January 20
“(Jesus) spoke this parable to them, saying: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance,’” Luke 15:3-7.
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It is a story from everyday life with which everyone is familiar. Jesus told many parables to teach the biblical truths to the people. Sheep and shepherds were familiar to everyone in Jesus’ day, and it is still that way in the holy land today.
In the parable, the man had a hundred sheep. If only one sheep got lost, we might feel that it really was not that tragic. He still had ninety-nine sheep! However, a true shepherd did not feel that way. He was determined to find the lost sheep, and he went seeking until he found it. And, oh, what joy when he found it! He put the lost sheep on his shoulders and carried it home and called his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him, for he had found the sheep that was lost!
Jesus is our Good Shepherd who came to seek and to save the lost souls! Of ourselves, we are spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God. Scripture states that by nature, when we were born, we did not know God: “(We) were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” We are Christians due to the amazing grace and mercy of God. The apostle adds, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” Ephesians 2:3-5. However, more than that, as our Good Shepherd, He gave His life to deliver us from all our spiritual enemies – our own sinful flesh, the sinful world in which we live, and the devil who seeks to destroy our Christian faith.
Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep . . . I lay down My life for the sheep . . . No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again,” John 10:11. Jesus laid down His life on the cross at Calvary. He died to take away our sins. However, we do not have a dead Savior! He rose from the grave, and conquered sin, death, and the devil for us!
As each of us came to faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, there was joy in heaven because of a penitent sinner. There is no joy when sinners reject Jesus. There is no joy when we think of the multitudes who are walking along the broad road that leads to eternal damnation.
Continue in the faith, and rejoice in your salvation through faith in Jesus as your Good Shepherd. Your fellow believers will rejoice with you, too. With the hymn writer, you can say:
“The Lord my Shepherd is,
I shall be well supplied.
Since He is mine and I am His,
What can I want beside?
If e’er I go astray,
He doth my soul reclaim
And guides me in His own right way,
For His most holy name.” Amen.