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Luke 15:1-10
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear Jesus.2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8“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? 9And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
This passage is the first part of a chapter of Luke that has three famous parables, known respectively as the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. Probably most people with even a passing familiarity with the Christian faith have some knowledge of these parables. But lots of people miss the real point of the chapter, which is to correct the common “religious” understanding of our relationship with God.
Somewhere over the course of the history of the church, the idea has taken hold that Jesus died for the sins of humankind, but he really only died for those who are willing to be good and moral people. In a big part of the church, the message is that you’d better watch yourself, because you’ll go straight to hell when you die unless you behave the way the church leaders say you should.
The problem with that kind of thinking, of course, is that it’s very close to what the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders thought back in Jesus’ day. (Aside from the part about him dying for our sins, of course.) They thought society should make everyone live by the Bible, and punish those who don’t. And one of the things they really hated about Jesus was that he treated the sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors as though God loved them, too.
But that kind of ‘Pharisee thinking’ has always been a part of the Christian tradition. Back in 1741, The protestant clergyman Jonathan Edwards preached what is probably the most famous sermon in American history, entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The goal of the sermon was, quite literally, to scare the hell out of people by painting a vivid picture of what was in store for anyone who wasn’t a righteous follower of Jesus.
It seems hard to reconcile that Pharisee-like religious vision with the Jesus who speaks to us through this passage. If our God really were the “angry God” Jonathan Edwards was preaching about, wouldn’t the shepherd in this story have stood at the edge of the flock and angrily shouted after the lost sheep? Wouldn’t he have been shouting, “You’re going to be killed and eaten by wolves! And that’s exactly what you deserve!”
But that’s not at all the way our relationship with God is portrayed here, is it? Jesus paints a picture of a shepherd so deeply concerned about even a single lost sheep that he risks his life to find that sheep and restore it to the fold. The shepherd loves his sheep so deeply that he throws a party to celebrate when one is rescued. The story Jesus tells here isn’t about “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” It’s more like “rescued sinners on the shoulders of a loving God.”
I see nothing in the gospels that persuades me that Jesus tried to reach people by scaring them into faith. The only possible exception I see is the judgmental types like the Pharisees who inspired him to tell these parables. And even with them, he seems more focused on correcting their mistaken thinking than on scaring them. And if Jesus actually were trying to frighten people into faith, it seems highly unlikely that a bunch of sinners would be hanging around to hear him. Those sinners already got plenty of rejection and condemnation from the Pharisees and the other religious people of their day.
But Jesus came to them with something different. Jesus came to them with friendship. Jesus came to them with good news: that the God of the universe cared so much about them that he’d come into a dirty and violent world to rescue them from themselves. That God was on their side, paying a great price to reconcile them to himself, not looking for an excuse to send them to hell.
I have no doubt that our God wants us to live with a kind of self-control and obedience to his law that increases day by day. I believe God wants us to live in imitation of Jesus and in obedience to his teachings. But I also believe that our God wants us to live that way out of joyful thanks for what he has done for us on the cross, not out of fear of going to hell.
The most powerful message the followers of Jesus have to tell others is that God loves them and longs to be in relationship with them. And the most powerful tool we have for persuading them to live godly lives is the humble example of serving God by serving other people and doing it with an irrepressible joy that says we know we’ve received a great gift, and that we can’t wait to help others get that gift, too – and to know the joy we know.
Let’s pray. Lord, protect us from being Pharisees who just call ourselves Christians – from believing you love only those who live as we think they should, and from overlooking our own sins as we condemn others for theirs. Help us join in the search for the lost, and to help you return them safely to yourself. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 11 and 12; Deuteronomy 4:15-24; and II Corinthians 1:12-22. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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