Luke 15

Jesus cares about the salvation of those who wander. He came to Israel and sought out those who should have been a part of the people of God, but who for some reason were outside of that group that was practicing the ways of organized religion in Israel. The Pharisees and scribes were not like the prostitutes and tax collectors. They were not outsiders to the ceremonies of Israel. They were very careful in their following of the traditions of worship and life that had been handed down to them. They were so committed to these things that they held them above the Word, in fact they were offended by the Word of God when He came in person. In particular, they were convinced that Jesus was doing something wrong when He ate with sinners, sinners who were not carefully following the ways of Judaism, and even those who were in clear violation of the moral law of God. They were convinced that Jesus was wrong when He received sinners into His presence and ate with them.

Jesus exposes their error by telling them three related parables. The first is about a shepherd who has one hundred sheep. Ninety-nine are fine; they remain with the flock. One sheep has wandered away. He was once a part of the flock, but now he is lost. In the parable, our Lord presents it as a completely normal thing for the shepherd to leave the ninety-nine in order to find the one, and then to gather his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him because he found the lost sheep and brought him back to the flock. That is not normal behavior on earth, but it is the way of life in heaven, where people rejoice more over one wandering sinner who comes home, than over ninety-nine people who have not seemed to wander at all.

The second parable is similar. This one is about a woman who had valuable coins. Let’s say that they were each worth a normal day’s wages, which would have been a customary coin in use in Jesus’ day, a denarius. This woman loses one of those ten coins. Again, Jesus presents it as very normal that she would not only spend much effort and time to find the coin, but that when she found it, she would call together her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her. Normal for us in such a situation would be to feel somewhat uncomfortable about the fact we had lost the coin in the first place, just as it would be normal for us to be somewhat frustrated in our dealings with the one sheep that caused us to leave the ninety-nine behind. It would certainly not be normal for us to spend all day looking for a coin that is worth a day’s wages, and then when we find it to host a celebration with our closest loved ones, perhaps spending a day’s wages on the party. Yet again, our attention is drawn to what is normal in heaven, where people rejoice before the angels of God over one sinner who turns away from sin, and comes home again to God.

If we miss the point of the first two stories, we should still get the meaning of the third one, since it is about a morally and spiritually lost person. The story is actually about a father who has two sons. The younger one does something outrageous in asking for his share of the inheritance prior to his father’s death. This is a very rude thing to do, particularly when it is accompanied by abandoning all contact with the father.

This younger son leaves with his money and goes far away, and he loses everything through his own foolish, dangerous, and evil choices that are called here “reckless living.” Then a severe famine comes in that land, which means that this young man is in a very desperate situation. He ends up working for someone in that far off place, taking care of the man’s pigs. He’s in such a bad spot and is so hungry, that he envies the pigs. They have more to eat than he does. We are told that no one in that place gives him anything. He’s a foreigner there. Then the germ of a new idea comes into his mind. He knows that he has no right to come back to his father as a son, since he was so rude in treating his father as if he were dead, demanding his inheritance and abandoning him. But what if he comes back as a servant to his father? He remembers his father, that his father might listen to him, and that he might help him if he came back in a low position.

So he starts home. Along the way he practices what he will say. But while he is still a long way off, his father does something very unusual for a dignified man in that day. He runs. It starts in his heart. He feels compassion. He is out looking, and he sees his son. He knows the way he walks, even from far away, and he misses him. So when he sees him, he runs, he embraces him and kisses him. He does not seem to dwell on his son’s words. The son can’t even finish his speech or present his proposal to his father. Instead the father begins to give instructions to his servants, treating this son as the most respected member of the household. “Quickly, the best robe, a ring of honor, shoes for his feet, the fattened calf for a feast…” Why? “My son was dead, and is alive again.” And the celebration begins. And this is not the way that people normally treat those who have hurt them so badly.

Certainly it is not the way his older brother wants to treat him. His older brother is offended by this entire celebration, so much so that he won’t have anything to do with it. But the father cares about this son too, though he is self-righteous and earthly-minded, still the father entreats him kindly, and he says, “All that is mine is yours.” But the father cannot but celebrate over the recovery of a lost family member who comes home, because that is the way that things are in heaven.

When we understand that the heavenly way is the normal way for God, we can see the beauty of the cross more distinctly. At great cost to Himself, God provided a way for the lost to come home, through the life and death of His Son. It is right for Jesus to seek and save the lost. It is right for us to celebrate when the lost are found.