Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable: 4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just 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. 8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable: 4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just 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. 8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
This week we turn to things that have been lost, but much more importantly found again. All of chapter 15 in Luke reflects the specific theme of the compassion of God. The 3 parables found in this chapter are all about God’s grace, but about grace that seems to stand opposite the more rigid, legalistic view of the Pharisees and scribes whose grumbling and complaining about Jesus provides the backdrop for Jesus to launch into stories of a God filled with abundant love, mercy, and forgiveness. This is a picture of grace that challenges us as well to step outside of our usual worldview of “fairness,” and embrace joy in God’s overwhelming love for those who appear not to really deserve it. These stories then catch us as we examine our own lives and desires and motives, and if we are truly honest with ourselves, we realize that we don’t deserve that grace either!
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These are stories for outcasts – for those who have been rejected, lost, and on the wrong path. But Luke’s entire gospel has been good news for that very audience. From its very beginnings, the powerful are pushed to the side, and those whom the world marginalizes are given places of honor in the kingdom. A barren childless couple, Anna and Zechariah, are promised a son who will become the one who prepares the way for Jesus. A poor peasant girl from the middle of nowhere, a village not even on any first century map, is visited by a glorious (and frankly incredibly frightening!) angel who reveals that she will give birth to God’s son. The first humans to hear of this birth are shepherds, outcasts themselves. In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, R. Alan Culpepper writes that shepherds were seen as shiftless, thieving, trespassing hirelings. Rabbis of Jesus’ day warned of these crusty folks
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Dupre, Julien, 1851-1910. The Good Shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville,TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54256 [retrieved March 13, 2019]
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and listed the occupation among those to be despised along with camel drivers, sailors, and gamblers (New Interpreters’ Bible: Luke, p. 296). And Jesus’ own actions would cast him in a suspicious role since he tended to hang out with tax collectors and sinners. But this is the way God has always chosen to act! Abram and Sarai were barren, childless nobodies from a far corner of the world when God came to them. Scripture does not tell us that they had done anything special or noticeably faith-filled when God called them to be the mother and father of a nation with offspring so numerous they couldn’t be counted. David, the great king by whom all of Israel’s monarchs were measured, was the youngest son, a shepherd. David was out in the field, not even around when Jesse presented his sons to the prophet Samuel when Samuel came looking for a king. If you look at the prophets, many of them were nobodies, still young and untested. Amos was a dresser of sycamore trees, not a scholar or high-ranking temple official. Paul was the number one “Christian hunter,” known for his cruelty, feared, yet he became the number one missionary for the followers of The Way. So when biblical writers start talking about outcasts, watch out! Something big and unexpected is about to happen!
Schäufelein, Hans, approximately 1480-approximately 1539. Christ and the Pharisees, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56831 [retrieved March 14, 2019].
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Jesus has been poked and prodded by the Pharisees and scribes since the beginning of his public ministry. They are watching him to trip up, to say something that will incriminate himself. Why? Because he is threatening a system that has been carefully groomed and built and established. He is drawing crowds, creating a stir. But he is also healing on the sabbath – a no-no according to the law. He is hanging with an unsavory crowd – cavorting with Gentiles, eating with sinners, gathering with those who can’t be trusted. Luke presents the Pharisees and scribes in a negative light, before we jump on the bandwagon to tar and feather the Pharisees and the scribes, we also need to look at the world through their eyes. Pharisees were scholars. They knew Torah, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, backwards and forewards, and strove to read those books in a way that would keep the entire nation of Israel on the right path. After all, this was God’s Word! Given to Moses on Mount Sinai as a covenant. It contained everything God’s people needed to keep them in a right relationship with God. If they followed the stipulations in the covenant, they would be righteous. It seemed simple! So the Pharisees task was to help the people to understand and keep that covenant. They absolutely did not understand opposing Jesus’ teachings and actions as unfaithful and
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working against God’s will and plan. In fact, it was just the opposite – they saw what they were doing as faithful! They were not bad guys! They were doing all they could to remain faithful to their interpretation of God’s law! But it was their interpretation.
In last week’s parable, the lawyer, most likely a Pharisee, stated perfectly what covenant was all about: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) In other words, Love God, love your neighbor. Period! He got it right! At least, he had the right wording. But his actions didn’t reflect those words. He wanted to limit just how far neighborliness was to extend. Luke 15 is a continuation of that theme of neighborliness, but adds the joy of a God who celebrates that neighborliness has no boundaries. And the Pharisees couldn’t get their heads around that. Certainly, they thought, God must have limits – there must be those who don’t deserve such grace and mercy! And shouldn’t the righteous receive just a little bit more grace and mercy from God? It’s not fair if sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles, and other outcasts who don’t work as hard at their religion get the same amount of love as those who live their lives to obtain God’s favor. But God sees the world differently…
So the Pharisees are grumbling. They’re watching Jesus hang with all the “wrong” people. They are listening to what he is saying, and haven’t yet been able to find fault with his words. But they did catch him healing on the Sabbath and eating with people he shouldn’t be seen with. So Jesus tells them a story about a crazy, illogical, irresponsible shepherd. As stated above, shepherds were despised and associated with tax collectors and sinners. There were seen as dishonest because they were accused of stealing because they led their sheep onto other people’s land. They were listed among the tradespeople who would not be allowed to serve as witnesses. Because of this reputation, Pharisees and scribes who were so concerned with cleanliness would have considered shepherds not only distasteful, but unclean, persons to be avoided at all costs!. So when Jesus begins his parable, “Which one among you, having a hundred sheep…” he would be associating the Pharisees with a shepherd, something they would have been appalled at. But this was probably intentional. The imagery of shepherd and sheep had been used throughout the Old Testament as a metaphor for God and God’s people, and for the leaders of Israel and their people. So for the Pharisees to be associated with a shepherd had a double-edged meaning (Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories of Intent, p 102).
In last week’s parable, the lawyer, most likely a Pharisee, stated perfectly what covenant was all about: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) In other words, Love God, love your neighbor. Period! He got it right! At least, he had the right wording. But his actions didn’t reflect those words. He wanted to limit just how far neighborliness was to extend. Luke 15 is a continuation of that theme of neighborliness, but adds the joy of a God who celebrates that neighborliness has no boundaries. And the Pharisees couldn’t get their heads around that. Certainly, they thought, God must have limits – there must be those who don’t deserve such grace and mercy! And shouldn’t the righteous receive just a little bit more grace and mercy from God? It’s not fair if sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles, and other outcasts who don’t work as hard at their religion get the same amount of love as those who live their lives to obtain God’s favor. But God sees the world differently…
So the Pharisees are grumbling. They’re watching Jesus hang with all the “wrong” people. They are listening to what he is saying, and haven’t yet been able to find fault with his words. But they did catch him healing on the Sabbath and eating with people he shouldn’t be seen with. So Jesus tells them a story about a crazy, illogical, irresponsible shepherd. As stated above, shepherds were despised and associated with tax collectors and sinners. There were seen as dishonest because they were accused of stealing because they led their sheep onto other people’s land. They were listed among the tradespeople who would not be allowed to serve as witnesses. Because of this reputation, Pharisees and scribes who were so concerned with cleanliness would have considered shepherds not only distasteful, but unclean, persons to be avoided at all costs!. So when Jesus begins his parable, “Which one among you, having a hundred sheep…” he would be associating the Pharisees with a shepherd, something they would have been appalled at. But this was probably intentional. The imagery of shepherd and sheep had been used throughout the Old Testament as a metaphor for God and God’s people, and for the leaders of Israel and their people. So for the Pharisees to be associated with a shepherd had a double-edged meaning (Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories of Intent, p 102).
Unidentified. Jesus as shepherd with the lost sheep, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55688 [retrieved March 13, 2019]
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We don’t know a lot about shepherding, but the original hearers of this parable would probably have been much more familiar with the behavior of sheep and shepherds. A lost sheep simply lies down, giving up all its will, and will not find its way back to the flock. A lost sheep is essentially a dead sheep, vulnerable to the predators that are sure to attack it. Sheep are followers, and don’t take initiative to seek out safety. But a shepherd who puts all his attention into finding that one lost sheep out of 99 would seem irresponsible because he must leave 99% of his flock to seek out just one. It would make so much more sense to cut his losses and leave the one, because now he puts 99% of his flock at risk of attack. He is now at risk of losing everything! But he still seeks out that one. Jesus’ words in introducing this parable are ironic, actually kind of amusing: “Which of you having a hundered sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” – well.. No one! No one who has any business sense about them would leave 99% of their inventory at risk of complete lost to recoup 1%! It makes no sense! Robert Farrar Capon, in his book, Kingdom, Grace, and Judgement, writes,
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While it may or may not be true that shepherds in Jesus’ day had that kind of devotion to individual members of their flocks, this parable can hardly be interpreted as a helpful hint for running a successful sheep-ranching business. The most likely result of going off in pursuit of one lost sheep will only be ninety-nine more lost sheep… He implies, it seems to me, that even if all one hundred sheep should get lost, it will not be a problem for this bizarrely Good Shepherd because he is first and foremost in the business of finding the lost, not of making a messianic buck off the unstrayed. Give him a world with a hundred out of every hundred souls lost – give him, in other words, the worldful of losers that is the only real world we have – and it will do just fine: lostness is exactly his cup of tea (p. 185).
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But then Jesus goes even further into the land of the unimaginable. “Who wouldn’t call all the friends and neighbors and throw a huge shindig over the return of that one, poor, lonely lost sheep?” Jesus asks. Who wouldn’t rejoice over that 1%? Well, again, no one. Except God, that is. God and all of heaven together throw a party and rejoice over that one single person who repents and is found. Forget the 99 – they’re already where they need to be. It’s that one that brings the joy.
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“…even if all one hundred sheep should get lost, it will not be a problem for this bizarrely Good Shepherd because he is first and foremost in the business of finding the lost… lostness is exactly his cup of tea.” - Robert Farrar Capon
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Lost Coin, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl RC=54794[retrieved March 13, 2019].
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Then Jesus goes on to tell another story of a crazy, irresponsible character, a woman with 10 silver coins. She has lost one of those coins. The Greek specifies that these coins are drachmas, not a huge sum, perhaps the amount of wages for a week to a week and a half for a typical day laborer. One out of 10 is a little more valuable, 10% of her savings, so it makes a little more sense that she drops everything to look for the one lost coin. She scours the house and goes to a lot of work to seek for it, but for her, the craziness happens when she finds the coin. Instead of tucking it away, she decides to throw a party, calling together her friends and neighbors because she has found her lost drachma. So essentially, she searches all day to find that lost day’s wage, then spends it and presumably more to throw a party to celebrate what was found!
So here we see the real emphasis of these stories. It’s not about repentance – neither a lost sheep or a lost coin can repent. They are incapable of doing anything to regain favor or to do anything to be found. The emphasis is joy! So now let’s return to the context of these stories and why Jesus chose to tell them: the grumpy Pharisees and scribes. The joy and celebration of finding what was lost flies in the face of their muttering |
and complaining. They just don’t get it! That God’s joy is in finding - not dividing, not turning God’s back, not forgetting about those who are lost. God’s goodness is not about who can repent the most or who can show the highest level of righteousness and spiritual improvement. It is in the joy of being found!
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They are parables of grace and grace only! There is in them not one single note of earning or merit, not one breath about rewarding the rewardable, correcting the correctible, or improving the improvable. There is only the gracious, saving determination of the shepherd, the woman, the king, and the father – all surrogates for God – to raise the dead” (Capon, p. 187).
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And there is our joy!
And there is also the problem. Because the Pharisees see only those who in their opinion do not deserve such grace. They feel that God is too good to others, and not good enough to the ones who have remained righteous and faithful. They fail to see that God’s grace is abundant, and far-reaching, and contagious, and are instead offended that God’s mercy is that far-reaching. In both of these parables, God calls for celebration and invites us to join in that joy and celebration. These parables of the lost things expose the Pharisees – and our own – grudging spirit that prevents us from receiving God’s mercy. They expose whether our relationships are based on merit or mercy, because only those who are able to celebrate God’s grace can truly experience that mercy themselves. When we finally do realize that abundant grace that extends to all, our eyes are opened to see that those whom we may have excluded before become a part of our community, our family (Culpepper, p. 298). We see that God is continuing to gather us together by seeking out the lost, the forgotten, the rejected, the outcasts, and bringing them into God’s kingdom. This is grace!
Questions for Discussion
Please share your thoughts about this lesson and any of the discussion questions in the box below
And there is also the problem. Because the Pharisees see only those who in their opinion do not deserve such grace. They feel that God is too good to others, and not good enough to the ones who have remained righteous and faithful. They fail to see that God’s grace is abundant, and far-reaching, and contagious, and are instead offended that God’s mercy is that far-reaching. In both of these parables, God calls for celebration and invites us to join in that joy and celebration. These parables of the lost things expose the Pharisees – and our own – grudging spirit that prevents us from receiving God’s mercy. They expose whether our relationships are based on merit or mercy, because only those who are able to celebrate God’s grace can truly experience that mercy themselves. When we finally do realize that abundant grace that extends to all, our eyes are opened to see that those whom we may have excluded before become a part of our community, our family (Culpepper, p. 298). We see that God is continuing to gather us together by seeking out the lost, the forgotten, the rejected, the outcasts, and bringing them into God’s kingdom. This is grace!
Questions for Discussion
- What is your initial reaction to these stories?
- Where do you see grace in these stories?
- Is grace fair? Why or why not?
- Where do you see yourself in these parables?
Please share your thoughts about this lesson and any of the discussion questions in the box below
