I am the 1% -- and So Can You!

With the Occupy Wall Street Movement spilling out all over the country, and now flooding the world, there are a lot of people who feel exploited by a small class of elites.

Outrage has sprung up world-wide against the "1%"

Yet the Bible teaches that everyone of us can be the "1%" if we let the Lord find us and takes us as we are, instead of fighting for our rights on our own terms.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep illustrates the supremacy of the "1%" over the "99%":

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" (Luke 15:4)

Imagine that, the shepherd will naturally go after the one lost sheep. Here, though, the "15" is not some empowered elite taking advantage of the other "99%", but rather the one most down-and-out of them all.

How does the shepherd react once he has found this straying sheep? He rejoices!

"When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

"And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." (Luke 15:5-7)

Having read this parable, many may feel puzzled. Why rejoice over a wayward animal that refused to stay with the fold? Such a sheep will set the example to the other creatures, that the shepherd is kind and cares for the welfare of all.

As far as fallen humanity is concerned, however, there is not one righteous:

"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

"Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD." (Psalm 14: 3-4)

In effect, we all have need of repentance, we all need to be cared for, rescued from our sin, and restored to favor by the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Then how can we be like this "1%", like this sheep?

First, we have to recognize that we are lost. We realize this when we find that we have stepped outside of God's rule, leaving the sheepfold, or in our case, having broken God's law. We have all inherited a sin nature through our first parents Adam and Eve.

After we recognize our lost state, we allow the Lord, the Good Shepherd to rescue us, bearing our burden on His shoulders, which Jesus Christ did when He died on the Cross at Calvary, bearing our sin, shame, disease, and death. By His stripes, we are healed; by His death, our eternal life is sealed, and we become one with Him.

Instead of storming the public square to take down Wall Street, by faith we can receive the grace of God shed abroad for us by Christ's sacrifice. We do not have to begrudge the "1%" on earth, when we can become the "1%" in Christ!