The One and the Ninety-Nine – Sunday, August 11, 1985
The Savior gave a telling parable when He asked, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it?”1
Most of us probably wonder about the wisdom of chasing after the one and ignoring the ninety-nine. What would happen to the unprotected flock while the shepherd searches?
Yet, this simple story tells us as much about the Lord as a lifetime of experience. Stephen Covey said, “Going after the one ‘lost sheep’ results not in neglecting the ninety-nine, but in effectively reaching them.”2
Why? Think back to the last time someone in your company was critical of another. Recall a moment when a colleague seemed warm and caring to his fellow worker, then turned on him as he moved out of earshot, Did you ever feel as safe in that person’s company again, as willing to expose your vulnerabilities? When someone is critical of another, a doubt creeps upon us. We wonder if, when we are gone, he will be critical of us, too, focusing on frailties we know too well but hope others can’t see. Such is the point of the parable. Caring for the one shore up trust in the others and gives them confidence in the shepherd, even when he is gone.
That’s the way of the Lord. He who knows us best loves us most, even when we feel wayward and worthless, even when we feel undeserving. And, who among us never feels like the one left out from a world that seems confidently passing us by?
An important executive confided to a friend that he wondered if his work was worthwhile, if all the time and effort he gave his job mattered for anything. If the seemingly confident and powerful feel that way, what about the rest of us? It is so easy to question our worth, our lovability. Self-worth and confidence ebb and flow like a restless wave.
That is why we need the Lord. That is why we can understand more fully the attraction of the Lord’s dwelling, why we would rather be a doorkeeper there than enthroned anywhere else. It is because there we feel fully loved, the self-doubts which shadow our lives vanished by the light of God.
And so again, the lesson of the parable, whether we dwell with the ninety and nine or the one, we are assured that when we feel most lost, when we feel tossed about by buffeting world, the Lord will drop all to come for us.
And we can test the Lord’s own principle by using it. “Think about the one,” says Covey, “talk to the one, regard the one, serve the one. If you are sincere and constant, you will discover that gradually your influence with the many will be magnified.”3
1 New Testament, Luke 15:4
2 Covey, Stephen R, Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, Deseret Book Company, p, 140
3 Covey, op, cit.
August 11, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,921