The cause of Christ is “to seek and save the lost”. This can seem simple enough…but sometimes the human heart can miss the heart of God.
This is precisely what we discover in Luke 15:1-2, a showdown between
RELIGIOUS PERCEPTIONS AND DIVINE PASSION:
“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law all muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
• The religious spirit can be self-centered…have self-righteous fear…are unable to accept their own sin, shame…aren’t able to be close to others …of messiness.
• Those who actually believe that they can become clean, can’t receive the mercy of God.
• Pharisees viewed contact with the less religious as defiling…a great contrast to divine passion.
JESUS IS SO ADAMANT THAT HE TELLS NOT ONE BUT THREE STORIES! This is the only time that he responds with three stories.
Luke 15:3-24:
“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 over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
• A shepherd work is not the passive role that we might imagine. The shepherd in Judea had a hard and dangerous task. Pasture was scarce…plateaus were narrow and then plunged down wild cliffs dropping down to the desert below.
• They were personally responsible if even one sheep was lost. They had to bring home fleece. They became experts at tracking and could follow footprints for miles.
• There would be many communal flocks. One sheep could return home and all would watch and rejoice.
“8 Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 An when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
• One coin was not worth much, but still a day’s wage. There was possibly a more romantic reason for searching so hard for that coin. The mark of a woman was the headdress made of ten silver coins linked together with a silver chain. It was like a wedding ring that couldn’t be taken even by debt collectors.)
“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. 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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men’ 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.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 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.”
There are THREE COMMON ELEMENTS that stand out (as I first heard described by Bill Hybels)
1. LOST PEOPLE ARE OF ULTIMATE WORTH TO GOD
• In each story something of great value is missing
• In each case it’s the individual that’s of such great worth against the backdrop of the many.
• Jesus is cutting through our tendency to see masses and lose our understanding of each individual’s great worth.
• Jesus saw masses (multitudes) as lost…as sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion…but that always took second stage to individuals.
• Perhaps no one has ever demonstrated this as clearly as MOTHER TERESA, who refused to see masses of people as a bunch of dirty and diseased people from whom she might feel detached. She looked upon each one by one, as human beings.
So it is with God. The only reason He loves the world is because it’s full of individual lives.
2. THOSE WHO ARE LOST ARE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO WARRANT AN ALL OUT SEARCH.
• The Shepard leaves the ninety-nine and searches ‘until he finds’ the one.
• The woman begins by getting a light so she can see and then sweeps the house, searching carefully until she finds her lost silver coin.
• Further…He doesn’t go out to force the son home…he is out there looking for his son’s return…where, in such a culture, no father betrayed and blown off by his son would ever be.
For God, those who are lost are worth an all out search. In Hebrews, He first sent prophets, but now He’s sent His son, Jesus Christ, an exact representation. Jesus’ purpose is to seek and save the lost.
This is a radical paradigm shift from the religious idea of God…so holy…distant…detached…and passive.
GOD IS THE ACTIVE, PASSIONATE PURSUER AND HE STIRS UP MY OWN PASSIVITY.
I’m committed to reaching and caring…but how often I wait…passively committed and passively caring.
TWO DANGERS REGARDING OUR HEARTS FOR THE LOST
• Uncaring but actively engaged… This may be reflected if we tend to argue faith with a lot of people.. or perhaps the street preacher who conveys anger more than anything else…
• Inactive…faith without works is dead.
3. THE FINDING OF EACH LOST LIFE CALLS FORTH A GREAT CELEBRATION
• Each case describes how monumental an occasion it is…
• In the prodigal son story, the father understands this more than the son! The son had shame to overcome. In your own past, you’ve had issues that you’ve had to come to terms with to get here…but now you’re home…it’s time to celebrate! (I think of my own parents… regarding my season of life in which I did a lot of drinking and drugs: “Don’t want to know…Just glad you’re home.”)
• In each story… they gather everybody around them… For as Jesus describes, this is the reality of heaven; the eternal realm, all who surround God rejoice. There’s a COSMIC CELEBRATION!
• When I was found by God… when you were found by God… all heaven rejoiced !
WHERE ARE YOU IN THAT CELEBRATION?
Do you identify with the prodigal son?
• Gone in search of a great life, only to find that it’s not so great?
• The only way to the Father is through the ‘far country’ which is the point at which we know that we’re not home.
The good news of Christ’s words:
• There is a home with the Father
• The Father is waiting and watching
Or perhaps you identify with one of the friends of the shepherd…or the woman…or the father of the prodigal son….
Or perhaps the second son…
I want to tell you about Diane Shibley… I met one winter during Fall break my first year of college … I was turned away from God…began relationship… rather dear but short lived by nature. I soon later returned to Christ… and the next summer planned to get together with her and tell on more than one occasion… but didn’t. Summer ends… and friends come by to visit me at collage in San Diego… and tell me she had just drowned in a boating accident.
> Changed my life. In that moment I faced the cost of letting slide what matters most.
We need to be an ‘extrospective church”
Closing story:
“Louis Pasteur, the pioneer of immunology, lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies. Pasteur had worked for many years on a vaccine. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a nine-year old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy’s mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days—and the boy lived.
Decades later, of all the things Pasteur could have had etched on his headstone, he asked for three words; JOSEPH MEISTER LIVED.
OUR GREATEST LEGACY WILL BE THOSE WHO LIVE ETERNALLY BECAUSE OF OUR EFFORTS.”
> It began with one name…of course many followed, but it began with one name.
