Posted on March 7, 2010 by newhope2010

As we were growing up, my Dad would often share with my brothers and me the parables of Jesus.  He would take us to the Scriptures and speak to us about the characters that he saw there and bring them alive to us.

One of the lessons I remember most clearly was from the book of Luke… ”The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin and The Lost Son”.

Luke 15 begins, “And all the tax-collectors and sinners drew near to Him in order to hear Him.  And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them” (NKJV).

The Pharisees and the scribes were the “church leaders” of Jesus’ day.

• They were the ones who made the decisions in the synagogues and ran the meetings of the children of Israel.
• They were the ones who made rulings on who should stay and who should be put out of the assemblies.
• They were the ones who people looked to for interpretation of the “weightier matters of the law” (cf Matthew 23:23).
• They were the ones who made decisions that affected the lives of the widows and the vulnerable within the congregation (Matthew 23:14, Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47).
• They were the ones who always turned up on special occasions wearing their fancy clothes wanting to look impressive amongst the people (Luke 20:46).
• They thought of themselves as the “righteous” and the “faithful” of Jesus’ generation.

Jesus was a good man and they had no reason to murmur against him, but for a collection of reasons of their own, they did not like Him.

Luke continues, verse 3,

“And He spoke this parable to them, saying,  (4) What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it?  (5) And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  (6) And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.  (7) I say to you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.  (8) Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does she not light a lamp and sweep the house, and seek carefully until she finds it?  (9) And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.  (10) Likewise I say to you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Several key words stand out to me here:  “lost”, “found”, “repentance”, and “rejoicing”.  In eight verses, these four words, or their kindred, are used in total at least eighteen times.

THE LOST SHEEP

Jesus relates two mini parables to those listening to Him that day.  He talks about a lost sheep that is found by its master and a coin that is lost in the house of a woman, but is found again.  In both situations there is rejoicing, there is relief, there is excitement.  The shepherd exclaims, “I have found my sheep which was lost!”, and the woman invites her friends and neighbours to rejoice with her.

But let us look at the lost sheep.  Yes, it is lost.  And the shepherd knows it is lost.  Does he just tuck in for the night and forget all about it?  Does he say to himself, It is not important?  No, Jesus said he leaves the rest of his sheep and he goes out into the wilderness to find the one that has become separated from the rest.  He leaves, he searches, he finds, and then he carries it gently on his shoulders back to the others, rejoicing, and understanding that it is weak, maybe injured.

What is our response when we see a fellow believer has fallen by the wayside and is no longer “with us”?

• Do we really care?  Do we want to do something about it?
• Do we deliberately turn aside from whatever we are doing to find that brother (or sister) and to bring him (or her) back?
• Do we keep searching until we find him?  Or do we give up easily and return without him?  Jesus says the shepherd “goes after it until he finds it”.
• Do we then gently “lay him on our shoulders” and bring him back, rejoicing that we have found him, rejoicing that God has given us this opportunity to minister to him, rejoicing that he can be restored even though he is probably still hurting?

THE LOST COIN

Jesus also spoke of a woman who had “ten drachmas”… ten coins of equal value.

What a message for us today!

• Each one of us is of equal value in the kingdom of God.  The apostle Paul says, “There cannot be Jew or Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”  Galatians 3:28.
• Each one of us has the same value in the eyes of our Lord.
• When one is lost, the others do not become more valuable or more important.  They remain the same, and so does the one that is lost.  It does not lose its value simply because it is lost or cannot be found.  It is still worth one drachma, and will always be worth one drachma, whether lost or found.
• If one coin falls onto the floor or the ground and becomes covered in dust or mud, or tarnished by the elements, it remains one drachma.

Do we treat one another as equals in Christ Jesus?  Or do we look down upon the one who has stumbled and become tarnished with sin?  Do we treat him with less respect than those who have think they have “kept their hands clean” and remained “in fellowship” with the others?

Jesus said, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  The focus is not on the nine coins still in the purse, but on the one coin which is found.

The angels rejoice over the one sinner who repents.  Do we rejoice, also?

THE FATHER AND HIS SONS

As my Dad would point out, Jesus’ next parable really was about three people, not just the “prodigal” son - a father and two sons – and more rightly should be called the Parable of the Father and His Sons.

Do we get excited when a brother who has been sinning comes back to the Lord?  Or do we stand by, sneering that he could be so stupid?  So sinful?  So wicked?  Or rolling our eyes because we do not believe he has truly repented?

Do we sit back in our armchairs waiting for that brother “to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance” before we will accept him back again?  The father received his son back and rejoiced with all his servants.  Who are we to stand outside still condemning, still criticising, still sneering, still recanting the younger brother’s sins and reflecting on all the terrible things he has done and all the reasons why we should not accept him back into our assemblies?

Are we like the older brother, refusing to show any interest in his younger brother?  Refusing to rejoice with his father?  Refusing to acknowledge the repentance and contrition of his younger brother?

This is the church that I was a part of for so long – a church so consumed with its own righteousness that it would not acknowledge the change that had been wrought in the life of one of its own members;   a church so content with being seen as “faithful” and “Godly” that it would not forgive a brother who had stumbled and become lost along the way.

This is the “church” that knew its own people were sinning against a brother and against God’s Word by gossipping and bearing false witness, but would not do anything to help.

Like the younger lad in Jesus’ story, I had wandered off into Satan’s world of sinful living.  But I came to my senses and came back to my Father’s house and sought forgiveness.  My Father forgave me and wrapped His arms about me, but my brethren were angry and would not come in.  There was no rejoicing over my return.  There was no welcome home.

To this day, my brethren have stayed outside emotionally like the older brother.  They have stood back and said, Let us see the changes in this man’s life, then we might accept him again.

They have withheld their forgiveness.  They have refused to accept me back into their homes and lives again.  Indeed, I doubt they even understand what it is to forgive or to leave the past behind.

For me, I don’t want the synagogues of the Pharisees and the scribes.  I want to find the house of the Lord.  I want to find my Father’s house, where there is genuine love, where there is genuine forgiveness, where the servants and the sons all mix together and rejoice when a son comes to his senses and returns to his Father’s house.

I don’t want the company of the Pharisees and the scribes, I want to be amongst “the tax-collectors and sinners” of verse 1 who want to listen to Jesus and who have hearts willing to change.  I want to be with people who love God, who love each other, and who want to be right with God in the things they do each day and in their attitudes towards each other.

© Bevan Collingwood 2010