This chapter shows us the attitude of God towards the person who is lost, and compares it with our attitude.
Essentially the three parables Jesus tells in this chapter are against the Pharisees who were the shepherds of Israel, but would not care for or seek after the lost sheep, the kind of people they castigated Jesus for hanging out with. Instead they walled themselves off from "sinners" and wouldn’t even touch or teach them how to reach God. But it also hits us on several levels-what do we think about those who are lost or going astray?
Have you ever lost a child in a grocery store or mall or something? I remember one time when we got home from the store and we lived on a 44 acre parcel up in the mountains where there were lynx and coyotes and snakes-you know, lions and tigers and bears "oh my!" Well we were busy carry bags in from the car when suddenly we noticed our little 1 ½ year old daughter was missing. We knew instinctively that there was danger out there alone for her. Did we just keep putting groceries away until she was late for dinner? No we dropped everything and frantically searched for her.
But if we do that as parents without thinking, why then do we adopt the attitude of superiority and exclusivity when it comes to the family of God? Do you ever notice your attitude towards those "unwashed" who are mastered by sin? Do you feel a little better than-and wonder if you really want them showing up at church on Sunday morning?
That’s the kind of attitude multiplied many times that Jesus dealt with in the Pharisees. The Old Testament has this contrast in attitude:
Verses 1 - 2
It was abhorrent for a Pharisee to eat with someone they considered a "sinner," that is, someone who did not live up to their idea of righteousness because taking a meal with someone meant you had a relationship with them. Jesus attracted the rejected of this world. The question is, do we? What’s your attitude towards the lost? Let’s think about that as we look at these three stories.
The Lost Sheep-verses 1-7
Jeremiah 23:1-4 "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. ESV
Ezekiel 34:1-6 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds , Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 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. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. ESV
But notice the character of God:
Isaiah 40:10-11 0 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. ESV
Generally a flock of sheep was about 100 in size. Each night the shepherd would count the sheep. If one was missing he’d go searching for it.
The Pharisees wouldn’t go after the lost sheep of Israel, but Jesus says God rejoices when a sinner is reached, repents, and comes to him. I wonder if to God humans are like lost sheep that need to be found? It’s a different way of looking at us. Instead of enemies and strangers He thinks of us as missing and He goes after us to bring us back into relationship with Him.
Notice too that it says there is more joy in heaven over the one who repents than the 99 who never left. This is carried out in the parable of the coin, and the Prodigal Son too. It’s not that the people in the kingdom aren’t important, but saving a life that is lost is a reason for great joy.
Did you know that God rejoices over you when you turn from the evil in you and to His righteousness given to you freely?
The Lost Coin-verses 8 - 10
Palestinian women would often receive 10 silver coins as a wedding gift. So not just monetary, but great sentimental value would accompany those coins. The coins would have represented her life savings.
Here Jesus illustrates the length and breadth to which God goes to reach people for repentance.
I lost something yesterday-not 10 coins but 10 bottles of conditioner. I looked and relooked and found it hiding behind something in a place where I had searched at least five times. How much more will God keep probing and "searching" for our hearts to turn to Him. Though you are never really lost to God’s omniscience, you may be hiding your face from Him, like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, and He wants you to let yourself be found.
The Prodigal Son-verses 11 - 32
One of the most famous passages of Scripture. The younger son would have received 1/3 of the estate. 2/3 would go to the older son (Deut 21:17). The son’s insistence on getting the inheritance before his father’s death shows his arrogant disregard for his father’s place as the head of the family.
The picture of the son getting as far away from the family as possible-being master of his own universe-again shows his revulsion for his family, his religion, and his people. The fact that he took care of pigs shows that he even left Jewish territory.
The boy pictures us. Without Christ we do whatever we want. "Wild" living is how it is described here. Without the Holy Spirit in us we will degenerate into evil.
Ephesians 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. NIV
His money sustained him for a time, just as we, unplugged from the source of life, can run on battery power for a limited time. But eventually we run down, just as this young man ran out of money. A famine ran through the land - just as the true reality of this fallen world will at some time catch up with us. In fact, the boy found himself no longer free but a slave. Though we feel so free without God we are in fact slaves of sin.
Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ESV
We have to serve somebody. But to be truly free you really need to serve God.
The boy finally realizes as he is debased beyond belief by desiring the food of unclean pigs - that life in the family wasn’t that bad after all. He began to put priorities in place. Free living outside of God is really just cotton candy: it looks smells and tastes good but gives you a big sugar rush and melts away, leaving you crashed on the ground.
But instead of just looking for a better job, he realizes what has really happened: that he has sinned against his father and his God.
In 2 Samuel 12 when Nathan the prophet called David on the carpet for what he had done to Bathsheba and her husband Uriah - David said "I have sinned against the Lord." That’s us too.
So the son returns - and in this story we see not the owner seeking and searching, but looking and longing. The father responds with great love and compassion. He gives his son a robe (for an honored guest) and ring (for a son, not a servant) and sandals (only slaves went barefoot).
The younger brother represents the tax collectors. The older brother represents the religious leaders. They were working hard for God, keeping up all their man-made rules and thinking God should be proud of them and just cast out these "sinners." Jesus is telling them that God’s character is not that way, and neither should ours.
I think that the older brother misses the point-it’s not spending and celebrating that matters, but restoring relationships. The Prodigal Son had spent his inheritance and there is no mention of the father taking from the older son’s portion. But the older son seems upset that the father would even bring his other son back at all. And he is concerned that the father didn’t affirm his little click ("my friends"). The older brother isn’t wanting to celebrate family, but to have the father focus on what the older son wants. So too the Pharisees would just want God to affirm their little group, instead God wants to restore the brothers who are lost.
Conclusions
Are you a Christian prodigal son?
Maybe you gave your heart to Jesus, became part of His family, but then started looking at all the things your friends "got" to do, and the pleasures of the world called out to you.
You set off on your own, away from the family of God, away from fellowship and teaching and accountability to the Father. For a time things seemed to go okay. Your conscience was seared so you didn’t really feel the pull of the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin (John 16:8).
But listen to Galatians 6:7-8:
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ESV
When you walk away from God, you don’t stop being a son, but you do stop fellowship with the family of God, and when you sow to the flesh you reap corruption and suffer the consequences from your sin.
I read an interesting book recently called "Soul Tracker" by Bill Myers. It is a work of fiction, but there was an interesting section in which the protagonist found himself in Gehenna. There he saw people acting out what held them; for some it was sensual pleasure, for others it was the adulation of the crowds, for others the love for their children was above their love for God. They really thought they were getting pleasure out of doing those things until it all dissolved before them in fire-then they started all over again.
Hebrews 3:13 warns us about the "deceitfulness of sin." Sin can seem wonderful at first. But it is a lie. Later in Hebrews the author tells us about the "fleeting pleasures of sin (11:25). Don’t be fooled into thinking you can find satisfaction by belonging to God and serving sin.
Romans 6:12-14 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. ESV
So-present yourself to God, and find His grace to both forgive, receive, and heal you.
But if you are the prodigal, know that you have a father who 1) notices your absence, 2) searches for you and 3) longs for you to return.
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