Luke 15:1-10

Remember that we are considering Jesus’ teaching for His disciples that they might know how to follow Him faithfully.  We come to Luke 15 which contains three parables: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  The point of these three stories is the same as Jesus indicates.  The first two parables end with a statement about joy in heaven (v7,10) and the third ends with an explanation of what should make us glad.  Thus Jesus’ teaching is …

VI. Rejoice in the salvation of others, Luke 15.

Another factor that unites these stories is yet another situation where the leaders complain about Jesus spending time with tax collectors and the sinners (cf. Luke 5:29-30; 7:36-39).  In the previous situations Jesus responded like this:

•  “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (5:32).
•  (To the sinful woman): “Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace” (7:50).

What mattered to Jesus was the salvation of sinners. The leaders saw themselves as already righteous and not needing to repent.  Jesus even referred to them as righteous (e.g. Lk. 5:32) but not because they had the righteousness of God through faith.  They were self-righteous (Lk. 18:9) and thus had not entered into salvation (Lk. 11:52).  Jesus taught that for a person to be saved his righteousness had to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20).  The three stories are directed to these leaders (15:1-3).

·        The Parable of the Lost Sheep, 15:3-7.

This parable emphasizes the love of the Shepherd who represents God.  The one sheep represents the sinner who, likely because of his own foolish choice of not staying with the Shepherd, has become lost and is in a difficult situation from which he cannot extricate himself.  The Shepherd’s love for that one is seen in His willingness to leave the ninety-nine who are in the wilderness.  Be sure you keep the contest.  Jesus words are not meant to deny that the ninety-nine need to repent; because of their self-righteousness they see no need to repent.

·        The Parable of the Lost Coin, 15:8-10.

Again, the point is the same.  The emphasis here might be seen as the value of the sinner.  The coin was probably not just money the woman needed to live on.  It may have been part of a 10-coin necklace that commemorated her marriage, much like a wedding ring today.  These were common (several commentators referred to this) and losing one would have been sad.  Again, the meaning is the same as Jesus speaks of the joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner.

The love of the shepherd that moves him to great lengths to find the sheep, and the significance of the coin which moves the woman to go to great lengths in her search: these are great pictures for us of the lengths God would go to in salvation.  But let us also ask the question: in what do I delight?  Is it the same as that which brings delight to God?  (More on this tomorrow.)