One Percent Matters
“How many out of a hundred?” Sounds like a math question we all heard in elementary school when we were learning about percentages. I did well in elementary school math, but things got a lot more difficult in high school math. Maybe your math skills are like mine, a little rusty or maybe even undeveloped, so let’s keep it simple.
Jesus often kept it simple in his parables. In Luke 15, the math is pretty easy. There was a man with 100 sheep, and he lost one. He still had 99 percent of his sheep. From our view, 99 percent of something is pretty satisfying. If I made a 99 on a math test, I would be dancing in the street! Most of us would be thrilled to be right 99 percent of the time, I suspect. If a golfer could make 99 percent of their putts, they would be rich, for one, and the most famous golfer in the world. What about your business? If you could close 99 percent of your sales, you wouldn’t even think about the one percent you lost.
But in this story, Jesus is all about the one percent. The one sheep that is lost is the most important of the flock in this moment. In this short parable, in just a few sentences Jesus changed the focus from sheep to people. By this time in Luke’s gospel, we realize that the religious leaders were more focused on rule-keeping than on people. Their concern for people seemed to be concern for how well the people kept the rules.
When you think back to the Old Testament, it is important to remember that God gave his rules not to control his beloved, but rather to give them life. Most of the rules of the Old Testament scriptures were given to the children of Israel after they came out of 400 years of slavery and were traveling through the wilderness. For instance, many—maybe most of—God’s rules in Leviticus were actually given to the children of Israel to prevent and treat diseases. But over time the religious hierarchy had expanded the rules significantly. The rules now included all their interpretations, which were increasingly difficult to keep up with, let alone obey.
In contrast with the Pharisees’ approach, this one little parable demonstrated that Jesus was focused on saving and caring for people. It would be easy at this point to think this has more to do with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day than it does for us. Certainly, in our churches we are more focused on people than we are about keeping rules.
But let’s take a minute and check ourselves. What percent of the people you know have a relationship with Jesus? If the answer is 100 percent, then we have a problem because we both know that in every community where we all live, work, and play, there are many people who do not have a relationship with Jesus. If all of the people we know do, then we have failed to care for the community God has called us to serve. His focus is not just on the church crowd but on those who are lost.
What can we do to develop more of the attitude of Jesus concerning the one percent? I suspect it starts with a confession that we have missed the mark about both loving like Jesus and in practicing discipleship. Our repentance must lead to a change of behavior, which includes seeing the people around us the way Jesus sees them, and as we do, we will begin to build relationships not just with the people that sit next to us at church but with lots of people who have never darkened a church door.
Jesus loves 100 percent and 100 percent of the time. His grace and mercy flow to everyone, and he longs for everyone to receive forgiveness for their sins and abundant life now and forevermore.
Father, today we confess that we have grown comfortable loving those we know the best and who are the most like us. Forgive us for the many ways and times we have not been attentive to those in our communities who do not know you. Open our eyes to see those in need. Open our hearts to care for those in our communities, both near and far. And open our lives to actively reaching out to others daily. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Luke 15:1-7 ESV
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