The Lost Sheep

I was reading an apologia of a Biblical scholar about a recent issue, he mentioned about the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

It confused me.

I am not a Bible scholar, but I know that the Parable of the Lost Sheep, where the shepherd left the ninety-nine to find the lost one, is not about tolerance but repentance.

How do I know? Well, just look at the ending of the parable. It gives the moral lesson of the story. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”(Luke 15:7).

The parable was not about tolerance of what is wrong or condemnation of those trying to be upright. It is about repentance.

The parable is NOT about a shepherd who brought back the one lost sheep to the fold and lost the ninety-nine who remained.

A good shepherd looks for the lost sheep to bring it back to the fold, not to make the rest of the ninety-nine look foolish for staying in the fold.

Nowadays, it would seem that the ninety-nine is at fault because they remained faithful while the lost one is now pampered.

I am baffled by how even the most erudite Biblical scholars can be confused in what would have been otherwise plain reading.

Maybe that is the effect of being erudite. They tend to complicate what is simple. And perhaps this is what Jesus was talking all about how God revealed the message of the Kingdom to the childlike but hid it from the learned.

The radicality of Jesus is not in his tolerance of the sinners but his loving call for repentance.

It has been the Church’s pastoral principle ever since the time of Augustine that we need “to love the sinner but hate the sin.” Nowadays, we are no longer making distinctions. We are not even talking about sin.

This is why I am confused by the opinion that insinuates that the Church was not merciful in the past. As if mercy has just suddenly appeared lately but was absent before.

I think the difference is that today we do not anymore follow the pastoral principle to “love the sinner and hate the sin” because we now “love the sinner by loving the sin.”

It is the “normalization of sin.”

Of course, we are all sinners. Sometimes, we may struggle for a lifetime to overcome our habit of sin. But, it does not mean that we stop struggling and just tolerate our sinfulness.

The confusion lies in the fact that we have come to equate calling sin as judging. It is not.

I wonder why is it that nobody seems to quote the verses where Jesus said to go and sin no more (John 8:11, John 5:14, John 8:34, Luke 13:5). Is Jesus judging here?

Of course not, but still, he did not hesitate to tell the adulterous woman to sin no more. He did not condemn her, but he did not just turn a blind eye as if the woman did nothing wrong.

Telling a person to sin no more is not judging.

How can a person “repent” if, in the first place, he or she does not even consider what he or she is doing as sinful?

Repentance always starts by acknowledging one’s sinfulness. However, in a world where everyone is trying to be politically correct, “calling a spade, a spade” is already considered a “hateful speech,” or “judging,” or being “unmerciful.”

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