Week 50 — What About The Lost?
Luke 15:1-32

Have you ever lost something that was very important to you?  So crucial that you dropped anything else you were doing to search for it?  So important that you would tear the house apart if that were required to find it?

Jesus continues to teach in the area east of Jordan, and today, we will discuss a set of three parables that Jesus tells of lost things: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.   The last one, often called the “parable of the prodigal son,” is one of Jesus’ best-known parables.  But first, the parable of the lost coin.

Luke 15:3  So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep…

Stop.  Luke says, “So he told them this parable…”  Luke gave us the reason for Jesus’ story.  We must back up a few verses to see why he told these stories together.  What is the context of these parables?  If you ignore the context, you may make some false assumptions about Jesus’ primary purpose.  And we can’t ignore the context here because Luke makes it obvious.

Luke 15:1-2   Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

This is a familiar setting.  The Scribes and Pharisees are grumbling because Jesus is hanging around the ‘wrong people.’  As we discussed a few weeks ago, it mattered who you ate with.  As we said then, dinner invitations were a social investment.  But Jesus just ignored the usual social rules about this.  When he called Matthew, he threw a big party for all the tax collectors.  The religious leaders would never set foot in such a sinner’s house.  Jesus didn’t seem to understand social boundaries.

The Scribes and Pharisees are grumbling.  What does the Bible mean by grumbling?   Read the words.  The words are important.

The root for grumble, ‘gonguzo,’ means murmuring to yourself or muttering.  It is an expression of disagreement, but not out loud, just under your breath.  Let’s see that in a Bible passage:  

John 6:41-43   So the Jewish leaders grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”   They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”   Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.”

But in our verse today, Luke uses a different form of the word ‘grumbled,’ in Greek, ‘diagongguzo’.  Whereas ‘gonguzo’ is private muttering or grumbling to yourself, ’diagongguzo’ means a crowd of people all grumbling out loud.   They are shouting out their murmurs.

This word appears only twice in the New Testament. The other instance is when Jesus eats at the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus.

Luke 19:7  And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

Notice that this word is used both times to protest Jesus’ spending time with the ‘wrong people.’   It is also used several times in the Greek Old Testament (the LXX) when the children of Israel grumbled against Moses.  

Exodus 15:24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

They just left the Red Sea and have traveled 3 days out into the desert.  The water there was bitter, and they could not drink it.  So they grumble.  But just 3 days before this, God took an entire body of water and split it open so the whole nation could walk across not on mud but on dry ground.  Then God waited until the Egyptians were in the middle and let the waters collapse on them and drown them.  Just 3 days ago, they saw one of the most incredible miracles in the history of the world.  And now they grumble because they have nothing to drink.  Somehow, they don’t think the God who can split a whole body of water at will could ever control the small amount of water they need to drink. Seriously?  That is the idea of grumbling.  You grumble when you don’t have the faith to believe in God’s ability to deliver.

Luke uses the same word, ‘grumble,’ for the Scribes and Pharisees. This is important. It is the whole reason Jesus tells these three parables. And every time this word is used in the Bible, it is used in the same situation.

Just as in the example of the bitter water, people who grumble like this don’t have the faith to believe that God can deliver, that God can save.  The children of Israel should have immediately thought: “Well, no drinkable water, not a problem for our God.  We know he can provide. He just demonstrated his power over water 3 days ago.  But they had no faith.  

The Pharisees lack faith in God’s ability to deliver the tax collectors and sinners. They ignore ‘those people’ because they feel they are beyond hope. In their minds, saving them is beyond what God can do. That is why Jesus tells these three parables.

Luke 15:3-7   So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?   And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

If you know your Bible, you realize Jesus is stomping on the toes of the religious leaders here.  Suppose one of you religious leaders had a lost sheep.  Wouldn’t you go after it and seek until you found it?

Jesus has preached this sermon before.  Remember back in mid-December when we discussed Jesus calling himself the good shepherd?  That sermon was based on Ezekiel 34, where the prophet was speaking against the religious leaders of his day, calling them bad shepherds who didn’t even really care for the sheep but just used them.  Here is Ezekiel’s accusation of the religious leaders of his day:

Ezekiel 34:4  The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 

And Jesus asks in the parable, “Suppose one of you religious leaders lost one of your sheep.  Wouldn’t you go after it to bring it back?  That is Jesus’ point.  It was their job as religious leaders to care for the sheep.  But like those of Ezekiel’s day, these leaders were not good shepherds either.  No, they would not seek out the lost.  If people chose to live lives of sin, the leaders just took their names off the flock’s membership role.  They don’t belong.  These shepherds didn’t seek them out; they purposely avoided them.  There was no grace; there was no mercy.  It is as we discussed last week.  You don’t take away a fruitless branch from a vine; you lift it up.  These people are bad shepherds, and it made Jesus sad.

Matthew 9:36  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And Ezekiel tells us that because the shepherds didn’t care for the sheep and seek out the lost, one day, God himself would come and seek them out. 

Ezekiel 34:11-12   “For thus says Yehovah elohim: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.   As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

 And here is Jesus in the first century, doing just that, seeking out the lost sheep that the current shepherds in Israel have ignored and abandoned.

You know that Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was  lost.”  Do you know when Jesus said this?  It is in Luke 19:10 at the house of the tax collector, Zacchaeus.  Yes, the one that the religious leaders grumbled about Jesus’ going to.  They said, “That tax collector is hopeless; God can not save him.”   Jesus has dinner with him, and Zacchaeus says he will return all the funds he took dishonestly from people and then give away half of everything he owns.  Zacchaeus repents, begins to bear fruit, and has entered the kingdom of God.  He was written off as a hopeless sinner by the religious leaders of the day, but God himself, Jesus, came down to seek out the lost sheep. 

So the good shepherd in Jesus’ parable sought earnestly for the lost sheep and carried it home.  Then the shepherd went around the whole town to invite them over for a massive party with lots of food for the entire village to celebrate.  

Oh, we could stop there, but we have two more parables.  So we’ll fly through this second one to have time for the last one.  Jesus follows with a story about a lost coin.

Luke 15:8   “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

So this woman had ten drachmas (about 10 days’ wages).  Realize that in Jesus’ day, most purchases were done through bartering.  Not many people kept coins.  This would be a family’s emergency fund.  And she has lost not one out of a hundred, like the sheep, but one out of 10, making the search more urgent.   And she seeks diligently, and after finding it, she prepares a big celebration also.

Luke 15:11   And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.

(Note that we have moved from one sheep out of a hundred to one coin out of ten and now two sons.)

 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.   

We need some context here to understand what a crazy request this is.  We are not nearly as shocked by this as Jesus intended.  The father would not grant his children his property until his death or immediately before it.  The older brother, the firstborn, would typically receive a double share, so the older would get 2/3 and the younger 1/3.  But what this son does is beyond shameful.  He is basically telling his father that he wants him to die.  He cares nothing for his father and the family.  He wants his portion of the inheritance now.

This is evident in the Greek, where it says, “And he divided his property between them.” The Greek is literally “he divided his ‘bios’ between them.”   ‘Bios’ is the Greek word from which  we get our word ‘biology.’  Bios is not property; bios is life.  “He divided his life between them.” Everything the father had worked for all his life —all his property, even his authority over the family, his good name.  It is like he has died.  (Note that the older son does not object but willingly receives his 2/3 portion divided between them.)  The older son has now become the ruler of the household.

Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.

So the younger son sells his third of the land and animals that his father worked his life to produce. He takes the money and goes to ‘a far country.’  We are supposed to realize that he has gone to Decapolis, the land east of the Sea of Galilee ruled by Gentiles—a pagan land.  

And there he spent everything on reckless living….  

We aren’t told exactly what “reckless living” means here, but the Greek word for it is the same one used in I Peter, which is translated as “debauchery.”

1 Peter 4:3-4   For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.   With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 

Apparently, the older brother was aware of his younger brother’s actions, later telling his father that his brother “has devoured your property with prostitutes.”   

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.   So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

This young man hit rock bottom, so hungry that he wanted to eat the pig’s slop.  Then verse 17 tells us, “he came to his senses.”  Some people have to hit rock bottom to come to their senses.  Notice that, unlike the parable of the lost sheep or the lost coin, the father doesn’t seek out the young man.  He lets him leave and lets him hit rock bottom.

This is hard.  Some of you know how difficult it is to watch someone destroy themself.  And we, of course, try to rescue them.   I have seen families rescue the same child over and over, intervening to keep them out of jail and not let them suffer for their poor decisions.  We know a man who lost everything he owned and became homeless, trying to pay off his children’s debts from a drug habit.  Oh, the pain of parents placed in this situation, finally having to choose to let them go.  How many times have we seen that it is only when they hit bottom that they come to their senses?  We have gotten phone calls from people begging to help them get out of jail, and then we had to decide that they were where they needed to be until they decided to change their lives.  How many people have we met who have finally gotten straight with God only after some time in a dismal jail cell or a mandated drug program?   

This father didn’t lose his son when he walked off the property with 1/3 of everything.  That son was lost long before that, having no regard for his father, his family, or his God.  The father didn’t give up on him; the father let him go so he could wait for him to return, having faith that God, who loves his son even more than he did, would bring him home.  The father didn’t grumble, but he had the faith to believe God could deliver even this prodigal son.

But he comes to his senses and decides he would be better off being a slave in his father’s household than where he is now.  So he prepares what he will say, hoping his father will take him in as just a slave.  And as he approaches his old home.  He sees his father running down the road.  The commentaries tell us that adult men in this day never ran.  It was too undignified.  But what will make a man run?  Love for your child will make you run.  Grace will make you run. It was mercy running down that road.  And the son starts his prepared speech, 

‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But he didn’t get to finish because the father heard all he needed to hear.  His son was not just physically back home, but he was not lost anymore.  And, like the previous two stories, it’s party time.  Kill the fatted calf— enough food for everyone to celebrate with us.  But Jesus isn’t through with the story.  He is finally just getting to the part that matters to him.

The party is already in full swing when the older son arrives from the field.   He hears the music and the dancing and asks a servant what the celebration is about.  And then he is enraged.  He never got a fatted calf party.  And he was the good son.  He was the leader of the family.  (And since he already has his inheritance, it was technically his fatted calf anyway.)  

The older brother had written off his brother. He couldn’t even call him his brother (he says to his father, “That son of yours.”)  This is important. The older son was responsible for seeking his brother, but he had written him off as a hopeless cause beyond repentance.

He was entitled, angry, jealous, and judgmental.  

Who is the main character of this story? Not the prodigal, the younger brother.  Not the father.  The main character is the older brother.  Why is Jesus telling this story?  Because the Pharisees were grumbling –  they did not believe God had the power to save the sinners they had written off.  They were the entitled religious elite, and they were angry that Jesus would waste time on the sinners.  They were judgmental and jealous that this riff-raff was seeing all of Jesus’ miracles.

He is the Pharisee in the story.  

It is not the story of the Prodigal son, but it is the story of the lost son.   And the lost son is not the one who wandered away; he is found.  The lost son is the one who stayed.  As Tim Keller said in “The Prodigal God,”

“Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules or by keeping all of them diligently. It’s a shocking message: Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.” … “The targets of this story are not “wayward sinners” but religious people who do everything the Bible requires. Jesus is pleading not so much with immoral outsiders as with moral insiders. He wants to show them their blindness, narrowness, and self-righteousness and how these things are destroying both their own souls and the lives of the people around them.”

The minute we look at a group of people and start judging them as undeserving of mercy, of beyond hope, of beyond God’s grace and forgiveness, we have become the older brother; we have become the Pharisees.  Just as it was the older brother’s responsibility to seek out his brother, just as it was the religious leaders’ responsibility to seek out the lost sheep, it is our responsibility to seek out the lost sheep of our day.  

I will leave it to you to figure out who the “tax collectors and sinners” are today.  Who is that group of people that some people in the name of religion have decided are beyond hope, beyond grace, beyond mercy?  And instead of demonizing those who seek hope and compassion for these groups of people, we ought to applaud them.

But listen carefully because this is where so many have gone horribly wrong in the past 25 years. Jesus never compromised on sin.  The younger son had to repent.  Simon the Zealot had to leave his anger and merciless ways behind to become a disciple of Jesus.  The tax collectors, Matthew and Zacchaeus, had to leave their dishonest dealings behind to become disciples.  The prostitutes and all the other sinners had to repent and leave their lives of sin behind to become disciples of Jesus.  It is the first word of Jesus’ primary message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Repentance is a requirement for entering the kingdom.  We aren’t supposed to rewrite the Bible and leave out a section to allow someone to become a disciple of Jesus.  The Bible doesn’t need to change – people do.

But just as important, Jesus had no such requirements for his social invitations.  In fact, he went very much out of his way to spend most of his time with “those” people.  When we restrict our social circle to only those “acceptable people,” then welcome to the world of Pharisees and older brothers.  We are called to imitate Jesus.  Our goal is to become more like him.  Unfortunately, we often find it’s easier to imitate the Pharisees.  Jesus is trying to tell the Pharisees that no group of people is beyond salvation.

So ignore the grumblers out there who don’t have the faith to believe God can save, put your feet where your faith is, and go out and do some seeking.  Demonstrate mercy and kindness in love.  Have lunch with a homeless person.  Invite a marginalized person over to your home to eat.  Develop a friendship with someone who would never show up in church.  Be like Jesus.