Jesus told the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:1-7 to show that every person is of singular importance to God and should be seen as having great value no matter what their station in life.
The Revs. Larry Long and John McLemore say the story emphasizes that there is more joy in Heaven over the repentance of one sinner than there is over 99 of the righteous.
“The Lost Sheep is in a series of parables with the Lost Coin and the Lost Son,” said the Rev. Long, teaching pastor at The Gathering Church in Midland. “The point is that lost people matter to God as they should matter to us.
“We live in a society and world that wants to act like only people who are drug addicts or homeless are lost, but a rich man in a big office who has a nice home and family can be lost, too.
“Until we give our hearts and lives to Christ, we’re all lost.”
Long said regular church-goers may also be in error.
“We have a lot of people in our churches who think going to church makes them saved,” he said. “They go simply because it is the social thing to do or because that’s what mom and dad did.
“They have been told that that earns them their salvation, but we are not saved by good works, we’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ.”
Citing Ephesians 2:8-9 Long said that it is by the grace of God through faith that people are saved.
Asked how faith is achieved, he said, “It comes from a trustful surrender.
“We simply surrender and let it go by trusting in Jesus on the Cross. Being found like a child, not sophisticated, we ask for more faith to walk more faithfully with Jesus. It’s like a child trusting his or her parents.”
The Rev. McLemore, retired pastor of Belmont Baptist Church, said it’s wrong to think one individual doesn’t matter.
“God loves every single person,” McLemore said. “We can’t make everybody happy, but we should at least have concern for every person regardless of their economic station in life or their standard of living.
“We should never say, ‘That guy doesn’t belong to our group, so he doesn’t matter.’ One reason the Pharisees hated Jesus so much, other than threatening their power base, was that he didn’t fit their model.”
McLemore said people were outcasts unless they did everything the way the Pharisees wanted.
“Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and according to the Pharisees that was a sin,” he said. “But Jesus wasn’t going to let tradition interfere with God’s loving or helping a person. As far as he was concerned, it was the right thing to do.
“Mankind is God’s most precious creation and he wouldn’t have sacrificed his son if we weren’t important to him. We should want to have a relationship with God because he wants to have a relationship with us.”
