Why Leave the 99?

I have always had a hard time with the story in the Bible about the good shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to find one lost sheep in Luke 15: 3-7.

Was Jesus suggesting that a shepherd should make what seemed to be an obviously flawed business decision by leaving 99 percent to recover one? Was He also suggesting that this event took place in “open country” where it would be suicidal to leave the 99 percent? It just didn’t make sense to me; I didn’t understand it – BUT JESUS SAID IT SO IT MUST BE RIGHT!

In John 10:14-15 Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.”

For many professing Christians, the idea of Jesus as our Good Shepherd conjures up idyllic, sentimental thoughts of Jesus wearing a sparkling white robe (but real shepherds got pretty dirty in their work!) as if He were an advertisement for a modern-day detergent or fabric softener. And He is cradling a little lamb whose fleece is white as snow.

But the reality of Jesus as our Good Shepherd and of Jesus BECOMING one of His own sheep is far from a romantic, sanitized Sunday school lesson.

By identifying himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus was clearly saying that He alone was the good spiritual shepherd humanity had never before experienced

There are three kinds of human shepherds:

HIRED HANDS are in it for the money. They don’t care. They have no stake in the future of the flock. They do the bare minimum because the sheep are not their own.

BAD SHEPHERDS – drive the sheep rather than lead them. They often feel they are strong leaders when they push and beat and abuse the sheep. Bad shepherds are worse than hired hands because they deliberately and sinfully mistreat and even injure the sheep. With either hired hands or bad shepherds the sheep do not thrive – they barely survive.

GOOD SHEPHERDS – gently lead the sheep in such a way that any enemy – human or animal – must get through the shepherd first before it can ravage the flock. Good shepherds call the sheep by name and the sheep know the shepherd’s voice.

Sheep have no weapons. They have no fangs or claws. They have no shell for protection. They are near-sighted and are not blessed with keen hearing. They are slow moving, with little strength or stamina, and their poor sense of direction is legendary. Sheep are easily terrified and predisposed to wander away from the flock.

God compares us to sheep because we humans are not as spiritually tough, independent or intelligent as we would like to think. Sheep need constant attention. We need the Good Shepherd. The relationship between a shepherd and his flock is unique, unlike any other human-animal relationship.

OK – let’s get down to why I see leaving the 99 sheep differently now.

The religious scholars that Jesus was speaking to had all taken “Basic Spiritual Shepherding 101”, where they learned that the primary duty of shepherding was to take care of the healthy, promising sheep, and never, ever expend so much time and resources on the needy few that you, as a shepherd, might risk losing the majority of the flock.

But Jesus didn’t take that class. His teaching was all about going after the least, the lost and the last.

Though the parable was a not-so-thinly-veiled rebuke of these religious leaders, Jesus was not giving this parable to tell them (or us) about how to be a successful religious shepherd. The parable is all about God’s grace.

The Good Shepherd is the ONLY person who can get away with leaving the 99 – the ONLY person who could ever dare to take what might appear to be this extreme risk. No other human shepherd in history should look on leaving his flock as a good idea – it just doesn’t add up.

Why does it add up for the Good Shepherd? Jesus comes to live right within his sheep (US!). We have a relationship of union with our Good Shepherd that no human shepherd could ever have with his sheep. Jesus guarantees our future safety because He is joined to us forever. There is no danger of leaving us to predators when He searches for a lost sheep because HE IS NOT REALLY LEAVING US! He still lives right within each of us sheep. How this is all accomplished is a spiritual matter which is above my pay grade

But until I came to understand the intimate union relationship of Jesus living in me, leaving the 99 could NEVER make sense to me. Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus as MY Good Shepherd in a way that no other shepherd could accomplish. Amen.