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(**This series began in 2023. These recent posts are the conclusion to that series. To view the entire series, please click HERE)

As a brief reminder, this series is an exposition from Jesus’ own discourse to his disciples. There is no higher authority, nor clearer blueprint for what Jesus envisioned for his Church (assembly, congregation, gathering). He was not inaugurating a new alternative religion. He didn’t start an oppositional institutional authority. He was both describing and prescribing what a group of people following Him would be like.

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 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? 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. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:10-14)

When I began this series in 2023, one of the key features of Jesus’ blueprint for His church was that it was a church (gathering) of children. Jesus refers to his beloved as “little ones” (mikrós-young, small, unimportant) and thus his warning not to despise, look down upon, or show contempt for them. This layer reveals a contrast to the proud who are always thinking they are better than others and who are outside the loving protection of the Lord. “God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.”(James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5)

Jesus tells this parable to shine the light on the fact that his “community” (church) is comprised of beloved strays from the herd. Yes this comports with the Lord as the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18), but there are also some revealing points of contrast between the stray and the herd.

1. The Lord values the stray and risks ninety-nine in order to recover them.
2. The Lord seeks out and finds the stray.
3. The Lord rejoices more over the stray than the herd.
4. The Lord’s will is that no strays (àpóllumai-die, disappear, lost).

God is with the stray, but why? Is there something wrong with the herd? Not necessarily, but the herd has each other. They are stronger together and interdependent, and rely less upon the shepherd. In a religious and agricultural culture, the herd represents solidarity with religious and cultural norms. A good obedient sheep does what he or she is supposed to do, they follow the rules, don’t make waves, and all move about together as a collective. It’s this collective consciousness that becomes the problem…they find satisfaction within the safety of the herd.

The stray sees the world differently. In the world of business, art, and sports, no innovation has ever come from the herd. The herd emulates instead. The stray would rather risk falling in a river, stumbling over a cliff or face a predator than competing for the scraps with the herd at meal time. The stray discovers the world is bigger and offers far more than life in the pen. This is important to understand so that we don’t miss the bigger message here.

Jesus’ church of strays exists because he is not inaugurating a new alternative religion, nor is he constructing a new competitive institutional power to run people. Jesus himself was the religious stray. The herd couldn’t contain him. Jesus subverted the aggregate power of the herd by inviting the strays, those disenfranchised by religion and state, to live freely and authentically apart from the mould of the system. Jesus’ blueprint for the church is the freedom from religion & state, not conformity to them.

We must not forget that strays are indeed lost and searching. Just because one is free from the herd, doesn’t mean he or she has been found by the Good Shepherd. The stray can only take confidence in the fact that being lost in the wilderness makes us closer to God, by way of our humiliation, desperation and need. The proud, by contrast, think themselves superior to the lost. Since it is the will of the Lord that no stray is to perish, we can confidently trust that a true stray will eventually be found, and that such a salvation is a true joy not only to the stray, but to God Himself. Those finding safety and identity in the herd have no such guarantee.

Is your faith in your religion? Do you have faith that your “system of faith” is the best one? If so, you are in the prideful herd. While you assume salvation is yours, what you know of salvation is merely the collective consciousness imposing itself upon you. Is there a part of you that questions the herd? That doubts that it offers all the reality that exists? If so, you may be a future stray. When your love of freedom and authenticity is stronger than cultural identity and group safety, then salvation is as close to you as the solitude of the wilderness.

It turns out that joining a church, subscribing to a religion, or over-identifying politically or religiously is not salvation at all, but a forfeited authenticity, and a self hiding amidst the herd. If the wilderness and life of the stray is calling you, if solitude and silence are your hunger and thirst, then the Lord awaits you and is calling you to come.