“Lost & Found”
(Luke 15:1-10)
The Greenhouse ~ 12th Sunday after Trinity
At the end of every school year, we lay out the lost and found items on a table so that students can see more clearly what items have been collected in the bin, hoping that some of those items will find their way back to the proper home. Some years we have needed two tables to display the contents of our lost and found. Sometimes the items are a pair of socks or a can of hairspray. I can understand someone losing these and not seeking them out. Some items are much more expensive, like a school uniform blazer or a pair of shoes. Since the shoes and blazers all look alike, I can again understand someone not tracking down their lost item, given how hard it is to differentiate their own blazer from another, but I’m a little more surprised how careless they have been given the cost. But other times I’m astounded by $50 water bottles, half-read books with the student’s name in them, and notebooks that sat on the table during finals’ week (I guess that student didn’t study for the exam), items that have some value and would be easy to relocate when lost. The key, it seems, is whether or not the student finds value in what was lost. If they can replace the water bottle with another like it from their home collection, perhaps the cost of the water bottle isn’t at the forefront of their mind. Easier to grab a new one from home than hunt down the lost one. The key to finding is seeking, but the motivation for seeking is rooted in the value of the thing that is lost.
But it’s not only items at school that can be lost. In 21st century Christianity, one of the more common ways to speak of unbelievers is to identify them as the “lost.” This language has biblical precedent in several places, including our parables today in Luke 15. Jesus tells a parable about a lost sheep and a lost coin, both of which he connects with a sinner who is lost. One of the more intriguing observations about the series of parables in Luke 15 is the increasing value of that which is lost. First, the shepherd loses one of his one hundred sheep. Then, a woman loses one of her ten coins. In a passage we will explore next week, a father loses one of his two sons. Not only is one out of two a more significant loss than one out of one hundred, but a human is more valuable than a sheep.
Of interest in this first parable, then, is that it may seem prudent to many of us to leave that one lost sheep so as to care properly for the ninety-nine that remain. If one sheep can wander off while the shepherd watches one hundred, how many might wander off if no one watches the ninety-nine while he goes off searching for the one. A sheep may be valuable, but if there are ninety-nine others, how valuable can it be? Isn’t the one sheep like the lost water bottle or the lost blazer? It may be a moderately costly loss, but it’s also easily replaceable. But Jesus doesn’t think in this way. He doesn’t treat sheep, and by parallel in this passage lost humans, as easily replaceable. Although the love of the father for the prodigal son (which we will look at in more detail next week) is astounding, I find it much more surprising that the shepherd would care for this one single sheep among so many. And yet, Jesus’ words are clear: he assumes any shepherd would go look for this lost sheep. Moreover, he will rejoice when he finds it. Still further, when he returns, he will tell his friends and encourage them to join in his rejoicing that what was lost has been found. Likewise, there will be great joy in heaven when one sinner repents, that is, when one who is lost is now found. There is an important message here about how God values human beings much more than we do.
Jesus continues, telling now the story of the woman who has lost one of her ten silver coins. Again, his story assumes that the woman, like the shepherd, will immediately seek diligently for that which is lost. She will light a lamp, sweep the house, and look for it, then she will invite her neighbors to rejoice with her when she has found it.
A couple observations come to mind in the parable of the shepherd. The parable of the shepherd should draw our mind to two passages about God as shepherd. One of these is more familiar, the passage in John 10 of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In John 10, one of the characteristics of Jesus’ shepherding nature is that His sheep know His voice. The sheep are not mere possessions, but rather dearly loved, evidenced by their knowing His voice because He spends time with them and speaks with them. Not only does He demonstrate love and care for them, but He protects them, even speaking of laying down His life for His sheep. We should not be able to imagine Jesus, the Good Shepherd, allowing one of His sheep to wander off and simply leaving it to its own care. As the Good Shepherd, we have every confidence that Jesus will seek that which is lost. He will seek and find and restore because that is what a loving shepherd does.
The second passage of God as shepherd is less familiar to most Christians. In Ezekiel 34, YHWH speaks out against Israel’s failed shepherds (i.e., their kings) for leading the people astray. Because Israel’s shepherds have failed, YHWH Himself says in Ezekiel 34:11-12, “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” God in both the Old and New Testaments (for Jesus is God, the 2nd person of the Triune God named YHWH) speaks of Himself as shepherd, a shepherd who seeks out His lost sheep, finds them, and restores them to the fold. We, too, whether as under-shepherds (pastors) or in our role as fellow sheep, are called to bring back straying sheep. James writes at the end of his epistle that “if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). The seeking and restoring of lost sheep ought to be characteristic of each one of us because it is characteristic of God Himself.
One additional observation is one we will explore next week, so I’ll only introduce it briefly here. The emphasis in both parables (and the one to follow that we will explore next week) is joy. The proper response to finding what is lost, to the restoration of lost sinners, is joy. The passage makes this abundantly clear. There is no confusion about the joy that results from finding what is lost in either parable. Yet, I think in the modern American church we have somehow responded to the restoration of the lost with something less than, or other than, joy. I’ve heard Christians respond to the salvation of the lost with skepticism, jealousy, or indifference. In the parable of the prodigal son, the older brother is a perfect example of this danger. So, although a thorough analysis of these two parables should include some mention of joy, I’ll save comment on that for next week.
Until then, let us be a people who follow the example of our shepherd and seek after that which is lost. Let us find value in the sinner as one for whom Jesus not only sought, but for whom He laid down His life. Jesus came to seek and save the lost; we were once among that lost, and praise God we’ve been found. Let’s now join Him in seeking after others who are still wandering from His fold. Amen.
Discussion Questions
What are some ways that we give evidence to what we value most?
What do these parables suggest about seeking that which is lost? How do we go about this?
It would be easier to value one of two sons than one of one hundred sheep, yet the parable suggests that God cares for the one sheep also, even to the point of seeking after the one that is lost. Compare and contrast these two kinds of love, the love for the one son who is lost versus the love for the one sheep in one hundred that is lost.
Feature Image Credit: John Atkinson Grimshaw (British, 1836–1893), The Parable of the Lost Sheep, late 1860s. Oil on canvas. Princeton University Art Museum.
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