Shepherds, rescuing lost sheep, is a very Biblical image. Moses left his flocks to approach the wondrous
burning bush.
The final mention of sheep in the Old Testament is a verse which describes Israel as a flock scattered without a shepherd. The first mention of sheep in the Gospels describes Christ seeing his people as sheep with no shepherd.
Ennis' wedding scene commences with the words "forgive us our
trespasses. The actual Greek of that prayer, "
aphes emin ta
ophelimata emon, os kai emeis
epheiamen ta opheiletes emon" (forgive us our
debts which are owed, to the extent that we have forgiven those who were indebted to us, but failed to repay."
Technically, the English translation which we hear is a misunderstanding on the part of the translators of the King James version.
A trespass constitutes a wrong in its own right. A debt is not a wrong, but something lacking, awaiting repayment. We are permitted to borrow, but expected to repay. A debt only requires forgiveness with age, when it remains too long unpaid.
Matt 18:23-35 When the King had begun to reconcile accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and kneeled before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’ The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. "But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’ He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’
Perhaps our greatest debt which we owe to others is compassion, which is forgiveness itself; a debt which we can never repay our of the poverty of our mercy.
In the Greek of the New Testament, the word for mercy, which we hear to this day in the only Greek which survives in the Roman tradition, "Kyrie
elaison" is almost identical to the Greek word for olive oil, elaion, which was used in lamps of ancient times, to shed light in the darkness, and is used to this day in Athens, as a word for olives, elitses, and for salad oil.
In the parable (Matt 25:1-13) of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish, all ten possess the purity of virginity, and all possess oil for their lamps, as they await the bridegroom. The foolishness of the foolish virigins lies in the
insufficiency of their oil (or mercy/forgiveness/compassion).
http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/burne/p-burne7.htm