In this parable, a shepherd has lost one of the hundred sheep entrusted to his care. The theme of the sheep and the shepherd is common in the First Testament: with two clear passages being Psalm 23 {The Lord is my Shepherd} and Ezekiel 34: 11-16 {I will rescue my sheep for all the places they have been scattered}. Without hesitation, the shepherd goes looking after the stray, recognising that the other sheep are capable of continuing to do what was expected of them: to look for food! When the lost sheep is found the shepherd is so happy that the sheep is ‘carried on his shoulders’ and he invites all his friends and neighbours to rejoice.
We are reminded that this parable was directed at the religious leaders who were grumbling rather than the sinners and tax collectors who were willing to listen to Jesus. He is reminding the religious authorities that he has no reason to apologise for his actions in mixing with those who were seen as social and religious outcasts. God does not exclude, human beings do, and God never sees any person as being lost from the possibility of ever returning to his loving embrace. Jesus is prepared to spent time with these ‘outcasts’ because they are the very people whom God needs to reach, for they have been neglected by the very people whom God would expect would be open to their situation of exclusion. Jesus recognised that to bring God’s love to people you have to be with those people, to share their story and their lot in life. One cannot bring God’s word of love and compassion by being aloof and apart from their pain and suffering: from their sense of being excluded from being part of God’s “inner circle’. You have no chance of opening people to the power of God’s transforming love if you are not prepared to first accept them for who they are and for what has been their life story.
For too many people, their attitude to those who are seen as being different or ‘lost’ is to take on an attitude of exclusion, lest we become ‘contaminated’ through contact. Jesus challenges the religious authorities to see that their attitude will always be an attitude that would retain this exclusion. Without any willingness to make ‘contact’ to understand and to offer hope, the social or religious approach to God can never change. Jesus reminds the authorities that it is, in fact, their attitude that is ‘sinful’ as it excludes any chance of reconciliation. By thinking only of their own spiritual motivation, they fail to see those people who live at the margins are, also, persons made in the image and likeness of God. It may be that some of these people may not be open to God’s message, but unless one is prepared to reach out and ‘eat’ with them they will always be ‘lost’. Yet, Jesus, through an awareness of God’s infinite fidelity knows that, simply by at least reaching out, one is not going to lose one’s own sense of God’s very presence. In fact, it is God’s very presence in Jesus that requires him to reach out: one cannot reach out at a distance.
This reading is highly relevant for Christians in today’s world. As Pope Francis reminds us, we need to have the smell of the sheep in our pastoral approach: as for the church the lost sheep in society should be a priority. As such, we are called to proclaim a Gospel to a church that should resemble a field hospital. As Christians, we are called to reach out to those who feel excluded and wounded. We should not be setting up barriers. We do not have to change our own integrity, Jesus did not, as Jesus challenged these people also to see the extent and breath of God’s love and compassion. Those people at the margins should also come to see ‘the other’ not as an enemy or a rival but instead as a human being who is also trying their best to live out their call to dignity and happiness. Instead of living in sanitised suburbs, in comfortable and secure faith practices, Jesus reminds us that those who live on the edges are human persons who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and to each of those sheep we should rejoice when one of them comes to be a beacon of hope for others. In fact, many of those people who live at the margins also have an image of God that can challenge our understanding of the nature of God. Many of these people who live at the margins show a level of love and compassion among their own people that is not present in the hearts and minds of those who see themselves as the ‘righteous’. Yet, unless one is prepared to reach out to ‘the other’ then the message of the gospel will remain closed and fail to be a true reflection of God’s truth, grace, and power to transform our world and the lives of every person in it.
Br Paul Creevey FMS
Br Paul is a Marist Brother with a doctorate in sacred scripture from Louvain University. He teaches scripture in Melbourne.