Lost and found

Luke 15:11-32…

Jesus had been responding to the grumbling of the Pharisees at His response to sinners. This parable serves as His final, forceful revelation of their hearts. For the religious leaders listening to Jesus, this was a humiliating exposure of their hypocrisy.

The story paints the younger son as being very impatient and imprudent. There is no attempt to minimize the seriousness of his sins. Jesus did receive sinners, but He never minimized sin. This represented those people whom the religious leaders thought Jesus shouldn’t associate with.

Yet, while the younger son’s sins were great, so was his repentance. When he finally realized his folly, against his earthly father and his Heavenly Father, it caused him to look for forgiveness.  His repentant spirit is reflected in his deep sense of unworthiness. He does not claim any rights, he only hopes for mercy. This represented those people who had turned to Jesus. 

The father had allowed the younger son to go his own way, but he never left his heart. He ran to meet the son as soon as he saw him returning. The father did not force the son to grovel. He instead restored him and started rejoicing. This represented the loving heart of the Heavenly Father, who willingly grants forgiveness, and rejoices in the return of the wayward.

The older brother refused to join in the celebration. He thought his father’s favor was because of his good works, and expected his younger brother to have been disowned due to his bad works. He actually thought that he had been entirely faithful, but he disobeyed his father by not participating. It was not the younger brother’s sins which caused the father’s celebration, but his repentance. The older brother not only failed to comprehend grace, he resented it. The older brother represented the religious leaders who were grumbling against Jesus.

Both sons were equally in need. One simply had needs that are more outwardly evident. The truth is we all need Christ and an understanding of God’s heart for the lost. Understanding grace means you look for the lost and rejoice when they’re found. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

More than money

Luke 15:8-10…

Because Jesus receives sinners as if they were family, they grumble against Him, thinking that He obviously was not from God. Yet it is they who are exposed as having no concept of the heart of God. They have no interest in the joy of God, or what brings celebration to Heaven.

Jesus was bringing the self-righteous into the story, using the dirty (shepherds) and the disrespected (woman) as instruments of illustration. If lesser beings are concerned with lost things, so too, is the Messiah, and so too, should they be.

The woman in the story was on a mission. The monetary loss was terrible, but the possible sentimental value would have made this even worse. It called for a passionate search. Finding the coin was cause for great celebration, not just for this lady or her household, but for all of her friends. How much more valuable are the people around us! Christians must celebrate when salvation’s light reaches the dark and lost soul. Our mission is greater than money.

Unlike the religious leaders, God doesn’t mind being compared to a woman. It is God in Christ who is that woman seeking the lost sinner hidden in the dark and dirty world of sin. He did that for us, and He is the one who places the value in us. When we truly understand that we will truly change, because we treat others like we think God treats us (Romans 15:7). 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The lost sheep

Luke 15:1-7…

When we lose or misplace something, we trace our steps, we ask other people, and we ponder where we have been and where it could be. We don’t give up until we find it, whatever it is. The more valuable the thing is to us, the harder and longer we try to recover it. If and when we do, we celebrate, it is a huge relief.  Everyone is this way.

Jesus was saying the same to the crowd gathered to hear Him. The crowd was a mix of the religious leaders, the hated tax collectors, and the despised “lowlife sinners”. The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling that Jesus would keep company with “lesser” people.

What they failed to realize is that compared to Jesus, we are all lowlife’s. The people who can really get something from Jesus’ teaching are the ones who know they are lost and need help finding the way, not those who think they are already walking right along in the first place.  Yes we advance in the faith, but we never advance beyond repentance. Jesus wants people to remember where they came from, that all need rescuing. 

   

Jesus’ short story tells us about the Father’s love for the lost, but it also tells us what our attitude toward the lost should be as well. We need to be confident in what God’s grace can do for any person; especially those who we think are “lost causes”. Jesus specializes in them, and truthfully, that’s all of us (Isaiah 53:6). After we have received Christ as our Savior, a mark of our walk is that we become humbly grateful not grumbly hateful.

When people find the way of hope in God through the knowledge of Jesus, we should rejoice. That’s what heaven does, and that’s where we are going. In fact, that’s also a good test to see if you are really going there. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©