Reckless Love

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.  (1 John 4:16-19 ESV).

 

Matthew recalls a wonderful teaching of Jesus we have come to know as the Parable of the Lost Sheep (cf. Matthew 18:10-14). Jesus is describing the commitment of the love of God. He describes a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One of those has wandered off and become lost. He has the remaining flock safe and sheltered for the night, though he knows this one is in grave danger. He makes the case that every one of this shepherd’s flock is essential when he says:

 

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? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:12-14 ESV).

 

We cannot ignore the implications in this parable. It was not the shepherd’s fault that the sheep wandered off. This one sheep chose a different direction than that of the shepherd leadership. And, ninety-nine others set an entirely different example. It could be argued the lost sheep would get what it deserved for having wandered away from their only protection against the elements and predators away from the shepherd. Yet the love of the shepherd for every sheep drove him to go out into the night and find it. It was reckless, but entirely within the character of the shepherd.

 

Because this is the kind of love God has proven toward us (cf. Romans 5:1-8), we do not need to fear the Shepherd we know as Jesus. Because of this great love for each of us we can be driven to conquer all of our fears. Even death should have no hold over us (cf. Romans 8:31-35).

 

Though we may find it hard to jump in over our heads, we must. If we cower in fear instead of jumping recklessly into the Father’s hands, we miss out on growing stronger in faith, trusting that God’s hands will always support us as we follow his leading. Our faith grows and our fear shrinks every time we jump and experience the faithful support of God’s ready hands.