Not All Who Wander Are a Lost Cause:

A Rhetorical Analysis Essay on The Parable of the Wandering Sheep

Becca Shepherd

Prof. Leanne Bellamy

G209 Communication Skills
December 10th, 2021
Parable
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“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]

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“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.

Matthew 18:10-24, NIV

Introduction

In “The Parable of the Wandering Sheep,” which is found in Matthew 18:10-14, Jesus

compares God the Father to a shepherd, and “his little ones” who are his people to a flock of

sheep. In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who is looking over a flock of a hundred

sheep, and one of the sheep wanders off. When the shepherd sees one of the sheep is missing, he

decides to leave the other ninety-nine sheep who are safe on the hills to faithfully seek after the

one who has wandered off. Then when the shepherd finds the sheep, he rejoices over it and is

happier about finding the one missing sheep than about the other ninety-nine that did not wander

off.

Parable Genre

The “Parable of the Wandering Sheep” is categorized as a parable within a gospel

narrative. The genre of the book of Matthew is gospel narrative because the author, Matthew,

who was both a disciple of Jesus and a former tax collector, uses this book to retell the story of

Jesus’s life through the traditional narrative format of exposition, rising action, climax, falling

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action and resolution.1 The “Parable of the Wandering Sheep” occurs in the narrative’s rising

action as it takes place during Jesus’s ministry which over the course of his life creates conflict

with the Jewish and Roman leaders and results in his death on the cross.

“The Parable of the Wandering Sheep” is categorized as a parable because of Jesus’s use

of a rhetorical question in verse twelve, his use of simile in beginning of verse fourteen, and his

use of familiar concepts and archetypes such as sheep and shepherds, and something going from

lost to found.2

Thesis

Jesus shares “The Parable of the Wandering Sheep” to express the value that God’s “little

ones” have in his kingdom, to encourage those who followed him to continue in doing so, and to

warn his listeners of the severe consequences for those that may lead one of God’s “little ones”

away from him. Jesus effectively delivers the purpose and meaning of this parable by causing

his audience to thoughtfully reflect on its meaning through his use of similes, brief and concise

language, familiar concepts, archetypes, and a rhetorical question, as well as his use of the

audiences previous understanding of children, shepherds, and angels which is used to appeal to

the audience’s sense of logos, pathos, and ethos.

Narrative and Cultural Context

In Matthew 17:24-25 which occurs before our parable, Jesus is with his disciples and two

tax collectors entering their home in Capernaum, Galilee. It is fair to believe that the audience

Jesus was speaking to in these passages would have included the households of the tax

collectors, including their children, spouses, and extended family as it was customary to live in

1
Barton, Matthew, x-xi.
2
Bellamy, “Communication.”

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such households at the time. Tax collectors were also often in the company of Pharisees, and so

it is likely that there were a few Pharisees among the crowd during this event.3

During this time in history, tax collectors were some of the least favoured people in

society because they were politically loyal to the Roman government that was in power over the

Israelite nation instead of being loyal to the Israelite people.4 Tax collectors gathered coins from

the people and were often allowed to take commissions off the amount that they brought in.

Because of this they gained wealth and riches from swindling their own people and were seen as

being dishonest and not trustworthy.5

In Matthew 18:1, before the “Parable of the Wandering Sheep” is shared, a couple of the

disciples come to Jesus and ask the question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God?”

Jesus responds by bringing forth a child from the crowd to join him and explaining that those

who are humble like a child are the considered the greatest. Jesus continues to teach on the

dangers and the consequences of sin, and then introduces “The Parable of the Wandering Sheep,”

where he expresses the value of God’s sheep.

Premise One

Jesus opens this parable by warning the crowd not to look down on or despise one of

“these little ones.” The term “little ones” holds an important meaning for this parable to express

the importance of God’s people. Within the term “little ones,” Jesus is referring to both literal

children and children of God, including the disciples. In verse two Jesus calls a child from the

crowd to join him, so it is right to interpret that the term “little ones” includes the child that Jesus

is directly referring to. However, in Matthew 18:5-6 there is a linguistic shift in how Jesus is

referring to the child in his teaching. In verse five Jesus uses the term “child,” but in verse six he

3
Barton, Matthew, 365-367.
4
Barton, Matthew, x-xi.
5
Barton, Matthew, x-xi.

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shifts to using the term “little ones,” insinuating a shift in meaning as well.6 The shift in meaning

that we see is from Jesus talking about literal children to children of God.7

The term “little ones” is being used to describe everyone in the kingdom of God,

regardless of age, and is being used in response to the question “who is the greatest in the

kingdom of God,” which was presented earlier in Matthew 25:40. Jesus is using a child, who

would have been the lowest in this society, to demonstrate that the greatest in the kingdom are

those that lower themselves to be like children.8 The significance of this comparison is found in

the shift of language that Jesus uses in verse five and six. When Jesus shifts from using the term

“child” to the term “little one” he is expressing the value of children in the kingdom, and in

parallel is also expressing the value that the “little ones” and children of God hold in his

kingdom and in relationship with him, which is the primary claim of this parable.

Premise Two

Following his warning in verse one, Jesus supports his primary claim that God’s “little

ones” hold significant value in the Kingdom of God by appealing to the crowd’s sense of logos,

pathos, and ethos through his description of the “little one’s” angels. In the second line of

Matthew 18:2 Jesus says, “their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

This is an important line that goes into understanding the message of the parable and its

interpretation because people of Jewish faith during this time believed that the angels who saw

the face of God were the most powerful angels and were the closest to the throne of God. It was

also commonly believed that angels were assigned to guard over people, to protect them and to

minister to them. In making this claim that the “littles one’s” angels always see the face of the

Father, Jesus points to their importance and value in the kingdom of God. If the angels of the

6
O’Donnell, Matthew, 609.
7
O’Donnell, Matthew, 609.
8
Wilkkins, Matthew, 609.

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highest order and importance are those that see the face of the Father, then to be ministered to by

those angels would in sequence, declare you to be of high order and importance as well.

This description and understanding of the “little one’s” angels would have appealed to

the audience’s sense of logic by using their pre-existing knowledge to declare that the “little

ones” are of high importance by directly relating the importance of the angles to the ones that

they look after.9

The understanding of the angels in this passage also appealed to the audience’s sense of

pathos by expressing the value and worth that the “little ones” have in the eyes of the Father, and

in them. As people who were following Christ, and people who were following the Jewish faith,

the audience would have believed that they were people called by the Lord, and that they were

included in God’s household as his chosen people. This was common throughout the Old

Testament and was the promise of the covenant that God had with the Jewish people and would

have been commonly understood by Jesus’s audience.10 Therefore, Jesus’s audience would have

understood that the value that was expressed over the sheep, who have been compared to the

“little ones” of God, was the same value that was expressed over them, and would have given

them the feeling of peace and joy as they were deeply seen and thoroughly loved.

Finally, the understanding of angels appealed to the audience’s sense of ethos because

Jesus was able to express, through his knowledge of angels, both his understanding and good

sense of the Jewish religion, laws, and beliefs. Jesus also appealed to the audience’s sense of

ethos by expressing the value that the Father finds in them and his good will for them through

God’s designation of his most powerful angels to ministered to, and to protect his “little ones,”

so that they would not perish.

9
Barton, Matthew, 357.
10
Wilkkins, Matthew, 609.

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Premise Three

Lastly, Jesus supports his primary claim by appealing to the audience’s sense of logos,

pathos, and ethos through his comparison of God and his people to a Shepherd and his sheep.

Shepherding was a common and familiar role that existed in Jewish culture and throughout

scripture. The comparison of God to a shepherd occurs over twenty times in the Old Testament

and passages such as Psalm 23:1 which says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” would

have been heard often, and even memorized by many Jewish people. The caring shepherd, caring

God motif would have been familiar to Jesus’s Jewish audience and Jesus uses this familiarity to

express the worth of the sheep, and God’s “little ones.” 11 He does so by describing the efforts

that the shepherd goes through to return his lost sheep home and by rejoicing over its return.

In verse twelve Jesus also poses a rhetorical question to the crowd asking “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 look for the one that wandered off?” Jesus poses this as a question

taking into consideration that in that time and cultural context it was common for a shepherd to

leave his flock with another shepherd while he would go out and look for a sheep who had

wandered off.12 This is a rhetorical question because it does not need an answer and Jesus uses it

to point out or highlight the common act of the shepherd.

Following his question, Jesus concisely states at the end of this parable that in the same

way that the shepherd does not wish for his any of his sheep to perish, so the Father in heaven

also is not willing for any of his “little ones” to perish, or to wander from their faith. This

comparison appeals to the audience’s sense of logos, pathos, and ethos. This comparison to

sheep and a shepherd would appeal to the audience’s sense of logos as it plays on familiar and

11
Wilkkins, Matthew, 609.
12
Keener, NIV Cultural, 1647.

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logical archetypes such as shepherding, and the motif of one going from lost to found. Similarly,

it appeals to the audience’s sense of pathos as it plays on the familiar, and emotional

understanding of concern and rejoicing that is felt when something goes from lost to found.

Lastly, this comparison of a sheep to one of God’s “little ones” appeals to the audience’s sense of

ethos, because Jesus is describing the Father’s desire for his “little ones” to stay with him and not

to perish. Jesus is expressing the good will that the Father has for his “little ones” and expresses

that he has this same desire and will through his warning that he gives at the beginning of this

parable in verse ten.

Purpose

Why did Jesus choose to share “The Parable of the Wandering Sheep” to this crowd, at

this time? The audience that received this teaching was made up of tax collectors, their

households, pharisees, possible other religious leaders and Jesus’s disciples.13 At the begging of

the parable in verse one, Jesus gives a warning saying, “See that you do not despise one of these

little ones.” The word despise in this passage could also be translated “to look down on, to treat

with contempt, to be cruel, to distain, or to think of as nothing,” and the verb that is being used

means “to feel contempt for someone or something because it is thought to be bad, or without

value.” 14 This warning was likely directed to the religious leaders in the audience who showed

contempt for those that were lower than them on the “spiritual ladder,” and might attempt to

convince them that they are less significant in the kingdom of God. These religious leaders might

have also attempted to influence the disciples and other followers of Christ to reject Jesus as the

Messiah and continue to live as Jewish believers awaiting their saviour that would never come.15

Therefore, the purpose of this parable can be found in its audience. Jesus was rebuking anyone

13
Barton, Matthew, 356-357.
14
Abernathy, An Exegetical, 38-39.
15
Barton, Matthew, 357.

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who might look down on others, warning his listeners not to lead the “little ones” away from

God, and encouraging his listeners’ of their worth and value as children of God just as a

shepherd finds value in their sheep.

Application

So then, if “The Parable of the Wandering sheep” tells the story of a shepherd who leaves

his ninety-nine safe sheep to go after the one that has wandered away, and rejoices upon his

returning it home to compare and express the value that God finds in his own “little ones,” then

what does this mean for the believers of our post-modern day?16 The value that is expressed over

the “little ones” of God in Jesus’s audience is the same value that is expressed over his children

and followers today. God is the loving and faithful shepherd that seeks out his sheep when they

wander off, and he rejoices when he returns them home, and we are his people. Just as Jesus

expressed the Father’s, and his own good will that none of God’s “little ones” should perish

(Matthew 18:14 NIV) to his original audience, so his good will extends to the post-modern

audience of this passage. We are the children of God, we are his sheep, and we are his valued

“little ones.”

Conclusion

In summary, Jesus told the “Parable of the Wandering Sheep” to a crowd gathered in

Capernaum that was filled with tax collectors, their households, religious leaders, and Jesus’s

disciples.17 Jesus told this parable for the purpose of encouraging those that followed to continue

in doing so, to express the value of God’s “little ones,” and to warn the crowd of the severe

consequences of leading one of God’s “little ones” away.

16
Barton, Matthew, 357.
17
Barton, Matthew, 356-357.

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 Jesus communicates the value of God’s “little ones” through this parable by using the

crowd’s common knowledge and beliefs of children, angels, and shepherds to appeal to the

audience’s sense of logos, ethos, and pathos. Jesus also uses multiple parabolic conventions such

as the use of archetypes, brief and concise language, simile, familiar concepts, and a rhetorical

question to successfully support his primary claim that the “little ones” of God are of great value

to him, and to the Kingdom of God.

Bibliography

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Abernathy, D. An Exegetical Summary of Matthew, Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2015.

Bellamy, Leanne. G209 Communication Skills class notes, Fall 2021.

B. B. Barton, Matthew, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996.

Keener, C. S., & Walton, J. H. (Eds.), NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Bringing
to Life the Ancient World of Scripture, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016.

O’Donnell, Douglas Sean. Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2013.

Wilkins, M. J, Matthew, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2004.

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