Daily Devotional for Monday, March 23
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” Luke 14:28
So much was happening in this parable. Tension with the leading Pharisees was growing as Jesus’ popularity and success in ministry grew. As Isaiah 61:1, 2 said, Jesus would proclaim the good news to the poor and liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, setting free the oppressed and declaring the year of the Lord’s favor. People were flocking to Him, including the Pharisees themselves. They wanted to scrutinize His teachings, but tax collectors and sinners were hanging around Jesus. They could not be seen with that company, so they grumbled, hoping Jesus would push them away like they did.
Tax collectors and sinners were excluded from the religious community. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law considered fellowship with them improper, but Jesus ate with them. “The Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel” (Isaiah 56:8), knew their hearts and turned the tables on them with three parables.
His first parable ironically featured a shepherd, whom the Pharisees also considered to be unclean. Their dirty profession kept them in the fields and away from synagogues and the Temple. However, Israel’s leaders were supposed to be shepherds. They had long abandoned faithfulness to their call. “They are greedy dogs…and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain” (Isaiah 56:11). “Woe be unto the pastors [shepherds] that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:1).
Jesus packed a punch with the start of His parable: “What man of you, having an hundred sheep?” (Luke 15:4). The Pharisees and leaders were not shepherding and would not pursue any lost sheep. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leaves the ninety-nine to go after it, and He and His heavenly court rejoice when it is found.
THOUGHT
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Kelli Reynolds