A Few Words About...Sheep (Part 1)

Have you ever been lost? I’m not talking about being shipwrecked or marooned on a deserted island. I mean, when you were a little kid did you ever get separated – even if it was just for an instant – from your mom or dad, like when you were at the store or something, and this wave of sheer terror washes over you as you realize that you are alone? Have you ever experienced anything like that? 

Here’s the deal, that feeling that washed over you, that terror, that anxiety…let’s call that the REALIZATION OF SEPARATION; that point at which you realize you are all alone. Perhaps nothing brings greater fear for a human being than the REALIZATION OF SEPARATION. 

Why is it so scary? Maybe because the need for the security that only a loving mother or father figure can provide is built into us by God. The need for security is somehow elemental. To be separated from that security is to be lost. And then your mom or dad or Aunt Sally, or the whole store, or the whole neighborhood comes looking for you…they want to find you, because you’re lost. 

In Matthew chapter 18, verse 12, Jesus speaking to His disciples says to them:

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? (Matthew 18:12, NIV) 

Why does mom or dad or Aunt Sally, or the whole store, or the whole neighborhood drop everything they are doing to go look for you? Maybe it’s because the anxiety, the fear, the terror is EXACTLY THE SAME FOR THEM, as it is for you. The REALIZATION OF SEPARATION is as real and as painful for the one that’s looking as it is for the one that’s lost. 

You see that reaction – unfortunately – just about every day on the news, when a child has gone missing, and a parent is being interviewed. And – barring foul play on the part of the parent – they appear on the screen and they are – rightfully – devastated; consumed with fear and terror, longing only for the safe return of their child. Perhaps you have been through such horror personally. You know. 

The story that Jesus is telling we refer to as ‘the parable of the lost sheep’. And it is a theme repeated over and over throughout the bible. Jesus concludes the matter by describing the reaction of the shepherd when he finds the lost sheep. He says, 

And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about the one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. (Matthew 18:13, NIV) 

That’s true of a parent isn’t it? “You kids stay here; I’ve got to go find your baby brother”. And she rejoices that baby brother is found; expecting that the siblings will remain right where she left them. And that’s the shepherd’s reaction. But Jesus says something after that. He makes an amazing comparison that maybe no one ever thought about before when he says, 

In the SAME WAY, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. (Matthew 18:14, NIV) 

God is not willing that ANY should be lost, young or old. Because He, better than anyone, knows the pain of separation, the horror of aloneness, the fear of apartness, the dread of disconnection, and the terror, and the panic of our own detachment. Christ went though it on the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He knows. 

More about sheep tomorrow…