“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This is the question that precedes the parable of the lost sheep–a commonly overlooked, but important contextual point when discussing this story. Hierarchy, competition, rankings, stratification… Human nature orients itself around these, but they are not the way of God. As the parable shows, God is willing to upend our understanding of how things are supposed to work, and we’ve every reason to be grateful for it.
Matthew 18: 10-14
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. {[11] [a]For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”}
12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
The setting for these verses go back to the beginning of the chapter. It opens with the disciples asking: “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Their question reveals their secular assumptions about God’s kingdom. Some are in. Some are out. They needed to know the membership criteria and they needed to know the organizational chart. It is hard to be a faithful disciple, worthy of recognition if you don’t know the requirements.
The paradox, however, is that we miss the core of our faith if what we are worried about is: ‘are we in or are we out?— or, where do we rank? Those questions are vital and basic in the secular world. They are irrelevant in God’s. Jesus’ answer must have been totally unexpected. He called a child forward and said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
To aspire to be a child was absurd. Children were at the bottom of the social pecking order and becoming an adult was required reading if you wanted to count for something in the world. In the Roman culture, infanticide was common. Even in our day, where children are held in higher esteem, children themselves almost universally want to be ‘grown up.’ And one of our most common comments to children is, ‘Look how big you’ve gotten.’ We send very mixed messages about the intrinsic value of children. We are just as likely to be patronizing as truly valuing when we see the naivete and vulnerability of children.
Jesus presented a Gospel that inverts secular values—and he did it over and over again. God’s way is so fundamentally different from man’s way that even those closest to him –the disciples—struggled to understand. The core Christians faith claim is God loves us as we are. But it is stunningly difficult to receive. We yearn for such an experience but are forever doubting and distrusting the promise.
After making his point using children, he asks the disciples, ‘what do you think?’ And tells them the parable of the lost sheep. He wants them to see that not only is God mindful of ‘the least of these’, he is mindful of the lost. The shepherd leaves the 99 and seeks the one. There is no one who doesn’t count.
The parable of the lost sheep is familiar to most of us. The shepherd seeks the lost. It suggests a God who never abandons us. It is comforting to realize that we have room for error—the shepherd’s care is independent of anything the sheep do. We will go astray. We will be lost and confused but our safety is not in our hands. God will seek us out and rejoice when we are found. He wants us safe and under his care. Please notice. No mention is made as to why the sheep is lost. He could have been resentful, stubborn, rebellious or absent minded. It doesn’t matter why, what matters is that he is lost. He is separated and the shepherd seeks him out. We are redeemable. It is not up to us. It is the good news of the Gospel.
But in discussions of the parable several human questions come up that reflect how like the disciples we are. What does it mean to be part of the flock and what does it mean to be lost? Over and over, I read commentators that implied that the church was the flock and the lost sheep, the wayward. It is a familiar us/them mentality. It misses the point that ALL the sheep were under the shepherd’s care. It also misses the point that sheep are really stupid. It often takes barking dogs to keep them together. Left to their own devices, the flock would never be whole. At one time or another every sheep gets lost. It is almost in sheep DNA to wander off, unaware and unmindful of the risks and dangers. There is a place for us to seek the lost but we probably should start with ourselves.
A similar issue arises when we wonder if the ‘lost’ one is getting attention at the expense of the flock. After all the shepherd must leave the 99 to seek the one and the scripture says “he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.” Part of the problem here is that our father in heaven is like a shepherd. A shepherd can only be in one place at a time. God is not limited. All we know from the parable is that God takes care of his flock—his whole flock.
Likewise, the comparative statement that the shepherd is happier about the one sheep he finds than for the 99. Does this mean that no good deed goes unpunished? Why should the lost sheep get more attention? These are the kinds of questions the disciples ask. They are score card questions. And they miss the point of grace.
If even for a very short time, you have felt deeply loved, you know that in that moment, you see and feel differently. When you have those moments with your God, your world can be filled with travail, but, you can deal with life as it comes. You are not alone. Your life is full. You can rejoice when you see another person have the same joy. You do not feel jealous of others. There is no sense that God would leave you because he sought someone else.
Todd has an image of a bowl being filled with water. But the flow never stops. The bowl is always overflowing. When your bowl is overflowing, you do not worry that other people are being filled. And more than likely your concern will be that others are missing such a wonderful experience. That is grace. But the minute we start worrying about whose bowl is getting filled, or, does that mean there will be less for me, or, how can I make sure the flow never stops, or, what will happen in the future—we lose the joy in the present. We lose the abiding promise of God. We wander off and are like lost sheep. Those questions are in our DNA. Sheep get lost all of the time. But the shepherd knows this. He will seek you.
Even if you are lost, alone, angry or despairing, the shepherd promises, “Lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Let it be so.
