Scripture Notes: That One Sheep (Luke 15)

We know Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep so well that perhaps we fail to sit with it as we should, to reflect on it deeply, to enter into it, to make it our own. Think, for instance, about that one sheep. How did it get lost? Did it simply wander off, its attention caught by something in the distance that looked good? If so, perhaps the sheep did not even realize it was lost until it looked up and saw nothing familiar, no other sheep, no shepherd, nothing. Imagine the sheep’s fear. How would it get home? Would it ever get home? Would a wolf come and eat it? Why did it ever wander away? How stupid! But what to do next?

Or maybe the sheep did not wander. What if it wanted to go its own way because it thought the shepherd’s rules were too restricting or because the other sheep were getting on its nerves? Maybe it was fed up with the whole situation and wanted its freedom, the opportunity to strike out on its own. Of course, that defiant “freedom” would have quickly turned to terror for this sheep, too. A sheep alone in the wilderness is in great danger. Predators, hunger, thirst, all these soon threaten. A simple wrong turn would take it into a patch of briers where its wool would get caught. A sheep held fast in a thicket is about as vulnerable as one can get. 

Of course, we are attributing human characteristics to this sheep, but that is the whole point. We humans can be as stupid as sheep sometimes when we wander away from our Lord, lured by the things of this world, or when we deliberately leave because we think we can do better on our own. Either way, we end up in grave danger. But our Lord did not abandon that one sheep, and He does not abandon us. He pursues us, tracks us down, and when we are willing, brings us home on His shoulders with great love.