The Joy of Being Found
Read Luke 15:1-10
Years ago, I helped a friend to write a book about his experiences of raising sheep on his 24-acre “hobby farm” in Minnesota. One reason he and his wife decided to get some sheep was so that they could keep the grass maintained on their property. Little did they realize how much work raising sheep would be.
Over the years they learned a lot about sheep – and not everything was good. Sheep have some quirky characteristics. To describe them in a word, it’s “helpless.” They can’t clean themselves. They can’t defend themselves. One time my friend saw the sheep all lined up along a fence, heads poked through it, straining to reach the “greener” grass on the other side of the fence.
When a sheep’s fleece becomes thick, if it stumbles and falls on its back, it can’t right itself. It becomes what shepherds call “cast.” If the shepherd doesn’t arrive in time, a sheep can suffocate. During his shepherd days, King David had seen this happen many times. This is why he wrote during times of sadness and despair, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” (Psalm 42:5-6, 43:5). He felt like a helpless sheep, having fallen and unable to get back up.
Sheep also have a disconcerting tendency to get lost. Something catches their eye and they wander off in pursuit of whatever has grabbed their attention. Even worse, because sheep are prone to follow one another, one sheep might mindlessly follow the lead of another.
Because his followers were very familiar with sheep and their problematic behavior, Jesus often used them as metaphors to teach spiritual truths about us. One example is the story of the shepherd who left his other 99 sheep to search for the one who had strayed. Upon finding it, he put the sheep on his shoulders and then called his friends together to celebrate.
Each one of us, before we met Jesus Christ, was like that lost sheep. To make matters worse, most of the time we didn’t even realize we were lost. We were busy living lives in whatever way we thought was best for us, even if we were on a path toward destruction.
As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6). But whether we’re talking about sheep or human beings, going “our own way” is often the wrong way.
Thankfully, Jesus – our super Shepherd – refuses to leave us to our own devices. He knows His sheep, far better than we know ourselves, and keeps calling to us. He described it this way:
“The watchman opens the gate…and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:3-5)
Unfortunately, we can be like wayward sheep stubbornly determined to go our own way, whether it’s the lure of “greener grass” or some appealing enticement that gets us on the wrong path. We might find ourselves wandering, unaware of the jeopardy that lurks around the next bend. A friend was a very effective personal evangelist. He often would say, “The tragedy is not that people are lost, but that they don’t know they’re lost.”
Maybe you can remember being like that. Because of the Lord’s great love, grace and mercy, He won’t allow us to remain lost. He seeks us out, calling to us. Then comes the glorious moment when we come to the end of ourselves. We finally stop to listen, hearing the persistent voice of our Shepherd calling us by name.
Do you realize that when you responded to Jesus’ call, humbly receiving His gift of salvation, that a party took place in heaven to celebrate? The Lord told His disciples, “I tell you…there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people” (Luke 15:7).
The apostle Peter summed it up this way: “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25). We dare not ever forget that.