<p>God is the One who seeks out and saves the lost sheep. In today's passage, all the tax collectors and sinners came near to hear the word, and when the Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with sinners, He said, "If a man has a hundred sheep and loses one, does not he leave the ninety-nine in the open and go to look for the one that is lost? When he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders and calls his friends and neighbors to celebrate?" He also said that just as the woman who lost a drachma lit a lamp and swept the house to look for it, and rejoiced when she found it, so too does the repentance of one sinner bring joy before the angel of God. Praise the Lord.</p>
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