Make the Angels Work Overtime

 

Read Luke 15

 Listen to the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Why the parable? The religious leaders—Scribes, Pharisees, and Teachers of the law were complaining, obviously loud enough that people heard them, that Jesus was hanging out with sinners way too much. If he wanted to be included in their holier-than-thou club, he would have to cut back on that. OK, that’s a little license taken there, but these men were stuck in their paradigms.

They thought Jesus needed to conform to their ways, but Jesus came to show everyone the ways of the Father.  So, he launched into three parables.

The first was targeted at the men. Men were shepherds. There was no feminist movement to be stuck outdoors with no shower or civilized place to go to the bathroom. There was no good place to shave your legs or a reason to do so. I can’t think of a reason why a woman would want this job.

So, the men gathered might have been more tuned in than the ladies. Enough preface to the story: A shepherd was missing a sheep. Yes, he counted twice, maybe three times, and then he went looking.

He left the ninety-nine in the wilderness and went looking for one lost sheep. How do we know there were ninety-nine remaining? He had surely just counted them, and the scripture says there were ninety-nine.

Did he have an assistant, an under shepherd?  We don’t know.

What we do know is that this one sheep was worth looking for. It mattered to the shepherd.

When he found it, he called all of his friends together and they celebrated. They rejoiced.

Good story. The people understood it, but what relevance did it have to their lives. Most of them were not shepherds.

Jesus then showed them why it was a parable and not just a fun story.  In the same way that this shepherd experienced joy, there is much joy in heaven every time a sinner repents and comes to God.

People matter. All people matter. God will never stop loving us, even when we stray.

He loves us.

He loves the lost.

He loves us so much that he did everything to make us right with him.

His love endures forever.

He loves us so much that he desires none to perish, and he gives us a chance to fulfill the desire of God’s heart every time that we lead someone to Christ.

We may not always see the fruit of our ministry. It might take two or three or three hundred people sharing the good news with someone until they come home, but we keep our eyes on the ball not the scoreboard.

In Tom’s metaphor, the ball is our commission and the new command to love one another as much as Christ loved and loves us. The ball is putting his words into practice.

So, we don’t get wrapped up in whether we are the one who closes the deal with a profession of faith, but we continue to seek the lost. While we are out there, let’s invite the disconnected to come home as well.

For a moment, let’s look at an online bogey. The one where Jesus leaves the 99.

As to this business of Jesus going after the sheep in this parable, realize this is a simplistic—not simplified but simplistic—telling of the story, and makes it something other than a parable.

Jesus told the parable. He wasn’t in it.

But doesn’t Jesus seek the lost? Sure. He, mainly in the Spirit of God that lives within us, goes with us as we seek the lost.

So, why make an issue of this being a parable?

How about because it is a parable and that’s what Jesus intended it to be. He set something that people understood in parallel to something he wanted them to understand, typically about how his Father’s kingdom operates.

What’s the message?

If we know how to celebrate when we lose something of value to us and then find it, how much more do the angels in heaven celebrate?

Why would they have a big celebration?

Because every time a sinner repents and comes home, they are fulfilling the desires of God’s heart, that none should perish.

This parable is less about a sheep or a coin than it is about the love of God.

It’s less about our celebrations and more about what brings celebration in heaven.

It is less about the joy we find in physical and temporal things than it is the joy we know being claimed for eternity by our Father in heaven.

We will talk more about lost and found in the next service, but know this: Found is way better than lost, and it is worth celebrating in heaven and on earth.

Amen.