The parable of the lost sheep

Normally I am awake by 7:00 but this morning, my hubby woke me just before 9:00. I’m supposed to take meds an hour before that and was very sound asleep, so much so that I felt like I needed to be carried to the kitchen for my pills and carried throughout that day. Because of little energy to the point of helplessness, I was ready to see something precious in this parable:

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’” (Luke 15:1–7)

The devotional writer echoed how I responded. I pictured the sheep lying across the shoulders of Jesus, the good shepherd. He is holding its four legs securely in His strong hands. The sheep is relaxed, not fighting. All the weight and burden of being a lost sheep is on the Shepherd’s shoulders and the sheep is secure in the Shepherd’s care. He has nothing to fear and nothing to do — but rest:

“The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” (Deuteronomy 1:30–31)

How does this happen? Most animals would struggle and try to free themselves from this lofty place and from the grasp of their captor. Not this animal, because Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27–29)

Trusting Jesus puts me in a place of rest, not of fear or struggle. He is the Savior, and I am content to be saved by Him. Besides, nothing can hurt me for whatever comes at me must first tackle with the One who holds me. He cares for me so I can look forward to each day knowing that my great, all-sufficient Shepherd is rejoicing as He brings me home.

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I love the next delightful thought added by the devotional writer. He notes that because of those who are ‘saved sheep,’ our Good Shepherd experiences joy, the joy that sustained Him as He died for our sin — “the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). Like the shepherd in the parable, You rejoice in the salvation of sinners, in my salvation. You are smiling as I rest on Your powerful shoulders. Even in my sleepy state, I realize that this rest in You is far better than a good, long sleep (and certainly better than being a lost sheep)!

 (Link to a photo)

His joy — my joy

This last day of August seems to have arrived too soon (August is my favorite month). I didn’t get outside enough, didn’t ride my bike enough, didn’t travel enough. Nevertheless, my heart is filled with joy; not my joy, but the joy of Jesus.

Oswald Chambers asks, “What was the joy that Jesus had?” His answer is that we insult truth when we use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. Jesus does not merely make us happy; He fills us with joy.

Chambers says His joy was absolute self-surrender, the self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father. He was filled with joy by doing what the Father sent Him to do. He said, “I delight to do Thy will.”

Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce this kind of joy to me?

That question makes joy a matter of choosing obedience, choosing to give up my I-wants and yield to His will. Even in the simple things, that kind of obedience may not look like it will produce joy, at least not up front, but it does.

He teaches me this is so in the smallest of things. For instance, I dislike talking on the phone, but He nudged me to call two people this week. I resisted for a couple days, then obeyed and was surprised by two long and delightful conversations. His joy.

I’m uncomfortable talking with people I barely know, but He nudged me to follow my hubby’s lead and invite some neighbors over for tea and pie. I mildly didn’t want to, but agreed and was blessed by more delightful conversation. His joy.

Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

He also said, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)

This joy floods in when I move toward God in obedience without concern about external happenings, physical circumstances and discomforts, or even my emotional state. As Chambers says, “the first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances.”

He is right. Jesus said the cares of this world will choke God’s word. Before we know what we are doing, we so easily get caught up in whatever is in our face, rather than remembering the wonderful promises of God, including the promise of His joy. It is there for the taking; it goes hand in hand with totally trusting Him and simply doing what He says.

Chambers adds this bonus: “Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes.”

Then he reminds me that the lives that bless others the most are those who are unconscious of what they are doing. I know this is true because I’ve dear friends who are like that to me. Their godly and delightful lack of self-focus makes me want to be just like that to others, focusing on Jesus, doing what He says, blessing others because of Him, and being full of His joy.

Seeing Jesus

In a Middle Eastern country, a man risked his life to show a Jesus film to others. It turned out they were risking their lives also, for a suicide bomber had infiltrated the crowd. As the film ended, he pushed into a visible position and removed his jacket, revealing the explosives attached to his body.

The people were terrified, but the would-be bomber assured them they were not in danger. In tears, he told them that he tried thirteen times to press the detonator and at each attempt, he saw Jesus standing in front of him. He and the entire gathering committed their lives to Jesus Christ.

The Jesus film is based on the Gospel of John so would not have these verses, but it certain conveys the same concept. Jesus offers to lift the burdens of all who come to Him.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28–30)

As I read this again today, I thought of what it tells me about Jesus. Obviously, He is gentle and humble. He is also a giver of rest, concerned for those overburdened with sin, even with the cares of this world, even with a bomb strapped to their body. While being a Christian can mean hard work, it is the intent of Jesus that even the hard work has ease and lightness in it. He does it by removing sinful intentions and guilt, replacing them with a joy and delight that transforms grumbling and worry into carefree abandonment.

In the beginning of my Christian life, I pictured Jesus as stern, unsmiling. Then our family went to see a stage play called “The Gospel According to John.” The man who played Jesus was laughing much and smiled most of the time. While the Bible doesn’t say much about this, I realized that it does say Jesus was filled always with the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit includes incredible joy.

Joy from God has the unimaginable ability to make all trials seem as nothing. It isn’t the same as shock after a trauma that numbs our feelings about reality. Instead, joy understands what is happening, but puts assurance deep in my heart that God is in control, that He will use even this for my good, and that nothing can harm me unless the Lord lets it. I become like a fearless child on her first roller coaster ride. I might even lift my hands in the air and shout as joy overcomes all else.

With that in mind, I try to imagine the image that bomber had of Jesus. Was He shaking His finger at him? Was He stern with arms folded in a glare of warning? Or was He standing there with arms reaching out and a big grin on His face? Whatever the man saw, He was smitten. He knew instantly that He was loved and accepted and there was nothing else to do but love and accept Jesus in return.

Joy in heaven

When people talk about their deceased relatives watching down on them, I’ve thought this is a mere fanciful, wishful notion. However, I need to rethink my understanding.

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)

This does not say my mother and father know what is going on here, but Jesus affirms that there is joy before the presence of God’s angels when I turn away from sin. Does that mean my parents also rejoice concerning positive changes in my spiritual life? If angels do, maybe they do also.

Spurgeon writes the devotional for today and suggests this verse is the answer to those times I feel like God does not hear me, that He is far away and I am here alone. Heaven is so much beyond this place, like a great chasm over which my thoughts and prayers cannot leap.

Yet the angels know and are delighted if one person (even me) turns from sin. Spurgeon says that the same great heart that beats in heaven beats on earth and even though the celestial is one and the terrestrial is another, this is only in appearance. I am not a stranger in a strange land shut off from my heavenly Father for even the angels know what goes on in my heart.

The rational side of faith would never suggest that God doesn’t understand, but when I’m overcome with doubt or troubled by sorrows, trials and temptations, I might feel as if God is out of sight and not listening. Spurgeon uses this verse to remind me that God sees, hears, and knows all things. He is not asleep or uncaring. Faith and prayer can motivate Him to stay or move, to wait or act. My name is engraved on His hands and heart. He thought of me before He made the world and thinks of me still.

My brother is there too, the One who became flesh and blood for me. This is the Son of God who is eternal, equal with the Father and who was born, lived, died and rose again, and is now ascended to the right hand of the Father to rule and to intercede for me, an adopted child of His Father — our Father. He remembers me every hour. My sighs are His sighs, my groans are His groans, and my joy is His joy.

There is joy before the angels because they are in the presence of Jesus who is joyful when sinners, myself included, come to their senses and turn from sin to Him. Those angels see and feel and know His joy. They jump up and down in delight as Jesus is filled with delight at our repentance.

Repentance makes my heart full of the joy of Jesus too. This is the same joy that makes the angels laugh, so maybe, just maybe (and I’m not going to write a book about it), my mother and father are smiling when I recognize sin in my life and turn from it to love and serve Jesus Christ.