Lost Sheep – Part 2

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Luke 15:1-7 (NIV)

The traditional interpretation of the parable starts to break down a little when we try to identify who the different characters in the parable represent. I’m not advocating an extreme allegorical interpretation, but in order to make application of the parable there must be some connection between us and the characters. In this parable there are basically three characters: the 99 non-lost sheep, the 1 lost sheep, and the shepherd.

If we take the parable to be one encouraging outreach and the seeking of the lost, the 1 lost sheep would represent those that are spiritually lost. That actually makes a lot of sense. But who do the other characters represent? We would typically say the 99 represent the church. If that’s the case, who is the shepherd that seeks the sheep? If we’re going to apply this parable directly to evangelism, the shepherd would have to be non-lost people seeking the lost sheep, but that would mean that people in the church would play two roles, the 99 non-lost and the shepherd, which gets really confusing, or it would say that there are two groups within the church, those who seek and those who don’t, which doesn’t work with overarching Christian teaching. Plus, what should happen to the lost that are brought back in? Should they become part of the 99 or should they become shepherds seeking other lost sheep.

The other traditional teaching of valuing the lost over the non-lost has similar issues. It does work more directly to say the 1 lost sheep represents the spiritually lost, the 99 non-lost represent the non-lost, and the shepherd represents Jesus seeking the lost and bringing them into the non-lost. If valuing the lost over the non-lost were the main point of the parable, why do all the parables in this chapter focus so intently on the search itself and the celebration to follow? And why aren’t the newly-found lost reunited with the non-lost? None of the three parables in this chapter have the lost brought “into the fold”. In this parable, the lost sheep is taken home, riding on the back of the shepherd.

More questions than answers in today’s blog, I’m afraid. But this is a great opportunity for you to share who you think the different characters represent. I’ll reveal my thoughts on that tomorrow.