ONE GOD, THREE SEEKERS
Luke 15
The entirety of the fifteenth chapter of Luke is concerned with one topic, the radical, incomprehensible love of God for sinners. To illustrate this unsettling love, Jesus gives three riveting parables, the last of which is possibly the most famous story of all time. In this particular juncture in redemptive history Jesus will not explain His radical love by pointing to His imminent death on a cross. The cross was yet to come and it would have been confusing to those sinners who gathered around him. Rather Jesus will give us three stories about God’s love to sinners that have a common thread of God’s unbridled love for the unlovely. In each case His love is demonstrated by how He seeks sinners. Each of the three stories highlights a different aspect of God’s seeking ministry. The first is the parable of the lost sheep. Here Jesus likens Himself to a shepherd who is tending a flock of a hundred sheep. Ninety nine of them are safe and secure in the fold. They have not wandered away from the flock and had it not been for one of the little lambs, the scene would have been boringly idyllic. But alas, one of the vulnerable lambs has wandered away and is caught in a thicket some way off. An astute listener would garner two lessons from this parable. The lamb who is saved has been disobedient in wandering away. Bears and lions roam this part of the world and a lamb caught in a thicket would be a quick snack for any number of hungry fangs. Second, there is surprise that the shepherd would leave the healthy sheep in order to search for the one who is lost. The point of this parable is to show us that when Jesus seeks sinners it is like a emergency rescue operation. Someone has put themselves in harm’s way and the Savior will abandon the healthy lambs and diligently search for the one who has wandered. No doubt this would have been music in the ears of the outcasts and scoundrels who gathered around the Savior that day. In marked contrast, the Pharisees who were watching from a distance would turn up their nose at such an effort. They were the spiritual pragmatists of that day. Why would anyone bother to rescue a disobedient and desperate little lamb? He must get what he deserved, Besides he is only one out of a hundred. Who cares? But Jesus is not that way. He always looks for the wanderers and will spare no effort to find them. If you are a sinner who has repeatedly disobeyed God and become a byword among your peers, take comfort to know that there is a Savior who is coming to look for you and rescue you. No sin will ever repulse Him, no stupid decision will ever cause Him to stay away. If you have disobeyed God and are right now waffling on the frills of Christianity, know that Jesus is looking for you. The text says nothing about the lamb looking for Jesus. No, Jesus does all the looking. Does not this comfort those who have willfully sinned against the Savior who at this very moment may be struggling even to have faith? Jesus has not given up on you, dear wayward one. He is on the way.
The second parable again has Jesus looking for something which highlights a different aspect of his seeking. Here the object of his search is an inanimate object, a silver coin. We have no idea how valuable this coin was or why the lady was so diligent to find it. What matters is that the coin belonged to the lady and was lost. So valuable was this little coin to her that she spared no effort to find it and when it was found, she hosted a great celebration. She refused to lose anything that belonged to her. What is this short parable trying to teach us about Jesus the seeker of souls? Does it not show us how head-scratchingly diligent Jesus is in searching for sinners? The text specifically says the lady swept the entire house, crawled under the couch and pulled up the floor boards until the coin was found. I am sure many of us have lost something valuable at some point in our lives. No doubt we looked long and hard for that item. Yet there came a time after we exhausted all efforts we gave up the search. But there is no hint of this in the text. Quitting was never an option. And so it is with Jesus. When he sets His mind to finding a lost sinner, he never calls off the search until the person is found. And this search is not based on the yearning of the lost one to be found. Whereas the lamb might have recognized his desperate state and wished to be rescued, here we have a dumb coin that desires nothing. In fact the coin has no idea it is lost. The coin has no desire to be found. All the focus lies on the woman who does the looking. And that is God. Even if a person is insensitive to Christ and has nothing to do with Him, yet Christ will come seeking him. Jesus said it this way, “Of all the Father has given me I should lose none but will raise it up at the last day.” Jesus guaranteed that HIs words were true by never giving up the search. This second parable gloriously puts the complete emphasis on the one doing the seeking. Just as the woman was consumed with locating the coin until it was found, God, in Christ, is consumed with finding all His lost coins and will not stop seeking them until every one is found. Perhaps you are one who has drifted from God. Perhaps there is no life in your heart at the moment. Most likely the Lord is distant from you. Your soul is inanimate soul; you feel nothing. Even if this be the case, my friend, know that Jesus will come looking for you. And when He finds you he will bring you back in the belly of a fish. He will find you. And when He finds you do not expect a bony finger scolding you. Rather He will call all His friends together and hold a raucous feast that you are found.
The third parable is about seeking but in an entirely different way. The story is told not from the perspective of God looking for the willfully disobedient or the drifter, but from the perspective of God who waits patiently for the return of a wayward child. As in the other two stories the focus is on the one who seeks, the shepherd, the lady, the father. And in all three stories there is a surprise element. Why does a shepherd leave the ninety nine for one? Why does a women spend all day looking for a coin that is worth a day’s wage? And why would a father who has been betrayed by a worthless son wait for him day in and day out? The point is clear; God is One who is desires the company of sinners and they are attracted to Him. No condition of ‘lostness’ keeps God away. It was this very fact that so infuriated the Pharisees. Jesus was often seen enjoying the company of prostitutes and tax collectors. If they were not seeking Him, He was seeking them. Religious minds found this totally offensive. After all, contact with a sinner would most certainly corrupt one’s holy standing. The best thing that could happen between a religious Jew and a sinner was separation. A lost lamb? Good riddance, we have ninety nine obedient sheep to take care of. A single coin? Let it be lost, it is hardly worth the effort. And a renegade child? Let him stay with the hogs. We have a farm to run. Besides who wants to be near a man who has robbed his father blind? But God is different. He yearns to find the lost lamb. He will look high and low for the lost coin. He will wait patiently for the lost son ‘till the cows come home. God never tires of looking, seeking, and waiting. In some sense this is HIs full time occupation. Several chapters later Luke will describe Jesus as the one who ‘seeks and saves that which is lost.’ Just for a second let the reader imagine a God who did not love sinners and was not willing to seek and find them at any cost. The universe would immediately crumble into annihilation. But that is not the God portrayed in the Bible. Unlike us, God does the unpredictable; He shocks our sensitivities. He does things that are imprudent, counter intuitive and radical. He challenges the measured, controlled world by tipping it on its side. He refuses to be pigeon holed and will always leave us guessing. This chapter in Luke proves that God will not be put in a box. He will do things that cause religious leaders to murmur and scratch their heads. He will outline a code of morality and then will overstep his bounds and do things that cause us to wonder if we accidentally entered the wrong universe. He decries lying but then applauds a prostitute who lies to save a couple of spies. He limits those who can enter his Holy Place then allows an unqualified man to eat bread reserved only for priests. He touches lepers when everyone else is asked not to. Who is this God?
He is the God of Luke 15. That’s who He is. He always imagines the unimaginable, always favors the unfavorable, always reaches the unreachable. Forever will the religious people stand around and snicker and snarl at this God. He doesn’t play fair. He never countenances the good people and never pats them on the head. God pays no heed to our religious rituals and pious efforts. He always seeks men in the most forlorn places and always surprises. Were it not so the Bible would calmly predictable. But it is not predictable. Turn the pages and you have men sleeping with daughters in law, vile kings coming to know God, and loose Samaritan women being found. That is what makes the book the greatest read of all time. It is summarized in Luke 15. God is always seeking. Read it and fall down in ‘wonder, love and praise.’