Today I’m thinking about the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:10-14)

Jesus is revealing something about his character here, and I think it bears on some of the things we’re hearing in the news. What Jesus describes here is pretty counter-intuitive, right? A shepherd, essentially a small business owner, leaves 99 (potentially, literally, the lion’s share) of his sheep behind to go and chase the one who left. Not only that, but he does it joyfully and lovingly and in full awareness of the risks involved.

Now this being a parable and all, we’re supposed to look for the inner meaning—the reality behind the story that tells us something about how we’re meant to live. Sheep, when they’re gathered in a large flock and protected by a shepherd, are as safe as they can be. But a lone sheep wandering off the margins is weak and in danger of being devoured, and so it becomes a symbol for anyone who is beyond the relative safety of community. We’re meant to notice how the shepherd responds to that lone, lost sheep.

I say all that because our Christian faith is often guided by small and manageable logical statements—think the “if/then” equations we used to do in school. Here’s a common one for Christians: “If we’re supposed to be imitators of Christ, and Christ does something, then we’re meant to do that thing, too.”

Here’s why I bring this up. Refugees and recent immigrants and transgender kids make up, oddly, about 1% of the American population, leaving the other 99% percent of us to make a decision about how we treat them. It is an undeniable truth that each of those three groups face marginalization and dangers simply because of who they are; they live under the constant threat of being devoured, physically and socially. In the Parable of the Good Shepherd, the character that represents Jesus the Messiah risks everything to bring that lost sheep back to safety—he revels in the joy of leaving his safe place behind and making sure that 1% of his sheep are protected.

You can see where I’m headed with this.

This is less about partisan politics than it is about speaking Christian gospel to power. Jesus risked everything to make sure the 1% weren’t marginalized, and gave everything to redeem us all. We represent not only the 99% of this story, but also the Good Shepherd. If we’re supposed to be imitators of Christ, then we’re supposed to be imitators of Christ. Not everything is that simple, but this one is.

Christians can vote whichever way they choose, but once that vote is cast, the unmistakable call on each of our lives is to call and hold our elected leaders to principles that reflect the one we call Savior. We do that even when (maybe especially when) those gospel values run contrary to those of our government or culture. Anything less is the worst kind of compromise. Anything less makes us the unseen danger of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, instead of the faithful disciples of the shepherd.

So yeah, I’ve been haunted by the Parable of the Lost Sheep today. How about you?