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A sheep, a coin and a son

by beatrice ofwona
1/11/2024 / Christian Living

The three parables, in Luke 15, about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, give us a clear perspective of lostness and challenge us to go and look for the lost.

In all these parables, the common factor is that something was lost, it was found and that there was great rejoicing when it was found.

It is interesting to note that the Pharisees did not know that they were speaking into Jesus’ mission when they muttered against His eating with sinners.

However, with a culturally pastoral background, they understood what sheep were like: that they are generally not clever animals but rather foolish.

Yet, God considers us the sheep of His pastures. What then were the Pharisees hearing?

As Christians, we are called to go after the lost, we are to find them and bring them into the kingdom of God. However, these too are lost because of a myriad of reasons which we observe below:

1)Lost due to foolishness-the sheep

God is trying to help us understand that in and of ourselves, we are like sheep- going astray.

Jesus Himself said that His sheep know His voice and are able to distinguish His voice from others. In Psalm 23 David penned this Psalm with the right understanding of sheep and the shepherd.

In the above parable of the lost sheep, Jesus further reiterated that when one sheep got lost, the shepherd would rightly leave the 99 and go after the one and he does not stop looking until he finds it and brings it back to the pen.

And yet, sheep have a proclivity to go the wrong way and this is well captured by Paul who says that despite knowing what to do, he does not do it and that which he should not do, he does. Is this not a lot like what sheep would do?

But is it not true that we are sometimes lost because of our own foolish choices as led by our hearts?

Yet, Jeremiah 17:9 talks of the deceitfulness of the heart thus bringing us to an understanding that as sheep who do not desire to get lost, we ought to follow the shepherd and never our own hearts

2)Lost through no fault of theirs-the coin

There was rejoicing when the coin was found probably because it was part of a complete set. The woman who had lost it lit a lamp, swept the house and searched carefully for it until she found it.

The coin had no heart, no feelings or no foolishness of its own so it’s being lost was not as a result of anything it had “done” but rather due to the carelessness of its owner.

Similarly, there are people who are lost through no fault of theirs; they may have been trafficked, they may have been born into certain religions or they may well have been born into addiction due to another person’s carelessness but God is still looking for them because they too are valuable to Him. And in seeing the woman rejoicing when she finds the coin, we also know that there is rejoicing when these dear ones are found as well.

3)Lost through their own fault-the son

The lost son was rebellious and walked out on his real blessings and cover, to go and be found in the company of the unclean pigs. By his own volition he left his family and father but unlike in the first and second parable where the shepherd and the woman looked for the sheep and the coin respectively, the father did not look for the son and he had to come to his senses all by himself.

And he decided to go home and found a waiting father, just like our Father awaits the lost, not to castigate but to embrace them.

Going against the culture of the day, the father rolls up his robes and rushes to embrace his son, not unlike our Lord Jesus, who shameful and disrobed, hanged stark naked on the cross so that we would be saved.

And when Jesus sees us coming to Him, He is just happy that we have come home; we need not explain anything, we just come as we are.

This father embraces the son and reinstates him with a robe, a ring for authority and sandals for dignity and slaughters a fattened calf to celebrate his homecoming.

So whether they are lost due to their own foolishness like the sheep, lost through no fault of theirs like the coin or lost through their own fault like the son, our Lord expects us to go for those that are lost in sin and tell them about the saving grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

May these words (sermons), from various men and women of God be a blessing to all.

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Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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