Reflections on the Kingdom of God
Part I
May 27, 2012

Many of us see the Kingdom of God like Bank of America, where bigger is better and richer is the goal. For many people a bigger church is a better church, and certainly bigger churches can offer more alternatives. But church is not the same as kingdom. In to many cases American ways have become blended with Jesus’ teachings, and it has become difficult to separate the two. When that happens, it is always the teachings of Jesus that suffer.

For Jesus the Kingdom of God was about relationships . . . our relationship with God and our relationships with people. The entire concept of the kingdom revolves around those two relationships . . . that is if we do not draw the circle of our human relationships too small. When we read the gospels, we see that for Jesus the kingdom included people, who were often excluded from traditional religion . . . women . . . sinners . . . tax collectors . . . lepers . . . prostitutes . . . foreigners. In many ways, the kingdom was for those who were excluded and forgotten by the people who thought themselves holy.

In Luke 15 Jesus tells three parables about being lost. His suggestion is that the Kingdom of God is very concerned about lostness. The first story deals with animals, the second with coins or inanimate objects, and the last one with family. We will look at the first story today, and the other two on subsequent days.

Consider some background. In the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, the religious establishment had been grumbling about the people with whom Jesus associated, and how Jesus had failed to keep the Jewish law. In response Jesus tells these  three stories.

Today’s story is about a shepherd and his sheep. Now shepherds were among those excluded from the Jewish religion. They were dirty, people of the land, common laborers. Jesus begins, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”

The Pharisees, who were listening, might have expected Jesus to say something like this: “Which of you, owning a hundred sheep, if you received a report that one was lost, would not send a servant to the shepherd responsible and threaten him with dismissal if he didn’t find the sheep.” No Jewish leader would spend his days tramping through the wilderness to find a lost sheep.

In typical speech patterns of the Middle East, a shepherd would never blame himself . . . “The sheep which was lost” was the typical speech pattern. Jesus breaks that way of thinking and placing blame, and he places the responsibility on the shepherd . . .  “Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one . . .”

That is the way the Kingdom of God works. Everyone is valuable. Everyone is worth searching for. No amount of time or energy is to be spared. What "good" religious people do or don't do, can cause people to become lost.

Remember the ninety-nine left behind while the shepherd looks? Think about how they might feel. If the shepherd is willing to go after the lost one, then it gives security to the others. If the shepherd says I don’t care . . . I have ninety-nine to look after, then each of the ninety-nine knows that if he or she becomes lost, then no one will care.

Of one thing I am certain . . . the Kingdom of God is about restoration. What about us?

[Ideas on biblical culture came from Kenneth E. Bailey, Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15.]