Please read the passage first. Then, I invite you to reflect upon the following devotion.
God practices hospitality. We can see this truth in the way Jesus opened his life and fellowship to people whom his society considered outcasts. Jesus does not seem to pass judgment upon why people are lost and alienated from God. His concern is that they are lost. In practicing hospitality with the lost, Jesus shows the love and mercy of God toward sinful and lost humanity. Jesus shows the concern that God has in calling people to repentance.
Shepherds had a low standing in society. Although they cared for their sheep, numbered them, and wanted to keep all of them in the fold, they would not put at risk 99 sheep in order to find one. So, the idea that a shepherd, representing divine love, would do so, is something that would surprise hearers.
Women were respected, but not by standards of today. There were limits to what Jewish women could do in society. We can understand the earnest search for a day’s wage that she had lost.
What might surprise us is the great gift of hospitality the shepherd and the woman show. They invite their neighbors to join them in celebrating what they have found. It seems a little much. God knows how to practice hospitality. God knows how to throw a party.
Of course, the challenge for those who follow Jesus today is simple. Do we have the same concern and love for the lost that God seems to have? If so, how do we show it?
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