Luke 15 (7)

Pray Psalm 53.1-5.
The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
There is none who does good.
God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon God?
There they are in great fear
Where no fear was,
For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you;
You have put them to shame,
Because God has despised them.

Sing Psalm 53.1-5.
(Leoni: The God of Abraham Praise)
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God at all!”
Corrupt are they in whole and part, unjust and small.
Not one of them does good; God sees their wicked ways.
None understands the Word of God or gives Him praise.

Have all these wicked men no knowledge of God’s grace?
The Church they hate with passion and seek not God’s face.
Lord, strike their hearts with fear, where fear was not before.
And scatter all who camp so near Your holy door.

Read Luke 15.1-32; meditate on verses 4, 8, 22-24.

Preparation
1. What do these parables have in common?

2. What do they teach us about our God?

Meditation
In each of the parables in Luke 15, something is lost, then found. Lost are a straying sheep, a precious coin, and a prodigal son. A lost sheep cannot find its way back to the flock. John Muir, who spent many summers herding sheep near what is now Yosemite National Park, understood the nature of sheep very well. He wrote in his journal that it takes a whole flock of sheep to make a single dumb animal.

We are those sheep, and we were way too dumb, during our time of being lost, to find our way.

A lost sheep may well sense that it’s lost. A lost coin knows no such thing. It just lies, fallen through some crack, gathering dust, and squandering its value. We were that lost coin.

A lost son knows he is in rebellion against his father, but the allure of the world is just too great. Hopefully, lost children will come to themselves, realize their mistake, and begin to seek a way home.

We were that lost son. We were all lost at one point – confused, uncertain, wasting away, and thinking we were having a good time. We were not seeking the Lord.

Happily, Jesus seeks the lost (Lk. 19.10). And when He finds whom He has been seeking, He takes us to Himself, rejoices with the angels on high, clothes us with His righteousness, and conveys us into His joy. We once were lost, but now we’re found.

And with Jesus, it’s always “finders, keepers.”

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
As soft and fluffy as sheep are, and great producers of wool, most agree that sheep are dumb animals. Beautiful, but a little slow on the uptake.

And then of course, coins are inanimate. They can’t really be accused of being dumb, they just don’t think at all. Both the sheep and the coin needed someone to find them.

The lost boy scenario was a bit different. The father stayed at home. And waited. And watched. And ran to him when he returned. But the boy was a human being, a living person, made in the image of God. As He said in the beginning, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Gen. 1.26). And within this man God placed knowledge of Himself. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom. 1.20, 21).

Mankind bears a responsibility that is not expected from animals or objects. People must make a first step, like this son, to repent and change. And even this requires the grace of God. In all three stories something or someone was lost. And happily, all were found. Jesus told these parables from His heart, and as a representative of God the Father’s heart of love. Of course, the lost are always being sought by God, and how thankful we are for that. But we need to understand as well, that there is an onus upon people to do something about being found. “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Is. 55.6).

As Paul taught in Athens to a crowd of non-believers: God has “made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17.26-28).

Let us hear with ears wide open Jesus’ words of love: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11.28). He is there. We must come to Him. It’s the tweak of difference between people, sheep, and a coin.

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching, watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home, Ye who are weary come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home!

(Will L. Thompson, 1880)

For reflection
1. Recall the condition of your lostness when Jesus found you. Give Him thanks and praise.

2. What is repentance, and why is it so essential to our ongoing relationship with God?

3. God uses people to find His lost ones. How will He use you today?

The lost sheep represents the sinner as departed from God, and exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to him, yet not desirous to return. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which is lost, is one piece, of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it. This represents the various means and methods God makes use of to bring lost souls home to himself, and the Saviour’s joy on their return to him. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Luke 15.1-10

Pray Psalm 53.5, 6.
Thank Jesus for finding you when you were lost. Be a bearer of His salvation to the world. With whom can you share the Good News of our seeking God today?

Sing Psalm 53.5, 6.
(Leoni: The God of Abraham Praise)
The wicked flee in shame; their ways our God rejects.
Renew Your people in Your Name with great effects!
Let great rejoicing sound once we renewed have been,
and let salvation’s Word resound from us again!

T. M. and Susie Moore 

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.