Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

Text: Matthew 18: 10-4

Theme: Repenting of a False Sense of Security

Our mid-week Lenten series of meditations begins this evening and you are invited to ponder your need for a Savior from sin on the basis of selected parables that Jesus taught during his public ministry. The parable of Jesus this evening for this our first Wednesday of Lent is the Parable of the Lost Sheep as he first told it to his disciples. He told this in the context of trying to respond to their question of who is greatest in the Kingdom of God. He began his answer by telling them two things. First that only those humble like a child will enter the Kingdom at all. And secondly, he then told them that those that do will be the greatest. Catching the strange anomaly here is important for understanding the Parable of the Lost Sheep that follows. Notice on the one hand, without the humility of the child you don’t make it into the Kingdom, but then with the humility, you become the greatest. So, all who makes it into the Kingdom do so with requisite humility and they are all, likewise the greatest. Let us explore how the parable wants to reinforce and help us to understand even more clearly and, prayerfully, in the process, become better prepared to visit the cross of Christ during this coming Holy Week.

Let me invite you to consider the parable from a couple of different vantage points. First a question: Can you identify with the Shepherd that Jesus depicts in the parable, one who leaves 99 who have not strayed and goes off in search of the one who has? He asks the question rhetorically: What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep and one of them strays, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go and search for the one who has strayed? (Vs. 12) He assumes that you would do the same; is He right? Would you? The point here, however, does not really require you to identify or agree with the actions of this particular shepherd as much as it wants you to understand that Jesus would. He would leave the 99 and go and search for the one lost sheep. For this reason, on one level, this parable is teaching us something about the mind and heart of God as it is revealed in our Lord. Jesus is the Good Shepherd whom the Father has sent into the world to seek out and gather up those who have strayed. He is even willing to put at risk or even sacrifice what in the parable might be seen as the bulk of his assets or inventory in the process - the 99 sheep left alone there in the mountains. And to give us a perspective about this mission of Jesus saving the lost and those who have strayed, there is more rejoicing in Heaven over reclaiming the one who has strayed than over 99 who have not. (Vs. 13)

We must be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions here about this aspect of the parable lest we miss, perhaps the most important point for us during this Lenten Season. We should not think that when it comes to the children of God, being or becoming a stray is a rare thing . . . say one in a hundred. The point of this parable has nothing to do with numbers or ratios. Remember the paradox that Jesus told about

entering the Kingdom and being the greatest there. The requirements are the same. In addition, it is helpful to understand that Jesus told this parable more than once, and when telling it later on to some Pharisees and scribes, He identified the one sheep who had strayed with someone connected with the Kingdom who needed repentance and acquired it. Conversely the 99 who had not strayed were described as those who need no repentance. As you hear about the one who has strayed, needing repentance and those who have not strayed - those who are righteous, needing no repentance, which do you identify with? This is the important question. Jesus engages in a bit of hyperbole with this parable in response to the smug self-righteous Pharisees and scribes who fault Jesus with receiving and eating with sinners. The idea of the ninety-nine who need no repentance, of course, fits no one. None can be self-righteous, and none can receive or live with the saving gifts of Christ except with a repentant heart. This brings us to the main point that Jesus is making.

If you are feeling secure in the Kingdom on the basis of how you are sizing yourself up in your walk of faith and life in Christ, there might be some cause for alarm. A repentant heart is one that is both humble and, concerning the self unto the self, very insecure. What am I that I can come confidently to the Lord and say: “Here I am and I am doing just fine. Are we not always sinners and saints? Sinners on the inside unto ourselves and only righteous as we might cling to the righteousness of Christ? Lent intends to confront us with this paradox . . . if you are feeling secure as a sinner, you have strayed . . .but if you are insecure . . . then let the Law use that in your life to keep you humble and hungry for the Good Shepherd who continually is is search of you to put you into his righteous embrace and usher you with a sense of renewal as His child and citizen of His Kingdom. God rejoices every time our sinful smugness and sense of self-security is dashed by the hammer of his Law . . . that we might be humbled unto a joyful return to his saving work and gifts.

Jesus spent time to gather and eat with sinners during his public ministry who were lost sheep. He thinks of you and I in the same category. We are the lost sheep who are in need of both humility and hunger for His righteousness. He has been in search for you, and by the power of his Law he would make your heart repentantly insecure and humble - hungering for His saving gifts. He will go to Jerusalem and there He will sacrifice all that he has in his body and blood that your wilderness worries of lostness might come to an end and that you might receive the protection, the nourishment, and the care that will make safe in his flock forever. Yes safe, but not with a false sense of self-security - rather a humble sense of security only in his righteous claim of you to be his child. Then you will be as the child who is able to enter the Kingdom and at the same time become the greatest one there . . . along with all the rest of us.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.