“Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So He told them this parable, saying, ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing'” (Luke 15:1-5).

By likening himself to the shepherd who seeks and finds a lost sheep in the first of three stories in this parable, Yeshua highlights the inappropriateness of complaining about lost sheep (tax collectors and sinners) being found. But in a remarkably subtle, yet powerful way, Yeshua also presents himself as Israel’s Good Shepherd for whom Moses prayed would come and save his people! “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep which have no shepherd” (Num 27:16-17). Sadly, the religious leaders’ lack of joy exposes two, and not just one spiritual problem: a lack of love for the lost sheep of the house of Israel; a failure to see the Messianic prophecies in the Torah and the Prophets being fulfilled right in front of their eyes!

But Yeshua is indeed the Divine Shepherd who came to seek and save lost sheep (Ezek 34:11-16, 23-24). No matter how far you’ve wandered, no matter how lost you feel, be you a Jewish or even a Gentile sheep, be of good courage: Because Yeshua is looking for, and will most assuredly will find you!

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:14-16).