Luke 15, Lost Sheep

Introduction

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was a kid growing up in the 80s the top list of imagined futures:

• Astronaut

• Fireman

• Policeman

Good solid jobs.

Now, according to the website Statista, the top three are:

• You tuber

• Teacher

• Professional athlete

“Ah” some of you will say, “Another example of the younger generation’s lack of sense and foolishness – afterall, who seriously thinks being a ‘teacher’ is a good idea!”

But wait, before you get all judgey that the ‘younger generations’ are entitled dreamers – what links both lists is the desire to make a difference with your life, to have influence, to leave a mark on history.  

‘To have a worthy purpose!’

Do you remember when you used to stay in bed and breakfasts, or visit museums there would be a big book by the front door, called the ‘guest book’ or the ‘visitors book’ and everyone was encouraged to sign it, date it, and leave a little comment.  

Some places had old guest books behind class cabinets open at the pages of famous people who had visited in the past:

Elvis Presley, 1968 – “Just popped in to use the toilet”

David Bowie, 1982 - “I had a lovely cup of tea”

But those names were right next to Dorris from Wythenshaw, John and Rosie from Cleethorpes, and Phil who had travelled all the way from Exeter.

It was intended to allow you to leave your mark, to know you were seen, engraved into a small history book that you were there.  

That your life left an imprint – your life matters!

• You tuber

• Teacher

• Professional athlete

• Engineer

• Computer programmer

• Nurse

These careers, are like those ‘guest books’, an intention an opportunity to leave a positive mark in the world, written in the small print of:  

• A piece of code that makes an app work,  

• A child who for the rest of their life can now read any book they choose,

• A  healed person who came in on a trolly and walks out on their own feet,

When we were young and we were asked the question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’  

Back then, we wanted our lives to truly mean something, but for many of us we have got lost from that noble ambition, we have lost our way.

Many of us feel we have lost our purpose!

OnePoll survey  last year: Eight out of 10 people in the UK (61 per cent) don’t feel fulfilled in their personal life amid the drudge of daily routine and a lack of motivation.

Carol service man –

In other words, he had concluded that for him it was too late, game over, life had been reduced to 3-0 loss with 20 minutes still to play - what’s the point!

Link to passage

But in Luke 15, [1-2] we’re introduced to a group of people who, though they were in the same place as the man in black, they had a final glimmer of hope that there was a slim chance that they could still leave a positive mark on the world, that their lives could still mean something, that there was time to re-write the obituary “A disappointing life, lived by no one of consequence.”

Who were they?

‘Tax collectors and sinners’.  

Tax collectors were the sell-outs. They were the ancient world equivalent of those, as children who dreamed to become astronauts and instead turned out to be accountants.

In fact, it was worse than that, they took lucrative contracts with the Romans in order to fleece their own people of what little cash they had.

They embodied the millennial attitude that a place on the property ladder and a reasonable pension were the best one could expect from life, and it was worth trading an invitation to family birthdays for that level of economic security.

The sinners, were those who had reached for the same economic glory as a SAGA cruise in their retirement, but who had failed, and now found themselves in a desperate fight for economic survival selling anything that could earn a ‘big mac’ from back alley dealing to ‘Only Fans’.  

And in Luke 15:1-2 they clamor around Jesus because they see something about him, that gave them hope.  

Jesus could see them, give purpose back to their life!

But there was another group present: the Pharisees.

This group were the social influencers of their time. Many were tradesman, carpenters, roofers.  

Some more educated:  

• lawyers,  

• community council members.  

• They would have been the ancient world equivalents of the litter pick organisers,  

• the charity-run fund raisers,  

• the school governors,  

• the ‘go fund me’ activists.

But at the site of Jesus with the sinners and tax collectors, we’re told they were furious!  

Why, because the Pharisees believed that God rewarded those who pulled their lives up by their own shoe-strings of achievement. Work hard enough and you could be a winner – not merely professionally, but morally – God loves the double threat!

And what made them mad, ‘were the lazy scroungers that thought they could jump the queue of God’s ‘Well done’ prizes by taking a begging bowl to a man called Jesus.’

For the Pharisees, God’s joyful delight is restricted to life’s winners!

Story

So Jesus, knowing their beliefs, tells them a story to disrupt the entire religious industry from the roots.

A shepherd has a flock of a hundred sheep, and one makes a break for it. The sheep is gone.  

And so follows two decisions by the Shepherd that by ancient world or modern standards stands out like a neon mankini at a funeral.  

Decision 1: [4] He leaves 99% of the sheep in his responsibility exposed in the open countryside in order to personally rescue the one.

Is there a time limit to this extraordinary prioritising of resources for the one sheep?

[4] “until he finds it” – so no safety catch on resources invested in the rescue mission!

Now, the Pharisees aren’t stupid they know that Jesus is verbally throwing a ANE of a distrack at them – they are the 99, and the tax collectors and sinners are the missing 1.

So Jesus cranks up the volume to 11 on the controversy of his teaching.

Decision 2: [6-7], the shepherd throws a party with his friends and neighbours for the lost sheep that was found.  

I live in Ancoats, and if someone through an extravagant party, thounsands of pounds for pet: dog, cat, micro pig, ferret – It wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

But in the ANE, the extravagance of eastern hospitality, the nature of tight knit communities, this party would most likely cost more than the value of the sheep – not to mention, it’s to celebrate not a lucrative business deal, a wedding – but a sheep!  

‘Rejoicing’ is mentioned twice in two verses.

Jesus is making the point that God’s rescue of sinners is not like stoic serious Batman having saved a life; it is raw emotional thrill and delight.

To screw in this point the story moves from the left over cheese straws, bunting and half eaten bowls of Doritos to the cast thrown room of heaven [7].

And what does Jesus want us to see?  

A celebration of heavenly proportions:

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

I like to imagine –  

The tax collectors and sinners would have got the message loud and clear –  

The great purpose of life is to be found by God – and for that to happen you must first accept that you are lost and cannot save yourself.

But the Pharisees would have got the message loud and clear – the purpose of a believer's life is to share the joy of your God, and to increase it by doing all you can to introduce people to Jesus the true shepherd.  

In other words,  

• your self pursuit of happiness,  

• your self created attempt at carving out your own purpose in life – is a waste of time.

• Just as you can buy a house but you can’t buy a home.

• Just as you can earn promotion but you cannot earn love.

• Just as you can purchase a holiday but you cannot purchase rest

Your true meaning in life cannot be self determined it can only be received as a gift from the God who designed you.

And according to Jesus, that purpose is share the happiness of God, and what fills the heart of God with joy?

It’s those who are lost coming home to him.  

• In Manchester there are 2.9 million who are lost –  

• 2.9 million opportunities to ring the bell of heaven to start the choirs of angels and launch celebrations.  

• 2.9 million to break our hearts over,  

• to obsess about reaching out,  

• to pool what meagre resources we have to throw out a life ring to rescue.

Is that God given purpose worthy enough to wrap our lives around?  

Yes, but is it a purpose sufficient to move our hearts to joy?  

Fair question. At the end of this chapter Jesus tells another story, and there’s an older brother who understands the purpose of serving his father, but he refuses to join the party for his long lost brother’s return, because he doesn’t share the joy of his father.  

The vision booklet is full of numbers – they tell part of the story not the whole.  

The numbers are useful but each one represents a person or a group.  

• I remember - The guys dressed only in their underwear and frilly nightgowns who burst into a service thinking that they were frightening three old ladies and dog and being faced with a room like this.  

• I remember - The lesbian couple who had just lost a child and wanted to come to church - and I remember the tears as we prayed with them.  

• I remember - Baptising three generations of the Amadin family, who first ended up at the church because of mistake and the smell of dominoes Pizza.

• I remember - Donna, who works on the streets of Manchester at night, seeking refuge in church because she had been assaulted by a man, who didn’t understand ‘no means no’.

And I remember the times I’ve felt too tired or discouraged to...

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