LUKE 15:8-10
"Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does
not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?"
When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,
'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost!'
"In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (NASB).
INTRODUCTION
Hall of Famer Walter Payton
holds the NFL record for rushing yards, and in 1985 he climaxed his career by
winning Super Bowl XX with the Chicago Bears. One of Payton’s cherished
possessions was his Super Bowl ring commemorating their triumph. According to
writer Fred Mitchell in the Chicago Tribune, each ring was distinctive,
marked with the player’s name, uniform number, and position.
In the winter of 1996, Walter’s
invaluable ring disappeared. It happened when he delivered a motivational
speech to a high school basketball team he had worked closely with for years.
To give an object lesson on the importance of trust, he entrusted his ring to
one of the players for the weekend. Reportedly, when friends of that player
came to the boy’s house to see the ring, it disappeared.
At first, because of his close
relationship with the school, Payton did not report the theft to the
authorities. Exercising remarkable patience, he hoped the boys would get the
ring back for him. But after five months he could wait no longer. He had to
have his keepsake ring back. So he reported the theft to the police and offered
a reward for information leading to its recovery.
One of the most painful experiences in
life is to lose what we highly value. That is precisely what happened to God.
The people whom God made in His image became lost through sin. Lost people
matter to God.
BACKGROUND
Luke often presents his
material in pairs. When he mentions a man, he most likely will also note a
woman. In chapter 1 of his Gospel, Zacharias and Elizabeth are presented, and
in the following chapter, Joseph and Mary, and Simeon and Anna. In succeeding
chapters, he refers to the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian. In the
parables, he places the man with the mustard seed next to the woman mixing
yeast in her flour. The parable of the shepherd who found his lost sheep is
followed by the parable of the woman who found one of her silver coin. These
two parables form a pair and each virtually the same message. Thus Jesus makes
His point in addressing the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.
This
parable, because of its brevity sparkles with beauty. It reveals all the
emotions of anxiety, worry, elation, and joy in only a sentence or two. Yet the
story is complete.
I. FRANTIC SEARCH FOR A MISPLACED COIN V. 8
In this parable, Jesus
portrays a woman who had ten silver coins. These coins were part of her dowry
and were worn as ornamental decorations on her headdress. The modern equivalent
may be a woman’s engagement ring and wedding band with studded diamonds. The
loss of one of these diamonds causes dismay, anxiety, and worry. The coin that
was missing is the Greek drachma (which is used only here in the NT),
which was the wage paid for a laborer for a day’s work. It was a modest sum of
money. The loss of this coin was a serious matter to this woman. When she
realizes that the coin is missing she knows that it must have become detached
and fallen off. It is unthinkable that someone might have stolen it. The place
to look for is her own home.
Houses
of the poorer class were constructed without windows. Near the ceiling,
perhaps, a few stones were left out of the wall to provide some ventilation.
However, this opening, together with the entrance, did not give the inside of
the house much light. Even in the middle of the day it was dark in the house.
The woman would have to light a candle in order to search for the coin that was
somewhere on the stone floor. Animals were frequently kept inside rural homes,
although in somewhat separate part of the family dwelling. Besides, the house
served as a place where the poor owner stored his goods. Therefore, to find
something as small as a coin on a stone floor with other goods, demands care,
time, and effort on the part of the woman.
The
woman took a broom and, with the light of the lamp illuminating the room, she
swept the house carefully. She searched for the lost silver coin with
determination. She would not rest until she has found the missing treasure.
Someone has said that sometimes you do not appreciate what you have until you
lose it. She searched every place in the house she might have been, until at
last she caught the sight of a gleam of metal or heard the tinkle of the coin
upon the hard floor.
II. FINDING THE MISSING COIN VV. 9-10
When
the woman’s painstaking search for her silver coin finally paid off, her
anxiety and worry suddenly disappeared and gave way to joy and jubilation. I
don’t know about you, but if you recover something that is precious to you,
there is a sense of elation, peace, and calmness that come over you. The joy of
this woman after retrieving her missing silver coin is indescribable. It is
happiness and joy that must be shared with friends and neighbors. Therefore,
she calls her friends and neighbors and says to them, “Rejoice with me; I
have found my lost coin.” The friends and neighbors congratulated her and
rejoiced with her. When the husband returned from the farm, he too shared his
wife’s happiness.
With
this brief parable, Jesus captures the attention of His critics. Therefore,
Jesus says that in the same way there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner who repents. Jesus has used the familiar to teach the
critics and the disciples the unfamiliar. He has used a simple and brief
parable to teach the people a spiritual lesson about the heart of God. In
essence Jesus is saying that God wants servants who understand His heart to
restore sinners. This parable underscores God’s desire for Christians to share the
goal of winning the lost back to Him. Notice that the focus is on the joy at
the recovery of a sinner, not on the fact that Jesus is the only one to do it.
When you become a Christian, Jesus is training you to do as He has been doing,
and that is to restore sinners to God. The purpose for which God saved you is
not simply for you to inherit eternal life and go to heaven when you die. Those
are privileges that God gives to us when we are saved. The main reason God
saved you is to bring others who are alienated from Him back to Him. God saved
you so that you become His instrument to restore other people who are lost in
sin to Him. Therefore, God has given you the ministry of reconciliation. That
is the main reason God gives you the Holy Spirit. What does Acts 1:8 teach? God
wants to restore people who are estranged from Him as a result of sin. Among
God’s creation, humans are more important than the rest. In the creation
narrative, when it came to the time of God’s creation of man, the Bible says, “God
created man in His own image.” That is why it is absurd to believe in
evolution. Among God’s creation only humans bear the image of God. That is why
idolatry is a grievous sin against God, because God made man to have dominion
over the rest of creation. Therefore, for man/woman to bow down before anything
other than God is a great affront to God.
Let
me show you some insight into this parable. I am a fan of miracles. I believe
in miracles that are authentic. I am for the miracle of divine healing. I mean,
if God heals a person who has suffered from cancer, or any deadly disease, I am
delighted and have to rejoice with the person. However, in as much as I want to
see people who are seriously ill get healed, I would like to see more sinners
restore to God. You know why? The reason is that nowhere in the Bible do you
see the angels of God jubilating because a sick person has been restored, or
even a dead person brought to life. The only place you read of the angels
rejoicing is when a sinner repents and comes back to God. Therefore, I would
like to submit to you that the most astounding miracle that wins the heart of
God the Father is when a sinner is saved. Salvation is the miracle of all
miracles. This happens when a person who is dead in sin and trespasses and
living in total rebellion against God is restored to Him through the
supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore,
when some Christians make the statement, “I want us to keep our church small;
they do not understand what they are saying.” It is an indication that such
Christians do not know the heart of God. This parable therefore, is relevant to
our new and fledgling church, because if we are not careful as we grow some
will develop an exclusive attitude that turns people away from Christ as the
Pharisees and scribes were doing. The church is not an exclusive social club
for the elite where the common people are not welcome. The church is not a
social organization for the self-righteous, who look down upon others, and by
their actions tell them we do not need you in our midst.
The
church is a spiritual hospital where those who have been wounded by sin are to
be brought in for treatment. The church must be the only hospital where the
Great Physician does not turn down a patient’s request for treatment because
he/she does not have health insurance. The church is the only spiritual
hospital where the Great Physician is the specialist in the treatment of sin.
Nobody can heal your sin sickness, apart from Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come
for the righteous; rather He came for sinners. He did not come for those who
think that they are well and healthy; He came for the sick.
Jesus
through this parable is teaching you that God the Father does not want
Christians to isolate ourselves from the world to such a degree that we never
relate to the lost. If God wants you to isolate yourself from sinners or lost
people, He would have called you home to heaven the moment He saved you. Jesus
who is God, who came in the flesh, who came as human was always among people,
especially people who did not know God. Although some grumbled that He had
wrong associations, Jesus knew why He was building such relationships. He knew
that something might develop to influence a person who did not know God to
consider Him more seriously. Jesus discovered people like Matthew and Zacchaeus
this way. They were tax collectors, who were despised by the Pharisees but they
became the followers of Jesus because of His association with them. Therefore,
do not say, “I don’t want any trouble” therefore you isolate and insulate
yourself from others. God rejoices before His angels when a sinner repents and
turns to Him. Jesus showed God’s love to sinners of His day. He taught the tax
collectors and moral outcasts. He entered their homes, He ate and drank with
them, and He was given the name “friend of sinners” (Matt. 11:19). Due to this,
the Pharisees considered even Jesus to be a sinner. This was a verdict of guilt
by association. It never dawned on these self-righteous and religious
hypocrites that Jesus came to redeem sinners. Jesus came to seek and save those
that were lost.
The
church, known as the body of Christ is called to extend love and concern to the
men, women, and children who are spiritually lost in this world. Members of the
church are called to seek that which is lost and tell those who live in sin
that “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). The fervor that Jesus displayed
in associating with the so-called sinners of His day must glow in every member
of the church, radiating the warmth of evangelistic zeal, and rejoicing with
“the angels of God over one sinner
who repents.” Therefore, build relationships with
people at your school, work, marketplace, and neighborhoods and introduce them
to Jesus Christ. If you cannot share the gospel with them, just invite them to
come to church with you.
Therefore,
when you join a church that has the potential for growth both spiritually and
numerically, but the church is stunt and stagnant that shows that there is
something definitely wrong in that church. Jesus reserved His scathing rebuke
for the Pharisees, because they kept their distance from sinners and refused to
accept a spiritual leader who seemed to love and associate with sinners. Jesus
challenges their attitude—not only in His ministry, but also especially in His
death for the lost, which restores sinners to relationship with God. At the
heart of the gospel is God reaching out to the sinner and making provision for
their forgiveness.
It is
easy to dismiss as insignificant the variety of people whom our culture has
cast aside or views with contempt. People who suffer from debilitating diseases
such as AIDS or people on welfare are looked upon as leeches on society. These
are modern equivalents to the tax collectors and sinners of Jesus’ world. Jesus
pursued these very people with such vigor that the religious community of the
first century questioned His character. However, these parables explain why
this pursuit meant so much to Him. Jesus knew that rescue was possible and love
compelled Him to rescue the perishing. Therefore, we should be engaging the
lost people in meaningful relationships. Often in the church this is the
opposite. Many Christians withdraw from the multitudes for fear of compromising
their testimony. Evangelism requires time and energy, like the shepherd and the
woman’s search, in order to capture the lost.
Some
time ago, a boy fell into an old well. In a short while $40,000.00 was raised
in the small community to bring in the necessary earth-moving equipment for his
rescue. In 1937, Amelia Earhart, attempting a round-the-world flight, was
reported lost. For the following ten days, the US government and others spent
over $250,000.00 daily searching for her. We place highest value on this life.
We spend comparative little on seeking the lost souls!
Because
Jesus Christ, the Savior has paid with His precious blood for the redemption of
humankind, every person has an infinite value in God’s sight and the way to the
throne of grace lies open to everyone who desires to enter.
Therefore,
share the good news (the gospel) with everyone that the Lord allows you to meet
or encounter. Every person is worth of saving because Jesus paid the penalty of
sin for all of us.
