Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep; one of them, the biggest, went astray; he left the ninety-nine and sought after the one until he found it. After he had labored, he said to the sheep, ‘I love you more than the ninety-nine’.”
This saying may have parallels in saying 96 (the parable of the leaven) and saying 8 (the fishnet) where the largest one – which stands for the idea of Oneness – is more important than the many or numerous ones – who stand for the idea of division and separation.
Here, the shepherd [which we need not assume is Jesus himself] has many sheep but leaves the 99 to find the one.
It is nearly a retelling of the fishnet parable from saying 8, but with the added emphasis on the shepherd’s love for the one large sheep as compared to the other 99 sheep.
Still, the idea is very much the same. There are many sheep which are in contrast to the one sheep. The many sheep stand for the world of separated things. The crowd is merely a projection of the illusion that we are all isolated beings. The one large sheep stands for the competing reality where everyone is connected.
In this analogy, when Jesus says he loves the one large sheep more than the 99, he isn’t saying that he doesn’t love those who are represented by the many. He’s saying that he loves every one of us because we are not, in reality, the 99 distinctly separate sheep.
We are all found in the one large sheep which represents everyone and everything.
As in the previous saying, when we make the two one we realize that there are not two, and there never was two. There was always and only the one interconnected reality of Oneness and Divine Unity.
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The newest book from Keith Giles, “The Quantum Sayings of Jesus: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas” releases TODAY on Amazon. Order HERE>
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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