We are in Chapter 18 of Matthew which is considered the Church Chapter. It contains many sayings of Jesus which are considered to be the instructions to the Apostles about how they are to act and manage the New Covenant community when Jesus is gone. He has spoken about how they must become like a little child and that anyone who misleads these littles ones should be thrown into the sea. He also laments the temptations people have to sin but especially to those who are the cause of temptation in others.
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
In this time period agriculture was the way of life so Jesus tells a parable with imagery of a shepherd and his sheep. These are common things to his listeners and he uses the common elements to teach things that are maybe not so common to them.
He announces a common scenario where a shepherd loses one of his sheep. Jesus uses this as an ontological leverage point to demonstrate how God perceives those who are lost from his fold. The man loses one of his sheep and he will willingly leave his other ninety-nine in the safety of the mountains in order to pursue the one who is lost. From the perspective of his audience this is obvious, of course the shepherd would do this but Jesus uses this to teach them how God functions.
13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
When the man finds it, he will rejoice over the lost sheep being found more than he does over the ninety-nine that never left. The reason why finding the sheep causes him to rejoice, as Jesus audiences knows, is because sheep are valuable to the owner.
14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Jesus closes the lever of the parable, pointing to what it was ontologically referring to. Just as the man rejoices, so it is not the will of God the Father should lose a little one, because they are valuable to him. This could mean literally littles ones as in children but it could also mean those new to the faith. Since this takes place in the “Church” chapter of Matthew, it would make sense that it applies to both. Jesus is teaching his disciples the necessary pastoral approach they are to have to children literally and to children in the faith when they go astray. They are all valuable and God the Father wishes us to find every single one of them regardless of how we may personally feel about it.
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