[Luk 15:1-7 NLT] (1) Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. (2) This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people--even eating with them! (3) So Jesus told them this story:
4) "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? (5) And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. (6) When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'
(7) In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away!
ΚΑΤΑ ΛΟΥΚΑΝ 15,1 Ἦσαν δὲ αὐτῷ ἐγγίζοντες πάντες οἱ τελῶναι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ. 2 καὶ διεγόγγυζον οἵ τε Φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς λέγοντες ὅτι οὗτος ἁμαρτωλοὺς προσδέχεται καὶ συνεσθίει αὐτοῖς. 3 Εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτοὺς τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην λέγων·
4 τίς ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὑμῶν ἔχων ἑκατὸν πρόβατα καὶ ἀπολέσας ἐξ αὐτῶν ἓν οὐ καταλείπει τὰ ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ πορεύεται ἐπὶ τὸ ἀπολωλὸς ἕως εὕρῃ αὐτό; 5 καὶ εὑρὼν ἐπιτίθησιν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους αὐτοῦ χαίρων 6 καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν οἶκον συγκαλεῖ τοὺς φίλους καὶ τοὺς γείτονας λέγων αὐτοῖς· συγχάρητέ μοι, ὅτι εὗρον τὸ πρόβατόν μου τὸ ἀπολωλός.
7 λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὕτως χαρὰ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἔσται ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι ἢ ἐπὶ ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα δικαίοις οἵτινες οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν μετανοίας.
As background, realizing that commentaries aren't inspired, I yet have to question when I find myself seeing something different than the preponderance of commentators' readings.
- Do I correctly read that the shepherd IN THE PARABLE ITSELF is identified with the Pharisees and scribes?
4 τίς ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὑμῶν ἔχων ἑκατὸν πρόβατα...
Am I correct that IN THIS PARABLE, it's the Pharisees and the scribes are described as having the 100 sheep, with one being lost? I can't read ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὑμῶν ἔχων ἑκατὸν πρόβατα to refer to "Jesus" at all.
If I also read correctly that the lost sheep equates to a sinner needing repentance (which everyone seems to agree to), then do I correctly conclude that the parable assigns a shepherd responsibility to the Pharisees and scribes for seeking and bringing back lost sinners?
Here's where I need to be checked, because every commentator I consult reads Jesus as the Shepherd, which he is in a larger sense (Luke 19,10) but in THIS PARABLE is not the role of Shepherd explicitly assigned to the Pharisees and scribes via ἐξ ὑμῶν?
And wouldn't Jesus be saying, in effect, that the Pharisees and scribes treat their literal livestock better than they do the lost sheep? They'd seek their lost livestock and find it and bring it back and rejoice with their neighbors. But let one sinner try to come home and they're all in an uproar. Isn't that what Jesus is saying here?
And that's where Jesus himself would come in as the One seeking and saving the lost. (Luke 19,10) But in THIS PARABLE, isn't it more that the scribes and Pharisees SHOULD rejoice when a sinner wants to repent, but are complaining instead? Please check me on this...