A True Shepherd

Who doesn’t love a person who can succinctly say what needs to be said in a timely manner. Nobody was better at that than Jesus. In Luke 15 Jesus used the opportunity to clear up a misunderstanding.

The Pharisees saw themselves as God’s representatives on earth, but that is not how Jesus saw them. Most of all he wanted people to see how God really is, so he gave us three word pictures of God.

The very religious Pharisees found it puzzling that Jesus spent time with sinners (Luke 15:1-2). It was repugnant to them that Jesus actually welcomed sinners into his life and that he went so far as to eat with them. Anyone knows that you eat with friends and not enemies like these. If the Pharisees were disgusted at Jesus’ attitude toward the sinners, Jesus was repulsed by their attitudes toward the sinners. This is the setting for the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son. Not only did the Pharisees not care about the tax collectors and other sinners, it also angered them that Jesus cared so much.

They looked down on sinners and consequently, would not associate with them in anyway. They saw sinners as hopeless and deserving of any misery. However, the problem is that Jesus didn’t see the Pharisees as representing God at all. He was a masterful story teller, and he told three stories to shed light on this very important subject of how his Father feels about sinners.

First, the parables deal with loss, the loss of a sheep, a coin and a son. People everywhere feel lost and are overwhelmed by the sense of loss. They have dreams they never realized. There are failed marriages, failed goals, failed health, depleted hope, and they feel so very alone. They look back over their life and feel that is not what they wanted. They feel they have made so many mistakes and inflicted so much harm on themselves and others. The burden of loss is often a burden too great for some to carry, and they resort to depression, sadness and even the taking of their own life.

In the first two stories the search was relentless for what was lost. The shepherd cannot allow himself to rest - the lost must be found! The woman cannot stop until the coin is found. This is not a perfunctory search but an all-out-search until it is found. The story points to Jesus as the true shepherd who searches for us. These parables give us a picture of God that is very different than most people have of him. Here we see him celebrating the recovery of what was lost. He laughs and rejoices and all of heaven with him.

I have on my office shelf a carving from Ecuador of the Shepherd carrying the lost sheep back to the fold.  I think that was a beautiful moment when the shepherd, with deliberate effort, finds the lost sheep and hoists it to his shoulders and carries it home. That is what Jesus does for us. He did that on the cross when he carried our sins on his shoulders. The Apostle Peter said it like this: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet 2:24-25).

Pastor Peter Lewis and his wife, Valerie, were reading through the love messages published in their local paper on Valentine’s Day. They came across a touching note from some adult children to their parents.  The message was short and sweet.  It read: “The rebels failed, for our Utopia was the home we fought to leave.”  Have you been lost from your Heavenly Father? Maybe it’s time to go back home. His arms are wide open and waiting to receive you.