In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables about something or someone that is lost. He starts with the the story of the lost sheep. It’s a short story, simple on the surface, but when you look a little closer, you realise it wasn’t just a comforting illustration about God’s love. It was a direct challenge to the religious leaders of the day.
Luke sets the scene like this:
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” (Luke 15:1–2)
The Pharisees and teachers of the law were the religious elite — the people everyone looked to for spiritual teaching and guidance. They knew Scripture inside out, and yet, their response to Jesus spending time with the wrong kind of people was not joy but judgment.
To them, the “tax collectors and sinners” were outsiders — people who didn’t belong, who hadn’t met the mark. Over time, systems, structures, and religious traditions had built invisible walls, separating those who were considered righteous from those who weren’t. Instead of shepherding the lost, the leaders had started labelling them.
And it’s into that mindset that Jesus tells this story.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)
That opening phrase — “suppose one of you” — is important. Jesus is speaking directly to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. He’s asking them to imagine themselves as the shepherd. Because they should have been.
Throughout the Old Testament, Israel’s leaders were described as shepherds of God’s people. But many had failed in that calling. In Ezekiel 34, God speaks through the prophet with a heartbreaking rebuke:
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? … You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.” (Ezekiel 34:2–4)
The shepherds had forgotten the sheep.
But in that same chapter, God makes a promise — one that Jesus fulfils centuries later:
“I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:11)
Where human shepherds failed, God Himself stepped in. In Jesus, the Good Shepherd comes to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). He doesn’t stand at a distance; He draws near. He doesn’t condemn the wanderer; He carries them home.
The parable of the lost sheep isn’t just a story about God’s love for the lost — it’s a revelation of His heart and a reminder of what ours should look like too.
It challenges us to ask:
Have we allowed comfort, culture, or religion to make us forget the ones who’ve wandered?
Do we carry the same compassion, urgency, and joy that the Shepherd has for the lost?
Because if God Himself became the Shepherd, if He left the glory of heaven to find us, then His heart should shape ours too.
