Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. My name is Kristen and my name is Katie and we want to spend a few minutes a day with you walking through the New Testament one chapter at a time.

This year we will fix our gaze upon Christ so that we may know

him, not only with our minds but with our hearts. Together we will learn that

who Jesus is changes everything.

Welcome back to a year in the Bible with Daily Grace. My name is Kristen Schmucker, and we are in Luke 15 today.

As a reminder, I'm using the Behold Studies from the Daily Grace Co as well as the free reading plan and you can find all the information about those in the show notes.

Today's chapter is one of my favorites because it contains three parables that are all intended to make one

point. As Jesus' ministry had grown all kinds of people were coming to hear him

preach and that included tax collectors and sinners, the lowest of society were drawn to this man from

Galilee.

But this was also a leading critique of Jesus from the scribes and Pharisees.

So Jesus tells three parables to answer this

objection in their hearts. The first is of the lost sheep. The illustration of

the shepherd and sheep would have been easily recognizable to those listening.

The Old Testament often spoke of God as shepherd and passages like Psalm 23 elaborated on the

metaphor of the Lord as our shepherd. But the Old Testament also spoke of Israel's

leaders as bad shepherds. They were the kind of shepherds who did not love and

care for the sheep in their care. But Jesus was altogether different than those evil

shepherds. In this first parable a man has 100 sheep. This is instantly a

clue of the man's wealth. We may assume that when one sheep of 100 went missing that a

wealthy man would hire someone to go searching, but instead this man goes to look for his

lost sheep himself. Lost sheep were helpless. Without the help of a

...