Luke 15:1-10 – The Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin

BIBLE TEXT

Luke 15:1-10

Summary

In two linked parables, Jesus compares the finding of something that was lost to a “sinner who repents.” The response to an occasion like that has to be joy and celebration. These parables do much to characterize what the Gospel of Luke means by “repentance.”

Analysis

Jesus tells three parables (the third appears in Luke 15:11-32) in response to people who grouse about his propensity to share meals and fellowship with “sinners.” This indicates that one function of these parables is to explain Jesus’ behavior.

In each parable a person goes to lengths to recover something that had become lost. First, a man seeks out a lost sheep to restore his flock to its full size of one hundred. Second, a woman searches her home to find a coin, one of ten, that had become lost. In both parables the finders respond to their successes by calling others to “rejoice with” them. Jesus indicates that something similar happens in heaven: celebration erupts over just “one sinner who repents.” The implication is that this explains why he welcomes and eats with people who might have bad reputations, those called “sinners.” He has found them. He is celebrating.

Both parables include peculiar behavior. No sensible shepherd would leave ninety-nine sheep “in the wilderness” to find one lost sheep. Better to cut one’s losses. But this shepherd is relentless and refuses to let one go. Anyone would search for a lost coin, but readers do not learn how valuable the woman’s specific lost coin is. Nevertheless, she does what she must do until she finds it, devoting time and energy to the task. Then, instead of holding tightly to the coin, she calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her, which might seem a strange request. It is even stranger if she intends to spend her money to buy supplies for a celebration! The point is, all that matters to her, when a valued thing is lost, is retrieving it. The joy of restoration leads her to celebrate. The parables therefore offer a glimpse into Jesus’ heart and his desire to see nothing—no one—remain lost.

Jesus compares the action in the parables to what happens in heavenly realms when a person “repents.” This is a curious statement, since the parables do not involve congratulating a sheep or a coin for their good choices. Neither one contributes to being found. The sheep just wanders; the coin just sits and waits in the shadows. What does it mean, then, to repent, according to these parables? It means to be found, to be reclaimed, to be restored. Repentance is not about amending one’s life, committing oneself to higher morality, or choosing Jesus; it is about being seized by him, claimed by him, embraced by him. It is something he does, reorienting a person’s life, priorities, and perspectives entirely. The “sinners,” then, simply need to eat with him. By his mere presence and friendship among them, they are “found.” That is their “repentance.”