The two parables that we have from Jesus today are great stories because we’ve all been there. We’ve all had the experience of losing something. We’ve all searched long and hard. We’ve all felt the relief and joy of finding that thing that was lost.
These two parables were ones that Jesus told to the Pharisees and experts in the law. They were grumbling and complaining that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners, the sorts of people who were not accepted in society, certainly not the sorts of people a righteous man would associate with. It’s interesting, when you think about it. The Pharisees were mostly enemies of Jesus. They denied that he was the Christ. They would not even accept that he was a prophet or a godly man, and yet the fact that they were so offended by this shows that their consciences were bothering them. Jesus’ actions were exposing their self-righteous hypocrisy, and so they grumbled and complained.
Jesus knew their complaining and he knew their hearts. And so he told them these two matching parables. First he said,
Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls together his friends and his neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.
There were many shepherds in Israel and so this was a scene they could all picture. It’s obvious that no decent shepherd would shrug at a lost sheep. “Oh well, it’s only one sheep. I still have 99!” If that’s his attitude then it won’t take him too long before he has no sheep. Each one of those sheep has great value. A shepherd knows his sheep. And so if one has gotten lost of course he will go searching for it. And the whole time he’s looking, walking up and down rocky paths, he’ll be concerned. Will he find the lost sheep? Has it been attacked and devoured by a wolf or a lion? Has it fallen into a crevice and become badly injured? All these scenarios would be running through the shepherd’s head. He’d be calling for the sheep and listening for its lonely bleats.
And so then what joy when he finds it! He puts it on his shoulders and carries it home. He wants to celebrate, not just by himself but with his friends and neighbors. When we have joy like this we want to share it.
And so Jesus says that this is the kind of joy there is in heaven over one sinner who repents.
In a very similar way, Jesus told the parable of the lost coin. He said,
“Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, would not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The situation with this woman might hit home for us a bit more than looking for a lost sheep. Maybe for us it’s a wallet or purse or the car keys. Nobody says, “Oh well, I lost my car keys but it’s OK. I have two cars.” The woman in the parable has ten silver coins. These were the coins called “drachmas” and they weren’t worth a fortune by any means. A drachma was a typical day’s wage. But nobody wants to flush a day’s wages down the toilet. Even if you had nine more, if you lost one, you’d do the same as this woman. Turn on the lights. Sweep the house. It’s gotta be here somewhere. I’m going to search until I find it.
And when you do, what joy you have! In fact, the longer and harder your search, the more joy. The more you tore your house apart to find it, the more eager you’re going to be to tell the story to your friends. That’s the rejoicing there is in heaven, among the angels of God, over one sinner who repents.
These two parables paint such a simple picture, and yet it’s a beautiful one because we know that that lost sheep, that lost coin, that’s us. We are the sinner. We were born in sin. In fact, we could say that we are less than a sheep or a coin. Those things have significant intrinsic value. Your money and your livelihood are things you need to live on. But God doesn’t depend on us for his livelihood like a shepherd needs his sheep. We don’t add value to God the way that we value money. You might feel sorry for a lost and lonely sheep, but we fully deserve to be lost because of how we have rebelled against God.
And so what a great wonder it is that God did not simply abandon us in our sins to death and hell, but instead he sought us out. He sought us by sending his Son into the world to die on the cross and reconcile the world to himself. He sought us in our lives and found us by our Baptism and by the teaching of his word. He works in us faith to trust in him and repentant hearts and even though he’s the one who has done all the work to save us he tells us that in heaven there is rejoicing over one sinner who repents. What an amazing thing this is! The angels of God are celebrating over you!
Jesus was explaining this to the Pharisees so that they might understand why it was that he was associating with sinners. It wasn’t to condone their sinful lifestyle or cheer them on. It was to call them to repentance. It was to bring them to faith. It was to find those who were lost.
And it was for this very same purpose that Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees. They thought of themselves as righteous and God-pleasing people. They weren’t sinners like those other people. They didn’t need repentance. They didn’t need a Savior. But what did Jesus say?
“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.”
There’s more joy over the sinner who repents. More joy than over 99 righteous Pharisees. But, of course, Jesus’ whole point was that those righteous Pharisees are not really so righteous. Who doesn’t need repentance? Who doesn’t need a Savior?
And so Jesus was talking to them with his same goal of finding the lost. Why is it that your consciences bother you to see Jesus with sinners? Is it not that deep down you know that your self-righteousness is a lie, that before God even your righteous acts are as filthy rags? Isn’t it because you know that no matter how hard you try to whitewash yourself with good works, inside you are still full of dead bones?
It is not that there are two ways to heaven. One is the sinner who repents and the other is the righteous person who does not need to repent. There is no such thing as the righteous person who does not need to repent.
But this is not a bad realization to come to. Repentance is for everyone. Jesus’ salvation is for everyone. He came to save the tax collectors and sinners, the outcasts of society. He came to save the Pharisees, who were lost in delusions of their own righteousness. And whether we puff ourselves up with pride over our good works or weep with despair over our sins, Jesus came to find us too.
The last lesson from these parables then is how we ought to view other people. Jesus sought us out and found us who were lost in sin. Should we not also leave the 99 to seek the lost?
Sometimes in church we can get caught up in the game of numbers. For our reports we track our budget numbers. We track attendance numbers. We track numbers of baptisms and confirmations and all that sort of thing. It’s easy to start to think about those numbers in a way that we shouldn’t, where we measure our faithfulness or God’s love for us on the basis of how good our numbers look. But what matters to Jesus is not the numbers. It’s the individual. To him you are not just one of the crowd. You are a dear child of God, paid for by his own blood.
Learn from Jesus to love your neighbor like that, like the shepherd who seeks after his sheep or the woman who searches for her coin. Love them the way your Savior does, the Savior who died for you.
You were lost, and you have been found. Your Lord loved you too much to lose you. And when you reach heaven you won’t be given a number or told to take a ticket. You will be welcomed in as his own dear child. There is rejoicing in heaven over you. Amen.