Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 5 of 78

TEXT: "So He 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).

IDEA: It was the accusation of Jesus’ enemies that He “welcomed sinners and ate with them,” but that was not His strategy. He came to find lost people, whoever they are or wherever they are.

PURPOSE: To keep from limiting the term “lost” to people in one sector of society.

Let’s do some serious thinking about a great stanza of poetry:

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep
And doesn’t know where to find them.
“Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
Dragging their tails behind them.”

I. There is theology in that little verse that deals with a very important issue:

“How do you deal with ‘lostness’?”

What is the “theology” of Little Bo-peep in the matter of lost sheep?

Her theology was the “theology” of the religious leaders in Jesus’ time when it came to “tax collectors and sinners.”

“Sinners” were people who did not attend the temple and observe the “rules” of religious behavior. They could be men and women who led immoral lives, or followed a dishonorable occupation—like shepherds, donkey drivers, peddlers, tanners—bad-smelling and bad-mannered people.

The Pharisees practiced a Little Bo-peep approach toward those people: non-involvement, hands-off, you’re not responsible for them.

Jesus ignored the approach and condemnation of the religious leaders, and He sought out the lost. We read this in Luke 15:3-7.

Jesus sought out the “lost” at every level of society. He didn’t come only to the lower classes, but they were the ones who were drawn to Him.

II. Jesus pictures Himself as a shepherd going after a lost sheep.

This doesn’t apply only to poor people. It applies to all people who are lost.

It applied to people respectable people despised:

Zacchaeus, a tax collector, wasn’t a part of the underbelly of society. But he was man who had been lost to God.

The woman taken in adultery wasn’t an exhibit in the case history of the socking decline in morals. She was a woman lost to God.

But it also applied to very decent men and women:

Mary and Martha were “middle-class” ladies who, along with their brother, lived in a nice home in Bethany. But they were a family lost to God.

Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man—but he was a poor, lost man to God.

Nicodemus was a religious success, a leader in his society, a scholar—but he was a man who was lost.

III. It made no difference to Jesus if men and women were rich or poor, smart or stupid, religious or irreligious, temple attendees or the “unchurched.” They were lost to God, and like a shepherd who had lost a sheep, He went after them.

It is ungodly to look at people in the society that we do not like or that we regard as “good” people and, like Little Bo-peep, “leave them alone.”