Monday, September 21, 2009,
Lost and Found, Part 14 of 78
TEXT: “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10).
IDEA: We search for anything that we have lost that is valuable to us.
PURPOSE: To underline the importance of diligence in evangelism.
Have you ever lost your wallet? Your car keys? A contact lens?
What is it like?
What do you do?
How do you feel?
Here is a brief story Jesus told, recorded in Luke 15:8-10:
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
I. How does this story stand in contrast or comparison to the previous story Jesus told?
He has just talked about shepherds who were despised in the community as unfit to enter the temple or pass in polite society. Now Jesus talks about a woman [an inferior in most groups]. He didn’t begin by asking, “Which of you . . .”
Why did Jesus choose such people?
Can you identify with a housewife who has lost the grocery money?
How much did the woman lose?
The coin may have been part of the family wealth. The drachma represented a day’s wage and several weeks of saving. Cash was a rare commodity in a peasant’s home. Most of what peasants had was gained by barter. As a result, the coin had even greater value for her.
It may have been part of a dowry that women wore in a necklace around their necks. The necklace may also have had sentimental value. Village women wore such coin-necklaces as adornment. The loss of one coin would destroy the beauty of the necklace.
The coin is lost in the house, and she makes a determined search for her coin. The story tells us she went through three stages in her search for the coin:
She lights a lamp. Peasant homes had few, if any, windows. The lamp was probably only a simple wick in a saucer of oil, giving very little light. She hoped that it might give a glimmer of a reflection if the light fell on the coin.
She took a broom and started to sweep the house. The floor was probably made of hard clay or rough stone. The coin could have rested in a crevice or rough place in the floor and resisted the straws of the broom.
She gets down on her hands and knees and “searches carefully” until she finds the lost coin.
She goes through an intensive search. Finding that coin becomes a kind of “magnificent obsession” with her.
II. The story isn’t about how to find lost coins. What is it about?
What does that story say about God?
What does it say to us?
