Parables of the lost

Bible

Luke 15:1–10 NLT

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! 3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! 8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

Le’ts pray:

Lord, give us your heart for the lost, and help us to be moved to act with as much compassion and love as you did in Christ.

In His name, Amen.

A true story

Many years ago, when I was but a lad, one of my daily chores on our hobby farm was fetching the cows. You see, my dad used to milk the cows in the morning, and to ensure that there was milk in their udders, we had to bring them and their calves home so we could lock the calves up separately overnight and feed the mothers grain.

The saying, “when the cows come home” describes a time that will never happen for good reason: cows don’t come home on their own, even when there is grain waiting. Only if there is no other source of food or water will they come home on their own, and so my job was to round them up and drive them home, feed the cows and pen the calves. Despite their disinterest is coming home on their own, once you got them walking, they tended to walk home by themselves. Fortunately.

One afternoon, I was up in the 100 acre paddock where we grazed the cows, looking for them to bring them home. I found them pretty quickly, but I soon noticed that one of the cows looked different to what I was expecting. She had been pregnant, and it was obvious that she had delivered her calf, but it was nowhere to be seen!

What do you think I did? [Wait]

That’s right, I left the cows (including the blithely unconcerned new mother) heading for home while I searched for the calf. Now it’s one thing to search for twelve head or more of full size beasts, and quite another to search for a small, possibly not even vertical, calf. I criss-crossed that paddock several times, checking all the tricky hiding places I could think of. It was getting dark, and I was getting desperate, so as I walked, I prayed. Somehow I felt a prompting to go and look in a certain place where there were a few low shrubs and vines.

Peering under the branches I finally saw the dark-brown calf, still covered in gooey afterbirth. He was lying on the ground quietly. I picked him up and started carrying him home, getting afterbirth all over my shirt. After a while, I realised that, while a calf is relatively small, they are still a heavy weight to carry for a kilometre or so over reasonably rough ground, so I slung him over my shoulders. My shirt was as dirty as it could get, anyway.

It was dark by the time I got back to the yards, and the cows were waiting for me and their grain. I set the little fella down and pushed him towards his mother. Fortunately she finally remembered that, yeah, she was a mum, and started licking the afterbirth off. I didn’t pen him up that night—he needed to get the colostrum from his mum into him, and we didn’t want to drink that, anyway.

It felt good rescuing that little calf. I was so happy to see him rejoined with his mother, instead of discovering him dead some days later (which had happened before). I had a good story to tell the family, and they were all happy about it, too.

The decision to leave the cows to their own devices while I searched for the calf wasn’t too hard. I knew how precarious that calf’s hold on life was, unless I could reunite him with his mother.

In the same way, it wasn’t a difficult decision to pick him up and carry him home, no matter how filthy he was.

You probably noticed that this story, which is a true story, of course, has a lot of parallels to Jesus’s parables of the lost sheep and coin. Let’s look at the important lessons I learned from my experience, and which Jesus describes in his parables.

Some sheep are harder to rescue

But before we do that, I just want to point out that, unfortunately, not all sheep are easy to retrieve, like this one:

[Play video]

Kids out

Priorities

OK, so, the biggest difference between these two parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the third parable of the lost son is that the first two parables speak of the relentless search of the owner for the lost. In the Prodigal Son, the father waits at home for the son until he decides to return. The reason for this difference is simple: the first two parables describe God’s perspective, and the third describes ours.

You see, just as I knew that my lost calf was not going to find its way home, God knows that we are lost in our sins. The apostle Paul, writing to the Roman church, explains our plight:

Romans 3:10–12 NLT

10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”

This is the situation that humanity finds itself in. We are so captured by our rebellion that we can’t even turn away from that ugly path.

Not until God reaches out for us. That is why the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin come before the parable of the lost son. God reaches out for us first. As Paul later writes,

Romans 5:8 NLT

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

That is the first important lesson for us: God prioritises the lost sheep and coin over the safe ones.

It’s tempting to think its unfair that God prioritises the lost over those who already know him. But when I remember my experience, I find it easy to understand. The cows were quite capable of looking after themselves, but that calf was going to die without me.

Now, of course, we all need God’s constant presence and support in our lives, so we are fortunate that God is present everywhere, that he knows everything, and that he has unlimited power. He doesn’t have to abandon us in order to reach the lost. The point is that the lost are a priority.

Did you ever wonder whether the lost sheep or the lost coin was worth more than the other 99 or 9? It’s pretty clear from these parables (including the lost son), that there’s nothing special about the lost, apart from the fact that they are lost. God doesn’t search for the lost because the 99 or the 9 are incomplete without them—he searches for the lost because he wants everyone to be found. I didn’t hunt for that little calf because I was so excited about its potential—I hunted for it because it’s life was in danger and I was its only hope.

Now we are God’s representatives here on earth: Christ’s body to do his work; his ambassadors. So do we think of those who don’t know Christ as lost ones who deserve our priority? Are we moved by their desperate plight? Do we recognise that, without God, they will not make it? And does that motivate us to search for them diligently?

Think about it. When is the last time that one of us went out of our way to find a way to share the good news with someone? It’s challenging, isn’t it?

But don’t despair, we reach the lost in many ways, including by welcoming them into Renew, through our Youth and Connection activities, and by the ministries we support. The point is to always be ready for any opportunity. Always be ready to respond with a heart of love.

Joy in salvation

The next important lesson is in how joyful it is to bring home the now-found sheep or coin. While I didn’t have a party to celebrate my found calf, it was a wonderful feeling that I still remember and celebrate.

Think about the way Jesus puts it:

Luke 15:7 NLT

7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

This, too, sounds a bit unfair, doesn’t it? But consider: you know I have a wonderful memory of rescuing that calf, but do you think I have fond memories of getting the cows home every night? Of course I don’t!

Also, it’s not unfair because we were all once lost. Heaven exploded in joy over all of us, at some time or another. And we have had the constant, ongoing love of the Father since then, as Jesus describes in the parable of the lost son:

Luke 15:31–32 NLT

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ ”

A warning

Now, we do have to be careful. The force of these two first realities from the parables encourage us to focus heavily on those who don’t know Christ. And that’s good. But what if we focus on them to the point where there is no “home” for them to come to here on earth. The church is supposed to be the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, but if it forgets to fellowship together how can we expect the lost to grow? We end up with a church like this:

Hollow Church

I call this a hollow church. Everyone is so busy with the important work of evangelism, focused outward, bringing in the lost, that there is no time for loving one another, building one another up in Christian discipleship and fellowship. No-one can live with that for very long. God gave us to one another, to love and encourage one another. The lost sheep doesn’t come back to a fold full of strangers, but to a fold full of its family.

If, on the other hand, we forget about the priority of the lost, we end up with a model like this:

Insular Church

This sort of church is an “insular church.” The people of this church are just interested in being together, in their family. They don’t care about the outside world, it’s going to hell, anyway. This sort of church is doomed to die, both spiritually (because they are not obeying Jesus’ call to reach the lost) and physically (because they are not being replenished with new believers).

Rather, what Jesus models is this sort of church:

Outreaching Church

This is an outreaching church, a community that is known both by its love for one another—the inward dimension--and, with that power, transforms the world by its love for the lost—the outward dimension. This is a balance of community growth and evangelical growth. That’s what we want to be at Renew.

God’s humble persistence

The final lesson is very simple. You probably recognise God in the shepherd of the first parable and in the poor widow of the second parable. Do you find that strange? Jesus is portraying the glorious, all-powerful God of the universe as a lowly, grubby shepherd! Even worse, he portrays the King of the Universe as a poor widow, the weakest position an adult can have in ancient society! How bizarre is that?

But I think this just emphasises the strangeness of what these parables are teaching: God humbles himself to search for us. He’s not the proud parent waiting for their rebellious brats to come crawling back home! God abandons his dignity when he goes hunting for us. He searches, he lifts us on his shoulders, he sweeps the floor relentlessly. He shows a humble persistence that we struggle to emulate.

What would Renew look like if we humbled ourselves, if we prioritised the lost as God does, and showed our greatest joy when welcoming them home?

What would my life look like if I humbled myself and let God’s desperate love for the lost lead me in my daily activities and relationships?

Let’s pray:

Father, we are so grateful that you hunted each of us down with your relentless love and carried us home to dwell with you. Help us to have that same love for the lost. Help us to know how to be your hands and feet here on earth.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.