Lost My Keys
I lost my keys. Really odd bothering my wife to use her keys. If you have never lost your keys, I recommend - Don’t. Losing keys is bothersome and frustrating. My wife who is much better at finding things helped me look. No keys found. I looked under stuff, beside stuff, in the basement and in the garage. In kitchen and dresser drawers. No keys. I finally gave up, looking for the keys.
Eventually, my wife found the keys in a very odd spot.
I’m starting a contest for odd stories of key finding with a prize of bragging rights . So submit your entry here soon.
Jesus tells lost and found stories. Let’s consider a couple of them with a message for me and you.
Jesus had a unique method of teaching by telling parables. A parable is a short vignette using common situations and characters to convey spiritual truth. Parables contain one lesson or truth. Jesus uses simple stories to convey stupendous, mind shattering truths. The listener is following the story and Jesus jumps from the story to a spiritual truth. The listener extracts the spiritual truth and application.
Jesus shares two parables about lost items in Luke 15:1-10 (see also Matthew 18:12-14) with the parables in verses 3-10.
Before we get to the stories, some comments on Luke 15:1-2
The Lost Sheep
Jesus had two fan clubs, friends (later apprentices): Tax-collectors and sinners (Verse 1) and non-friends: Pharisees and scribes (verse 2). Only two. Fence sitters are in the non-friend club, then and now.
Tax collectors were despised working for the Romans collecting, actually extorting, taxes from the citizens taking as much as they could while giving the Romans their share and keeping the remainder for themselves. Despised for two reasons: they collaborated with the Roman occupiers and as extortioners in a get rich scheme enforced by the power of the government.
Pharisees and scribes were the religious and political leaders in a theocracy where religion and government mixed. This is an odd form of government from our Western view as we separate, government and religion - sort of. People have a religion and moral system even when they think they don’t. They bring that belief system into government influencing outcomes. God designed us to believe. Even those claiming not to believe, believe their unbelief.
God designed a Jewish theocracy described in the Torah demanding that Torah creed, precepts and practices would inform the practices and policies of civil government. God desired men of character and integrity shaped by His Torah to govern righteously. The Torah described righteous ruling in accord with the commands of God and was the mandatory Jewish operating manual for life, religion and society.
A simple definition can mock the Pharisees. I consider them as the agents of God guiding people in living according to the Torah. Pharisees took their role seriously creating guidelines and procedures for righteous living. None of us know the motivations of others much less our own motivation and a rules based approach made it possible to decide who was living properly by looking at rule compliance. Pharisees tried to practice serious rule keeping. Failure to live up to the rules created “sinners”.
Pharisees and all rule keeping societies fail to address the real nature of men. The doom loop is specific:
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Rules cannot to cover every situation
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Edge cases demand a continuous process of generating rules
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Rule keeping in a system with many rules is impossible
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Failure to keep any rule makes you a “sinner”
Scribes were the PhD level in interpreting and adjudicating the intricacies of the Torah and rules. Rules are rigid, life is flexible so rule interpretation was needed for the edge cases.
Sinners were those who did not seriously adhere to the rules. Rather than living, a person needed to spend time sorting out the rules in real time. Who could remember all the rules much less figure out how to live them in real time? I’m sure I would fail.
What happens in such a rigid rules based situation? Divisions and schism happens. In Luke 15:1-2, we see division personified. The Pharisees and scribes conformed. They were “better” than tax collectors and sinners (in the eyes of the Pharisees) who did not comply. Jesus, who hung out and ate with non-compliant people, was non-compliant.
So what does this have to do with lost and found? Jesus telling stories teaches without teaching using parables addressing a specific issue. Often, while Jesus was teaching the non-conforming, the lesson applied equally to the Pharisees and scribes who thought they were conforming.
The background, above, helps understand the context of the stories. Without context, these are cutesy stories and not serious teaching. Read a fairy tale for a cutesy story. Read the Bible to discern how your living and faith line up to God’s standards.
The Lost Sheep
Jesus told of a shepherd who had 100 sheep eventually losing one sheep. Sheep all look alike to me, white, furry, four legs and making sheep noises. Not so for the shepherd who spent many hours with the sheep so he saw the subtle differences and recognized sheep by sight. The shepherd realized a sheep was missing. The shepherd went to find the lost sheep. No details on the search. No clue on how long it took. No clue about the perils faced by the shepherd. No details on where the sheep was found. Just, the shepherd went to find the sheep.
The Lost Coin
A woman loses one of her ten coins, a drachma, equal to the wage for one day of work. Ten percent of her disposable income gone demanding a serious and careful search - a lamp is lit and a broom is deployed. No casual looking around. Brooms do not self operate. The woman sweeps everywhere. Pockets and all the trivial locations have been checked and rechecked. Moving the furniture to sweep underneath while carrying the light to all the dark spaces to aid in searching. This is serious business, that coin, literally, has great value. Finally, the coin is found.
Read Luke 15:6 and 15:9 slowly and aloud letting the words soak into your heart and soul… astonishing verses. Jesus describes a victory party. A triumphant celebration. The whole neighborhood is told. Findings the lost creates deep and significant emotional reactions. These outcomes are a blessing from God and deserve an appropriate response.
I hope your heart is stirred and your faith refreshed. Sing songs of praise! Jump for joy! Shout: Hallelujah, Great is God. Bask for a moment in the joy and triumph of these verses.
The words are almost the same:
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep (my coin) which was lost.
Why such a mood of triumph and celebration? Why such an outpouring of joy? Why such a big deal?
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The outcome was not guaranteed, it never is. The sheep and coin could still be lost.
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The effort expended matched the seriousness of the situation. The shepherd and the woman stepped up and accomplished something significant.
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In each case the loss involved significant value. A sheep and a coin of great value to those suffering loss.
The sheep and the coin mattered in life altering ways. Everyone listening knew the value of what was recovered. Jesus and the audience realized that these were moments of triumph. Jesus celebrated the joy of each lost and found.
Something lost… Something found.
How does Jesus describe the outcomes: the surprising twist.
For the shepherd, Luke 15:7:
I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
For woman with the coin, Luke15:10,
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
What a jump!!
From a sheep and a coin to:
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heaven
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angels
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sinners, the real kind
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joy in heaven
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repentance
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God in heaven
Jesus was making a serious point.
Time for you to unpack this parable for your life.
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So what is really lost based on Jesus’s description?
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Who lost?
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Who is seeking to find?
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How serious is the search?
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What is the larger lesson about our faith?
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What act of God is being described?
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What is the application for our faith and lives?
Please let me know what you find for your life and faith in the comments.
It is worth the effort to seek and find. Our life may be altered in tremendous ways. We all searched and found reacting in triumph, victory and joy. We rejoiced with others who succeeded. We wept for searches still in progress.
Joy is contagious. Happiness overwhelms.
God looks out for us as we seek and find our way through life. Seeking us us out when we lose our way. Setting us back on the proper path.
Praise the Lord.
Shalom
John
Sola Deo Gloria \ Fair Winds And Following Seas