Jesus said, The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, “I care for you more than the ninety-nine.” (107)
Nancy Johnson: The kingdom is like a shepherd, who owned a hundred sheep, the largest of which went astray. He left the ninety-nine, in search of the one until he found it. After all his trouble, he said to the sheep: I love you more than the ninety-nine.
The amazing message of this verse is the fact that rather than being the trap ignorant human beings have made of it, the entire forces of the cosmos are on our side and working for our freedom. For this verse is not about Jesus or God, but about “the kingdom” which in this case means the entire evolutionary “mechanism” that is creation. So “I care for you more than the ninety-nine” is not a personal matter, but a statement that the entire cosmos has been set in motion to bring the straying souls back to the Bosom of the Father. Obviously the cosmos has very little interest in those that are safely home with the Father, having successfully traversed the evolutionary range and attained liberation. In fact, the universe is no longer relevant to them unless they choose to return to help others that are still wandering in confusion.
As a footnote, you might be interested to know that the Eastern Christian Churches, Orthodox and Oriental, believe in life on other planets, as Christianity did from the beginning. It is their belief that the parable of the lost sheep found in the Gospels of Matthew (18:12-13) and Luke (15:4-7) is not about an individual, but about the planet earth specifically. They teach that only the human beings on earth have fallen and gone astray through the malice of a fallen archangel. Therefore only the earth has needed a means for restoration and eventual liberation. This is just one point in which the Eastern Church is vastly more sophisticated than the Christianity of the West.
Read the next article in the Gospel of Thomas for Yogis: At the Source