The One [Luke 15:1-10 - Proper 19C]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Luke 15:1-10

The One

I am not a shepherd, and so, perhaps, I am not one to judge, but I do wonder about this shepherd in Jesus’ parable.  I have concerns.  Something seems a little bit off with him.  To me his actions are so strange, I feel like I must be missing something.  In fact, I’d love to be able to access his inner dialogue.  But unfortunately I cannot.  And so how I imagine it, is something like this:

97, 98, 99…  Someone’s missing.  There should be one more.  I probably just miscounted.  OK.  I can just count again.  I wish they would just stand still.  It would make this so much easier.  97, 98, 99… <sigh> One is missing.  What should I do?  What should I do?  Well, I gotta find it.  Alright.  Sheep, listen.  I will be right back.  Stay.  Do you hear me?  Just stay.  Please.  OK.  I better make this fast.  Gotta find that sheep.

And then he runs off – leaving the flock to their own devices.  In the wilderness, where there are, according to Mark’s Gospel, wild beasts. But he does accomplish that for which he set out.  He finds the lost sheep.  And clearly he is excited.  He is dancing over the hills, skipping along with this adorable little lamb on his shoulders.  Just as happy as can be.  Until, I suspect, he gets back to the flock and counts again: 23, 24, 25…  I’ve made a huge mistake.

That’s how this goes in the real world, right?  That is how this parable would play out.   Again, I’m no shepherd, but if it is possible for one sheep to wander away on your watch, certainly sheep will be able to slip away when there is no one to watch at all. 

And so when Jesus says to his skeptical audience, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”  Probably every single listener raised a hand.  They would not.  I mean, why would anyone leave ninety-nine sheep alone in the wilderness?  If that were a good idea, the entire shepherding industry would go out-of-business.

This is a strange parable – which, of course, with parables is always the point.  And furthermore, it is a strange response to the charge the Pharisees and the scribes level against Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Not unlike the issues Jesus dealt with in the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, once again the religious authorities are questioning the company Jesus keeps – especially those with whom he eats his meals.

However, the religious leaders should not be that surprised, because Jesus was very clear, in the passage I preached on just two weeks ago, about who gets the seats around his table.  Jesus said, to the same group of people who are questioning him today, that when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  Maybe the religious leaders thought Jesus was being hyperbolic before and were just shocked that he was actually serious.  Or maybe they were too literalistic and did not understand that sinners, while not explicitly mentioned, were implied.  Either way, they are displeased with the optics around Jesus and their displeasure is causing them to grumble.

And, it appears, Jesus is quite aware of their grumbling.  I suspect they grumbled just loudly enough for Jesus to notice.  And so he responds – he’s not into that passive-aggressive drama – with this shepherd parable.

Which, I think, is kind of a weird way to respond to this specific concern.  What it feels like Jesus is saying here is: Well, if you think I’m odd, let me tell you about this shepherd I know…  He left his ninety-nine sheep alone in the wilderness to find one sheep that wandered off.

But what he is really saying is: if this parable doesn’t make sense to you, neither will I.  Jesus needs them to see that a sheep is not just a sheep and a sinner is not just a sinner.  And the folks with whom he eats are not throw away people because, to God, there are no disposable people.

This parable is not a word problem to be solved.  Jesus understood that in the real world, practically speaking, it doesn’t make sense, what the shepherd does in the parable doesn’t make sense.  In fact, that is why he told the parable: because it doesn’t make sense.  It does not make economic sense, or even common sense, to leave ninety-nine sheep for the sake of one.  In that case, if that happens, if one of your sheep wanders away, you cut your losses and write off the one lost sheep.  It is regrettable but preferable to what might be lost in the looking.

The question to which Jesus is responding is not what should one do if one loses a sheep from their flock?  The question to which Jesus is responding is: why do you spend time with those sinners?  And the answer to that question is: because God loves each one of them too much to risk losing them.  The parable is not about the ninety-nine.  It is not about the flock.  Those things are just setting.  The parable is about the infinite value God places on the one. 

You probably know about puzzles.  I’ve done a puzzle or two in my day.  And the thing about a puzzle is that you really need to have every single piece.  Every piece is important.  If you don’t, instead of this perfect picture there is this little hole just screaming out to be filled.  And if that happens, if you discover that there is a lost piece, who among you wouldn’t leave the puzzle on the table and starting searching, pulling up rugs, shining a flashlight under the couch, until the final piece is found?

The world is filled with people, billions of them – all of them sinners, some of them quite obviously sinners, and every one of them is made in the image of God.  They are like puzzle pieces.  And when you have them all, they form this beautiful picture of the face of God.  But if even one is lost, it is not quite complete.  Because every person, sinners and saints alike, is essential, is loved with this impossible, incomprehensible, insatiable divine love.  The same love that invited Jesus to the wrong dinner tables; the same love that stubbornly refuses to lose even one.