Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying:
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:1-7).
Here in the northern part of Mississippi (where the AFA offices are located), we are just digging out from a couple of inches of ice that basically shut down the whole region for almost a week. Folks in the northern states may be accustomed to icy, snowy months, but down here in the Deep South, there are no standard operating procedures for inches of ice accompanied by temperatures that plunged into the single-to-teen digits for almost a week and rose above freezing just long enough to melt some of the top layers to refreeze into an icy surface. We had plenty of warning that this weather was coming, but in our area, we have a history of receiving such warnings without even a bowl of snow cream to show for it at the end of the day.
One thing that is fun to do during such times is to put together jigsaw puzzles. My sister-in-love lives next door, and that is one of her favorite ways to pass the time, even without icy ground and freezing temperatures keeping her inside. When my husband and I went over to check on her, we all three (at various times) searched for a particular piece of the 1000-piece puzzle she was working on. It should have been pretty easy to spot: the bottom half of the piece was green, while most of the remaining pieces were predominantly red, and the space for the piece seemed to be a little larger than the rest of them. But that piece just did not seem to be there! When it came down to that final empty space, lo and behold, it was under the couch!
That situation reminds me of some of the parables Jesus told – specifically the ones about valuable belongings (or people) that are so highly prized that when they are lost, the owner (father) rejoices over them when they are returned to the fold or the treasury or the home. Jesus was speaking to religious leaders who did not understand why He would associate with “sinners” (as if they themselves were not also sinners), so He answered them with these parables in Luke 15 to show that the Father loves and values even those who wander far away from His fold.
It seems that we Christians always like to think about how God goes after the one – the one lost sheep, the one lost coin, the one lost/prodigal son, all of which Jesus spoke about in Luke 15. We love that God cares so much for us that He would come looking for us or stand watching for us to return from our wanderings in the “far country.” We are the coin or the sheep or the prodigal child. We are valuable to the Creator!
Another way Jesus displayed this love was in the miracles He performed, whether those were acts of healing, turning water into wine, exorcising demons from the possessed, or even restoring life to the dead! One of His most famous miracles is when He fed the 5,000 men (plus women and children) with the five loaves and two fish. This phenomenon is recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6), so it must have been a widely reported and well-known event.
One aspect of this miracle that I have heard mentioned before is that Jesus told the disciples to feed the people themselves. Of course, they had no means to do it, but even after He had multiplied the loaves and fish, he told the twelve to distribute the pieces to the people. This instruction is also recorded in all four accounts. Something else that is present in all four Gospels is that there were twelve baskets left over after everyone had eaten … maybe one for every disciple?
But one day when I was reading in John and came to chapter 6, I saw something in the Scriptures that I don't think I had ever noticed in quite the same light before … something I had never grasped. When I realized it, I did a little research and discovered that it is only mentioned in John – maybe because he was the disciple who stayed closest to Jesus. (He was the only disciple mentioned by name as standing at the foot of the cross, and he was also the one to whom Jesus entrusted His mother.)
While the other three accounts just say something like, “And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish,” the gospel of John gives one other detail. John 6:12: “And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost’” [emphasis mine].
I have heard people say that maybe the disciples were saving the leftovers for later or something. But when you see that Jesus did not want any pieces to be lost … it seems a bit more intentional than just leftovers. Do we really think He was concerned with leftovers?
What caught my attention was that Jesus did not want to lose any of the broken pieces – the fragments. He did not tell the disciples to gather all the whole loaves and fish that were left over; He didn’t even say to pick up the pieces that did not have teeth marks in them! He said to gather all the fragments or broken pieces or leftovers so that nothing would be lost or wasted.
The Son of God … the very one who had created everything in existence … said not to leave any of the broken pieces behind. Why?
Could it be that Jesus – Who never did anything without a reason – wanted to show His disciples (and us) that He doesn’t just love the “valuable” possessions and beautiful people that are prized by the world? Could it be that He wanted us all to understand that He values the broken and fragmented pieces discarded by the world as mere “leftovers”?
After all, isn’t that what we all are? Broken … fragmented … leftovers?
No one can make it all the way through life without some kind of pain, loss, or suffering. But there are many who are unwilling to admit that their own strength – their own mental toughness and savvy – is not enough. They have not come to the end of themselves.
If we are never broken to the point where we realize our need for a Savior, then we are like those religious leaders Jesus was talking to in Luke – the ones who complained about Him eating with “sinners.” They could not see that their righteousness was the “filthy rags” referred to in Isaiah 64:6, and they saw no need for themselves to be rescued, found, or restored.
We are all broken. It just requires humility to realize it.
