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?
Some of us might be content with ninety-nine as good enough. We might be able to use the comfort of the large number to forget about the one that went astray. After all, no one made it go astray. It wasn't sheep-napped in this story. Some of us might well think that a straying sheep would only get would it deserved as a result of its choices. But it does not appear that God thinks in this way. He doesn't measure the success of his love on the basis of statistics. There is no number of sheep so large that he would ever forget about even one unique and unrepeatable individual. Nor would the straying of the sheep itself be regarded as a reason to consider it defective and not worthy of care. Just as the prodigal son made a series of bad choices but did not diminish his father's love so too did this ship in no way fall out of favor with the shepherd. It was still worthy of love, worthy of being sought after until it could be returned safely home.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.
Lost sheep don't simply find their way back home on their own. They don't get out a smartphone and use Google Maps to locate the sheepfold. The only way they may hope to return is if the master himself seeks them out. But we can see from this parable that our God really is the hound of heaven who will track us to the ends of the earth in order to guide us safely home. He is the very opposite of a despot looking for an excuse to punish us. He himself goes to the greatest lengths possible to procure our salvation.
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
The ninety-nine that did not stray would no doubt be invited to join the party celebrating the finding of the one. Would they be willing to do so? Or would they feel slighted by the master apparently paying disproportionate attention to one who, in their eyes, may not have deserved it? There was not hurt or loss to them on account of the generosity shown to the one that wandered. They could in fact delight in its return without having to experience the suffering that came from being apart from the sheepfold. But it was all a matter of perspective. They needed to share in the perspective of the shepherd himself whose very mission was to seek and to save the lost.
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.
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