The Strangeness of Jesus' Parables

So Jesus tells this parable in Luke 15, the Parable of the Lost Sheep:

"15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

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It's a very sweet parable of the irrational love and dedication of a shepherd seeking a lost, disoriented sheep. However, it would have struck the listeners as weird. Jesus says, "Which one of you . . . does not  . . ." He speaks as though this is normal practice and it would make sense to the average person. No!  In a normal world, 100 out of 100 people would shake their heads, no. Why risk the other 99? You have plenty of sheep, they'll mate and you'll get more. And to make matters more absurd, when the shepherd gets home, he throws a party for a lost sheep that no one else had any idea was missing in the first place (I wonder if they killed a fatted lamb or something--would be ironic).

Jesus' parables stick because they are sweet and profound on the face of them (in many cases) but also very strange.