For those of you who keep track of my personal Facebook page, you'd know of a post I made recently regarding Matthew 18 and Luke 15, the two occasions where the Lord Jesus Christ told a parable to different audiences with subtle variation. This has been on my mind ever since the Spirit struck me as hard as it did, and so I wanted to make a longer edition with more details of that post.

The Parable of the Found Lamb

Recently I have found myself dissuaded from calling this parable the parable of the lost sheep. The parable, if anything, is not about a lamb being lost. It is all about the Savior finding the lamb who, through no fault of its own, found itself away from two separate flocks. Although the ninety and nine sheep wouldn't have noticed, One did. The Good Shepherd knows each of His sheep, loves them, and takes care of them.

In fact, I remember quite clearly during an Mission Leadership Conference on my Mission in Texas when Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy dropped a major truth bomb on us -- as good as the Spanish translation of the Book of Mormon was, he felt that there was a serious translation error that, though only a nuance of a word, had the capacity to change how the text was read. The verse in question was 1 Nephi 22:25, wherein Nephi declared that the Lord "numbereth his sheep." (Other uses of the verb "number", such as 3 Nephi 16:3, also fit the description Elder Robbins talked about). The Spanish translation used the verb contar, to count, and after thinking about this for a good long while, we all came to the same conclusion -- Jesus doesn't count His sheep. He numbers them. He identifies them. He knows and loves them. Counting is indiscriminate, numbering gives them an individual identity. (Remember in Victor Hugo's classical work Les Misérables the man called Prisoner 24601? Exactly.)

While the nuanced meaning between count and number doesn't affect my testimony (as it shouldn't), it helped me realize the significance of this verse for the first time and how it teaches so clearly the Savior's love. Knowing this about the Savior, it gives us a new appreciation for the parable He tells concerning the rescue and salvation of the lost lamb.

A Parable to Different Audiences

Joseph Smith taught that in order to understand the parables of Jesus. Namely, he gave a "key" to understand it:

I have a key by which I understand the Scriptures. I enquire what was the question which drew out the answer or caused Jesus to utter the parable. It is not national, it does not refer to Abraham, Israel, or the Gentiles, in a national capacity as some supposed. To ascertain its meaning, we must dig up the root, and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus. (1)

With the parable of the lost lamb, it is unique in one way because it is one of the only parables recorded twice in the Gospels under different circumstances, to different audiences, and under different questions posed.

In Luke 15, Jesus told this parable in a large audience. As he sat down to eat with publicans and sinners, it must have been a sight for the Pharisees, scribes, and those who kept the letter of the law to a fault. Why would a man who claimed to be a great rabbi, even the Messiah, sit down with traitors to the country (as tax collectors were viewed) and the unclean? As the Pharisees murmured and complained, Jesus then gives the parable to them, the hypocrites among hypocrites of His day.

However, in Matthew 18, a completely separate occasion leads to this parable. It came about as the Apostles came to Jesus and asked which of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. I don't believe it was a question of pride that led to them asking this, but a matter of a lack of understanding. Remember, these were converts of less than three years. How was the Kingdom of Heaven to be organized? What would that look like? To answer them, Jesus calls forth a little child and tells them, as King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon did, that they must become as a little child to inherit the Kingdom in the first place. He also warns them that anyone who willfully causes a little child to stumble and lose their way would be under condemnation, and then He enters the parable.

Here are the keys Joseph would use -- to one group, a sharp rebuke of their lack of repentance compared to the sinners who actually desired to repent and come to Him. To another, he meaning lay in clarifying that even if a child would be lost, the Good Shepherd knew where His sheep was. (2).

Textual Variances in the Parables

In the two parables, there are a few distinct differences in the way that Jesus tells them that adds a deep spiritual significance to the parables. Namely, the largest difference lay in where the flocks of sheep are to be found.

To the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus tells them that the Shepherd will leave the ninety-nine sheep "in the wilderness." That seems like the last place you would want to leave any flock of sheep, if you ask almost anyone. The wilderness setting stems from the Pharisees' own lack of repentance, a desolate place where the Pharisees find themselves in of their own accord. After all, they  never left the flock. Why should they worry about anyone else who did? They had stayed with the group, they should be fine wherever they were.

To the Apostles, however, it takes looking at the Greek to find out where Jesus left the flock of sheep including the disciples. The King James Version says that the Shepherd went into the mountains, but most modern translators agree that Jesus says that He leaves the flock in the mountains, and then He goes searching for the lost lamb. The setting here has a deep spiritual significance that would not have been missed by the Apostles. Mountains are sacred places where God will come to visit His people. Even the Temple was called the mountain of the Lord: "Who shall ascend into the mountain of Yahweh? Who shall arise in His holy place?" (Psalm 24:3, my translation). This flock of sheep that the Apostles found themselves a part of knew they needed the Shepherd just as much as the one lamb that was lost in the wilderness, and they followed the Shepherd into a sacred and holy place that was safeguarded from harm. By making covenants with the Shepherd, they were safe and protected through the night. To further this point, instead of ending with a call to repentance, Jesus tells the Apostles that the Lord will always go after the lost lamb and does not desire that a single one be lost.

The One Lamb

The bulk of the parable rests, however, on the one lost lamb. 

The lamb that became lost was not at fault. Lambs do not wake up one day and say "I've had enough of the shepherd. I'm going off on my own, I'll be better off that way." The lamb became lost through no fault of its own, perhaps as the flock moved away from the lamb as it was not looking or as it became distracted with the innocent worldview that it has. Then, as it realized it was lost, it tried finding the Shepherd, but with no guidance found its way deeper into the wilderness and more and more lost and utterly alone.

As night drew nearer, perhaps the lamb felt much as the Psalmist, who "walk[ed] through the valley of the shadow of death," but during this hard time "The Lord [who is the lamb's] shepherd" came to him. He led him "to lie down in green pastures" and beside "still waters," the Lord restored the lamb's soul, and the lamb, who alone felt the need for a shepherd to help him, was saved. (see Psalm 23). The Lord is well aware of our needs. He knows all those who desire Him, and He will always go out and find the lost lamb.

The Lamb Found

In 1820, a young boy found himself wandering away from a flock of Pharisaical ministers and priests contending for converts. This one lost lamb was found. The Savior appeared to him, reaching out in love to the lamb who through no fault of his own was alienated from the fold around him.

We are all like the sheep that is lost. We are all lost sheep. We all need a shepherd to shepherd us to safety in the mountain of the Lord. We cannot do it on our own. And we, in our own lives, as we find night falling and danger approaching, as we hear the wolves draw nearer and feel helpless, lost, and completely and utterly alone, we too can take solace in the Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Lord will always find His sheep. He will always lift you out of the depths of darkness and gloom, and He will carry us on His shoulders and lead us safely to the presence of our Parents in Heaven once more. 

NOTES

1. History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]. Accessed October 12, 2020. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/102#foot-notes

2. In the same sermon quoted above, Joseph would go on to say that "The hundred sheep represent one-hundred Saducees and Pharisees, as though Jesus had said. If you Saducees and Pharisees are in the Sheepfold, I have no mission for you, I am sent to look up Sheep that are lost, and when I have <​found them​> I will back <​them​> up and make joy in heaven. This represents hunting after a few individuals or one poor publican, which the Pharisees and Saducees despised... I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that are so righteous, they will be dam’d anyhow, you cannot save them."