Luke 15:1-32
Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he 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 in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And 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.”
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 servants 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 servants.’ 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.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 19:1-10
Jesus Came to Seek and to Save the Lost
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Because Jesus gives us three Parables about the lost, I believe that it easy to get lost and move away from God...There are many ways that we move away from God and get lost...Jesus in His Lost Parables talks about at least four different ways...And in each of these Lost Parables by Jesus the way we get lost is unique...And these Lost Parables are all about man getting lost in a different way and God wanting us to be found...These parables contain a seeking element...And they also contain a happiness or love element over being found –and being found by God...They also contain a confession or element that the soul needs to repent...And we see that God is forgiving...God is always LOVING, seeking and wanting to save the lost...
Now a sheep may just wander off and get lost...We may be like that sheep that has wandered off and we are now "just lost."...So we can just get lost...Lost happens...But a coin is different than a sheep, so a lost sheep is much different that a lost coin...We might lose a coin, and forget where we have put it...So a coin to has to be lost by our own doing to get to be lost...This lost is misplace of just a forgotten lost...Now the third parable is a little different...We can get lost by getting money and spending it on worldly things and forgetting about God...Or we may forget that we are to love our brother and wind up drifting away from God...
In the Parable of the Lost Son real people are the ones getting lost and being found by God, but maybe in all the parables we are ones constantly just losing our way and either by wandering off or just being in the wrong place and wind up missing God or forgetting about Him...But in all these parables God is seeking us...And we see that God LOVES us...It is He who wants to rejoice with the angels and say a lost soul has been found...It is He who very much wants us to be found...
I think we have to ask ourselves after reading these parable and the ways we get lost, why, as a sheep, do we wonder away from the Good Shepherd?...How do we gradually forget where we are and where God is, a lot like the coin -do we just wake one day and realize, that we are lost?...Or maybe we don't even realize that we are lost at all...And what makes this world an easy place to wander away from our Father and we lose our way?...And why isn't it easier to love our brothers and our neighbors?...And why don't we love them?...
Do we drift from God and don't even know it?...Do we think that always doing what we want to do is the way to seek God?...What does seeking God mean, and how does one do it?...Are we lost because of just what we continue to do?...And yet, it seems seeking God and staying close to Him is one of the most sacred and Spiritual and important things to do in one's life?...
It maybe that Jesus is telling us that it is in our very nature to get lost...What we do daily maybe in itself, in its own way, hiding from God...Maybe in our sinful nature we find it quite naturally to go and drift about without thinking about God, and after a day or two or a week or month we have drifted away from our Seeking Father...But we are quite lucky...It is in His Nature to be LOVING, because He is LOVE...It is in His nature to seek the lost, to LOVE the lost, and to save them...