If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
What is our opinion? Are we willing to take the risk and pursue the one who is lost? It seems dangerous. What if another sheep wanders out the door while we are in pursuit of this lost one? We can see in Jesus that he will tirelessly pursue one then another, then another, until he has accounted for us all.
Maybe this is why there is more joy over the lost one who is found. Maybe there is potential in the ninety-nine to wander off that has now been eliminated in the sheep Jesus carries back. This sheep knows how bad it is to be lost. He knows how good it is to be found. He will not wander off again.
Maybe it is as the Church Father Bede suggests. He says that maybe "By the ninety-nine sheep, which He left on the mountains, are signified the proud to whom a unit is still wanting for perfection." Maybe there are mountains that still need to be leveled. Maybe these sheep have spirits that wander even while their bodies remain with the flock. Thus they are lukewarm and never fully experience the thirst that Jesus wants to satisfy.
But even if the sheep on the mountain are righteous, even if they have never and will never stray, it is still a greater thing to be redeemed by Jesus. Bede has something to shocking to say about this, too. "Wonderfully are the Angels made, but more wonderfully man restored." Even if the ninety-nine are angels they still lack the privilege of the sheep carried on the shoulders of the shepherd. The blessings of the incarnation and of the Eucharist are given in love to the lost and fallen.
We are counseled to throw away regrets today. We are blessed to have been lost so that we may now be found. We recall the words of the Exultet.
O happy faultWe rejoice that where sin abounds grace abounds still more (cf. Rom. 5:20). We are made to sing a new song to the LORD, a song which Adam and Eve would never guess from the vantage point in Eden. We sing not to glory in the sins of the past but to marvel at greatness of the love God displays in not only setting things right but in lifting us up higher than when we began.
that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
This Christmas Jesus wants to come closer to us than ever before.
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
We are all still lost in ways large or small. He wants to seek us out. He does not lose sight of us amidst the ninety-nine. The sheepfold will never be complete without each of our hearts. Let us prepare the way for his coming in our hearts.
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
If our hearts are a wasteland, if they are impassable terrain, we ought not give up. Even if we aren't civil engineers and can't move much dirt we ought not give up. It is not our efforts that raise us from the valleys of despair or lower the mountains of pride. It is our lost hearts that draw the Savior to us and we to him. As we are lost it is the experience of desire and hope that prepares his way to us. Let us fan this hope into flames today!
They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
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