“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?”—St. Luke xv. 4.

There are many amongst us truly and conscientiously seeking the Lord whose souls are ill at ease, and whose hearts are far from peace. They are feeling after Him, if haply they may find Him; but they are like blind men groping for the wall, for they have not found Him, and they have no firm resting-place for their faith. They have been reading many passages about seeking the Lord, and have endeavoured to seek Him, but they are sorely discouraged.

Let us, therefore, change the subject, and instead of considering how they are to seek the Lord, let us see how the Lord seeks them. Let us look at the Divine side of the transaction, and instead of being absorbed by the subject of the sinner seeking the Saviour, let us look at the boundless grace of God which is shown by the Saviour seeking the sinner.

It is the great subject of this chapter, which contains three illustrations of the one subject, and thus forms an illustrated comment on His words, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” [13] According to those words He came for the lost, and came not only to save them when they should succeed in finding Him, but to seek them in order that He may save. He does not save without seeking, nor does He seek without saving. Let us glean some lessons, from the combination of the three illustrations, as to the loss of the sinner, and the seeking of the Saviour.

The Loss.

In all three cases the recovered one is said to have been lost. The sheep was lost. The coin was lost. The son was lost.

If we study the illustrations in detail we shall see that there are three ways described in the chapter in which this loss is brought about.

It is brought about, in the case of the lost sheep, through simple ignorance and the folly of pursuing each passing object of attraction. The wandering sheep has no particular intention of going wrong. It does not set off with a deliberate wish to run away; it is simply led on step by step by any attraction that lies beside its path. And is not this the case with thousands of those who have wandered from the Shepherd’s care?

In the second parable the loss is occasioned by the neglect of others. The piece of money is lost through carelessness, without any fault of its own. The person who had the charge of it took no heed to be sure that it was safe. How many are there in exactly that position? They have been lost, humanly speaking, through want of care.

But the third character is quite distinct from both the others. The Prodigal Son was lost because he deliberately and determinately left his father’s home. He was totally unlike the wandering sheep led on from step to step without a plan, for he had a plan, and he deliberately carried it out. This, then, is far the worst of the three. It represents one living in the midst of privileges, but deliberately casting away his faith. He has life and death brought before him, and he chooses death, or, at all events, he chooses that which leads to death. Oh! how marvellous is the boundless grace and mercy of our God, that He should go out of His way to seek and to save any one so unthankful and so guilty!

The Seeking of the Saviour.

He seeks by coming Himself as the Son of Man. The Shepherd leaving the fold and going forth into the wilderness to seek the wanderer, is a picture of the Son of God leaving the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and visiting this fallen world as the Son of man, in order that He might seek, and, by His atoning blood, might save the sinner. We shall never understand His grace in seeking us if we do not realize that great act of His already complete. This great finished work of His is the foundation of all that follows, and if we want to understand the mystery of His love in seeking us we must begin with the two great facts, Incarnation and Atonement. Why did He become man? Why was He born at Bethlehem? Was it not because He came on a divine mission to seek the sinner? Why did He die? Why did He utter that bitter cry upon the cross? Was it not that He might remove the curse by bearing it, and having broken down every barrier, might have the joy of bringing the lost one to the Father’s home? You, then, who are anxious about your souls, and whose earnest desire it is to be sought out and saved, remember what the Son of man has already done; fall back on the finished fact; and never forget that however doubtful you may be as to your own position, there is no doubt whatever as to the fact that the Son of God has come to seek the lost one and to save him by His blood.

He seeks through Human Agency.

I cannot think that the woman lighting a candle and sweeping the house represents the Saviour. She is generally, and I think correctly, thought to represent the Church. If this be the case it may serve to teach how the whole Church of Christ ought to be entirely engaged in carrying out the sacred mission of our Blessed Lord. It is not the Spirit alone that is to say “Come,” [15] but the Bride and all that hear the message. He has become man and died for us, but we are to light the candle, sweep the house, and seek diligently till we find the lost ones. We are to spare no effort for their recovery: we are to search them out; we are to let them know that there is a Christian friend anxious for their safety, and that there will not only be joy amongst the angels of God, but a hearty welcome amongst His people on earth for any poor lost one brought in lowly repentance to the feet of the Blessed Saviour, there to find pardon and recovery.

And what are we to say of the third parable, for we find no mention of the seeking there. But we find the divine act most remarkably represented, for there we may see how God Himself seeks the wanderer. We do not see the father doing it in the parable, but we do see how God Himself does it in fact. We there see the work both of His providence and of His Spirit. Of His providence, for the Father in heaven both sought and found him, just as He is doing with thousands now. He took from him one thing after another till all hope was gone, and he envied even the swine their meal. God was seeking him, so He broke him down and crushed him on purpose that He might save.

But God did much more than bring him into trouble, for trouble very often does nothing but harden. But in this case the Spirit of God was seeking him, so that it was a trouble blessed by the Spirit, and he was led with a broken heart to say, “Father, I have sinned.”

See how God Himself sought him and brought him to true repentance. He was far away from the hand of man. He was lost to his father’s home. But he was never lost sight of by God. There was a loving eye watching him, and a loving care seeking him, so that though lost to man he was not lost to God, and his father with a full heart was able at length to say, “This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”