The Lost Ones, Part Two

The three parables known as the “Lost Ones” are told in succession in order that we might see a dynamic connection across the three.  First, we are given impossible situations in each of the three:

• The shepherd is suggested to leave the safety of the 99 for the safety of the one.  He then enters into the wilderness to face the predators seeking the lost one’s life.
• The woman is left with the reality that what she has lost is her whole days wage.  She then uses her valuable light to search in the cracks of the stone that made up the floor of a typical Jewish dwelling place. 
• The father watches his son essentially say “Dad, you are dead to me.  Give me what is mine.”  The son not only takes from his father, but in a time where everyone had something to offer for the town to function, the son also steals from his community.  If the son were to return if the father does not deal with his son justly, the town has every reason to do so by stoning the sinner. 

In each situation you see the cost that is required to seek out and save anyone who has gone astray.  Yet, what did Jesus say in the Great Commission?  “Go and make disciples of all nations” even if that nation is inhabited by the dreaded Samaritans.  In each of the connected parables, we see how the person who has lost something is willing to pay the cost:

• The shepherd not only battles his way to the wilderness, but when he arrives to save the one, he lifts the sheep up over his neck and shoulders to place it on his back with the sheep’s leg coming down around the back of his neck. He then fights his way back through the wilderness once again with an added layer of “bait” to attract the bears and the wolves.
• The woman does not give up looking for the coin.  She is tasked with finding a needle in a hay stack – and she will not stop until she finds the one lost coin.
• The son realizes how far he has fallen – so he creates a plan to try to at least be fed.  When the father sees the son from far away, he does not get his own stone ready, but rather he dishonors himself by doing what grown men never did in that culture – he ran to the son.  Since the father does not bring justice in this situation, the town will.  They ready their stones to judge the prodigal, but instead of the son taking on the punishment the son deserves Kenneth Bailey suggests that it is the father who takes on the punishment himself.

In each, you begin to understand the cost required for Jesus to save all of us who have gone astray much like the sinner or the tax collector.  Once we have been ransomed for a price, we then begin to understand how we are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps by taking up our own crosses, our own cost, and follow our Lord and Savior. 

In it all – it is is worth it.  So run the race, fight the good fight, and may we join Jesus Christ in the great endeavor to rescue the lost ones.