Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel, Luke 15:1-10                                     

Luke 15:1-10

Have you ever lost anything important to you? A treasured piece of jewelry? A photograph of a loved one? Money? I think most of us could answer in the affirmative and depending on the item or items there is a real sense of loss and even pain. Jesus in our gospel reading this week deals with lost things, namely a sheep and a coin. Valued differently by the owners, they are important and cause the altering of normal routines to search for and secure their return.  But the preface to the parables He relates points to the immense contrast between how God sees sinners and how we do. Incidentally, you and I never have justification for looking down on any sinner as less than ourselves. Because they are not.

Jesus relates how searching for something lost is worth the effort and at the culmination of the search when the lost item or animal is found, there is rejoicing, “Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost” (v. 6), or “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost” (v. 9). In fact, the one who has searched cannot contain the joy to themselves. They actively seek others to share that joy. There’s a larger issue here.

God searches for the lost. As dear old Dr. Mitchell at the seminary used to say, “God yearns for the lost.” The Pharisees and scribes at the beginning of the passage certainly don’t get it. They see a Jesus who loves the unlovely, who desires to be with them that He might lead them, that He might possess them. And when He finds them and captures their hearts all heaven rejoices.

It might be a coin, a puppy, or a treasured locket. When we lose them, there is pain. When God views men and women outside of Christ He lets us know He feels pain. For that loss is immense. God has done all to retrieve us and when just one is found, heaven cannot contain the joy. I want today's Pharisees and scribes to understand that. Jesus wants that, too.