Finding the One (and being persistent about it)

Luke 15:8–10 NIV

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Text explanation - we cannot possibly understand this story!

Jesus told stories to confuse, or to make think - people who can’t relate to poverty couldn’t relate to this story;

Review

last week - searching for the irrelevant

this week - desperately searching; persistently searching for the lost; the taken for granted

deceptively straightforward - lost money in the couch; find ing the unsigned check - call anyone when that happened? throw a party?

Audience not connecting with the story - who would be so desperate?

we don’t have what we need?

we can’t find what we need?

we don’t look for what we need?

e.g. lost pay check

we don’t see: why we have trouble understanding this story

1. we do not realize the extent of others’s destitution; maybe we see someone who lost change in the couch, left an uncashed check in the coat pocket; a week’s worth of money!!!

imagine the scene - dirt floor, small; one small window; dimly lit

e.g.

2. we do not realize our destitution; our wealth provides us security; a wise person keeps an emergency fund;

Destitution / Resourceless

we don’t have what we need?

we can’t find what we need?

we don’t look for what we need?

we don’t see needs, so we don’t persistently, desperately look for it

e.g. lost pay check

Therefore, we do not desperately look for what is lost

3 points: why we don’t know our purpose, our mission; don’t know discipleship

1. we don’t see the loss - or we underestimate the loss the need, the loss (context!) (poverty)

. since we don’t see, we don’t try (focus on target audience, not on hurt); easily desensitized

2. we see, we try, and we give up easily (just one coin; just one person)

3. we persist; desperately, determined; and find the one

who is your one? e.g.

missional partnerships; youth; children; isolated;

emphasis: our destitution?

illusions: wealth;

Luke: Verse by Verse Jesus Tells the Parable of the Lost Coin (15:8–10)

This parable has the same message as the first one. A woman has ten silver drachmae or denarii, equivalent to ten days’ wages. This may well be a peasant scene and refer to a small dowry. Some think of it as part of a wealthy woman’s headdress, but that had as many as fifty coins on it, and it is hard to see why Jesus would single out just ten coins of that. More likely this was all the savings she could muster. She lives in the normal peasant one-room house with hard-packed dirt floors that have to be swept to see where the missing coin has fallen. She must have discovered the loss at night, for she also needs to light a lamp in order to see what the sweeping uncovers.

Effort

Luke: Verse by Verse Jesus Tells the Parable of the Lost Coin (15:8–10)

The emphasis is on the great effort she expends to find the single lost coin. Her joy in finding it is just as great as the shepherd’s in verses 5–6. She too calls her “friends and neighbors” to a celebration in honor of finding the lost coin. This is certainly hyperbolic, but the parallels with the previous story are fully intentional. This is shown in verse 10, where “the angels of God” are overjoyed with every repentant sinner. Angels gather the harvest for the final judgment (Matt 13:41, 49) and form the heavenly court at that final event (Ps 89:7; Rev 4:4; 11:16), so this is a natural picture.

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 15

15:8–10 To search for a lost coin (Gk drachma; worth about a day’s wage for the average worker) indoors required lighting a lamp since very few homes had windows. This search also required sweeping the house because the floor was earthen. Joy in the presence of God’s angels speaks of God’s joy over a repentant sinner.

symbolism?

A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, Matthew–1 Corinthians: Volume 3, Luke–John Chap. 15

If thou seek wisdom as silver, that is, if thou seek the things of the law as hidden treasures—A parable. It is like a man