The Relentless Shepherd

Anyone who has lost a child in a crowded store knows the feeling. For about ninety seconds, nothing else exists. You don't care about the cart, and you don't care who's watching. Nobody could talk you into calming down and being grateful for everything you didn't lose. You search until you find, and when you find, you don't scold. You grab that kid and hold on.

Jesus told a story like that, and most of our Bibles put a heading over it: The Parable of the Lost Sheep. But Luke never wrote that heading. Read the verses yourself and count the verbs. The man loses, leaves, goes, finds, carries, rejoices, comes home, and calls his neighbors together. The sheep does nothing. This isn't the story of a lost sheep. It's the story of a relentless Shepherd.

And He told it to the wrong crowd, at least by our assumptions. He wasn't talking to the sinners drawing near. He was talking to the religious men at the edge of the crowd, grumbling that He ate with people they had written off. The men who were sure they belonged among the ninety-nine.

So here's the question this episode can't let go of: is there anyone in the flock who never needs to be found again? And what does it say about us when we hear that the Shepherd went after someone else, and our first thought is, at least I'm not like him?

Episode Link:

https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-relentless-shepherd/