Luke 15:1-10
“Lost and Found”
Luke 15 is sometimes called “The Lost Chapter”, not because
it has ever been lost, but because it famously contains the story of the
Prodigal Son or the Lost Son, and also these two parables in the first part of
the chapter – the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
Jesus tells these parables, Luke tells us, as “tax
collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” And while that means they were starting to
follow him, and they were drawing around him in proximity, there’s also a
spiritual reality here, too. They were
coming to faith in him. They were
repenting and believing.
Now perhaps a word against some popular preaching today –
who draw the wrong conclusion here. The
fact that Sinners and Tax Collectors were drawing near to Jesus doesn’t mean
that Jesus is just fine and ok with all manner of sin. It doesn’t mean that you can come to Jesus
today and remain in your sinful life, clinging to your sinful actions, with no
change or modification to your way of life.
But rather, as Jesus receives sinners, he changes them. They are brought to repentance. Turned around. And I should really say WE are brought to
repentance, because this is all of us who believe. Luke mentions that repentance in just a few
verses.
But nonetheless, these sinners and tax collectors stand in
contrast to the Pharisees and Scribes, who grumbled. They grumbled that Jesus would receive such
filthy vagabonds, which is telling in itself about their own spiritual
condition. Grumbling, like the children
of Israel in the wilderness, unappreciative, unfaithful. They, in their spiritual hubris, who didn’t
want to be polluted by these obvious sinners.
They, who thought it inappropriate or unbecoming of Jesus to slum it up
with the ne’er do-wells, rather, he should be cozying up to us, the good
people, the righteous folk.
“This man welcomes sinners” they complain, and in doing so
they unwittingly confess exactly what it is that makes this Jesus so
wonderful. That which is mockery on
their lips is praise from all Christians.
Jesus sinners doth receive!
They’ve got it backwards, as people so often do when it
comes to Jesus. And so he tells them
these two parables of that which is lost, and that which is found. And the application is fairly straightforward.
First there is the Lost Sheep. Jesus asks, “which of you would…?” and the
implied answer is, “anyone would” go looking for that lost sheep. While on the one hand, 1 out of 100 isn’t all
that much – 1 % - you might lose that much in the stock market in a day. But on the other hand, this sheep is his –
and it matters to the shepherd. And he’s going to go looking for it.
Then you have the woman who loses a silver coin – this time
1 out of 10 – and she turns her house upside down looking for it. Another perspective from everyday life, but
something all his hearers could relate to.
A modern day version of these stories might be when you
misplace your wallet or keys – and you go retracing your steps until you find
them. If that doesn’t work quick enough,
you enlist the aid of your family, and start checking ever more places – the
car, under the couch cushions, maybe I left them at work? Maybe it keeps you awake at night. Roman Catholics even call on St. Anthony to
help him find what was lost.
And so losing something important to you is a common enough
earthly story. But what is the heavenly
meaning here? What is Jesus teaching us?
For one, that we are
lost in sin. And not just the outwardly, obviously sinful people, but all of
us. Not just the tax collectors and
women of ill repute, but the Pharisees and Scribes, too. You and I are the lost sheep. You and I are the lost coin.
But in any case, Jesus is all about seeking and saving the
lost. Sure, he’s the Good Shepherd who
lays down his life for his sheep, a shepherd unlike any other. But here, too, he is just like a regular
shepherd who would go looking for a sheep that is lost. He doesn’t wait for the sheep to come
wandering back, to pull itself out of whatever ditch the sheep has gotten
bogged down in. He doesn’t stand there
with arms folded until the sheep gets his act together. He goes.
He seeks. He finds. He saves.
Our Good Shepherd comes down to the ditch to pull that lost
sheep out of the mud. He fends off the
slobbering beasts who would have that sheep for lunch. He brings that lost sheep back into the fold,
washes him clean, gives him rest, leads him to still waters and green pastures.
And is Jesus comparing himself to a woman? Well, he’s compared himself elsewhere to a
mother hen gathering up her chicks. But
the point of comparison is what’s important.
Jesus seeks the lost. He goes to
great trouble to do so. Oh, you
Pharisees think these sinners are lost?
Well, I’m going to find them. I’m
not a savior who cuts his losses, and just leaves the lost to wander. I seek and save the lost. I go after the sinner. And I will find him.
He cleans and clears the house, turns everything upside down
in his zeal to purify and his fervor to find.
He goes to great lengths, any lengths, even a cross to get the job done,
if that’s what it takes! And that’s what
it took.
What the Pharisees and Scribes couldn’t see, is that they
too were lost. What they couldn’t get
past was their own self-righteousness.
They counted themselves among the 99 righteous who needed no
finding. But if they could admit their
own lost-ness, they’d be glad for a savior that seeks the lost. And so should we. And speaking of gladness…
In both parables, when the lost is found, there is great
rejoicing. The shepherd and the woman
each throw a party for their friends and neighbors, and express their joy at
the lost being found. Jesus makes the
point that the same happens in heaven – the angels throw a party – when even one
sinner repents.
Well they must party a lot up there. Because repentance doesn’t just happen on a
one and done basis. We lost and found
sinners get lost and found over and over.
We daily bring our sins to Jesus.
We drown the old Adam in baptism daily, by repentance and faith. But it’s really the Spirit working in us, and
on us. It’s him who has begun a good
work within us and bringing it toward its completion at the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We are constantly being
found by Christ, saved by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ.
Oh what joy there must be in heaven, oh what an angelic
grand gala every time sinners confess and are absolved, every time the water
and word of baptism do their thing, and every time repentant sinners come to
the one who meets them at the table – as both the host and as the feast,
himself. No wonder we couch our liturgy
of Holy Communion with the Preface, “therefore with angels and archangels and
with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify..” the holy name of God.
With Jesus it’s never what the world expects. The poor are made rich and the rich made
poor. The humble are lifted up and the
exalted are made low. The last are
first, the lowly are exalted and vice versa.
Here, too, those that think they’ve got it all together, who
trust their own way, who seek to find themselves - are really the ones that are
lost. And the ones who seem so lost in
sin – who despair of themselves and humbly confess their wandering ways – they are
sought out and found, by Jesus, through his Gospel.
May you ever be so lost – and may you always be found, in
him. In Jesus Name.
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