WEEK 6 | SEEK
Sheep do little to care for themselves, so they need the safety of their fold and the constant protection of a shepherd. Even so, they have a tendency to wander. This is a problem as old as shepherding itself. Sheep get lost. It’s what sheep do. So any shepherd will have to leave the flock from time to time in search of a lost sheep.
We shouldn’t underestimate the powerful forces that keep us from actively searching for the lost. Apathy, fear, and comfort often keep us firmly rooted in activities—many of them good—even as we neglect the call to seek out those who have wandered from God. It’s very easy to stay busy within the church, with the sheep who are already safely inside the fold. And, of course, those inside the church need to be shepherded! But we also have a strong call to search for the lost.
Look again at God’s rebuke of the “shepherds” of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel. We’ve already seen that rather than feeding the sheep, these “shepherds” were feeding on the sheep! They failed in their responsibility to strengthen the weak sheep. They left the sick and injured to fend for themselves. In this session, we will look at another devastating rebuke of these shepherds: they did not bring back the strayed or seek the lost. Read through this now familiar passage yet again, this time focusing on what God says about the shepherd’s duty to the lost sheep.
>> TAKE A MINUTE RIGHT NOW TO READ EZEKIEL 34:1–16 SLOWLY AND REFLECTIVELY. <<
Lost Sheep
In the course of grazing, resting, or traveling with the flock, any given sheep can easily wander away from the others. By the time the shepherd counts the sheep and realizes that one is missing, that lost sheep could be far from the flock. A shepherd may need to search for hours, calling out until he hears the weak bleat of an exhausted sheep answering his call. Because the shepherd’s job is to care for the sheep, a good shepherd will always pursue a lost sheep.
Jesus spent enough time with the “lost” to make the religious leaders of his day uncomfortable. Angry even. Jesus would talk to sinners, prostitutes, and political outcasts. He spent time with these people. He ate in their homes. He even hosted gatherings of socially unacceptable people (see Luke 15:2). The religious leaders watched all of this. Predictably, they were outraged. How could Jesus treat these people so well? How could he devote so much care to people who deserved nothing but contempt? Jesus answered for his actions by explaining his true calling: he was the Good Shepherd.
As the Good Shepherd, Jesus’ mission on earth was “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus’ mission on earth is directly related to the passages we’ve been discussing thus far. David declared “the LORD is my shepherd” (Ps. 23) and explained all of the ways that God cared for him as a shepherd. Prophets like Jeremiah (23:1–4) and Ezekiel (in the passage we’ve been exploring) denounced the leaders of Israel because they had been neglecting their responsibility to shepherd God’s people. So Jesus came as the Good Shepherd to fulfill Psalm 23 and to restore what had been broken by the wicked shepherds of Ezekiel 34. And Jesus was clear: being the Good Shepherd meant finding and gathering the lost sheep.
>> PAUSE RIGHT NOW AND READ LUKE 15 SLOWLY AND REFLECTIVELY. <<
In Luke 15, Jesus explains that he spent time with sinners and outcasts because as a shepherd his responsibility was to go after the lost sheep. He tells the same story in three different ways: as the story of a shepherd who pursues a lost sheep (vv. 1–7), as the story of a woman who searches for a lost coin (vv. 8–10), and as the story of a father who runs to welcome his two lost sons (vv. 11–32). In each story, the point is clear: Jesus was all about pursuing the lost, and anyone following God’s lead will be pursuing the lost as well.
But the church today is not known for its diligent pursuit of the lost. We tend to focus inwardly. We work hard to make our churches comfortable, enjoyable places, and to then stay put. The lost are all around us, but we seldom make much of an effort to “find” them and bring them into the fold. If we are going to be good shepherds like the Good Shepherd, however, we will need to make pursuing the lost a priority.
QUESTIONS | REFLECTION
1. Why do you think we tend to be so reluctant to search for the lost?
2. There are plenty of people inside the church who need support. Why should we still pursue the unchurched?
3. Do you have any examples of people who have been brought into the fold through the efforts of faithful shepherds?
Lost Sheep in the Fold
We absolutely must recover our calling to seek the lost sheep who spend their lives outside of the church walls. But the three parables Jesus tells in Luke 15 also direct our attention to another kind of lost sheep. In the first parable (vv. 1–7), the lost sheep is out in the wild. But in the second parable (vv. 8–10), the lost coin is actually still inside of the house. Could it be that Jesus is indicating that the “lost” are not always outside of the fold? Is it possible to be lost even while living amongst the sheep? It seems so.
Jesus actually combines these two elements in the third parable (vv. 11–32): the father runs out to meet the prodigal son who returns from the outside world, but he also goes out to implore the older son, who has been living at home the whole time, to join him. In this parable, Jesus shows that it’s possible to be lost through wild living far from the people of God, and it’s possible to be lost while living “at home” amongst the people of God. This second category of lostness (being lost even while living amongst God’s people) characterizes the Pharisees, to whom Jesus was telling these stories.
In either case, a shepherd pursues the lost. But this is an important reminder that we have lost sheep close at hand as well. As you shepherd the people that God has placed around you, you will no doubt encounter sheep who “slip away.” You will need to pursue people who have never been part of a local church, but you will also need to keep a close eye on group members who begin to show signs of walking away.
People disassociate themselves from their church connections for many reasons. Some get bored, others get busy. Some leave to actively pursue a life of sin, others drift off because they lose sight of the importance of gathering together. But you stand in the midst of the flock as a shepherd, and one of your God-given responsibilities is to ensure that no sheep wander off, and that those who do wander are brought back. The path of least resistance would lead us to simply let people go, but our calling as shepherds compels us to reach out.
QUESTIONS | REFLECTION
4. What would it mean for a sheep to be lost within the fold?
5. Why is it often difficult to identify this type of lostness?
6. What does it mean to pursue the lost sheep who are within the fold?
The Problem: Comfortable Folds & Complacent Shepherds
We often fail in our calling to seek the lost because things are good within the fold! We see growth within the church, we encourage each other, we meet each other’s needs. It’s easy to see why church people like getting together and staying together. But this becomes a problem when we neglect our calling to pursue. As shepherds, we need to be cultivating a sense of urgency for the lost. Part of our mutual encouragement needs to be reminding each other of the mission. If we spend all of our time together within church walls, we are certainly neglecting our mission. The best fellowship actually comes as we serve side by side in reaching out to the hurting world around us.
Many of us would feel confident in our shepherding if we had 100 sheep and only one wandered off! That’s a 99% success rate! Plus those 99 still need plenty of attention. But the Good Shepherd will not rest until that one sheep is restored. He takes the burden of the lost sheep upon himself. If we will follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, we need to develop a heart for the lost and practices that get us searching outside of the church walls for those who have wandered.
QUESTIONS | REFLECTION
7. Would you say that the Christians around you tend to be overly comfortable, cliquish, and/or apathetic about reaching out to the lost? How so?
8. As a shepherd, how can you cultivate a heart for the lost? What would that look like in your specific ministry?
The Call: Pursue
As a shepherd, you will have sheep who wander. If you don’t pursue them, who will?
Being a shepherd means pursuing sheep. You can care for the 99 sheep perfectly, yet if you fail to purse that one lost sheep, you are not a true shepherd. An otherwise healthy church that does not bring back the wandering or pursue the lost is itself wandering and lost. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost; joining him on his mission requires us to do the same. This is what it means to be a shepherd.