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Lost Ones are Jesus’ Priority
Luke 15:1-7
August 23, 2020

     This week I came across an interesting, modern adaptation of today’s short parable.  As I share it, see if you can you relate to it.  “If you had a beloved dog (or cat) and they went missing, wouldn’t you leave your other pets at home and go searching everywhere in your town for your missing animal?   And when you finally find your pet, wouldn’t you joyfully lift them up, put them in your vehicle and drive straight home?  Once there would you pet them, give them food and water, then feel like posting online right away - telling your friends and neighbors “I am so excited to share that my lost dog has been found.  And I want to invite you over tomorrow night for an informal party.  Hope you can join the celebration.”  
      This is one of three parables Jesus told to bring home this powerful salvation message:  We humans are like lost sheep; we cannot save ourselves.   Our sin separates us, distancing us from God, so Jesus searches for us - with His relentless love.   He alone can save us from the dangerous consequences of our sin.  He longs to carry us safely Home where we belong and will be celebrated!  
     In the very large listening audience that day were Pharisees, teachers of the Law, along with people Luke called “tax collectors and sinners”.    The religious leaders pridefully viewed themselves as always living within the gated pastures of the Shepherd.  They believed they carefully followed His every command and should be his favorites.   Everyone else ought to see that and acknowledge them as special. 
    The Pharisees also judged the others in the flock as inferior.  Their “walk” wasn’t quite dignified enough for a sheep, their manner of “baa-ing” needed definite tonal improvement and their lack of overall focus was shameful- there was simply no help for them.   The Shepherd really should cull the herd, for far too many sheep were unacceptable.  It greatly frustrated them that He still allowed them to hang around him, let alone treat them as prime level sheep.   What the self-righteous, judgmental Pharisees failed to perceive was - who the Shepherd really was and how He felt about the so-called shifty-looking sheep.    
     Let’s dive in now and look at the sheep in Jesus’ parable, all 100 of them.   The first wonderful truth we need to grasp is that every one of those lambs belongs to the Shepherd.   They are His sheep, and only his! You and I belong to God….
       What’s more do you know that in Middle Eastern cultures a good shepherd has in-depth knowledge of each sheep in the flock?  They can tell you their age, size, and health status.   They also know the quality of their wool and their personality.   A final little- known fact is that they name each sheep.  Every single sheep is feeding on a hillside is seen and intimately known by their Shepherd.   Consider your life, and what Jesus is saying about it – He sees YOU, and knows about your life.   Jesus’ eyes watch you, with alertness and interest, and whatever condition you are in - Jesus knows all about it.
       A good shepherd also knows that sheep can accurately be described using the letters “DDD“.   The first “D” stands for directionally challenged.   Sheep wander, turning this way then another, investigating a sweet clump of grass or perhaps deciding to go toward shade.   But they lose track of their whereabouts - often.   They are very directionally- challenged animals.
       They are also among the most “D” defenseless creatures in the wild.  If a predator is nearby, they do not blend in with their habitat for camouflage, and sheep are slow runners.   They also lack a keen sense of smell, so they don’t detect danger.   If they have to face a predator, they have no defensive skills, so most will die.   
       A final sheep fact is that they are just plain “D” - dumb.  They need guidance in finding sufficient food, water, and shelter.   There are vulnerable in many ways and do best when they have a Shepherd, or other caretakers.   Sheep are DDD, “directionally-challenged, defenseless and pretty - dumb”.   So when Jesus said in his parable that a sheep was “lost” and a shepherd had to head out to save it, every listener there would have nodded in sage agreement.  
      Something else that makes this parable even richer is knowing that the word “lost” really means.   It means “to be in great or grave danger”.   A lost sheep all too often - a dead sheep.   It would perish if left on its own too long.   Predators would overwhelm them in their weakness, and if that weren’t the case - they suffered because they had trouble finding water and food to nourish themselves.      
       I want to step back a moment now and remind us that Jesus shared three parables that day, each one spoke of something “Lost” – there was a grave danger.   The third parable was the Prodigal (or Lost) (in great danger) “Son”.   In it a rebellious and rich young man finally comes to his senses (after hitting rock bottom) and begs forgiveness from The Father (God) and he is joyfully restored to his former status as a beloved son.   He enters back into his privileged life.  
      I believe today’s sheep story speaks to a different set of people listening to Jesus that day.  Not the rick, prideful rebels who reject God as they live the high life, but a different set of folks.   Remember how there were not just Pharisees there, but sinner and outcasts?   I think the Lost Sheep story was for them, helping them grasp that God sees them, knows them, loves them, and will pursue them.  
     I think Jesus was reaching out to those who were on the edges, disadvantaged, or even written off as the community’s “low-lifes, or losers”, people seen as “not amounting to much”.       
       Do you think that there is such a category of people who are seen that way today?   Or feel like they are looked down on in such a way today?   I do.  This week I have done some serious reflection on how profoundly our upbringing can affect our trajectory in life.  Do you believe that there are circumstances beyond our control that can give a child a big leg up in life?  There are some who have a solid and even privileged foundation, plus a strong network of family and friends.   There are numerous advantages for a child:  who raises us, what school(s) we attend, whether or not we have access to good health care, are able to eat nutritional meals and live in a decent home. 
       But likewise – the opposite holds true.   Consider those who start out with inadequate (or absentee) parents, and for assorted reasons do poorly at school.  If poverty, poor health, and limited support is someone’s reality for 18 years that almost always lowers or limits what a person can achieve.  When countless inequalities exist - far too often they cannot be easily or quickly overcome.  That leaves huge numbers of people dis- advantaged – becoming adults who are underemployed, poorly housed, underfed, unhealthy and unhappy.   They are lost – in great danger, not just their lives as a whole, but what if they also do not know that God loves them?  
      Let me push the envelope here.   Should any one of us ever see someone as a “lost cause”?   Should we judge them as “not able to amount to much”?   Jesus Christ never thought that way.  When his eyes scanned a crowd, he always had compassion on them, seeing them as LOST SHEEP.   He was concerned about their souls and their practical needs.   Think of the three D’s again.   Some may have been defenseless.   Scam artists are out there.  Ignorance in many areas of life can be someone’s undoing, but that does not make someone a bad person.   Just naïve.   Some people have also made dumb decisions in their youth (or beyond that) – and they often pay for those, but that doesn’t make them unredeemable.   Imagine if one screw up cost us – for the rest of our lives.   And most of us can identify with trying to find a direction for our lives.   It is hard to figure that out, and not all do.   I hope this parable challenges us all - to consider how we see the “lost” sheep in our generation, being careful not to coldly “judge” HOW they got lost; instead may we see them with compassion, worthy of being pursued with relentless love, one day restoring them into community, and a more satisfying life, and a relationship with God.
       Oh… how Jesus loves lost sheep!   The Bible says God’s son came to earth “to seek and to save the lost sheep”.  He proclaimed for all who would hear “I AM the Good Shepherd”.   He did search for, find, and rescue people who were in great danger.   People who were directionless for the One who was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.   Those defenseless against sin and unable to make it on their own, met a Savior.     
   And why was Jesus on this single-minded mission?   It was because he knows us each individually, we are so valuable to him.  He felt urgency to come to earth and find ways to call out our name.   He went a long distance to find us- in a terrible predicament - in the rugged terrain of our thorn-filled lives.   Jesus knows that lambs are no match for the wilderness of sin.   He wants to offer us the safety of his pastures.   To be home where we belong – as the sheep of His pasture.   The lamb of his redeeming.  And isn’t is amazing to know that Heaven is paying attention, riveted to the dramatic scene below, witnessing a homecoming that is exuberant for the One - and for all!     
       If you feel like a lost sheep, who has been wandering in sin and separate from your loving Shepherd, Jesus - today can be the day things change.   If you are weary, hurting, or lonely - Jesus wants to carry you to a place and a people called His church.  You can find rest there; it is safe pasture.  We are waiting to welcome you.  Do come as you are, with brambles or scars, limping or exhausted.  You can just “be” in God’s presence and ours as well.
      And can you think of people, perhaps several, who need to hear this same invitation?  From you.  They aren’t necessarily the rebels of the world, turning their backs on God or the church, instead they are people who have perhaps not yet known how much God loves them.   They may have missed hearing about Jesus, the Savior.   It wasn’t part of their foundation.  All they know is the wilderness.  A harsh place, difficult to survive on their own.  
       God has so much more waiting for them.   But we must be the searchers now, attentive to the walking wounded who might ask Jesus to hold, heal, and save them.   He wants to carry them into His kingdom.  There is a place waiting for them within God’s flock.   Near still waters.   Where they shall not want.   Where they can be comforted.   Where oil can anoint and heal them, and no enemy can harm them.   At a table prepared for them, where a cup of blessings will overflow.   Surely goodness and God’s mercy will be theirs.   And they can look forward to living in the house of God, in heaven, forever.  Amen.

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