Lost and Found
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The other day, I was substitute teaching. It was lunch time and so I made my way to the cafeteria and as I was entering the lunch line, I pulled out my money so that I would have it ready to give before my hands were full. I had brought my journal with me and so I took the ten dollars out of my pocket and put in between my journal and thumb. About 5 seconds later, I am about to grab my food when I look down and realize that my $10 is gone! And it just disappeared. I stepped out of line and looked everywhere. It wasn’t on the floor, it wasn’t underneath anything. It just disappeared. I had a hard time believing that one of the students would steal it, but it was gone!
Disheartened, I look to see how much money I brought with me because they don’t to credit cards there. It wasn’t enough for lunch. So I began to leave the line when I noticed one of the teachers was holding a $10 bill behind his back. I asked him, did you find that or that yours. He said a student had found it on the floor and gave it to him in case anyone came looking for it. I was so happy. I got my $10.
There is something about finding a lost item that brings joy to a person’s heart. It can be of financial value or sentimental value, but when we lose something precious, we want to find it and we want to find it quickly. To most other people, it might be junk. But to the owner, there’s great value.
This morning, we’re looking at a passage that is familiar to most of us. The passage is a part of a trilogy of parables that Jesus taught; this morning, we’re looking at the first two and next week, we’ll go over the third. All three have to do with finding lost objects: a sheep, a coin, and a son. But not one of the actual points in any of these stories is simply that that which is lost gets found. But rather Jesus wants us to see the joy that comes with finding. In order to get to that joy, we see in each of the first two parables three acts that lead to overflowing joy.
Act I, we’ll call “The Losing.” Act II, we’ll call “The Looking.” And Act III is called “The Locating.”
Act I: “The Losing”
Act II: “The Looking”
Act III: “The Locating”
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable:
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Prologue
Prologue
Before we get to the Acts, let’s take a quick look at the prologue. This is the story behind the story.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
We think we live in a different world than Jesus did and in some ways that’s true. Our technology is certainly much more advanced than what was in the first century. But the way we think and the way we feel is not that much different than what these people in this passage were thinking and feeling.
You’ve got the tax collectors and “sinners” as Luke calls them drawing near to Jesus. They want to hear him. For whatever reason, they’re drawn to him. He has something about him that allures people. They want to hear him. So in some way, it must be his message. It’s the way he talks: gentle, lowly, and yet with authority. He doesn’t sound like anyone they’ve heard before. It’s not only their intellect that is piqued but their emotions are too.
But then you have the Pharisees and scribes offsetting the tax collectors and sinners. They’re grumbling. They’re unhappy. They don’t like Jesus’s message. They don’t like the way that he is doing things. They’re complaint in this moment is that he receives sinners and eats with them. In other words, their thinking is similar to the thinking of today. To receive someone as they are is to condone what they do. To eat with someone in the first century was a sign of fellowship. So, for Jesus to receive them was bad enough, but to eat with them was so much worse. To the Pharisee, it was akin to condoning their sinful lifestyles.
Then there’s Jesus. The fact that he received sinners and ate with them shows that there is a love that he has for them. We can gather that from the parables that he’s telling in defence of what he’s doing as well. But more than anything, we see that Jesus saw these sinners differently than the Pharisees saw them. He saw them as those who were lost in need of being found.
Act I: “The Losing”
Act I: “The Losing”
So let’s get into the acts. The first act is “The Losing.” In both of the first two parables, we see something being lost. In the first parable, there is the losing of the sheep. In the second, there is the loss of a coin. In the first, there is the loss of 1% of the flock. In the second, a loss of 10% of the money. The stakes were getting higher. The cost was getting greater.
We can imagine what happens in both parables. A shepherd and his hired hands have called the flock and they all come racing. As they do, they begin counting. All the guys get together and tally the numbers that they’ve come up with. One is missing. They count again and again to make sure. One is missing. There before all the shepherds and hired hands is a vast area. There was no telling where that sheep would go.
And to make matters worse, sheep have a natural tendency to wander. So long as there is food or water in sight, they could just keep on going.
Beloved, did you know that’s the human condition? Isaiah describes each of us when he wrote,
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We are born with the natural tendency to wander. We even sing about it. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. All that needs to happen in our lives is for something to catch our eye and promise satisfaction. Like the sheep wandering off because of the field before it, so we wander off anytime we catch site of what we think are greener pastures. It’s the natural, fallen condition of the human soul. For us to stay near the shepherd is a supernatural tendency; not a natural one.
But then there’s a woman with her ten drachmas, a silver coin that is worth about a day’s wage. So if we were to put that in today’s US Dollars, we’re talking about something close to $200. Ten day’s worth would be about $2,000. She puts them on her end table to take to the bank later. When she returns, one coin is missing. Again she counts it one more time to make sure she didn’t miscount. If you or I lost $200, we’d be tearing up our house too, wouldn’t we? Two hundred dollars doesn’t just get up and walk off.
I lost my $10 lunch money and I was nearly beside myself; how would losing $200 be? Jesus was telling the Pharisees and Scribes that these people that they considered to be sinners were valuable and yet lost. They were missing. They’d disappeared from the place they were supposed to be. The Pharisees especially saw themselves as living up to God’s commands to be holy as he is holy. They were supposedly, at least in their own minds, right where God wanted them. They were the 99 sheep. They were the 9 coins in their own estimation. They hadn’t gone anywhere. They weren’t lost. Better to be where you were placed than to go missing. But that sheep was still just as important. That coin was just as valuable as each of those individual coins.
It’s important to understand that Jesus is the one who lost here. Jesus is represented by both the shepherd and the woman.
The tax collectors and sinners are represented by that object that has been lost. Jesus is the one who has lost; we are the ones who are lost.
Act II: “The Looking”
Act II: “The Looking”
This takes us to the second act: “The Looking.” Again, in both parables, that which is lost is sought after. It’s more subtle in the first, and much more prevalent in the second.
In the first parable we see that the shepherd goes after the one that is lost. But again we can see it happening. The ninety-nine are left in the the open country. Presumably, they are left with the hired hands. The shepherd goes after the one. That thing could be anywhere!
You may remember the story of Saul looking for the donkeys his father lost. Now sheep are not donkeys, but it took Saul and his companion three days of searching before they discovered that the donkeys had somehow gotten back home. Remember, we’re talking about open country. That sheep could be anywhere. But that didn’t matter to the one who lost the sheep, did it? Not in the least. He will look until he finds.
But it’s much more prevalent, more dramatic in the second parable.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
In this parable the woman lights a lamp. sweeps the house, and seeks diligently. What was implied in the first parable is explicitly stated in the second. This is no search in name only. It’s not a formality. This is the mission at hand. Everything else is put on hold until the coin is found. Today, we’d be saying this one grabbed a flashlight and a metal detector, turning her house upside down.
But again, look who’s doing the looking. It’s the shepherd. It’s the woman. Remember that both these characters represent Jesus. The one who lost is the one who looks. Notice who doesn’t do the looking: the ninety-nine sheep or the nine coins. And we would say that’s ludicrous. Of course, they aren’t going to look. But while Jesus asked, which man among them wouldn’t go after the lost sheep, the reality is that none of those Pharisees or scribes saw them in the same way as the man who lost. They saw themselves as the sheep who stayed and the coins left in their place. And sometimes I wonder if we Christians are more like that than not. We see people more like sinners and less like those who are lost. We call them lost, but we see them as sinners. Most of us, if we saw a lost child or a lost puppy or a lost wallet, would not say to ourselves, “It’s none of our business; I’m not going to get involved.” Instead, we would want to help get the child back home; we’d want to find the owner of the puppy or wallet. But a lost person? I mean, a sinner…he’ll find his way. She’ll get found eventually, maybe.
We’ll talk more about it next week, but these coins and sheep are the same as the son who didn’t leave his father though his brother did.
The whole point here is that the Pharisees and the scribes are angry and grumbling because Jesus is receiving and eating with sinners, but those sinners are the very ones he lost in the first place. He’s not just receiving them; he’s been looking for them.
Act III: “The Locating”
Act III: “The Locating”
Which takes us to the third act: “The Locating.” The Pharisees saw the people Jesus was receiving as “sinners,” but Jesus saw them as lost. Those who had been lost, those for whom he was looking, had now been located. What else was he supposed to do but receive them?!
Think about it. The shepherd has been looking for the lost sheep for days and when he finally locates the sheep, what’s he supposed to do? Walk away from it? The woman has torn up her house looking for the lost coin and finally there it is in the crack between the floorboard and the floor. There it is! She’s located it. Now leave it and put everything back as it was? No! That’s stupid.
The shepherd and woman were not looking for that which was lost just so they could have peace of mind. “Oh, there it is. Alright. I can rest easy now. I’ll just let it be.” When our dog Squirrel got out a couple of months ago, Treye and I were searching a set of apartments. His Airtag had let us know that was his last location. We were searching and searching. A lady who saw us, volunteered to help and found out where he most likely was. And she took us to the apartment that he was likely at. When the man opened his door, there was Squirrel. Guess what I didn’t do? I didn’t walk away knowing that he was okay and that the man had taken care of him. I got down on my knees and petted him and scratched him and put his leash on him to bring him back home.
I want us to notice something, but to do so, we need to look at the CSB. The translators of the ESV, stated that the man put the lamb on his shoulder, rejoicing. But the problem is that the word xairon is a adverbial participle. In other words, it’s not describing the man, but the act. It was not merely that shepherd put the sheep on his shoulders and rejoiced. But rather, as we see with CSB:
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15
When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
That’s a subtle but major difference. The shepherd, not only was happy that he’d found the sheep and that the looking was over. He gladly bore the sheep on his shoulders. He joyfully bore the burden.
Brothers and sisters, it is our natural tendency to wander; but it is the Shepherd’s supernatural ability to gladly bring us home and bear us on his shoulders.
And that was what the Pharisees and scribes couldn’t get. We don’t just search for peace of mind. We search in order to receive what was rightfully ours all over again! And we joyfully bear the burden of that which was lost but is now found.
Epilogue: “The Lesson”
Epilogue: “The Lesson”
And all three of these acts lead us to the main lesson that Jesus wanted the Pharisees and scribes to understand: The one who has lost must seek those who are lost and when he has located him, he must rejoice. Not a “must” as in a duty, but a must as in a normal, natural reaction. He can’t help but rejoice.
Just as we get excited when something precious to us is found, so Jesus gets excited when we who are precious to him are found. What was all the eating with sinners about? It was about Jesus rejoicing to see those who were lost were being found. Those who no one would go out and look for, he looked for them and he located them and there was nothing he could do but rejoice.
But it’s not just Jesus rejoicing. When I got home from subbing that day, one of the first things I told Katie about was having lost my $10 and having found it, and it was only gone for all of 3 minutes. When something brings us joy, that joy isn’t complete until it is shared with others, and we expect and hope that those with whom we shared our joy will find joy as well and rejoice with us.
Thus we see,
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The one who has lost his sheep and the one who lost her coin calls others to rejoice and celebrate with them. It’s that way on earth and that way in heaven. Again, as children of the king, we represent the kingdom of God on earth. So, if one who was lost is found, if a sinner repents, we ought to represent heaven well and rejoice on earth!
But again, it’s not the sheep that are rejoicing. It’s not the coins celebrating. The sheep are oblivious and the coins are stone-cold still. But those who know the shepherd and the woman, those troubled hearts that now rejoice, who celebrate. The angels in heaven didn’t lose us. They may not fully understand what Jesus felt. But they knew his joy and they rejoiced with him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Beloved, as we finish with Luke 15:1-10, we can’t help but admit that there are a lot of lost people wandering for greener pastures. Like Eve, they do not trust that God would give them his best. They don’t trust the provision that he offers. They wander, as is their natural tendency. They wander, many times, into some dangerous situation, sometimes gross situation, sometimes situations we wish didn’t even exist. And it is natural to not want to get our hands dirty. It’s normal not want to carry such a burden.
Yet, we know at the end of his ministry on earth, we were commissioned to do just that. We’ve been given the same mission as Jesus was. As the Father sent him, so he sends us. He came to see and to save that which was lost. We can’t just be the 99 because we know what it was to be the 1 who was lost and is found. We can’t be the 9 coins; we were once the 1 that was lost and is found.
We know there are the lost and it’s time we start to look. And when we locate them, let us joyfully bring them home and invite everyone to rejoice with us.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Beloved, that is our mission.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
Let that be our mission. May we never be content to be bumps on a log in your kingdom. May we never be content to sit in the fields as the 99 or the end table as the 9. But may we go on mission with Shepherd of our Souls, looking for the lost and when finding them, may we rejoice that we now have a new brother or sister. May you be glorified and may we represent your joy well in this world.
In Jesus’s name we ask this. Amen.