Rejoice With Me Because I Have Found My Lost Sheep

In the Gospel according to Luke, just ahead of the Prodigal Son parable, Jesus teaches the importance of repentance in our lives. Using the simile of a lone, lost sheep to represent the one sinner that strays from the community, Jesus takes the focus away from the darkness of sin, and places it on the brightness of redemption. We read in Scripture:
 
“Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. (Luke 15:6-7)
 
In the “second movement” of Luke’s “symphony” about repentance and forgiveness, Jesus uses the loss of a coin to emphasize the value of searching for the one that is missing, leaving the other nine securely in their place:
 
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10)
 
In the account of the Prodigal Son, the crescendo of this suite of parables, the attention can easily be placed on the sinfulness of the wayward young man and the dissolute lifestyle he adopted, instead of the repentance and forgiveness that ensues. The one act of repentance by the younger brother outshone the many righteous acts of his elder brother and did not go unnoticed. The father’s sense of fairness came into question, and this (now famous) reply was given:
 
“He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’” (Luke 15: 31-32)
 
On the surface, it is hard to understand why one sheep who strayed would get the attention of the shepherd over the rest of the herd that stayed put, or why the profligate son was given a feast that his righteous brother never got. Perhaps this quote from the Gospel of Mark will shed some light, and provide a fitting close to this reflection:
 
Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Jesus heard this and said to them [that], “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2:16-17)