The Good Shepherd

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"She’ll not live a day," the doctor told the attending nurse. Concerned the nurse befriended the dying woman and after a few hours had won her confidence.
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Motioning the nurse to come near, the old woman said sorrowfully, "I have travelled all the way from the west coast to the east coast, stopping at every big city and town along the way. In each city I visit two places, the police station and the hospital. You see, my son ran away from home and I have no idea where he is. I’ve got to find him ...." The old women, now transformed into a loving mother before the very eyes of the nurse, seemed to be filled with hope.
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"Someday he may even come to this hospital, and if he does, , please promise me, you will tell him his two best friends never gave up on him ....."
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Bending over the dying mother, the nurse whispered softly, "Tell me the names of those two friends, so I can tell your son if I ever see him."
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With trembling lips and her eyes filled with tears the mother responded, "Tell him those two close friends were God and his mother. She died just moments later.
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God, even more than a loving, forgiving mother,
never gives up on one of his children.

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Jesus himself told this parable. "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance."
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God never gives up on those who are lost and wandered away and got lost.
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In today’s gospel, Jesus sees yet another great crowd of people coming. They have come from all over the countryside. They have brought their sick and the dying. Wherever Jesus went, the people came, begging to just touch the hem of his garment. When Jesus looked at the people coming, we are told that ‘he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
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Jesus and his disciples were so busy. The disciples had just came back from a preaching and healing mission. They gathered around Jesus to make a report back on their activities and after they were finished Jesus bid them to come away and rest for the people just kept coming and coming to be healed.
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Some think that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples to find balance in their lives. Because of the miracles everyone recognized Jesus and the disciples.
That alone put a great deal of pressure on their time - the didn’t even have time to eat properly and so Jesus takes them away for some well deserved rest.
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However, that didn’t work out very well, because when they landed on the other side of the lake, the people had already ran on foot and got there before them and were waiting for them when they landed. It was then that Jesus was filled with compassion. He was upset and perhaps it was an opportunity to teach his disciples about perseverance in the face of adversity. We have already seen in the brutal story of the death of John the Baptist that discipleship is costly.

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The Parable of the Lost Sheep is called the Gospel of the Gospel. It contains in story form the veryb essence of the good news Jesus came to proclaim.
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It was precisely because Jesus was filled for compassion for the people, the poor, the outcast, the untouchables of society, that the religious leaders were offended. They were offended simply because Jesus associated with such people. He touched people who had leprosy, he healed people who were sick on the Sabbath, he ate and drank with outcasts and sinners.
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When Jesus told this story of the Lost sheep it would be an offense to the ears of the religious leaders who would not associate with such people, ever.
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And so when Jesus told the story of the lost sheep and the shepherd’s joy, it would only have served to make the already angry religious leaders even more angry, because they knew Jesus was speaking of their lack of compassion.
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In Judea, a land that is parched by the heat, grazing pasture for sheep was scarce. The pasture was usually surrounded by rocks and desert. Sheep would sometimes wander off and get lost. Wild animals would prey on the sheep and the shepherd’s job was one of being on constant watch.
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The sheep often belong to the whole village and were a source of milk, meat, wool. The shepherd was expected to lay down his life to save the sheep as they were important for the live of the village and all for the people. There would be more than one shepherd to a flock, and when a shepherd failed to return with the rest of the flock, the whole village would be on watch, waiting for the return of the shepherd who was out looking for a lost sheep. When they saw the shepherd striding home with the lost sheep on his shoulders, the whole village would erupt into a great shout of celebration of joy and thanksgiving.
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The religious leaders of Jesus day would simply write off the tax collectors, the lepers, the unclean and the outcasts as undeserving sinners who deserved nothing more or nothing less than their own demise and destruction.
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There is a wondrous, marvelous, fantastic truth in the parable of the Lost Sheep and it is this: That God is kinder, more patient, and more forgiving of us than we are of each other. It is easier to come back to God that to come back to the bleak and unfriendly criticism that we often only have for the worst kind of sinner.
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We may give up hope when a person strays or gets lost. Not so God. God dearly loves the person who never strays away, but in God’s heart there is the joy of joys when one lost sinner is found and comes home. And it is a thousand times easier to come back to God that to come back to our family and friends. God sent his son, who proclaimed Himself The Good Shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep ...... And He did just that.

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