Luke 15 Son, Sheep, or Coin?

This week has been a short one for me, because I got back from vacation at Oily Shores (that’s a different topic all together haha) on Monday, and didn’t have to come into the office until Thursday. When I did get into the office my first assignment was to make a VBS type class for River City on Sunday. Easy enough, Casey gave us some ideas and we ran with them. But I started to look a bit deeper into the passage that we chose. Luke 15 tells three stories of finding something that was lost. One of them is one of the more popular parables that we talk about, the Prodigal Son. However they are all so important to show the lengths that God goes to in order to regain His lost sheep, coins, sons, etc. And it shows that every person (if you think the objects are supposed to be people) requires a different type of return. The First two require God (I think God is represented as the Shepherd, Woman, and Father in Luke 15) to search for the lost item; and when He finds it, He brings it back. In the third story, God waits, and waits, and waits, until the son realizes what he has done, and returns. Meaning perhaps that different people need God to be different with them. I’ll explain…

Lost Sheep: The sheep is lost, so the Shepherd goes to get it and brings it back and rejoices. In the same way sometimes God seeks out lost people, works to bring them back, and then rejoices upon their return.

Lost Coin: The coin is lost, but it also hasn’t gone far, it is in the house the whole time. Sometimes people are still here (showing up even), but they have to be noticed for them to come back into God’s light.

Lost Son: The son leaves, and eventually realizes how dumb he is, and returns. Sometimes God leaves us to learn on our own that His way is always going to be better that our way.

The part that I like the most about all of these returns is that there is great rejoicing and praise (and even partying) when a sinner repents. I love the way the NLT puts it; “ ‘He [the son] was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. (Luke 15:24).” God throws a raging party every time a sinner repents. God is pumped.

Then there is the faithful son. He is so mad that his dad throws a party for his brother who was lost. He had been working so hard to honor his father, and he feels hurt that he hasn’t gotten his reward. He is wondering why his brother gets spoiled all the time, even though he has never shown love to their father. He’s questioning the legitimacy of his brother’s return. I struggle so much with the same thing, when a person comes back to God, but once again who am I to judge? If God is happy when a sinner repents than I should be too. The Kingdom of God is larger, and it is definitely big enough for all of us.

Consider this: think about which character you are. Are you the coin, the sheep, the lost son, the son at home, the servant, or the rejoice-er? If you are one of the lost, think about how God is searching for you. If you are the one who’s always been home, and is wondering why you don’t get any attention, remember that everything that God has is yours, and that you should be rejoicing when your brothers and sisters come to back to Him. 


(Plus thanks to all my friends that I've discussed this with at Ethos House Church, I stole some of your ideas).