Luke 15:1-7 1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable: 4“What man of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the grass land and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.
Jesus was getting two different kinds of responses. On the one hand, the “outcasts” of Jewish society were attracted to his message of hope and forgiveness. They saw power and authority in him. They believed he could make a difference in their lives. On the other hand, the religious elite, who thought they had life figured out and controlled by their strict adherence to the law, grumbled about Jesus. One of the goals of the Pharisees and scribes was to withdraw from the world full of sin and to live in holiness as separation and purity. As God’s people, we are called to live in purity and stay away from sin, we are also called to go to the lost who are enslaved by the powers of this world. Jesus sets the pattern for God’s people by going to the lost.
Jesus responds to the criticism of the religious people by telling three parables about the theme of finding the lost. These parables illustrate two key points from the context. One is that the kingdom is open to all people, including those rejected by society and bound by sin. A second is that the invitation is open even to the religious people like the Pharisees, but they need to recognize that they are saved because of God’s grace and not anything they do themselves.
The first parable would be easily pictured in the minds of first-century people. Jesus includes his audience of Pharisees and scribes by his rhetorical question, Which of you? The setting is away from the village and out in the green countryside where shepherds take their sheep. A flock of a hundred sheep would have been a lot to keep track of. The parable has several movements. The first part creates the conflict in the plot with one of the sheep wandering away and getting lost. Sheep are not smart animals and can get distracted by the lure of green grass, just like people can get caught up in the attraction of things of this world.
The second movement is when the shepherd decides to go looking for the lost sheep. One of the messages of the parable comes in this second part. The value of this one sheep is obvious in two ways. One is the risk the shepherd takes in leaving the other sheep. One might think that leaving the ninety-nine would be dangerous for them because another one of them might also get lost, stolen, or eaten by a wild animal. A second action is how the shepherd searches until he finds the sheep. We can imagine the crags, caves, and crevices where a sheep might get lost. It might take quite a bit of effort to locate a single lost sheep, but the shepherd does not give up until he finds it. The care of the shepherd is also evident in how he cared for the sheep once it was found by putting it on his shoulders and personally carrying it back to the rest of the flock. This shepherd cares deeply even for one lost animal.
The third movement of the parable is what the shepherd does after he finds the sheep by having a celebration with friends and neighbors. Sheep likely wander away every day in the shepherding business, so it was no big deal to go looking for one. But this shepherd was different because he saw great value in even one sheep. Even to lose one was significant for him. When he found just the one, the whole world needed to know. This third movement builds on the intensity of the first two and shows the primary emphasis of the parable. The other two movements also have messages about wandering away and searching diligently until found.
Jesus emphasizes the third point in his spiritual application in verse 7. People wander away from God’s purposes for them. They get caught up in the false promises of sin and fall into the temptations around them. They soon end up lost and bound for condemnation. But God goes after every lost sinner and offers the hope of salvation. Verse 7 makes two key points. One is how heaven rejoices when a sinner comes to faith and experiences salvation. Every person is valuable to God. The second is the need for sinners to repent. People must make the decision to turn from their sins. God extends grace, but people must choose to accept it. The Pharisees and scribes may have been righteous from their perspective, but each of them were just as guilty before God as the tax collectors. Jesus was extending the hope of salvation to them also.
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