Matthew 18:12

Matthew 18:12

I. Look at the figure of the one wanderer. (1) All men are Christ's sheep. All men are Christ's, because He has been the Agent of Divine creation, and the grand words of the hundredth Psalm are true about Him, "It is He that hath made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." They are His because His sacrifice has bought them for His. Erring, straying, lost, they still belong to the Shepherd. (2) Notice next the picture of the sheep as wandering. The straying of the poor half-conscious sheep may seem innocent, but it carries the poor thing away from the shepherd as completely as if it had been wholly intelligent and voluntary. Let us learn the lesson. In a world like this, if a man does not know very clearly where he is going he is sure to go wrong. If you do not exercise a distinct determination to do God's will, and to follow in His footsteps who has set us an example, and if your main purpose is to get succulent grass to eat and soft places to walk in, you are certain, before long, to wander tragically from all that is right, and noble, and pure.

II. Look at the picture of the Seeker. In the text God leaves the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains where the wanderer is, and seeks him. And thus, couched in veiled form, is the great mystery of the Divine love, the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Not because man was so great; not because man was so valuable in comparison with the rest of creation he was but one amongst ninety and nine unfallen and unsinful but because he was so wretched, because he was so small, because he had gone away so far from God; thereforethe seeking love came after him, and would draw him to itself.

A. Maclaren, A Year's Ministry,2nd series, p. 267.

Reference: Matthew 18:12. R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables,p. 373.