The Found Sheep, Coin, & Son

Luke 15 gives us incredible insight into the heart of God. Jesus has been challenged by the religious leaders. They cannot understand, for the life of them, why He would receive "sinners." The parables that follow this questioning reveal the heart of God & His intentions that nothing remain lost.

Religion labels. Jesus liberates. Religion classifies. Jesus justifies. Religion seems content that the lost be lost. Jesus cannot rest until the lost is found. He said that He came to "seek & save that which WAS lost." It is my opinion that He succeeded.

To answer the religious leaders, Jesus gave three parables: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, & The Lost Son. It is my observation of these three parables that the sheep, coin, & son refer back to the labeled sinners. It is also my observation that we may have titled these parables all wrong. In the end...they were all found.

The Shepherd, the Woman, & the Father in these parables represent God.
The Sheep, the Coin, & the Son in these parables represent humanity (in particular the sinners that Jesus ate with).
The SEARCH represents Jesus.

Another observation I would like to share with you is that each of the items mentioned in these parables NEVER lost their identity. The sheep didn't become a goat. The coin didn't lost it's value. The son didn't lose his place in the family. That's right!!! The sheep was still a sheep, the coin was still a coin, & the son was still a son. The "lostness" of these items could in no way devalue them. In one sense, at least in the eyes of God, they had even more value placed upon them. Who is willing to leave the 99 & go after 1 sheep? Who will turn everything over, sweep the house, & look all over until the 1 lost coin is found? Who will give away an inheritance, watch a son walk away, and wait with bated breath until that son returns? Can you at least see how we have missed the point of these parables?

What Adam lost as it related to the place of humanity was significant. What Jesus regained on behalf of humanity is even more significant. While we often refer to believers & unbelievers as lost and/or found, I think we have missed the big picture. Listen to the words of C.S. Lewis, “What, then, is the difference which He has made to the whole human mass? It is just this; that the business of becoming a son of God, of being turned from a created thing into a begotten thing, of passing over from the temporary biological life into timeless ‘spiritual’ life, has been done for us. Humanity is already ‘saved’ in principle. We individuals have to appropriate that salvation. But the really tough work–the bit we could not have done for ourselves–has been done for us. We have not got to try to climb up into spiritual life by our own efforts; it has already come down into the human race. If we will only lay ourselves open to the one Man in whom it was fully present, and who, in spite of being God, is also a real man, He will do it in us and for us...” (Mere Christianity, pp. 156-157).

The next time you are ready to label someone as a sinner, I won't you to stop and remember these parables. I want you to remember what it was like to think you were separated from God. I want you to remember what it was like when you discovered that God had transcended time & eternity to ensure that you were not lost. I want you to see the passionate pursuit of God for humanity in Jesus. And I want you to learn what it means to call out the true identity of each individual.

The Apostle Paul was commission by Jesus to be a light to the Gentiles. He was told that he would open their eyes so that they could turn from darkness to light. In the eyes of the Jewish community, the Gentiles were sinners. They were outside of God's covenant. Paul talks about this reality in other letters. However, in the eyes of God they were included in the finished work of Christ. Jesus told the disciples after feeding the 5,000 to pick up the fragments (the leftover food) so that nothing would be lost. I believe this was the Father's heart for all of humanity. It wasn't enough to redeem Israel. All of mankind was tied to what Adam had lost. Our Heavenly Father has done everything that could be done to ensure that nothing would be lost.

May these observations awaken the love of God within you. May your heart for the Good News of Jesus be ignited once again. We are not "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (as Jonathan Edwards once proclaimed) but "Sons in the Heart of a Loving Father." We are in the age of nothing being lost - of opening the eyes - of bringing people out of the darkness of their own thinking into the light of God's goodness & love. May Jesus receive the reward of His suffering.