December 10th, 2024
Reading Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep at the heart of our brisk three-verse gospel today, we can be forgiven for indulging in the winsome waywardness of our wooly protagonist. Not all who wander are lost; but if and when we stray from the ninety-nine, we are assured, our Father in heaven “is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”
A broader reading of Matthew 18, however, reveals a more brooding savior: one whose parable of a shepherd’s disproportionate love for a lost sheep is inspired most concretely by concern for the maltreatment of children: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones” (Mt 18:10); “[w]hoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Mt 18:6).
Read in context, the gospel today riddles profound if troubling insights into the cyclical logic of harm. For Jesus, the alienation, despair, and sin of those deemed lost are bound up with—and often directly result from—the experience of being disregarded, despised, and abused by others. As Danielle Sered, executive director of Common Justice, similarly cautions, “no one enters violence for the first time by committing it.” Nor, it seems, is the promise of “being found” fully certain. Our Father’s redeeming love in heaven is guaranteed; the possibility, however, that the lost sheep is in fact not found and not rejoiced over here on earth (“if he finds it”) continues to menace us.
Especially in a contemporary culture in which we pride ourselves, as it were, on our capacity for spite, and in which social media platforms, billionaires, and political parties profit from fomenting a politics of contempt and “organized abandonment” (Ruth Wilson Gilmore), we might do well to return to the image of Jesus considering the lost sheep. What does he see? Whom does he see?
Consider too the candor with which he both indicts and invites the reader. “What is your opinion?” When were you last condescending to someone? When were you last disregarded? When did you last search out someone who was feeling unvalued or abandoned? Where have you felt the joy of finding and being found?
This Advent, let us welcome the Christ child who paradoxically shepherds us, “gather[ing] the lambs” and “leading the ewes with care” (Is 40: 11). Let us in our care for each other “become like children” just as he has.
Thomas Graff is a theologian based in Cambridge, UK, whose research explores the intersections of theology, literature, and incarceration. He enjoys running, footnotes, and (despite Isaiah 40:6–8) wildflowers.