lost?  They’re together.

And they will die together unless they follow the Good Shepherd out of the spiritual wasteland of dead, dry religion and into the Kingdom of God.

What will they do?  Jesus has brought them to a point of decision.  Whatever they chose, their decision was made long ago. What about us?  Are we starving and thirsting in a religious system that produces only physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual sickness and death?

What will we choose?

We can stay where we are and have what we have always had; or we can run for our lives into the arms of our Shepherd and allow Him to carry us home.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com