Matthew 18.10-14

Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I began playing Frisbee golf. Within a few months, I was waking up at Oh-Dark Thirty every morning to be the first one at the local course. By the end of the summer, I had fifty Frisbees in my possession, most of which I had found. Yes, I too, would occasionally lose the discs in the tree line, but I would never continue on until it was back in my hands, even though I had forty-nine others in my collection. I went as far as driving home to grab a pair of shears to deface shrubbery on city property to avoid my Frisbee falling into the hands of another player.

Chapter 18:12-14
12 “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? 13 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. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

I know I’m comparing Christians to cheap pieces of plastic but like those Frisbees, we are all lost without Our Lord. Whether we recognize it or not, God will use his plan to the greatest extremes to find us and bring his lost sheep back to the flock, even though there are plenty of other Christians who spend each and every day staying in the pasture, trying to live like him. Maybe God won’t go as far as destroying public property to save us, but if that’s what he has to do, he’ll make it happen. He doesn’t need you to follow him, it’s entirely up to you, but he wants you to follow him. We need to humbly accept that we are children of God.

This brings me to the beginning of the parable since I’m moving backwards. Chapter 18 begins with the disciples asking Jesus who is the greatest in the Kingdom and Jesus professes that children, in their innocence, are the greatest in Heaven. In a strange, sport minded sense, God looks at children the way I would look at a brand new Frisbee that is remarkably fresh and free of visible flaws. But I know very well that once I take it on the course that is life, it’s bound to get banged up hitting a few obstacles, get dirty in the mud, or go astray. As we by nature are sinners, Jesus warns his disciples that those who lead those children away from God, are destined for eternal damnation if they do not recognize their ways. 

Chapter 18 10-12
10 “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. [11] For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

When I read this I thought of a verse we memorized in my 8^th grade confirmation class from the book of Romans.

Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Like I said, it is a given that we as human beings, without a doubt, will give into our sinful desires, just as anything that is bought new will eventually appear used and beat up. But God sent his one and only son so we could have eternal life as long as we ask forgiveness through communion and repentance. Whenever I have a Frisbee land in the mud, I use a towel to wipe it off and make it clean. When it gets dented and chipped from getting whipped into a tree by misdirection, I can shave off the scar with a piece of sandpaper or burn off the hanging plastic with a gas station lighter. By doing so, they appear brand new again. God will not let his children perish on Earth, for he promises eternal life in his Kingdom. There, we will appear clean, innocent, and new to the angels in Heaven.


Tom Meisinger