How Long Is Until?

“H

ow long do I have to clean my room, mom?”  Now you know when you ask a question like that the answer just can’t be good!  “Until it is clean”, she always replied.  I told you the answer would not be good.  In fact, I hated this answer because it meant I would be in my room a long time, and from the looks of the clutter under my bed and in my closet, I would be there until doomsday!

The lesson my mom was trying to teach me with that little word until was the importance of carrying a task through to completion no matter how long it took.  Had she told me fifteen minutes, I would have worked for that amount of time and stopped, regardless of the condition of my room.  Some things cannot be measured in time.

This is the lesson found in Luke 15:1-7, “Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

We know this passage as the story of the lost sheep, a parable Jesus told to illustrate God’s great love for those who are lost.  The attitude of the Pharisees and teachers of the law is still prevalent today.  Everybody, it seems, is a far worse sinner than we are and the sins they have committed make ours look like children’s pranks.  But the irony is, that while we are busy pointing out the fact that everyone else is a sinner, we neglect to include ourselves in the group.  Everybody listening to Jesus’ voice that day was a sinner.  There are only two groups of people, those in Christ, and those outside of Christ.  There is no middle ground!

But if we read very closely we will find that little word, until.  How did this shepherd search for that one lost sheep?  Just how long is until?  Is it measured in minutes, hours, days or weeks? Does it even have a measure?  That is a great question.  We read this parable as if the shepherd were gone a few hours at the most.  But what if he were gone for weeks, months or even years?  What if it took a lifetime?  That puts a very different perspective on things, doesn’t it?

We must also notice that when the shepherd found the sheep, he put it on his shoulders and went home. How long did he carry that sheep?  He carried it until he arrived safely home. In other words, he searched until he found and he carried it until the sheep was back in the fold.  The shepherd carried that sheep for the same amount of time he spent searching for it.  Both are simply covered by the word, until.

What a beautiful illustration this is of God’s love for us.  His love for us is not measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years.  His love for us is measureless and his grace toward us is boundless.  How long is until?  How far is it?  We’ll have to wait until we arrive safely home to find out!