Lost and Found
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? Luke 15:4 · Berean Standard Bible
Jesus asks a question that seems obvious: if you had a hundred sheep and lost one, wouldn't you leave the others and go find it?
The answer is clearly yes — and that's exactly how God feels about every lost person. The search isn't reluctant; it's driven by love.
Jesus draws the listeners in by making them the shepherd in the story. He wants them to feel the urgency of searching.
One sheep is missing, and the shepherd can't rest. He leaves the ninety-nine safe and goes looking. That's what God does for you.
The parable opens with a rhetorical question assuming universal agreement: any shepherd would leave ninety-nine sheep to search for one lost one. The wilderness (erēmos) setting emphasizes the shepherd's risk and devotion.
The shepherd metaphor for God has deep OT roots (Ps 23, Ezek 34, Isa 40:11). Jesus implicitly claims the role of the divine shepherd seeking scattered Israel.
Jesus poses a question that draws His audience into the story, making them identify with the shepherd's instinctive search for the lost.
Jesus asks: if you had a hundred sheep and one wandered off, wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine and go searching until you found the lost one?
2So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3Then Jesus told them this parable:
4“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,
6comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’
Read all of Luke 15 — Three things go missing — a sheep, a coin, a son. The father's response in the last story is the heart of the gospel in a single embrace.
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