The seeking Shepherd

Luke 15 begins with all the tax collectors and sinners moving toward Jesus, ready to listen to Him. This is something we need to pray more about: that God would move sovereignly in the hearts of people and prepare them for salvation. This work can be done gently, as it was in the heart of Lydia in Acts 16 when the Holy Spirit quietly opened her heart to the love of God. “Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” (v.14). It can also happen unexpectedly when God uses troubling events to bring us to our knees in fear and trembling like the Philippian jailer to ask, “What must I do to be saved?” (v.30).

What we do discover in coming to Christ is the value that He places on us and His action to “find” us. This is conveyed in the opening sentence of the Lord’s memorable parable,

“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? Israel was a nation of shepherds. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all shepherds. Moses was the shepherd and led his people to the borders of the promised land. David was the shepherd king who established the kingdom and prefigured, in the slaying of Goliath, the work of Christ, the Good Shepherd, in John 10. Luke tells us that it was shepherds who were the first visitors who saw, “Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The people who listened to Jesus understood their history.

Most simply, the Saviour impressed upon his audience something they already felt in their hearts: they were lost. It was that lostness that drew them to Christ, but in coming to Him they discovered that He had come to where they were. He presents Himself as the Shepherd who searches for every lost sheep “until he finds it”. This was conveyed against the background of self-righteous onlookers enraged that the Saviour came so close to those who were so far away from God.

Luke was a Gentile and was chosen to record the parable of the lost Sheep. He was also chosen to describe the reality the parable conveys powerfully. He does this in chapter 19 when he writes about the salvation of Zacchaeus, the rich lost tax collector, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:9-10). Luke also does this most poignantly when he writes about the Saviour upon the cross. There Luke helps us to understand the extent of the Saviour’s love and where it took Him to redeem us. As Jesus was dying for the whole world, He “finds” one lost sheep: the lost dying thief on the cross next to His. The thief was moved towards Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom”. In doing so, he discovered Jesus had come to where he was so that He could take one lost sheep safely home rejoicing, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

We will only be in heaven because the Saviour searched and found us. We are individual tributes to the immeasurable love of the Good Shepherd.