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In regard to Luke's story of the one lost sheep, I think an Agri-business shepherd might well have reacted as you suggested this Sunday- why bother with one lost sheep? We can just raise the price 10% on the other ninety-nine; indeed, a little meat shortage will help profits. However, I am not convinced that this would be true of traditional shepherds living in the time of Jesus.

You suggested it would be foolish to leave the rest of the flock on the hillside. However, traditional shepherds are very assiduous in guarding every member of their flock. I grew up in the sheep-farming country of North Wales, and you can read of the effort farmers expended in looking for a single sheep lost in the winter snow in the book "I Bought a Mountain" (Thomas Firbank, Hodder & Stoughton 1940, reprinted 1993).

Bedouin peasants were- and still are- quite large extended families. So, there would have been others to guard the ninety-nine. Luke's Christmas story (Luke 2 ⁸) speaks of shepherds, plural, and notice that most of the group had no problem in trotting off to downtown Bethlehem! Also, I think they would have had a rough sheep fold to enclose their flocks for the night- otherwise, there would not be much future in attempting to round-up one missing lamb! If we move from Luke to John's gospel, 10 ⁷ we have a simile that provides an explicit description of this: Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep." Most critics suggest that Christ is here likening himself to the good shepherd, who sleeps lying by the gateway to the sheep pen, just in case any wolves turn up. This passage doesn't really make any sense unless there is a sheep pen with a single narrow entrance.

I wonder also whether the search of the widow for the lost coin was all that bizarre. There was no social safety net in those days, and a for a widow without income or investments, the loss of a single coin might well have led to her being evicted.

Finally, I would argue that any good father would rejoice over the return of a profligate son.

This is not to weaken the sense of the parables. Jesus acts as the best of shepherds and parents in welcoming back those who consider themselves as lost.

Roy Shephard.