parable · parable in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, about a man who leaves 99 sheep to find one lost sheep
A shepherd leaves ninety-nine to find one. Luke sets it against the Pharisees' complaint that Christ eats with sinners; Matthew turns it toward the care of the little ones inside the church. The shepherd with a sheep across his shoulders is the oldest surviving image of Christ in Christian art, painted in the catacombs before the cross was used.