A LOST SHEEP AND A LOST COIN.
Luke 15:1-10.
In the first parable of today’s reading we see the caring shepherd. He left his ninety-nine other sheep in order to seek the one that was lost, until he had found it. This is an image which is familiar from both the Old Testament and the New Testament:
‘For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out’ (Ezekiel 34:11).
Jesus said, ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep’ (John 10:11).
I am familiar with the bleating of lost sheep from my sojourn in the Western Isles of Scotland. Usually it was a lamb that had got the wrong side of the fence by the roadside, or a stubborn ewe grazing on the foreshore that had become separated from her companions by the incoming tide. They were unable to help themselves, and cried out in alarm.
The tax collectors and “sinners” who came to Jesus similarly recognised that they were lost.
Then a man with a crook would come to the rescue. The stubborn ewe would be waded through water, if necessary, to bring her to safety. The lamb would be lifted from the roadside and carried back into the field in one of the most evocative of Biblical illustrations:
‘He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom’ (Isaiah 40:11).
In our text, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing - and parties with his friends over the lost one of his hundred, which is now found.
The scribes’ and Pharisees’ accusation was a statement of fact: sinners resort to Jesus, and He receives them.
After all, He is the Good Shepherd. Jesus tells us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine people who are “just” and need no repentance!
The second illustration shows us a woman who loses one of her ten pieces of silver. Perhaps she has had it sewn into her garment as part of her dowry. The coin has now slipped onto the floor of her dark, dusty home. She lights a lamp, and sweeps thoroughly, until at last she finds her lost coin.
Again there is a party, again rejoicing. The woman’s one coin in ten has been found. And again we are reminded that there is much joy in the presence of angels over one sinner who repents.
Unlike the sheep, the coin was totally unaware that it was lost. Likewise unconverted man is lifeless until the light of the Holy Spirit illumines him, and brings him to life.
The woman represents the church. The sweeping might represent the work of evangelism. The lamp would then illustrate the light of the gospel, and particularly the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing the light to bear on the life of the sinner.
