A special Sunday morning

 This morning we left home early to attend the 9:30 AM service at St. Paul's Bloor Street Anglican Church in downtown Toronto. However, along the highway we encountered an unusually heavy traffic jam, something quite unexpected on a Sunday morning. For more than an hour, traffic barely moved.

Soon we learned the reason. Someone was attempting to jump from an overhead bridge, and the police had closed the highway while they tried to dissuade him. Officers walked along the line of cars explaining the situation. One impatient driver asked whether at least one lane could be opened so traffic could proceed. The officer responded calmly but firmly: they were trying to save a life, and everything else was of lesser priority. He asked everyone for patience.

That statement stayed with me. We are trying to save a life, and everything else takes less priority. In that moment, the words echoed something far deeper, the urgency of the mission entrusted to the church.

Since we were unable to move, we decided to watch the service online from the car. The speaker, Bishop Jenny Andison, reflected on the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin in the Gospel of Luke 15. The message resonated profoundly with what we had just witnessed on the highway.

In these parables, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that is lost, and the woman searches her house diligently for the missing coin. To some, the shepherd’s decision may seem reckless, leaving ninety-nine to pursue one. Yet this is precisely the logic of the kingdom of God. What appears irrational to human calculation reveals the extravagant mercy of God. The search is marked by urgency, compassion, and sacrifice.

These parables ultimately reveal the heart of God Himself. The Good Shepherd does not abandon the lost. He pursues them. In fact, the mission of Jesus Christ is described in similar terms: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10).

The events of the morning became a living parable. The entire highway was halted because a life mattered. Everything else, appointments, schedules, convenience, was secondary. Saving a life took priority.

In the same way, the Great Commission calls the church to place the salvation of people above all other concerns. If Christ was willing to leave the glory of heaven and enter our broken world to seek the lost, then His followers are called to share that same urgency.

What we need today is the heart of the Shepherd, His compassion, His determination, and His willingness to pursue the lost at great cost. Like the shepherd searching for the sheep and the woman searching for the coin, the church must not lose sight of its primary calling: to seek the lost until they are found.

For in the kingdom of God, saving a life will always take priority.

After some time, the traffic jam was finally cleared. The police officers and mental health workers were able to calm the man who had been standing on the bridge and persuade him not to take his life. What could have ended in tragedy instead became a moment of rescue, hope and joy.

Eventually, we were able to continue our journey and made it in time for the 11:15 AM service at St. Paul's Bloor Street Anglican Church in Toronto. As we entered the church, our hearts were filled with gratitude. Somewhere in the city that morning, a life had been preserved.

It was hard not to whisper a quiet prayer of thanks: “Thank You, Jesus.”

The whole experience became a powerful reminder of the value of a single life. An entire highway had been stopped, hundreds of people delayed, and significant resources mobilized—all because one life mattered. In that moment, the words of Jesus Christ about the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one lost sheep came alive in a very tangible way (Luke 15).

If human authorities are willing to halt traffic and devote such effort to save one life, how much more should the church be moved with urgency for those who are spiritually lost?

The Great Commission calls us to this very priority—to seek, to reach, and to bring people into the saving grace of Christ. Just as the shepherd searched until the sheep was found, we too are called to pursue the lost with compassion, patience, and determination.

That morning, we witnessed a small but powerful reflection of the heart of God—a God who values every life and rejoices when even one is saved.