The Bible contains a lot of great nuggets of wisdom, and Luke is one of those writers that just seems to give us extra tidbits of information that make things really interesting. In worship, we’re discussing the stories in the book of Luke known as the lost parables. 

Now before we get too far, a parable is a type of story that was used to get across a specific point. It’s a story to which people could relate but had a deeper, more transcendent meaning. The lost parables do exactly this. They provide a unique insight into the way we view people and relationships. They help us see things from a different angle than our world would have us see things.

But more importantly, the ‘lost parables’ help us see others how God sees them.

Let’s start off with the parable of the lost sheep. If you’re not familiar with the story, I’d suggest going here to read it first. The gist of the story is simple. One sheep runs away from a flock of 100. The shepherd leaves the 99 in the open country to go find the one that ran away.

Throughout the book of Luke we see a focus on people who were often marginalized by culture. They less than types of people. He focused on beggars, invalids, women, disconnected, and widows. These people groups weren’t held in high esteem in his culture, but he knew something that not everyone knew. These people groups were important to him but were priceless to Jesus. And if they were priceless to Jesus, they should certainly be important to you and me today as well!

It won’t take you long to figure out that our culture today has its own view of who’s good enough and who’s not. We take sides on issues of race, religion, politics, and more. People today like to fight over just about anything, and when someone disagrees with you or does something different from you they are automatically your enemy. But why? Where did we learn this? And potentially a more important question is what is the church doing in the midst of this culture of hatred?

Luke saw that people of all socio-economic statuses were important to Jesus. Jesus tells us plainly in many places that he came for the helpless, hopeless and marginalized. If we claim to be part of the tradition of Jesus. If we claim to believe the things he teaches, then perhaps we should start by loving the unloveable. And no that doesn’t just mean one person or even one people group! We are called to love mankind, all of it. We don’t have to like everything that happens. But loving is a non-negotiable in the life of the Jesus-follower.

One sheep did something stupid and ran away. Who’s fault was it? Likely it was the sheep’s fault. But Jesus didn’t go there. He sought the lost one. He left the ones who were safe and secure to find the one that was lost. Perhaps this parable can teach the church something today. Perhaps we can learn a little from a smelly shepherd, a stupid sheep, and a selfless savior.