Daily Lesson for May 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 7:

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

I am trying to see a middle eastern shepherd leaving the flock to go after one lost sheep and then coming home with the runaway and calling his friends and neighbors over to celebrate with him in the sheep's finding and I just can't do it.  No shepherd leaves 99 to go after one; and no shepherd acts so effusively about anything -- especially not a single lost sheep.  No respectable shepherd anyway.

And that's just the point. 

It's not respectability that Jesus cares about. That's why he's willing to sit down and eat with tax collectors and sinners -- because he's really just not concerned with how things are going to look.  He is on a different plane and sees things from a totally different perspective -- from the angle of God, heaven, and the angels.  He is not confined to the dictates of earth and ego. He knows the truth and the truth has set him free to live for heaven's sake and for the sake of others. 

Flannery O'Connor once said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."  Once we have come to know and see others as God sees them -- and to see ourselves as God sees us -- then we are no longer bound by what others see and say about us. It may mean we are seen as odd and perhaps even disreputable; but it also means we are free to receive whoever comes our way, to fellowship with them, and to be a part of the kingdom of God with them.

And while some may reject us, surely the angels will rejoice.