Why does the good Shepherd look for the lost sheep.

 …If any of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he finds it, he takes it on his shoulders with joy, and as soon as he comes home, he calls his friends and neighbors and says to them: “Rejoice with me because I have found my sheep that was lost › Lk 15, 4-6. Have you ever thought about this relatively banal question, why does the Shepherd in the Lord’s parable leave his 99 sheep alone in the desert and search for the one lost sheep? There are popular interpretations of this story that emphasize the fact that the Shepherd, who is the Lord Jesus, loves the lost sheep, that is, those who have wandered away from their flock. And because he loves them, he does not leave them alone, he goes after them and looks for them so that the dear lost sheep do not feel bad – for the Lord in his infinite love accepts them as they are, and in every situation that they have gotten into through their stupidity or disobedience, will save them. While these explanations are largely true, they focus on the lost sheep, not the Lord. However, the Bible and Christianity are not like that, the center of Scripture and the Christian lifestyle is not man, but Christ. If we do not understand this, we will easily fall into the traps set for us by modern humanism. Let us now look at the parable of the lost sheep from the Shepherd’s point of view. Yes, the Shepherd loves his sheep, every one of them. Together, these sheep make up the flock that the Shepherd cares for. When the Shepherd leads his sheep to the pasture and the waterhole, he takes care of them all at once as a whole, just as God took care of his people, Israel, throughout history and later also of the church called from the Gentile nations, which are “sheep from another fold,” which the Lord speaks of in John 10,16. Sheep are, therefore, collective creatures, living in a herd.

Similarly, man is a social creature who needs meaningful relationships with others. People live their lives in different groups, and from the point of view of salvation, the most important group is the community of Christians, i.e. the church, God’s people, which the Bible likens to a flock of sheep (Ps 100.3; Jn 10). The Shepherd is not looking for the sheep to comfort it in its loneliness and abandonment but to bring it back to the flock as quickly as possible.

From this point of view, it is important to realize that the Shepherd is not looking for the sheep to comfort it in its loneliness and abandonment but to bring it back to the flock as quickly as possible. The problem of the lost sheep is not that it is alone but that it is outside the flock, missing the other sheep and exposed to threats from various predatory beasts. In other words, her needs cannot be met outside the herd, and she is not protected. That is why sheep need a flock and Christians a church in the form of a living, functioning local congregation. It is safe when the flock is together, even if the Shepherd is gone for a while. The bigger, stronger, and healthier the herd is, the more valuable it is to the Shepherd. It is not without interest that in biblical times, a person’s success and wealth were measured by the amount of cattle he owned (Gn 13:2; 26:12-14). A good shepherd wants a big flock, just as the Lord wants a big church.

The problem of today is too strong individualism. This can be seen, for example, in the following modern phenomenon: People live as so-called singles, and it is difficult for them to commit to life even in the most elementary cell of human society, in marriage. People want to have fun and enjoy themselves, but sacrificing something for someone else or the group is foreign. It would be foolish to assume that an overemphasis on individualism is not also a issue in modern Christianity. After all, today, it is popular to emphasize what someone experiences with the Lord and what the Lord shows to whom. But we must never forget that God is not the servant of men, but men are God’s servants.

A personal relationship with God is certainly an extremely important value, which is an essential feature of an authentic Christian life, but we must remember that this personal relationship we have with Christ is realized in the context of the church. Elevating individual piety above the importance of the common worship of God and service to the Lord within the local church is wrong and very dangerous. This phenomenon sometimes leads to the fact that a sheep can wander away from the herd and put its life in danger. It is excellent that we can have wonderful experiences with God. Still, we must realize that the essence of the Christian life does not lie in beautiful experiences with God but in faithfully following Christ, developing our relationship with Him, and serving God in the local church. Therefore, let’s have a quality personal relationship with the Good Shepherd and find our firm place in the church. We will experience true blessing and happiness (bliss) if we dethrone our selfish SELF from the throne of our lives and place Christ there. Our future is in Christ, our future is in the church.