The parable of the Lost Sheep

Luke15_01_07_LostSheep_DanielYoo

Luke 15:1-7

Key Verse: 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

When I was young, my mom would evenly distribute chocolate bars to us three children, starting from the eldest to the youngest, going in the order of me, my brother, and my sister. Fortunately, this was the case when she had exactly three or multiple of three chocolates. She was challenged when the number wouldn’t break evenly to distribute them to us. Something like four. Just to get one more chocolate, we had to compete with each other and flatter my mom with sugary words. Whoever wins the contest and earn her mind, wins another chocolate. One would easily get jealous over another if they took more. This is when one matters. Realistically, if I had too many, like 100 chocolate bars in my hands, I wouldn’t have minded of my mom not distributing them equally. It is trivial and I already own tons of them. Well, I never got 100 chocolates in my real life though.

In today’s passage, we will go over Jesus’ parable. The parable about the one lost sheep. This dates all the way back to when Jesus was traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem. During the travel, he was sharing the words of God as he would elsewhere. Jesus possessed the power to captivate people with his compelling, relatable, and deeply moving words. So, picture Jesus being surrounded by an innumerable number of people regardless of their race, gender, status, and so on.

Let’s read verse 1 and 2. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” As I’ve mentioned previously, Jesus hadn’t cherry picked people he wanted to teach. Regardless of their social status, race, gender, age, or any such, whoever had ears to hear, Jesus let them hear his words. Of course, a conflict rises as the so and so called “righteous religious leaders” complain about the coexistence of the two distinctively different beings, the religious leaders and the sinners. By the time, or even now, it was unimaginable for such highly renowned and righteous beings to be present with tax collectors and sinners. I couldn’t picture the conflicts initially, so to help your understanding, let’s consider this room with full of sinners along with us. Not to mention that I myself is also a sinner. Think of this church filled with criminals, prostitutes, and all unpleasing people. My first reaction would be, I do not want to be here. What are the missionaries doing?

Now back to the story, in the time of Jesus, being religious leaders was not simply being a pastor in our times. It meant more. Becoming a religious leader meant having political power and being highly esteemed. They strictly obeyed and practiced the laws, such as praying, keeping the Sabbath day, and offering. In the worlds of their eyes, it was totally absurd that Jesus welcomes the social outcast: tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, and you name it.  How did Jesus respond to their complaints? He shared a story that was relevant to the current situation.

Let’s read the verses 4 through 6. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” The story begins with a shepherd who owned or was in charge of hundred sheep. As soon as he realized that one sheep was missing, the shepherd left the ninety-nine behind in the open field and sought for the one lost until he found it. The time taken was not mentioned. It could’ve been minutes to hours or to even days. As soon as he found the lost one, he goes to his friends and neighbors expressing and sharing his joy finding the lost. So many questions bothered me when I heard this parable. As I always practice becoming a good engineer, the simple calculation was done immediately. So, Jesus valued the one over ninety-nine. According to the parable, the shepherd left the ninety-nine in the open field, and went to look for the one single sheep. It could’ve costed the rest to find one sheep. The one lost sheep was not something special from others; by no means it was different from any other.

First lesson can be taken here. The life or lives, at least in the eyes of Jesus, however many it is, are valuable and priceless. Very valuable to him and to God. This reminds me of a story of this man named Godfrey Motsepe who was imprisoned. While in prison, he decided to share the words of God and convert one person to Christian. However, such action was risking his life since it was highly prohibited to spread God’s words in prison. Regardless, he successfully converted one person. Later when this was found, he was sentenced to death. The person who got converted in the prison is Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa. Godfrey’s one mission was to convert one single person into Christians. 

Second lesson is the effort the shepherd puts in to find the lost sheep. If I have about hundred sheep and lose one, I wouldn’t put so much effort to find the one lost. Maybe hours, but the shepherd looked for the lost one until he found it. He doesn’t simply make couple attempts and abandon my sinful being after tries. He puts all the efforts he can, even if it meant death. The shepherd would search for the lost at the cost of his life and he actually did. The shepherd in the parable reflects Jesus who was crucified on the cross for my sins. For such a horrible sinner like myself, he gave in his body to wash away our sins. Just so that he could wash my sinful beings who always fall into temptation. How joyful is it that our sins are forgiven through his sacrifice. 

Lastly, the shepherd tells the world about the lost sheep when he finds him and rejoices. The shepherd was so joyful that he couldn’t stop himself from telling others about his happiness of finding him. Once I was born, I considered myself different and special from the others. By the ceaseless love of shepherds in UBF, I genuinely thought I would be different or had something special inside of me. This idea was completely shattered as I grew up. Gradually, this thought was replaced by the truth that I was just one particle in this 7 billion people. However, to the eyes of God, this is not true. I myself is so precious and invaluable. God’s love is so profound and immeasurable. I am very special to him and I am indeed different from others.

Let’s read the verse 7. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” As I’ve discussed previously, Jesus tells us “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Based on the context, we can learn two things. First, we now know what it means to be found by the shepherd. It is equivalent to us repenting and turning ourselves to God. Do we repent for our sins? Born as a sinner, we always fall into the temptation of sins. However, Jesus waits. Jesus waits for such dirty sinner like myself to repent with open arms.

Secondly, Jesus sarcastically rebukes the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. The highly renowned and righteous beings were not welcomed by Jesus. Jesus is not interested in the ones who do not repent. Just like the shepherd who left the ninety-nine in the open field, Jesus is ignorant to those who do not acknowledge their sins and repent.

At the end of the bible study with Missionary Peter, I wondered where I would belong to. Would I belong to the ninety-nine sheep who do not need to repent or to the one lost sheep. It was a matter of repentance and coming to God. Such thought provoked a story of mine from after college. After the struggles and effort, as soon as I graduated college, I got hired to my current company, ESRI located in California. I started as an intern but due to my effort and performance, my manager recruited me as an intermediate level engineer right off the bat. For the first few years, it was rainbows and butterflies. The team was great. Within the team, I was known to be smart, productive, and performant. The work gave so much joy and my pride eventually peaked. This experience built my pride; I considered myself different from others. Someone who thought he was better than others in his field. Someone who knew what he was doing. Someone who quickly caught the needs of others and build it. This also created ripples on my spiritual status. My spiritual battles came to a cold war. My heart turned lukewarm; casually attending church on Sunday and prioritizing my work, putting Jesus behind.  So called Sunday Christian.

However, this was completely shattered as a new opportunity came by. I had completed the assigned projects and no longer had I major ones to work on. At this point, my manager suggested me to transfer to a team that is fast-growing and working on the core of the company. This for me was a great opportunity not only to become a good engineer but also for promotion. As I transferred to a new team at the end of last year, I was surrounded with one of the best engineers in the company. However, I couldn’t feel any more useless than this. The team was very fast-paced, rapidly growing, and highly-skilled. I was barely making the deadlines for projects. I found all kinds of aspects I lacked as an engineer and this was quickly recognized by the colleagues. This completely struck me as I felt hopeless. I had to put down my ego and pride.

During this phase, I also visited my mom and sister in France. The visit just didn’t happen so to see my mom. My mom sprained her back. When she first broke her back, she didn’t see a doctor for two reasons. One because she was in France, and two, because of the financial shortage. Well, it concludes to one. Financially. Her back was left broken and eventually solidified as broken (apologies to the medical professionals here, I am not sure if that’s the medical term). When she strained her back, such small injury caused her immobility. She wasn’t able to move or use the bathroom without the help of my sister. In this trouble, I complained to God about what is like being a missionary. My dad has served Libya for years. What has this accomplished? My family is all scattered around the world, dad being in Libya, mom and sister in France, and me and my brother in the USA. Dad could barely see my mom and his children. How could God be so brutal with the way we are. How could he leave my family abandoned. My brother had applied for the permanent resident card for my mom which never seem to make any progress.

When I was filled with all kinds of dissatisfactions and evil thoughts, God answered me with two verses. First being Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” When I chased after the recognition and career success, God has put me down and awakened my eyes to see who I am, my identity as a missionary. God humbled my pride and ego, so that he could reconstruct my mindset. Especially there are engineers who need the help technically and spiritually. I was surprised to find out that many are suffering from depression and taking pills daily. I was ignorant to these colleagues. One thing I realized this year is my selfishness. My prayer was very self-centered. When I pray, I never prayed for my colleagues, my church, friends, and my community.

During this year, God had blessed me with one friend who deeply hated attending church. By the help of God and with my little effort, he started attending church and started believing in God. Through this, I realized that there are many looking for God. Many who really need to be reached out to and is thirsty for the words of God. May God grow me as a shepherd who can bravely reach out to friends and colleagues and share the words of God with them. God tells me to seek his kingdom and his righteousness. I’ve always been trying to resolve the problems on my own, instead of seeking God and his righteousness. God had me experience the joy and blessing when I invite my one friend to Jesus and see his conversion. My mission is really to seek his kingdom and help his mission by seeking him first. It still doesn’t come naturally when I try to change my old habits, depending on myself and ignoring God. May I build a habit of starting with a prayer and depending on God when I start my work or help friends. Also pray for me to grow as a missionary to face challenges and spread the words of God among friends.

And another verse, Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Through this verse, God helped me to understand that my current family situation shouldn’t be taken as a suffering but as a blessing that God gives us in the heaven. My dad recently took a role of the middle east coordinator. He expresses his joy as he took this role, praising and giving thanks to God. Also, recently, God helped my mom to visit Libya where it is prohibited and meet with my dad. Even in this kind of situation, God still provides a means for my dad to see my mom.  Through these, I experience the work of God and his hands are on us.

In conclusion, I was the lost sheep, who was ignorant and arrogant sinner, who forgot the blessings of God and pursued the worldly desires. I completely neglected on the love of the missionaries in UBF who prayed and struggled for us. While writing the message, I was very grateful for missionaries who persistently asked for my well-being and spiritual status. They passionately prayed for me to grow as a missionary to serve campus students. I repent my pride and arrogance; pursuing the worldly desires and trying to accomplish and resolve my obstacles on my own without depending on God. I pray that God may accept my repentance and grow me as a shepherd, transitioning from the lost one to the shepherd who finds the lost and preach the words of God.

One word: God rejoices for the one lost who repent than ninety-nine others who do not need to repent.