The Seeking Shepherd

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not. . . go after that which is lost, until he find it? "-Luke 15:4

By this illustration of shepherd and sheep Jesus answered the
Pharisees who criticised Him for ministering among people of
ill-repute. It was an appeal to the human instinct of pity. If a
man will feel pity for a sheep, and be at pains to save it, how much
more toward those human sheep who are astray from God, and lost in sin? The difference of attitude between those Pharisees and our Lord
Jesus was that they stood for a form of religion, whereas Jesus had come to show the way of salvation. Religion of itself never yet saved any man's
soul.

Not even Christianity, considered as a system, can save a single
soul. What men need is not religion merely, but redemption; not some new
ideology merely, but regeneration; not a new ethic only, but a new life;
not just some new system, but a Saviour.


So, then, this illustration of the seeking shepherd is an appeal to the
instinct of pity, and a defence against self-righteous critics; but it is much
more; it is a parable. Under this figure of the seeking shepherd we are
shown the Son of God Himself, seeking the lost souls of men. We are
the perishing sheep; and Jesus is the Shepherd who comes to seek and to
save us. It is this which gives the little parable-cameo its mighty meaning
and abiding appeal. There are various viewpoints from which it may be
considered; but here we limit ourselves to noticing again certain things
which it teaches about the Shepherd, bearing in mind that the Shepherd
is none other than the very Son of God Himself. The Shepherd is here
pictured in three activities: (I) seeking, (2) finding, (3) rejoicing.

Reflect on the first of these, i.e. the Shepherd seeking. Mark well again
that fourth verse: "What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" In the way that it is
worded, who can miss seeing the divine compassion here betokened? The
very numbers Itninety-nine" versus" one" make it plain that the motive
of the Shepherd's seeking is compassion. If the sheep had been one out
of twenty or fifty, the loss would have been such as to cause the sheepowner
to seek the lost sheep on account of the material loss to himself,
without overmuch concern for the suffering of the sheep. But here is a
man with ninety-nine left, and maybe the strayed one is now too broken to
be of value much longer. The loss of merely that one from a hundred would
be no serious matter. Yet away this Shepherd goes, amid the gathering
night and the hazards of the hills, to rescue the one stray sheep because it
is dear to Him, and He is moved by compassion. Oh, the compassion
of this heavenly Shepherd who comes seeking us! Can we ever respond
too gratefully to Him? Oh, the love that sought us! Oh, the blood that
bought us !
"Lord, whence are those blood-marks all the way,
Which mark out the mountain track?"
"They were shed for one who had gone astray,
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back. "
"Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn? "
UThey are pierced and bleeding by many a thorn. "

" The son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost"