How familiar this gospel passage is to all of us! Even in an area like ours, which is not primarily agricultural, the image of a shepherd caring for his sheep is an easy one to understand, so we were probably introduced to this passage as children. We are the sheep. God is the shepherd. Piece of cake.

But I’m interested in how Jesus poses this story as a question to his friends; he invites them to participate in the teaching by saying, tell me “your opinion.” Does that mean there is something more complicated or challenging after all? So, I took another look.

Because I am one of the sheep, I tend to read this from that perspective—when I sin and when I’m lost, God will always come to invite me back. I see it from the sheep’s perspective because I want to be the center of the story. I want to know how this is about me and my salvation.

But I think the story is really about the man who has a hundred sheep. It is about the shepherd—his task to go in search, his worry about the one that goes astray, his joy at being reunited. I need to read it from the shepherd’s perspective so that I can learn more about him.

I’ve learned that the shepherd is confident that the ninety-nine are safe left alone because they are left together, in community. I’ve started thinking of him like the Prodigal Son’s father in that his joy might seem unfairly tilted away from the “good” sheep who stayed in the hills to begin with. And I’ve begun thinking what

Jesus meant when he said “if he finds” the sheep. What am I doing that might keep God the shepherd from finding me? How can I be more discoverable to God and to others?

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Reflection for December 9