Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son – What Does This Mean?

Pharisees were the good people. They studied God’s word constantly. The worshiped every sabbath in synagogues. They worked hard to keep every commandment, including pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festivals, they made every sacrifice without fail. They even kept good company, avoiding people who didn’t take keeping the law as seriously as they did. They called those people, “sinners.” They didn’t need to be found. They were never lost in the first place. They didn’t take kindly to Jesus associating with the lost — tax collectors (one of those was even his disciple), prostitutes and sinners. Jesus doesn’t often have very nice things to say to them. But on the day St. Luke talks about in chapter 15, he is kind to them and tries gentle persuasion instead.

The lost parables are perhaps the most beloved of all of Jesus’ stories — the Shepherd who leaves Ninety-Nine sheep to find one lost sheep, the woman who sweeps out the house to find one lost coin (OK — it was a Denarii and worth a day’s wage (you’d sweep out the house if you lost one) and the Prodigal or Lost Son. Such stories almost always make just one point and so it is with these. But that point is not what you might think. These stories are not about the lost, or the one looking for them. It is about those in heaven that rejoice, the angels in heaven that sing with joy and the older brother.

While we were once lost and now found, we are not the lost of the parables. We were found long ago. It is not strictly about our Lord Jesus. He came to seek and to save the lost, suffering and dying for our sins and for forgiveness. The place of a hired worker won’t do. From heaven he came and sought us, to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought us and for our life he died. He washed us with water and the word and presents us spotless. We are already in his house when he brings his lost ones home. He wants us to rejoice when he finds them.

There is room in the kingdom for more. They may not dress the way we do, lived life recklessly, ignoring the law of God and man. They may have had other things to do, thinking they didn’t have time for church. They may even be from other cultures, languages and lands. Yet the Father’s words call us to see them as the Father wants his older son to see his young brother: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”