Leaving 99

"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? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices."

Luke 15:4-5

I have heard this passage taught many times. I have read it many more. Yet I did not fully understand it until I became a teacher.

Teachers are entrusted with so many responsibilities and hopes for their students. Both inside and outside the classroom, we see them trying to learn and find their way. I have the privilege of serving at a Christian school, which gives me the freedom to express not just my hopes for them academically and socially, but also spiritually.

I will be honest: I am not perfect. I have wasted opportunities. As God has been working in my life lately, I am trying to do better; in doing so, I am getting a deeper understanding of this passage and what it requires.

First, it requires love. My friends who are parents understand this on a real, urgent level when they cannot find their child. The shepherd has to love the sheep, otherwise he would not care to pursue it. But more than love is needed. 

A shepherd must also be strong and courageous. Without these qualities, he would not brave the unknowns of the wild in order to find the sheep. He would be unable to lift the sheep from any snares and the carry it back to the flock.

That all sounds good, but why are we talking about it? Our culture needs shepherds. It needs parents, teachers, pastors, coworkers, neighbors, and friends who will be loving enough to watch over it, courageous enough to pursue it, and strong enough both to carry it towards safety and to lead it in the way it should go. It needs shepherds who will protect it from the thieves that come to harm it. It needs men and women who get what Jesus was talking about and who are striving daily to follow in the example of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11).

Can we be those shepherds? May God enable us by His Spirit for this purpose.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.