In response to Pharisees who are whispering about him eating with sinners, Jesus tells the famous parable about leaving 99 sheep to hunt for one lost sheep and the joy over finding that sheep. He then underlines the point for them by directly saying that the joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents will be much more than over the 99 just people who do not need repentance. This seems pretty straight forward until William Barclay tells why this story would have a special sting for the Pharisees.
We will understand these parables more fully if we remember that the strict Jews said ... "There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who is obliterated before God." They looked sadistically forward not to the saving but to the destruction of the sinner.
Barclay also points out just how important the shepherd was and the extreme joy of the entire village when a sheep was found ... kind of humbling to think of heaven showing that level of joy over one of us, isn't it?
The shepherd in Judaea had a hard and dangerous task. Pasturage was scarce. The narrow central plateau was only a few miles wide, and then it plunged down to the wild cliffs and the terrible devastation of the desert. There were no restraining walls and the sheep would wander ...
The shepherd was personally responsible for the sheep. If a sheep was lost the shepherd must at least bring home the fleece to show how it had died. These shepherds were experts at tracking and could follow the straying sheep's footprints for miles across the hills. There was not a shepherd for whom it was not all in the day's work to risk his life for his sheep.
Many of the flocks were communal flocks, belonging, not to individuals, but to villages. There would be two or three shepherds in charge. Those whose flocks were safe would arrive home on time and bring news that one shepherd was still out on the mountain side searching for a sheep which was lost. The whole village would be upon the watch, and when, in the distance, they saw the shepherd striding home with the lost sheep across his shoulders, there would rise from the whole community a shout of joy and thanksgiving.
This is the first of three parables in a row where Jesus illustrates sinners gone astray and recovered by God. This one shows the sinner who was lost because he didn't think. How many of us would avoid sin if we just stopped to think first?
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