From Lost to Found

Losing the Son of God

Many years ago, when our oldest son was just a toddler, my wife and I went shopping at a clothing store here in Birmingham. It was a clothing store and everything was fine until we both realized that we didn’t know where Aaron was. Our only son was missing. Every parent knows the fear that floods your heart in a moment like that.

We panicked and ran through the store looking desperately for our child and calling his name. Then store employees were helping us and communicating with each other that a child was lost in the store. We were all on high alert and with each moment that passed our panic grew in intensity.

Then Aaron decided to emerge from his hiding place. He wasn’t lost after all, just hiding in a clothing rack from his parents. To him it was just a funny joke, but to the rest of us it was a nightmare. Once we realized he was safe we went from panic to peace. Our hearts were filled with relief and gratitude that our lost son was found. How many of you could tell similar stories? Those of you with young children will eventually have a story like that to tell. It’s definitely something you can never forget.

2000 years ago, another family had a similar experience. They lived in Israel and traveled to Jerusalem for Passover each year. Normally many families traveled together in large caravans because it was easier and safer. So this year, as with many other years, Joseph and Mary traveled with their kids and other families. During Passover, the city was filled with thousands of people all celebrating together.

Once the festival was over, everyone went home. Joseph and Mary joined with other families and began the journey back to their hometown. After they had been traveling for about a day they looked around for their oldest son, Jesus. However, they could not find him with any of their other relatives or friends.

This might sound strange, but it was common for extended families to take care of each other so they had no reason to worry until they realized that he wasn’t with any of the other families. So they went all the way back to Jerusalem to look for him. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been to find a lost 12 year old in a big city full of people. It sounds a little like the movie Home Alone 2.

They actually spent three days searching before they finally found him. When they found him he was in the temple courts sitting with the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. The people who listened to this 12 year old were amazed at his level of wisdom and knowledge. But his parents were not really impressed –

Luke 2:48 (NIV)

48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

That sounds about right doesn’t it? I’m sure that Joseph and Mary were about to lose their minds.

Can you imagine their conversations? “Great! An angel gives us the responsibility of raising the Son of God and we lost him! We are horrible parents! We’re gonna be in so much trouble!”

But Jesus didn’t feel the same way. He didn’t feel lost, he felt like he was at home. Listen to what he told them:

Luke 2:49 (NIV)

49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

Even at 12 years old, Jesus had a clear idea of his mission and purpose. He wasn’t lost at all. He knew exactly where he was and what he was supposed to be doing in life. Ironically, his mission was to look for lost people. Years later when he was doing ministry he clearly spoke about why he was on earth:

Luke 19:10 (NIV)

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Lost Son

In the same way that his parents were looking for their lost son, Jesus would spend his life looking for lost people. So what exactly does he mean when he says he is looking for lost people? Jesus told a story one day that describes it in a way that we can understand. It begins this way:

Luke 15:11–12 (NIV)

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

In this story, the youngest son wants his father to give him his inheritance early. This was a really strange request. Normally an inheritance is given after the father passes away, but he wanted it while his father was still living. For some reason the father agreed to give him his inheritance. What happens when a young man suddenly gets rich? It doesn’t normally go well, and it didn’t go well for him.

Luke 15:13 (NIV)

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

This young man left home where he could be free from his father’s rules and expectations. Moving far away, he could do whatever he wanted to do and he decided to live the party life. For him, life was about doing what feels good. There are a lot of people who live to satisfy their cravings.

· Maybe you are an adrenaline junkie. You live for the next exciting adventure and embrace the thrill of risky activities.

· Maybe you love food and enjoy going to all the greatest restaurants and trying the newest exotic dishes.

· Maybe you are trying to satisfy your sexual cravings and end up connecting with person after person looking for a satisfying relationship.

· Maybe your adventure has led you down dark paths that have gotten you hooked on drugs or alcohol.

These kinds of things can satisfy a craving for the moment, but not for the long term. After a while we end up realizing that we still feel empty inside even when we have tried desperately to fill our lives with everything we can think of. The problem is that we work so hard to satisfy the cravings of our body, but we don’t work hard to satisfy the cravings of our spirit. When the bottom falls out, we are left with nothing and feel more empty than ever.

That’s what happened to this young man in the story that Jesus was telling. He ran out of money – because it isn’t infinite – and then he got hungry. There was a famine in the land he was living so food became hard to find and he didn’t have money anyway. He got a job feeding pigs – which was pretty insulting for a Jew because they don’t eat pork. To him, even the food the pigs were eating looked good.

This is when you know you have hit bottom. This is when you realize you have lost your way.

Luke 15:17 (NIV)

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

This young man suddenly realized that he was starving to death feeding pigs and the hired help on his father’s farm had all the food they wanted and more. It was as if he had been walking around without glasses and suddenly he put on his glasses and realized where he was. In other words, he was lost. He had lost his way and needed to get back home.

Have you ever had a moment like this? Have you ever looked around and thought – “Man, what am I doing with my life?” Sometimes we know what we are doing wrong and we know what we should do to fix it. But it’s also possible for us to have those moments when we realize that something is very wrong with our life but we don’t know exactly what it is or how to fix it.

When our life has gotten off track and we are going down the wrong path, we need to stop and listen for the voice of God. After all, he is looking for lost people. When we realize we are lost, then we need to turn to him for help and direction.

The young man in our story knew he needed to go home, but he was so embarrassed by what he had done that it was going to be difficult. He decided to prepare a speech for his father. His plan was to tell his dad that he really messed up and didn’t even deserve to be his son anymore. He wanted his dad to hire him to work on his farm – not as a son, but as an employee. He just wanted a job and a meal.

So he traveled back home – probably rehearsing his speech along the way. When he got close to home, his father saw him and recognized him in the distance. He got very excited to see him!

Luke 15:20 (NIV)

20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The dad was filled with compassion. He wasn’t filled with anger or resentment. He was so happy that his son returned that he embraced him and kissed him. He was filled with love and joy!

The son tried to give him the speech that he had prepared. But he only got the first few words out and then the dad cut him off:

Luke 15:22–24 (NIV)

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

For the father, this moment was like a resurrection. His dead son was now alive. His lost son was now found. This was a moment to celebrate. He wasn’t interested in hiring his son as an employee, he embraced him as a son.

Coming Home

Why did Jesus tell this story? He told this story because the religious leaders of his day were criticizing Jesus for hanging out with sinful people. His point was that God loves sinners and wants them to come to him. He wants them to walk away from their empty life so that he can embrace them as sons and daughters and fill their lives with joy, meaning and purpose.

So what does the story mean for us? In the same way that the son was afraid to face his father, we are afraid to face God. We think that God is going to punish us for all of the bad things we did. After all, isn’t that what we deserve? Yes, it is what we deserve. But God created a plan to deal with it.

Today is Easter. This is the day we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. But why was he dead? He died because of you and me. We did deserve to be punished for our sins, but Jesus took the punishment that should have been ours. The cross was designed by the Romans as a method of execution. But God used it as a way to pay the price for all of the bad things we have done.

This is the reason that you and I can come to God without being afraid of what he will do to us. The bible describes Jesus as our high priest:

Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Jesus lived as a human being and experienced life just like you and me. He understands our difficulties and our temptations. He isn’t surprised by anything in our lives. Yes, he lived life without sinning, but he knows the pressure we face to sin. He also knows how easy it is for us to go down the wrong path and get lost. But check out the next verse:

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

When you and I go to God, we are going to a throne of grace. We go to him to receive mercy and help in our time of need. This is like the loving embrace of the father for his lost son in the story we read today. God is the father who is looking for his lost sons and daughters to return to him. When he sees us coming, he runs to where we are and embraces us with love and mercy.

Even more than that, he comes looking for us when we are lost:

Matthew 18:12–14 (NIV)

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

When a sheep wanders away from the flock they can get into incredible danger without ever knowing it. The word perish here is the same word that is translated as “lost” in the story of the lost son. It means to be destroyed or killed or lost.

When we are lost our lives are in great danger. We might not even realize it. But God is calling for us. He is providing opportunities for us to come back to him. It could be a circumstance in your life or a person. It could be this message you are listening to today. Those are God’s ways of getting our attention to bring us home to him.

· Sometimes we wander away from God by accident. We weren’t planning it, we just got a little sidetracked.

· Sometimes we are actually hiding from God – like my son in the clothing store.

· Sometimes we are simply unaware of God at all and don’t even know we are lost.

No matter what your situation is today, God wants you to know something. He is looking for you. He loves you. He sent his son to die on the cross for you and his resurrection proves that he has the power to transform your life today. God is waiting for you to come home so that he can embrace you and give you hope for a new life. This is the story of Easter. My prayer is that today it will be your story.