Luke 15:4

THE SHEEP THAT WAS LOST

‘What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?’

Luke 15:4

It was along this plain and among these ‘wildernesses’ that our Blessed Saviour was most likely now travelling. And, perhaps, while the scribes and Pharisees were making their unkind murmurs. He could even then lift up His eyes, and see the hillside dotted over with the sheep and lambs (for it was spring-time) cropping the tender grass under the watchful care of the shepherd. And then He turned to those proud men who would have Him cast out the publicans and sinners when they came to Him, and spake this parable unto them. And Jesus bade them learn that as the heaven is high above the earth, as the eternal love of God is greater and more glorious than the selfish interests of a mere human shepherd, so certain it is that He could never cease to care for His wandering sheep, and they, the shepherds of Israel, would never be like Him until they learned to love and to seek out those erring men whom they were calling ‘publicans and sinners.’

I. The Shepherd.—We should have known, even if He had not told us, that by the shepherd in the parable He means Himself, the Shepherd of the fold of God, the Shepherd and the Bishop of the souls of men, the Guide and Guardian of mankind. And by the sheep He must mean His helpless creatures, who cannot live without Him, who ‘live and move and have their being’ in Him, each separate, single one of whom is ‘as much His care as if beside nor man nor angel lived in heaven or earth.’ He tends them all. He loves them all.

II. Who are these ninety and nine who never went astray?—The witness of your own hearts, the voice of that conscience by which God speaks within you. If your conscience does bear witness that you ‘lack nothing’—if you have never for one moment swerved from the obedience and love of a child of God’s family—if you can lift up your head and say, ‘I am perfect, even as my Father which is in heaven is perfect’—then learn what you can from this part of the parable, for it is your own.

III. The wandering sheep.—But, if not, if your conscience tells you of many shortcomings and misdoings, if you feel that you have been trying to be your own shepherd, setting up your own will against God’s will, and so have been wandering away into desert places, solitary and sad and unsatisfied, then, brethren, you must turn your thoughts away from these ninety and nine which went not astray. Whatever this part of the parable may mean, the lesson is not now for you. You must look at something else. You must fix your eyes upon that other sheep, the one which is wandering away into the dry and sandy waste, away from the fold, away from the shepherd’s care, away from the rest of the flock, in loneliness and solitude, in danger and peril, in weakness and misery. In all this you must see the image of yourself. Jesus spoke these words in order that you might claim them for your own. There is not one single person who has not a right to say to himself, ‘I, even I, am that one sheep which was lost; the Chief Shepherd has come forth and is seeking me, even me.’

IV. God Himself is seeking you.—You have wandered from the fold, but you bear the Shepherd’s mark. He would have you return to the fold you have left. He seeks for you ‘as for hid treasure.’ He has chosen you to be ‘holy and without blame before Him in love.’ He has chosen you, and think not that He will leave you to yourself, until you have become entirely His own. Think not that the Good Shepherd can go forth to seek His wandering sheep, and then go back to the fold without having found it. You may have forgotten Him, but He can never forget you; you may be one thing to-day and another to-morrow, but His love is unchangeable, His ways are everlasting. You may wander far into the desert, but He knoweth the way that you take—He can never cease to seek for you, if haply you may feel after Him and find Him, for He is not far from every one of you.