Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 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.

“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.”

(Luke 15:1-10)

Jesus’ parable is such a good one because it’s a feeling we all understand right away, isn’t it? Just this morning, as I’m getting ready to head over to my office, I look around and realize—I have no clue where my keys are. They’re not on the hook, where they’re supposed to be. They’re not on the table. Not on the couch. My head starts spinning. Where could they be? Did I take them upstairs? No, I wouldn’t do that, would I? Maybe they’re in the bathroom, or maybe they’re . . . Oh. Wait. They’re on the counter. Thrown carelessly into the middle of all my other stuff, easily lost to sight. And there’s this instant feeling of relief when I see them. I found my keys.

That’s the kind of feeling Jesus is talking about. The sheep or the coin—it was lost. It had wandered far afield. It had dropped down into some dark, unseen corner. Someone goes searching for it—not because they’re utterly incomplete without it, or because they want something from it—but because it’s valued. They seek and search and scour, hoping to find what was lost. And at last, they do. And when they do, they rejoice! The sheep who was lost: the shepherd is so overjoyed to see it, he puts it on his shoulders to carry it home. The woman throws a party, calling anyone who’s close by to rejoice with her over the found coin.

It’s a parable that we all get, isn’t it? We understand that feeling of finding something we were looking for, something we were desperately trying to find. But that’s not what makes it a good parable. What makes it good is the reason Jesus told it. He told it because there were tax collectors and sinners, the kind of people who were usually thought to be excluded from God’s grace, gathering around him to drink in his words. He told it because the Pharisees and teachers of the law, in their expert opinion, could not fathom why Jesus would stick around such people. He told it because he wanted us to understand that the feeling of seeking something that’s lost is a tiny reflection of our heavenly Father’s yearning to find us.

That makes this a really good parable, doesn’t it? Because that means it’s a parable about me and you. It’s a parable about people who struggle with a sinful nature and all the pain and all the lies that the devil loves to feed us. It’s a parable about people who often stray far from God, who know his love and yet become convinced that there’s something better right over the hill. It’s a parable about people who keenly feel the guilt and the shame of their sin and know that they need someone to save them. Jesus is speaking to us, those who have been lost, to give us hope.

Because the love the shepherd showed to chase after his sheep, the dedication the woman displayed in hunting down the coin—that’s the kind of relentlessly loving God who pursues you as well. That love, which loves the unlovely and is faithful to the faithless, is the love of Christ himself who went to the cross to redeem you. No matter how far we may go, no matter how lost we may feel, this God will not stop chasing after us to shower us with forgiveness and blessings. That is his promise, a promise that comes from the heart of God.

Prayer:
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray and willing to give far more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask except through the merits and mediation of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.