Thursday, November 4, 2021

4 November 2021 - lost and found


Why then do you judge your brother or sister?

We judge our brothers and sisters for the same reason that the Pharisees and scribes judged sinners and complained about Jesus eating with them. In both cases it is because we do not see the people we are judging as God sees them. This in turn has its roots in not seeing ourselves as God sees us.

None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

When we live forgetful of the reason Jesus came, in order to liberate us from lives dominated by selfishness, there is little else for us but to persist in trying to live for ourselves and die for ourselves. When this is our posture judging others is just one strategy by which we try to cement our centrality in our own lives. If we forget that Jesus died and came to life again to be the Lord of our whole lives it is inevitable that we fall back on ourselves as central. But our egos are so small, and so fragile, that when we are in this condition we desperately do all we can to protect ourselves against the possibility of diminishment, loss, and eventual destruction in death.

For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

When we remember what Jesus did for us and what it means for our future we no longer need to live focused exclusively on protecting our pride and defending our egos. Jesus has even cleared the way through death to immortality. Yet we often choose to persist in fear. Let us instead enthrone Jesus as the Lord of both our living and our dying. This means at the same time we decide no longer to live for ourselves alone or to die for ourselves alone. But in the end this is more than worth it.  There is nothing more wretched than living dominated by self, feeling lost and abandoned like a sheep without a shepherd. But there is nothing more blessed than living for Christ.

What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?

Would we go after the lost sheep? It probably depends on how much we care about the sheep. Many of us prefer to stay at home with the ninety-nine, choosing what is 'good enough' for us while there is still someone out there who is lost and alone. We are called instead to imitate Jesus who is himself the Good Shepherd, who came to seek and to save the lost (see Luke 19:10), even to the point of laying down his life for the sheep (see John 10:15).

‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.

There are none among us who were never lost, none who could have lived happily without the mercy of God. Jesus himself, who has no need of sheep at all nevertheless rejoices in finding them. We too are called to have hearts open enough to others to share in their joy upon being found. There is a sense in which each of us is brought back everytime a lost sheep returns home. We are not really so separate from them as we imagine, nor is our current vantage point as secure as we think. With each sinner that returns may our hearts also recognize the great goodness to which they return and to try to return with them even more fully ourselves.

Jesus loves us far more than the woman loved her coins. We are made, not in the image of the rulers of state, but in God's own image (see Luke 20:19-26). We were purchased with the price of his precious blood (see First Peter 1:18-19). We need to learn to see ourselves as Jesus sees us in light of his unconditional love for us. From this vantage point we will not be content while any remain lost. But we will more fully share in the joy when they are found.

In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”


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