By: Engel Salmon, SVD
Introduction
The parable of the lost sheep in
Luke (15:1-10) starts with portraying Jesus’ audience who are tax collectors
and sinners. The Pharisees proclaiming themselves humble and live according to
the Moses’ law stay away from Him. It seems that Jesus does not care about the
perception of the Pharisees who admire themselves holier than ordinary people
and even look down on Jesus just because of his relationship with sinners. Jesus
still continues to tell them the parable. He asks his audience, who does among
you leave the 99 sheep in the desert and go to find the lost one? People certainly
do not dare to answer this question because in general they are middle-class
society and have their economy and mathematical calculations about profit and
loss.
Jesus continues to tell them that
the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep in the dessert and go after the lost one until
he finds it. When he finds it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy. Upon
his arrival home, he invites all his friends and his neighbors to rejoice with
him because he has found his lost and beloved sheep. At the end of his parable
Jesus inspires the sinners and the tax collectors that his father in heaven is
full of mercy to find the lost “sheep” and there is a great joy in heaven when
one sinner repents.
The point of view that Jesus
portrays in this parable is about love and mercy to the marginalized and poor
who are lost in the eye of social stratification. The realities of poverty,
racism issues, and migrants who are suffered and attempting to find new homes
for living has become one of the serious issues in humans’ life today.
Regardless migrants and marginalized issues become state sovereignty issue, the
humanity principles should be more dominant to give love and care to these
people. Therefore, this analytical project is going to explain the meaning of
the parable the lost sheep in the cultural context which is about the moral of
the story when Jesus told the parable and the connection between the moral of
the story with the prophetic dialogue in today’s social justice issue-poor and
marginalized.
Cultural Context
The parable of the lost sheep
provides an understanding of chance of repentance. Almost all interpretation of
parables leads to an understanding of God’s love, mercy, care, forgiveness and
compassion. “The parable as either emphasizing God’s forgiveness, grace, mercy,
love and compassion for the lost, or God’s joy when a sinner is found.”[1] According
to allegorical interpretation of Tertullian, the parable is actually addressed
to the Pharisees which is the lost sheep to proof God’s willingness to forgive.
According to Tertullian, “the parable was directed at Pharisees and is proof of
God’s willingness to forgive; the lost sheep refers to the Jews with the intention
to shame the Pharisees because they thought repentance was only necessary for
the Gentiles.”[2]
The most important point expressed in Tertullian’s writing is that the lost
sheep is actually addressed to the Jews who are so much pride of being God’s
chosen people. In contrary, God is still looking for them and wait for their
repentance.
The bible scholars often join the
parable of lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son as a representation of God’s
love and mercy. Amy-Jill Levine in her book short stories by Jesus writes
“Common is the claim that the parables, especially the third (lost son), reveal
an extravagant, earth shattering image of a God the Father who forgives, as if
Jews had no notion of a divinity who seeks relationship and reconciliation.”[3] In
her writing, she emphasizes the parables of the lost sheep on the value of
relationship and reconciliation between God and human beings. Human beings as
God’s creation are never be abandoned although they are still proud of their
self in sinfulness and perishes. God, the Father still love the Jews (us also)
as his beloved children.
Amy continues that at Jesus time,
the Jews obeyed and served God because of their desire to get reward, but Jesus
proclaims salvation by grace. She writes “the Jews slavishly serve God the
Father in order to earn reward, while Jesus proclaims the salvation by grace.”[4] This
context gives us a clear understanding the reason why the Jews always keep
distance from Jesus because of talking with the sinners and tax collector. The
Jews obey the law of Moses without an awareness of humanity, love and mercy
like God have showed them through his Son, Jesus Christ. Because of this pride
as a chosen nation, the do not even know who Jesus is –“Look and see that no
prophet arises from Galilee.”[5] By
understanding cultural context, we come to understand that Jesus tells the tax
collector and the sinners about his loving father. God is merciful and love, he
always gives everyone a change of repentance and reconciliation with Him.
Another interpretation of the
parable the lost sheep comes from Bernard Brandon Scoot. He emphasizes the
value of the parable from the standpoint of fellowship and transformation. For
him, the parable of the lost sheep and prodigal son are always followed by
rejoicing and party in which the shepherd and the father find what they are
looking for. Each character in the story expresses intrinsically the
transformation into a new creation. He writes “In both parables an object is
lost and found; this is followed by a request and rejoicing, and then there is
an interpretation by the teller (Jesus) that ties the parable to the larger
story about Pharisees and table of fellowship…the value of the thing lost undergoes
a transformation.”[6]
Based on this interpretation, the parable of the lost sheep implies the
understanding of Jesus proclamation to the Jews that receiving God’s mercy and
graces should be followed by transformation through repentance and respect for
fellow human beings.
Based on these sources, the moral
values described in the parable of the lost sheep can be reduced to three
important points. First, through the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus proclaims
the forgiveness, care, love, and God’s mercy to the Jews and Gentiles. God is
waiting for the conversion of the Jews who call themselves righteous before God.
Second, God always gives everyone the opportunity to repent. There is no time
limit for the Jews (we too) to repent; God always waits and accepts those who
return to Him. Third, the parable of the lost sheep implies the value of
fellowship and transformation. Fellowship at this point means an attitude of
seeing fellow human beings as brothers and sisters and transformation means a
commitment to live in the guidance of God who always gives humans love, peace,
care, forgiveness, and compassion.
Theological Context of
Prophetic Dialogue
Migrants, poverty, and minority
groups are categorized as marginalized groups who are often treated with political
injustice, murder, and human rights violations. There are many marginalized
groups around us who needs our help and care. However, the question is how do
we see these people? Marginalization and poverty are not only about not having
the resources to live on or not eating three meals a day to stay healthy, but
also about not having the care and powerlessness of the people around them. The
tax collector and sinners in the parable of the lost sheep are not physically the
people who do not have food or house or children. As Peter Singer said poverty
is not about unsatisfied but it is about powerless from the social structure.
“But extreme poverty is not only a condition of unsatisfied material needs. It
is often accompanied by a degrading state of powerlessness.”[7] From
Singer's point of view, marginalization and poverty are often the result of a
system of injustice and lack of concern for humanity among us.
We all come from the same source of
life, namely the almighty power (God) who created everything on earth from whom
we receive our life and dignity as human beings. There is no guarantee that
some of human groups are better than the other groups, ethnic or certain culture
which from there people are usually classified in hierarchy system. Human
beings are God’s special creation that have been mandated to be fruitful, subdue
the world, and be care to all living creature (Genesis chapter 1). The
marginalized, poor people, and migrants are not groups of people without rights
and dignity. As Christians we are called to care for those people as our
brothers and sisters. This goal can be implemented through three approaches;
participatory dialogue and repentance, mindset transformation, and building a
community of love and care. First,
we as catholic and Church disciples are called to engage with participatory dialogue
with the migrants, poor people, and minority groups. We will never know each
other intensively until we live with them for a period of time. To experience
and understand the lives of immigrants, the poor, and minority groups, we must
engage in their difficult times with dialogue and prosperity actions. Through
the intensive dialogue with them, we will understand their struggles, needs,
and hope. With this understanding, we will come to know how to help them
physically and spiritually. Doing this participatory dialogue does not have to
be with large groups, we can do it with neighbors or people around us. In
relation with that, we also have to repent from our perception, the way we see
others. People who are different from our background are not people who need to
be discarded. They are still God's children and they are just like us who need
love, care and compassion.
Second, mindset transformation. As
Jesus transformed himself from God's essence into human form, we as His
disciples need to be transformed as well from our selfishness to generosity. Many
people in this world are so enthusiastic to have as much money and sources as
possible which from that income, they become in power to do whatever they want
to people who are economically powerless. We as Christians are not called to be
invaders for the helpless, we are called to be servants to those who do not
have the strength to live. Our resource is not billions of dollars, our
resource is our loving heart and will to live with marginalized people, listen
to their struggles, and be humble enough to be their friend.
Third, building a community of love
and care. As brothers and sisters in faith, our lives must represent the life
of Christ which is full of love, compassion and care. We should capture the
poor, immigrants, and minority group as the other side of the invisible God. This
means that serving the marginalized is the same as serving God Himself who has
brought them into this world. Even though they are marginalized, they still
have rights like us and are still God's children. We must love one another as
God has loved us.
Works
Cited
Kissinger,
Warren S. The parables of Jesus: A
history of Interpretation and
Bibliography. Metuchen:
The Scarecrow Press, 1979.
Levine,
Amy-Jill. The Enigmatic Parables of a
Controversial Rabbi: Short Stories by Jesus. New York: Harper One, 2014.
Scott,
Bernard Brandon. Hear Then the Parable: A
Commentary on the Parables of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989.
Singer,
Peter. The Life You Can Save. New
York: Random House, 2009.
Van
Eck, Ernest. “In the kingdom everybody has enough – A social-scientific and
Realistic Reading of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Lk 15:4–6),” Department of New Testament Studies, University
of Pretoria, South Africa (2011):1. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=79325538&site=ehost-live.
Accessed, October 13,2021.
[1]
Van Eck, Ernest. “In the kingdom everybody has enough – A social-scientific and
Realistic Reading of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Lk 15:4–6),” Department of New Testament Studies,
University
of Pretoria, South Africa (2011):1. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=79325538&site=ehost-live.
[2]
Kissinger, Warren S. The parables of
Jesus: A history of Interpretation and
Bibliography (Metuchen: The Scarecrow
Press, 1979), p. 4-5.
[3] Levine,
Amy-Jill. The Enigmatic Parables of a
Controversial Rabbi: Short Stories by Jesus (New York: Harper One, 2014),
p.28.
[4] Ibid., 28.
[5]
The gospel of John 7:52
[6]
Scott, Bernard Brandon. Hear Then the
Parable: A Commentary on the Parables of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1989), p.407
[7]
Singer, Peter. The Life You Can Save
(New York: Random House, 2009), p. 6.
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