This past Monday I went to Costco to get a new battery for my truck. The battery was five years old and not keeping a charge anymore, so it was time for a replacement. I parked in the back of the lot figuring I would just pull out the old one take it in and swap it for a new one. I popped the hood and grabbed my almost-brand-new set of socket wrenches that my dad gifted to me. And I immediately dropped a socket down, out of sight, into the engine compartment.
You probably know the feeling.
In fact, this feeling is so universal that two thousand years ago Jesus told a whole series of parables about searching for something that has been lost. Our gospel for today covers two of them: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. They’re simple little stories, but beautiful and profound pictures of our Savior’s love. Jesus loves to find the lost.
The first two verses of Luke 15 give us the setting for these parables. Luke says
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
This is not at all an uncommon situation in Jesus’ ministry. But it is always a special one. The Pharisees wouldn’t dream of associating with people like that. The tax collectors were despised by all of Jewish society, and often deservedly so. They enriched themselves off the backs of their fellow citizens with the full support of the Roman government. Sinners were also people the Pharisees would never be caught anywhere near. To their minds this was a clear-cut category of people. “All have sinned? Not me,” the Pharisees would say. “And I would never share a meal with anyone who has.”
And not only did the Pharisees turn up their noses at the tax collectors and sinners, but they also turned up their noses at Jesus, because Jesus didn’t shun them the way that they did. “What is wrong with this Jesus fellow?” they asked. “Doesn’t he know who these people are?”
If it had been Jesus’ goal to fit in with the elites of Jewish society I don’t think it would have been very difficult for him. All he would have had to do was follow the Pharisees. Praise what they praise. Shun what they shun. That might have made him popular with powerful people. It would not have made him a good Savior.
Of course Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and grumbling about, and so he went and he taught them using these 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.
I don’t think any Pharisee would have been a shepherd. Shepherds were typically the poor farmers at that time and they might have even been lumped in with the sinners just on account of their dirty work and lack of education. But you don’t have to own any sheep to understand very well what Jesus is saying here. Nobody would say, “Oh well, it’s just one sheep. It’s a good thing I have 99 more!” Of course he’s going to go looking for it.
But Jesus’ parable is really more focused on the finding – what happens when that lost sheep is found. And the answer is joy. The shepherd joyfully carries the sheep home. He calls his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him. And just like that there’s joy in heaven.
The second parable is very similar. Jesus said,
8“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 coins Jesus is talking about here are Greek drachmas, which were silver coins about the size of a dime and were worth about a day’s wage. It’s not a fortune. She has nine others. But it’s difficult to imagine anyone shrugging their shoulders at losing something like that. It doesn’t matter if it’s getting late. She’s going to light a lamp and sweep the whole house until that lost coin is found. And when it is found, there’s joy.
This isn’t the way the Pharisees thought. If there’s joy in heaven, if God loves and rejoices over anyone, it must be them. After all, they were the ones who had dedicated their whole lives to following the laws and traditions. They avoided everything unclean and everything sinful, including those unclean and sinful people. There was nothing that they needed to repent over, not righteous people like them.
Fascinatingly, with these parables Jesus doesn’t even attack that notion head-on. He doesn’t say, “You’re sinners too. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Though that would have been completely true. Instead, he talks about the great value of repentance and the great joy that follows it. “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.”
Jesus had come to find the lost. He came to bring them to repentance. He came to bring them forgiveness. That’s what he was doing with the tax collectors and sinners. That’s what he was doing with the Pharisees.
And this is what Jesus still does with you. He seeks and finds the lost. When you and I were born in this world we were born totally lost. We’re less valuable than a sheep or a coin. To a shepherd that sheep is his livelihood. To a woman that coin is how she buys clothing and food. But for what reason does God need us? He isn’t fretting over us the way we might fret over something lost. He knows exactly where we are and how we have opposed him in our thoughts, words, and actions. God isn’t the one who lost us. We’re the ones who got ourselves lost from God.
It makes no sense. Why would God care so much for worthless sinners like us? He doesn’t need the numbers. He’s not starving for our prayers. He’s not poor without our offerings. But here’s Jesus, humbling himself. Here he is eating with tax collectors and sinners. Here he is patiently teaching the Pharisees who hate him. Here he is having come to suffer and die for me.
There are times that I can be like the Pharisees to whom Jesus was telling these parables. There are times when I turn up my nose at other people and think of myself as far more righteous than them. Surely God is lucky to have me. There must be rejoicing in heaven over how great I am. But then Jesus in his ever gentle and loving way finds me and says, “There’s more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.” And why is that? Because the only work that truly matters is the work that Jesus has done for you. He is the one who found you. He is the one who took hold of you for himself.
And when he finds you, lost in spiritual darkness, hounded by the Devil like a wolf threatening a sheep, or trapped in the dirt and dust of guilt like a coin behind the couch, he rejoices. Jesus rejoices to find you. Jesus, who is king of angels beyond number, who is God of all the universe with its vast array of stars and planets, who is Lord of all the saints who have gone before and who are living now, rejoices over you.
That’s a joy to share, just as the shepherd and the woman did when they called their friends and neighbors. And we do share in it. Here at church we rejoice over every baby who is baptized. We rejoice over every confirmation. We even rejoice at every Christian funeral. There are tears when someone we love is lost to us in this life. But what joy there is to know that even death cannot lose us to the Savior who conquered death.
I found my lost socket for my socket wrench. It took me a while, and so it was a big relief and joy when I found it. The next time you have that feeling of relief and joy at finding something that was lost, give thanks to God and remember Jesus’ parables. This is the kind of joy, this and much greater, that is celebrated in heaven over you. You were lost, but thanks be to God! Jesus loves to find the lost.
Amen.