Luke 15:1-10 Commentary

These two parables—even without the more often read story that follows them—have a bit of a bite to them all on their own.

More likely than not, we come to them with hearts and minds more like the Pharisees and scribes than we do like the tax collectors and sinners. Many of us sitting in the pews each week have been here for a long time: we have ideas about what is going on around here. Questioning the presence and belonging of others is our first clue as to how we view those not like us—which is exactly what the Pharisees and scribes are grumbling about Jesus. Jesus is too hospitable, too welcoming, too comfortable being with those people.

Hearing the grumbles, Jesus tells a set of stories on the theme of lost things. First, there’s the 1%, a sheep among many, separated from the flock. Scholars of the Ancient Near East tell us that a flock of 100 is rather large, so this shepherd has more resources than most. In comparison, the woman looking in every nook and cranny of her house to find 1 of her 10 coins is living at or near the poverty line (the total she had saved in those coins was little more than 10 or 11 days of earnings).

And yet, the value and the effort to find what was lost is the same to both the shepherd and the woman. To borrow a colloquialism, both of them look for what they lost “as though their life depended on it.” In the case of the woman, she very likely spent more than the coin was worth as she burns lamp oil in order to aid her search. The shepherd risks the safety of literally his whole flock by leaving the 99 in the wilderness while he goes after the 1.

In fact, this point about the 99 being left in the wilderness has caused many of us readers great distress throughout the centuries. Knowing that we, like the Pharisees and scribes, find ourselves among this majority, it is uncomfortable to consider that we could be ‘abandoned’ by God. So as we’ve told this story we’ve explained it away—surely there are some under shepherds delegated to help.

But this preoccupation to protect our own position keeps us from realizing that we are the ones lost. That’s the whole reason why Jesus tells them this set of stories. He shares with them how God has come seeking those who are lost. Luke set the scene for us by saying that “the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to” Jesus. I don’t think this detail is immaterial—as in, the tax collectors and the sinners are not the ones that Jesus is seeking out in this moment, the Pharisees and scribes are. Who are the people that are already described as eating (an act of celebrating like the shepherd and woman invite their neighbours to do) with Jesus? The tax collectors and sinners, that’s who. As Justo González describes, these stories are for the “never lost”—those who do not realize that it is possible for them to be lost.

The experience that awaits those of us willing to be found and brought out of our lostness is characterized by repentance and rejoicing. Jesus says that heaven throws a party every time someone repents—much more than the no joy heaven takes in those “righteous” who refuse to realize their need to repent (ahem, Pharisees and scribes, you and me). It’s easy to forget that we are all continuously sinners in need of turning towards Christ and the Spirit who have sought us out in our waywardness. There is no one righteous, not even one—except our Good Shepherd who seeks and saves the lost like the woman who found her coin. (Romans 3.10, Ecclesiastes 7.20)

So it’s a good thing for us that God is like this shepherd and this woman. Not only is God willing to go above and beyond in doing whatever it takes to find us in our lostness and carry us to where we belong, he invites all of us to live the reality of the Kingdom of God—a great big party of celebrating these wonders of God’s love. “Rejoice with me!” both the shepherd and woman exclaim to their neighbours and God says to us, even if we are the ones who are found.

Textual Point

The verb for “lost” (apollymi) has a sense of finality to it—as though the thing is lost because it is ruined or destroyed. What seems like there is no coming back from is not so with God: the shepherd and the woman undo the lostness with their determination.

Illustration Idea

I’ve moved three times in the last five years. The first move was from a bigger to a smaller space so some purging happened and a lot of things I liked but couldn’t display stayed in boxes. The second move was to a similar sized space but was an act of combining households with my husband, so things stayed in boxes or were purged again. This last move was to a bigger space and I found myself looking for things that I had in my house from before the first move. As less and less boxes were left, I kept asking myself, Did I throw that away or keep it? Oh no, is it lost?!?! Why didn’t I tend to that better? Of course, I know why things didn’t make it: the stress of moving makes us reach our limits and we give up as time runs out and the pressure is on. It is not so with our Good Shepherd, though, is it? None of us are throwaways or a waste of time to God. Each of us are worthy, even if we’re a measly penny in the grand scheme of things.