"The Ninety And Nine"
Last Updated on May 24, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 196
Context: Jesus, when asked by the disciples who the greatest is in the Kingdom of Heaven, attempts again to explain to them His mission and the way to the heavenly realm. Drawing a child to Him, He says that only those who come with the faith and obedience of the child can enter the Kingdom. Further, He warns that it will be better for whoever causes the child or faithful one to fall to have about his neck a millstone and be thrown into the sea than to face the wrath of God. To show the Almighty's concern for the little ones, He tells the disciples a parable:
How think ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.
Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
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