The Lost Sheep

by: Lou Lotz

In Chicken Soup for the Soul, there’s a heartwarming story of the mother who notices her four-year-old daughter creeping into the nursery, where her baby brother lies sleeping. Curious, the mother watches as the girl whispers to her baby brother, “What does God look like? I forgot.”

We can forget what God looks like. That’s why Jesus carried around pictures of his heavenly Father. The pictures are called parables, earthly stories with heavenly meanings, each one a snapshot to remind us what God is like. One such snapshot is the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

“This man receives sinners,” the Pharisees grumped, “and eats with them.” Why does Jesus do this? Because a doctor cannot fix a broken leg from across the street. God cannot fix human sinfulness from across the sky. You have to go where the need is. The first message of the gospel is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” writes John (1:14). We are lost, and God comes to find us in the person of his Son. The Creator stoops to our level in order to redeem us. In the same way Jesus eats with sinners in order to redeem them.

This parable ends on a joyous note. Everyone is happy except the Pharisees, who grumble: “This man receives sinners, and eats with them.” Of course he does.