The Parables Of Jesus: The Lost Sheep & The Lost Coin Series

“Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn't get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can't jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. "Why don't they go down there when the sheep first gets there?" I asked. "Ah!" He said, "they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!" And that is the way with men; they won't go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way.” -D.L. Moody, Moody's Anecdotes, pp. 70-71.

Time and again in the New Testament we see Jesus sharing parables and stories related to shepherds and sheep. It’s very very common. From psalm 23, talking about the rod and staff of the shepherd, to Jesus calling himself “the gate for the sheep” it’s throughout the scriptures.

And why is that? Because being a shepherd was a very common profession in biblical times, in Israel. In 2022 in modern times it’s not as common as it used to be. There are still many farms in our area, in Shiawassee county, but mainly the farms here produce corn, there are some beef farms, but not a lot of sheep farms in the area.

So I wondered to myself, what would Jesus say to us today, what profession might he make reference to? So I did a little research, and found a list of the top 10 most common professions in the United States, as of 2020, which includes:

1 Retail Salespersons 3,835,000

2 Home Health and Personal Care Aides 3,470,700

3 Fast Food and Counter Workers 3,455,500

4 Cashiers 3,379,100

5 Registered Nurses 3,080,100

6 Office Clerks, General 2,933,900

7 Customer Service Representatives 2,923,400

8 Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand 2,821,700

9 General and Operations Managers 2,411,900

10 Stockers and Order Fillers 2,223,000

Very interesting, don’t you think? Not a lot of that really surprised me aside from home health and personal care aides, I figured that would be in the top ten, but it’s second place. A lot of people are retiring and growing old right now. It’s an important demographic to target.

Then I looked at Michigan in particular, and the top three were retail salesperson, food preparation & fast food, and third was assemblers and fabricators, so factory workers.

But despite all this research that I did, I realized most of us here can still relate to the simple depiction of a sheep farmer and the shepherd watching over the sheep. It’s right there, why not use it? It says in Luke’s gospel…

Recorded in Luke 15:1-10 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 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.”

Jesus is targeting the Pharisees with this parable but he also definitely speaking to the common people just as much as to the Pharisees.

Most of us think we understand this concept, but do we really understand this concept? That is the question I want you to keep in your mind today, do I really get this? Am I really living this out?

Jesus is sitting there teaching a group of what Luke calls “tax collectors” and “sinners.” Very interesting. Tax collectors were hated in ancient Israel, because during this time they were collecting taxes for the Roman government which had conquered Israel. And many people would lose everything because they couldn’t pay the taxes to these invaders. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the romans. Now if that wasn’t bad enough, many if not most of the tax collectors would use their position to extort extra money from the tax payers to enrich themselves.