“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4, NASB)
The one.
Jesus made the strategy exceptionally clear. Pursuit of the lost. But namelessly. Simply, the one. Until He finds it… Her. Him.
Perhaps He did this less anonymously and more to invite participation. The one.
Lost and alone. Isolated and frightened. Nameless, yet, not unknown. Perhaps a proxy for the thousands that “The One” represent.
Two weeks ago The One was replaced with a name.
I met Allan Castro at a YFC event in Tucson. He’s a 19-year-old young man from Houston.
In many circles, Allan would have been a statistic. The unfortunate casualty of a deteriorating culture.
A single parent household. An accepted invitation to hang with likeminded and an equally broken and disconnected group of young people. Yes, a predictable recipe for disaster.
Arrested. Incarcerated. Released…. and repeat.
While it wasn’t a group of Pharisees that scoffed, mocked or criticized… make no mistake, the skepticism and doubt were real.
The one. Allan Castro.
Sentenced. Sent away. Lost.
But not to Jesus. Not to the relentless pursuer.
The Spirit of God does not need a key or a security clearance to visit an inmate. And in one of Allan’s darkest moments, he experienced a glimpse of light. Warmth in the midst of bone-chilling cold. Hope where despair is the primary currency.
The one had a name.
Allan.
And the light led him to the Word of God. Scripture flung open the door. The Bible gave the light a name… Jesus.
Before long Allan met a man who would be Jesus to him in Houston. Jonathan Frost doesn’t consider himself a “ministry guy”, rather the executive leader for YFC in Houston, but God had a design for Allan and Jonathan… and it included building a deep personal connection that gave depth and clarity to Allan’s journey with Jesus.
As I listened to Allan share his story, it wasn’t hard for me to envision Jesus with this young lamb resting on his shoulders as He carries him home. Rescued. Restored. Released. Rejoicing. Allan. Now, Allan pours himself into ministry with young people. As a boxer. As a youth pastor. As a child of the Father. As an evangelist.
Not in an effort to pay it forward, but as an act of worship to the King he loves and honors. As a spontaneous reaction to a pursuing shepherd. The Shepherd who will not be constrained by bars or a criminal record. The Good Shepherd who walks past the critics into the path of sinners. The pursuing God who sees past the Instagram persona and the air of invincibility into the soul of a wanderer. The lost one.
Jesus. The redeemer. The jailbreaker. The light bringer.
The One has a name. Allan Castro.
And Allan would be the first to remind you that there are other “One’s” out there. Fill in the blank… then pursue. Like Jesus. Like Jonathan.
The One has a name. Is it you? It was me… but now, like Allan, we embrace the pursuing. We add the name. We provide the legs. He supplies the message.
Allan. Jesus. The One. Until He finds them.
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