Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Luke 15:4-6 – “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?  When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” (NRSV)

Jesus told this parable because people were “grumbling” about him hanging out with folks they considered sinners.  Later in this chapter, we have the story of the “Prodigal Son,” in which we see a similar resentful attitude reflected in the elder brother.  It started me wondering what the opposite of resentment is?

We might assume that the opposite of resentment is happiness or even satisfaction.  But this story might point us in a different direction.  People will talk about the 99 sheep and the one who gets lost, reminding us that if we’re the one who is lost, we may feel differently about the shepherd leaving the others to come find us, than if we were still safely in the middle of the herd.

Many of us have had an experience of feeling like the lost sheep – when life fell apart or we only had bad choices available to us – and we needed Someone to come searching for us.  Some people might even imply that this moment comes to everyone eventually.  But what if your life has actually been relatively smooth?  What if you’ve always had a good network to rely on when things got hard, and you’ve had the privilege of good education and well-compensated work?

The spiritual capacity to empathize with the lost sheep even if it hasn’t been our experience – that is, humility – may be the true opposite of resentment.  Admitting that such lostness could easily have been our lot, and thereby, bridging the situational distance between the one and the 99 requires a generosity of spirit that is squelched when resentment takes over.  In these times when so many are struggling, Jesus teaches us to open our hearts to the Spirit’s compassion that helps us rejoice when the lost have been found, rather than pouting because we weren’t being searched for even as we sat safely in the barn.