GOSPEL PARABLES 12 THE ONE LOST SHEEP This story is about God’s determination to leave ninety-nine sheep to go and find the one sheep that has gone astray and become lost, and to bring it home. The parable is found in both Matthew and in Luke and while the story of the shepherd and the sheep are the same there is a different emphasis on the nature of the lost sheep in each account.In Matthew the lost sheep is a little child who has gone astray and in Luke it is a sinner who has become lo...
GOSPEL PARABLES 12 THE ONE LOST SHEEP
This story is about God’s determination to leave ninety-nine sheep to go and find the one sheep that has gone astray and become lost, and to bring it home. The parable is found in both Matthew and in Luke and while the story of the shepherd and the sheep are the same there is a different emphasis on the nature of the lost sheep in each account.
In Matthew the lost sheep is a little child who has gone astray and in Luke it is a sinner who has become lost.
Matthew 18:10 Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Matthew 18:11 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Luke 15:1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying:
Luke 15:4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
These two stories show us the unlimited scope of the ministry of Jesus in in his determination to search out and find every soul that has taken a wrong path for whatever reason and to carry them back on his shoulders to safety. It is not only the little children going astray who may be deprived to one degree or another of the foundational wisdom and nurture they need in their lives. It is the grown-up adult going astray who has made up his or her own mind about what they choose in serving their own desires, good or bad.
The one overarching principle of this determination of our good shepherd is that God also allows us to choose our own determined way even though we get lost. God has us set on his trajectory for our life and we veer off. And Jesus is determined to find us even if we are hiding from him, just as God found Adam who was determined to hide from him after he had sinned.
The parable says that Jesus comes to seek and to save that which was lost. (Matthew 18:14).
He said in that parable it is not the will (Thelema) of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. The word perish is appolymai - to ruin, destroy, waste a life. The word used for ‘will’ in that verse is Thelema which means a ‘determined intention of the will’
Another word used for ‘will’ in the Bible is boloumai which means more of a heartfelt longing. The Bible tells us that God’s will touches both of these meanings because Peter writes about this heartfelt longing of the will of God in the same context of bringing peoples’ hearts back to his love. He writes ‘God is longsuffering toward us, not willing (boloumai – his heartfelt desire) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9)
When Jesus puts that lost sheep on his shoulders to bring him back he is putting humanity on his shoulders to bring them back to the Father. God is confident in the power of his own determined love to have this to happen. That can overcome any and every dark and selfish thing that would try to obstruct God from accomplishing his good will for his beloved mankind. That is the overarching principle of God’s determined good will for us.
God’s determined will is infinitely greater than our will.
But how can God eliminate the obstacles of darkness that beguile us and lead us astray?
The first obstacle of darkness was Satan, the serpent, Lucifer, the devil because of his own deception and pride in the beginning. He was one of the highest created spiritual beings that beheld the face of God. And as a lesser spiritual being than God he was of necessity flawed and imperfect, and he sank to the depth of his flawed spiritual nature in his deception and pride. He then set about to destroy the good will design of God for his beloved humanity which Satan knew was also a lesser being than God, and even made a little lower than his own angelic self. He is allowed by God to exercise his own determined evil will upon mankind and tempt them to fall.
The second obstacle is the potential inner darkness of every human soul, because this vulnerability of humanity’s unformed character and desire for self-advantage and self-protection allowed mankind to fall.
James explains that second obstacle of our self serving humanity this way. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (mindset of separation from God). (James1:14).
God overcame the first obstacle of darkness by sending Jesus because Satan could not overcome the sinless nature of Jesus. But God still allowed Satan to tempt him. And it is through the overcoming power of Jesus that we are able to overcome darkness because Jesus has given us his life to live, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In another startling test case for humanity in the Old Testament God allowed Satan to tempt a man called Job and greatly afflict him. Satan asked God for permission to do the afflicting because he said that Job was only being righteous before God because he was so materially blessed. Satan was allowed to strip Job of his wealth and health and family – the lot. The Bible says Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Job was deemed to be the ‘greatest man in all the East’ having many children and great wealth and wisdom and influence. But Job aimed higher than his own self advantage or self-protection. He said ‘though he slay me I will yet serve him’. Job overcame the built in bias of hostility that the carnal human soul has toward God and he trusted in God’s wisdom and love and determined will to save him in the end, and by ‘in the end’ I mean Job’s statement during his ordeal when he said I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25)
The Bible says about Job. for the LORD had accepted Job. And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before and the Bible also says The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; (Job 42).
Job let go of something of himself to God that he could have clung on to. He could have become stuck in resentment as a victim of injustice. He could have listened to his wife who said, ‘curse God and die’.
Job sacrificially let go of many things in his adversity into the vault of God’s love and determined good will for him. Fsith came alive in him and he believed and received God’s blessing. His surrendered faith in God’s love and goodness and his letting go of his own determined will for God’s determined good will released an abundance of blessing even for his mean spirited friends because Job prayed for them. We can pray like that.
Another Old Testament man, Abraham, learned that faith was letting God’s will override his own determined will in times of adversity. He sacrificially let go of his only son Isaac and obediently offered him as a sacrifice back to God, trusting that God had a perfect solution to complete his perfect will in the earth through him. Abraham’s faith not only received his son back but received through Isaac the nation of Israel and ultimately the whole of humanity.
The Father is the model of sacrificial letting go in letting his Son Jesus go for us and receiving him back in glory, and bringing humanity with him.
Jesus is the model of sacrificially letting go of his own human self-life in adversity in order for his Divine life to come alive in us.
How do we let go in adversity? When adversity blocks us from getting what we want. That adversity seems to oppose what is best for us. An impetuous reaction to that adversity mentally and emotionally dispels our peace and we become conscious of confusion or disorder.
Suppose that we make a simple error of judgement and go too quickly through a stop sign because time is acting against us (consequences). Time is not the adversary nor is the stop sign– our impatience is. Consciously letting go of that impatience and trusting that God is always reordering all things according to his good will, then allows God to flood in with his peace. That letting go has now become an act of faith in God and we will see God’s perfect result supernaturally manifested in our life. Through faith and patience we inherit the promise (Hebrews 6:12)
There are many ways in which we can learn to let go of our own unconscious resistance to what God may have in mind in achieving his will instead of us clinging onto how we prefer to manage things. Our resistance may be our own fear and anxiety and because we expect something bad to happen, we allow fear and doubt to freeze us into inactivity. That is letting go of hope instead of letting go of fear. The Bible says that we have this hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, (Hebrews 6:19)
That means that in that frozen moment of fear we can anchor our soul by remembering that God is present with us and actively reordering all things together for our good in the world of the unseen, behind the veil. We cling to that anchor and find the freedom and courage in adversity to act with hope and expectation of God’s determined good will to come to pass.
As the parable says it is not the will (Thelema) of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish - to ruin, destroy, or waste our life. Because of our faith in God’s determined good will for our lives we can receive from God his best for us in this life and in the next. Glory to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to his power that works in us. Amen.
Paul O’Sullivan spiritcode.podbean.com
