The Little Ones Are So Important To God That If One Goes Astray He Seeks Them Until He Finds Them (18:11-14).
Jesus here uses the idea of the shepherd seeking his sheep, which was something that happened fairly regularly in Palestine. Seeing a shepherd looking for a lost sheep, or returning home with it in triumph, was a familiar sight to all his listeners, and He used it to illustrate many truths. Here it illustrates the truth of God's concern for His own, and the fact that He will never allow even one of them to perish (John 10:28-29). Elsewhere it can signify Jesus search for those who are lost (Luke 15:4-7).
Analysis.
a “How do you think about this? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone astray” (11-12a)
b “Does he not leave the ninety and nine” (Matthew 18:12 b).
c “And go to the mountains, and seek that which is going astray?” (Matthew 18:12 c).
d “And if so be that he finds it” (Matthew 18:13 a).
c “Truly I say to you, he rejoices over it” (Matthew 18:13 b).
b “More than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray” (Matthew 18:13 c).
a “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14).
Note that in ‘a' one little sheep has gone astray, and in the parallel their Father is concerned for that one little sheep. In ‘b' the shepherd leaves the ninety nine sheep who are in safety, and in the parallel rejoices more over finding the lost one than over the ninety nine who did not go astray. In ‘c' He seeks that which is gone astray, and in the parallel He rejoices over it. Centrally in ‘d' is the fact that He finds it.