A cartoon-caption competition in the American Christian journal Leadership featured a spectacle-wearing sheep speaking from behind a pulpit. In my favourite among the ten listed winners, the sheep is saying, 'I want to thank all 99 of you for giving Pastor Bob the freedom to seek me out'.
The well-known parable of the lost sheep, as recorded in Luke's Gospel, contains a rhetorical question: 'Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a 100 sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?"'
The question is rhetorical for the answer is obvious: so obvious that it devastatingly refutes the religious critics of Jesus who asked why he welcomed sinners and ate with them. Yes, of course, any good shepherd would leave the 99 and go after the one lost sheep:
