The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
The Pharisees felt their privileged position in society threatened both by the reception that Jesus himself was receiving and by the way he elevated the marginalized and outcasts of society. They were unhappy that Jesus himself was becoming famous because they coveted his fame. They could not celebrate the fact that tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus because they had always defined themselves over and against such individuals. If such as them were welcomed what would the Pharisees still have about which in which they could take pride? They were stuck in a place like Paul before he discovered Jesus.
Circumcised on the eighth day,
of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage,
in observance of the law a Pharisee,
in zeal I persecuted the Church,
in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.
As with Paul before Jesus, so too did the Pharisees believe themselves blameless in righteousness based on the law. As with Paul, they felt their destructive zeal to be a virtue. But Paul discovered a deeper truth, a righteousness that was from the heart, and a better zeal that made him desire above all to follow Jesus in his mission to seek and to save the lost. The Pharisees still believed themselves to be among the ninety-nine in no need of repentance. Yet they were not. Part of the purpose of these two parables, in privileging the lost, was to invite the Pharisees to desire themselves to be among the lost who were found, among those because of whom there was more joy in heaven than the ninety-nine. The parable at once validated all of the sinners and tax collectors coming to Jesus, but also potentially provoked a certain holy jealousy for the privileged place of the lost in the heart of Jesus. Perhaps because of it even Pharisees could realize that they too were among the lost and therefore allow themselves to be found by the Good Shepherd.
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?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
Paul was a Pharisee who had the experience of realizing that he was indeed lost until Jesus found him on his way. He was a sheep that thought he was among the ninety-nine but who came to realize the depth of his need for the Good Shepherd.
But whatever gains I had,
these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ.
More than that, I even consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
The heart of Jesus was for those who were lost. He came for sinners, those who were sick, and in need of a divine physician. May we learn to follow after Paul and to see everything we have apart from Christ as loss by comparison to the supreme good of knowing him. We often take ourselves to be among the ninety-nine, but are in fact still and always in need of our shepherd to guide us home. It is when we are without him, trying to make our way by our own strength and intelligence, that we are lost. But even then he seeks us.
Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
Jesus will not give up on us because he takes so much joy when we are found. Being found is more than simply having our location confirmed, more than GPS coordinates or a pin on a map. Being found in this way means being found in Jesus himself. It means union with the shepherd who sought us.
in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ (see Philippians 3:8-9).
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