Luke 15:1-7
"Which one of
you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds
it?” (Luke 15:4)
Jesus makes it sound like this is pretty normal behavior.
But I don’t believe that it is. What shepherd would put his flock at risk for
the sake of one lost sheep? Best to cut your losses than to risk losing
everything. But then again, maybe that’s his point. We wouldn’t do something
that crazy…but God would. Those lost sheep matter to God. And if those lost
sheep matter that much to God, perhaps they ought to matter to us.
Pope Francis gets it. Speaking on the small island of
Lampedusa, the point of entry into Europe for tens of thousands of migrants and
asylum seekers, Francis said: "We have become used to the suffering of
others. It doesn't affect us. It doesn't interest us. It's not our
business." He has nailed one of our culture’s biggest maladies: if it doesn't impact us directly, we don't care.
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every
man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donnemain. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee."
Devotions upon
Emergent Occasions, no. 17
1624 (published)
Luke scholar David Tiede in his commentary on this passage focuses on God's pursuit of repentance. Tiede tells us that repentance is not a good work but is a gift from God. God's will, Tiede says, is not coercive but requires faith. Repentance, and our response thus, is a miracle of God's grace and faith. So, it seems is our response to the challenge of those suffering. God gifts us with grace and faith to respond. Through repentance via God's gift of grace and faith we put in action God's pursuit for those "lost" or suffering.
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