No. 2. — LUKE 15.
TO return then for a moment to the beginning. First of all we get what is always important to see in all the parables, the circumstances which bring them out of the heart of Jesus, the wellspring of God’s love to sinners.
The Lord is in the midst; close round Him, in answer to His call — “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” — have gathered a ring of publicans and sinners to hear Him; while at a distance there is another circle of murmuring scribes and Pharisees, whose words betray the secret of this world’s hatred of Jesus, “This man receiveth sinners.” It must have brought before the heart of the blessed Lord the scene that lay before Him at the end of His pathway, when He should again be in the midst, with a sinner on either hand, and the same circle around Him again rendering unwitting testimony to the purpose that had brought Him to that place of shame, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” Thus, at the thought of the cross, the Lord Jesus unfolds in this parable of the lost sheep, all the need that brought Him into the world to save sinners, and all the full and blessed results of the work that He was to accomplish at that cross.
The first thing is the sheep is lost, that is enough to claim the heart of the shepherd. There is no need to give an account of how the sheep got lost. Every one knows that a sheep does that very easily. The object of this parable is to show what the shepherd did. There are seven things: ―
1. He leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness. — The Lord Jesus came to save sinners, lost sinners, and no one else has any personal interest in Him as a Saviour at all. If you belong to the ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance, you will be left alone while the Shepherd goes after the lost, but you will meet Him again, not as a Saviour, but as a Judge.
2. He goes after that which is lost. — We shall never fully know where He went to find us. We must learn something of what it is to be lost in order to know the joy of what it is to be found, as we shall find in the third parable. But it is the cross that tells out the love of Jesus. That love went so deep, deeper far than our need, that the result of the blessed work on Calvary brings us, not back to the ninety and nine in the wilderness, but into the very glory of God (Rom. 5:22By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)). He had to go where the lost sheep was in order to find it. He had to take our place in order to save us, but far more was done at the cross than meeting our need. God was glorified (John 13:31, 3231Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (John 13:31‑32)). If the work that He did had only been measured by our need, it would have been wonderful indeed, but it would have left us — where many Christians are in their souls to-day — in doubt as to the future. But the full extent of the work is shown by its consequences. First, however, comes the finding.
3. He finds it. — On that we need not dwell. The joy that fills our hearts when we discover that Jesus has died for our sins, and by faith lay hold of His work for our own need, is but the faint reflection of a deep and mighty joy that fills the Saviour’s heart, and fills all heaven too. Still as this parable is wholly a question of His work, and as our joy does nothing either to save us or to keep us saved, we have nothing about it here. There is not a word about the sheep’s feelings, we only know that nothing stayed the course of the Saviour’s love until the lost sheep was found. “Until He find it.”
4. He layeth it on His shoulders, rejoicing. — To judge by the thoughts of many Christians, this rejoicing was very premature. Surely the Shepherd must have forgotten that the sheep was not home yet, and might easily get lost on the way. What wretched thoughts of Him, of His love, of His power, and of the value of His blessed work, do we harbor when we think that the feeblest sheep that rests upon His shoulders can ever be lost. We might as well say out plainly that the Shepherd may never get home, for the sheep’s getting home depends entirely on the Shepherd’s getting there. But the very next words are:
5. When He conteth home. — Jesus is not on the way to the glory, He is there now. The everlasting doors have opened to receive the Lord of glory, the songs of heaven have welcomed Him, and the Father’s throne, the highest place in glory, is now His seat. The One who took your place on the cross secures your place in the glory, for He is there now, and so perfect is the result of His work that God’s Word speaks of you as already glorified (Rom. 8:3030Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)). There can be no settled peace until you see this. It all depends upon His work, He does it all. That work is not measured by your need but by God’s glory, and the proof is that He is in God’s glory now. If you limit the consequences of that work, you are touching God’s glory, for it is God’s glory that you should be in the glory too. For the Shepherd to get home without the sheep would be a confession that He had failed, that God had not been glorified. But blessed be God it is not so, and this little parable, so deep and full in its meaning, shows us the Shepherd entering that glory with the sheep on His shoulders. Does it not shame your doubting heart? As to how He keeps you we need not here speak. It is enough for you to know that from the moment He finds you until eternity ends you are on His shoulders. Then, too, it is home that He brings you — His home. You cannot know what it means to be at home while you are in doubt as to the final result of His work on the cross. Hence the need of having your soul established in the grace that comes out in the first parable. This parable is the source of everything. It must come first.
6. He calls together His friends and neighbors. — There was a great gathering of the sons of God long ago when the same blessed Person who carries home His sheep in triumph laid the foundations of the world, which was to be the scene of His lonely path of love, and of His cross with all its shame. Then they shouted for joy (Job 38:77When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)). But there is a greater gathering yet to come, summoned by the One who found His sheep. The heavenly hosts sang glory to God when the Saviour was born in the manger at Bethlehem. They watched the hour of conflict when the lowly Man of Sorrows met the devil alone in the wilderness. They ministered with adoring heart to the dependent One who had met and defeated all the tempter’s wiles. They watched that darker hour of agony when the prince of this world returned with the power of death and came upon the Saviour in Gethsemane.
They hovered in wonder, legions of angels, while their Lord was led as a lamb to the slaughter, yielding Himself up to man’s hatred. They sat in His empty tomb and told of His resurrection, and they announced His coming again to the disciples gazing heavenward. Now they minister to the heirs of salvation. But when the moment comes for the full display of redemption glory, there will be a gathering such as heaven has never known, a rejoicing beyond all joy that ever filled the courts of light.
In Revelation 5. we find the blessed Lord again in the midst, but it is in the midst of the throne set in heaven; again we find two circles around Him, again the inner circle is composed of sinners, but they are sinners saved by grace, who cast their crowns before the Lamb and own Him as the only worthy One. And the second circle is not composed of those who mock and jeer. Now it is the heavenly hosts who have watched adoringly the wondrous plan of redemption being carried out on earth to its final completion in glory; they echo the refrain that will fill heaven forever, “Worthy is the Lamb”; with cheerful and ungrudging joy they rejoice in redemption, and the tide flows out to all creation. But why this joy? That is the last thing and the best, and none but the Shepherd can tell us why He calls this mighty gathering, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, to share His joy.
7. Rejoice with Me, for I have found MY sheep which was lost. — He strikes the keynote of the song. He is the chief musician. It is His joy that fills heaven. But what is His joy? To have the sense of this in my soul is to have all fear cast out, for it is perfect love that breathes in the utterance of those words, so simple and yet with all the depth of Calvary in them. “I have found MY sheep which was lost.” That one word “My” tells us all that can be told. Thus we get the Shepherd’s work and its eternal consequences. How much does the sheep do in all this? Think of it a little, if you are full of your own thoughts and fears, and let your heart pass from point to point of the Shepherd’s triumphant journey, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to the glory, and see yourself borne in upon His shoulders, and begin now to praise Him for what He has done. S. H. H.