Matthew 18:12 (NIV) “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

One of the many things that I love about Jesus is His focus on individuals. When He walked the towns and cities of Israel, he constantly stopped along to the way to help just one person. He stopped for the blind, the lame, the demon-possessed, the lepers and anyone at all who needed and wanted His help. He even stopped His mission to heal the synagogue ruler’s daughter when He felt that someone had touched Him (Luke 8:41-48). It was a woman who had an issue of blood that she suffered with for many years without a cure in sight. He did that specifically so that He would be able to declare her healed and therefore clean in front of all the witnesses that were there. Jesus stops for the one who is lost, and down and out.

That’s what this parable is all about. The amazing thing about it is the rejoicing that the shepherd does in the story when he finds his one lost sheep. He has the ninety-nine others safe and sound and in his possession, but he is driven to find that lost one. He doesn’t say to himself, “Oh well, I least I still have ninety-nine sheep with me, and it serves that lost sheep right for wandering off.” Through this parable, Jesus is describing how He feels about each one of us. I realized one day while reading this story that I was once that one lost sheep and that Jesus came after me. When I lost my way because of life’s troublesome circumstances, Jesus came after me to “find” me again. A better way to put it is that He helped me to find Him again because I had lost my bearings and didn’t know how to find my way back to Him. But as the Good Shepherd that He is, He found me, restored me and rejoiced over me when I was back, safely in the fold. I believe that all of us were that one lost sheep at one time or another. We should be so thankful that Jesus never, ever gives up on us and that He actively sets out to find us when we get lost. It’s not that He lost us and doesn’t know where we are because He is always watching over us. It’s that we have a tendency to wander and to get ourselves in trouble. His mercy and His grace reach us when we find ourselves lost and alone because of our own bad decisions. Let’s rejoice and be glad about the One who rejoices over us when we are found again. He is worthy of all our praise and adoration!

Pastor Joey Vazquez