The lost sheep

Joy in Heaven over Sinners that repent. The Lost Sheep.

(The Gospel History, Section 110)

Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him for to hear him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

And he spake unto them this parable, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, which need no repentance.

Commentary by J. R. Dummelow

Lk 15:1–7. Parable of the Lost Sheep. The first of a series of three parables for the encouragement of penitents. It shows the love of our Saviour for the outcast, the despised, and the criminal classes generally. It rebukes the Pharisees, who professed to be shepherds, for their neglect of that part of the flock that most needed their help, and lastly it indicates that the Pharisees are in many respects worse than the sinners they despise. The owner of the flock is our Lord Himself, the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:14); the flock is His Church, embracing men of all kinds; the ninety and nine are those who seem to be righteous, like the Pharisees; the one sheep that is lost and is found, is all truly penitent sinners. These are represented as one sheep not because they are few in number compared with the others, but to show Christ’s love for each individual soul. The seeking and laying the lost sheep upon His shoulders, are Christ’s work of love in pleading with the sinner, and finally after due repentance bringing him back to a state of grace. The friends and neighbours who rejoice with Him are the angels. ‘On no image did the early Church dwell with more fondness than this, as witness the many gems, seals, fragments of glass, and other relics which have reached us, on which Christ is thus portrayed. It is frequent also in bas-reliefs, on sarcophagi, and paintings in the catacombs. Sometimes other sheep are at His feet, generally two, looking up with pleasure at Him and His burden. This representation always occupies the place of honour, the centre of the vault or tomb’ (Trench). The rabbis have a story that Moses, while tending Jethro’s flocks, went after a kid (or lamb) which had gone astray. As he thought that it must be weary, he gently raised it and carried it on his shoulders. God was pleased and said, ‘Since thou hast shown pity in bringing back a man’s beast, thou shalt be the shepherd of my flock Israel all thy life long.’

Lk 15:1 > Mt 5:46. Publicans] In classical literature ‘publicans’ are wealthy Romans who bought from the Roman government the right of collecting the taxes in a certain district. The publicans of the NT. are the actual tax-collectors. In NT. times only duties on exports, not direct taxes, were collected by publicans. Publicans bore a bad reputation among the Jews, partly for their dishonesty and extortion, and partly for their unpatriotic conduct in collecting taxes for a foreign power. The rabbis ranked publicans with cut-throats and robbers. Mt 9:11] Publicans were social outcasts, and religiously half-excommunicate. It was said, ‘A religious man who becomes a publican, is to be driven out of the society of religion.’ ‘It is not lawful to use the riches of such men, of whom it is presumed that all their wealth was gotten by rapine, and that all their business was the business of extortioners, such as publicans and robbers are.’ Publicans were forbidden to be judges or to give evidence. Some think that ‘sinners’ is a mere Pharisaic term of abuse for publicans.

Lk 15:7. Which need no repentance] i.e. which think they need no repentance, but really need it more than the publicans and sinners whom they despise. The rabbis divided the just or righteous into two classes, (1) the ‘perfectly just,’ or ‘men of works,’ who had never in all their lives committed a single sin, and (2) the ‘penitents,’ who, having once been wicked, had repented. The Pharisees considered themselves to belong to the former class, as also, perhaps, did the young ruler who said ‘All these have I kept from my youth’ (Mk 10:20). How external the Pharisaic standard of righteousness was, may be gathered from the story of the ‘holy man,’ who ‘never committed one trespass all the days of his life, except this one misfortune which befell him, that one day he put on his head-phylactery before his arm-phylactery.’

The lost sheep

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VI Book IV Poem LXX)

The doctrine of the Lord was hard;
Not ease and plenty His award,
But perils, loss, and strenuous life,
Uneasy days with dangers rife.
And yet the call to men appealed,—
Strange longings in their hearts revealed;
E’en publicans and sinners press
To learn of this new righteousness.

The Pharisees and scribes, repelled
By singular teaching, now beheld
The city’s dregs to Him draw near,
Nay, eat with Him at ease nor fear;
“Like unto like,” quoth they, and scoff
At One, knew not to hold them off,
The common people; “Well, we see
The kind of Rabbi this must be!”

Then Jesus told that tender tale
Which should a thousand times prevail
To bring within the Shepherd’s keep
Some silly, wilful, wandering sheep:

.　　　.　　　.　　　.　　　.

“A hundred sheep a shepherd had,
And one of these was wilful, bad;—
So when the Shepherd turned away,
He ran agate his pranks to play.

“But ere the sheep were in the fold,
The Shepherd’s eye their number told;
Lo, one was missing,—he must leave
The rest, that wanderer to retrieve;
Not carelessly, as one in haste,
He searches all the cavernous waste,
But climbs the crags precipitous,
Descends the ravines perilous,

“Hazards his life for that poor sheep,
Too wilful in the flock to keep;
How he retrieved the perishing thing,
Did on his shoulders safely bring,
Need not be told: but, happy, he
Cried to his friends, ‘Rejoice with me,
The sheep that I had lost is found,
Come, let the gleeful song go round!’

“My friends, see imaged here the love
Of blesséd souls who sing above;
And how the angels shout for mirth
When any erring child of earth
Is folded by the Shepherd, brought
Safe to the haven he scarce had sought:
Not nine and ninety righteous folk
Such joy angelical provoke!”

St. Luke xv. 1-7.

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