Luke 15:1–10 If God’s search for the lost has no expiration date, then our attitudes toward our world’s “tax collectors” need profound transformation.
Loving the lost
It’s a very simple word — until. The word is hardly noticeable in the English translations of Luke 15, verses 4 and 8, and even less noticeable in the Greek text, in which it consists of only three letters.
Until appears to be a word of very little consequence — that is, until we remember how God works.
When we turn our attention to Luke’s use of the word until in chapter 15, interesting questions begin to emerge. This easily overlooked word is one of several obvious similarities between the parables of the shepherd and the woman. Both parables begin with a person who loses something; in both cases the person then searches for it and finds it. Likewise, both parables end with rejoicing and the invitation for friends and neighbors to join the celebration.
Both stories conclude with a potentially disturbing moral: that there will be more heavenly rejoicing over “one sinner who repents” than over many righteous people.
Jesus says that the shepherd looks for the lost sheep “until he finds it” (verse 4); in like manner, the woman searches with intensity for the lost coin “until she finds it” (verse 8).
And there’s the rub: the search for the lost lasts not for 15 minutes, not for an hour, not until sunset, not for a week, not even for a reasonable length of time, or until the shepherd becomes tired or until the woman must tend to other matters. The duration of the search is unspecified.
More than that, the search is unlimited; no amount of time or effort is indicated as being enough or reasonably acceptable. Nothing short of finding the sheep and finding the coin will do.
No room for failure
But, we may object, what about the 99 other sheep left alone in the wilderness, a place of danger and death? And what about all the duties and responsibilities the woman would have to neglect in order to carry out her search?
Many such practical questions could be raised about these stories — and about the parable of the prodigal son that follows in verses 11–32. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: the search will end, Jesus insists, only when the lost is found.
Also clear is the fact that both parables end with rejoicing — a party to celebrate the finding of the lost. The rejoicing does not commence until the lost has been found. The party will not be for any of the 99 sheep or the nine coins that were not lost.
The simple word until means the shepherd and woman are on a mission, a search in which failure is not an option. The shepherd will find the sheep; the woman will find the coin. There will be a party.
As a general rule, we should be cautious about reading parables allegorically, not being be too quick to insist that the shepherd and the woman represent God. However, verses 1 and 2 suggest that the parables in Luke 15 are meant to characterize the way Jesus associates with tax collectors and sinners. The unconditional intensity with which Jesus seeks and finds these “lost” souls has theological implications for our understanding of God and grace.
Mindful of small things
If heaven’s joy will not be possible or complete without the lost, and if the search for these sinners has no expiration date, then our attitudes toward all the “tax collectors” of our world are in need of profound transformation.
If our Lord will search after them and will not rejoice until finding them, what does this mean for us? What are we to do? How are we to be? Will heaven ever rejoice as long as even one of God’s children is missing?
Until is a simple word. But notice the Bible’s many teachings about simple or little things: God often chooses the youngest among us (e.g., David in 1 Samuel 16–17) to accomplish unlikely or surprising things. Jesus appreciated this divine pattern when he likened the kingdom of God to a mustard seed (Luke 13:19), and said it belongs to little children (Luke 18:15–17).
If we are wise, we will be extra mindful of small and simple things. In this passage one little word unlocks a profound truth about our greatest responsibility: to love the lost in our world. |
