Good things come in threes, or is it bad things? I tried to find the origin of the phrases but quickly was lost in the minutia of folklore and abandoned the search. At any rate, Luke 15 is comprised of 3 parables (stories or word-pictures) that deal with the same subject. Got Questions has a wonderful article on this chapter which I found to be really helpful and stated that the reason Jesus taught in parables was “Word pictures do not draw attention to technicalities (like the Jewish law) but to attitudes, concepts, and characteristics.” Today, we’re going to look at the attitudes, concepts, and characteristics that were repeated this chapter.
A bit of context to enrich the study comes from the first couple of verses. Jesus in Luke 15:1-2 is speaking to two distinct groups of people. To the tax collectors and sinners who needed hope and help and to the Pharisees and teachers who needed to move from their pious attitudes to authentically lead others to faith in God. Understanding His audience really helps to surface the truths we can apply to our own lives today.
What is similar?
All three had a caretaker. The shepherd. The woman. The father.
All three had something or someone who was “safe”. The 99 sheep. The 9 coins. The older son.
All three had something or someone “lost”.
All three had a successful rescue and reunited the lost with the safe.
All three had a celebration with friends, neighbors, and/or servants.
When we overlay the similarities with the audience the message becomes much more powerful. There were lost and safe people in the audience. Jesus makes it possible for these groups to be united, in really simple terms God celebrates everyone of the lost who join the safe and we (the believers) should too. Those who care should join the search for the lost and assist God in His rescue plan. I don’t know whether these are oversimplifications, or confuse the matter for you, but for me. I can see the two groups and see God’s plan to bring as many into His fold as possible. This give me as a believer something to celebrate and something to work toward.
What is different?
- There was a progression over the 3 stories.
A couple of them that stood out to me were: cultural shame verses honor and personal loss.
The shepherds were poor and young, their shame factor losing one of one hundred sheep was evident but not debilitating and the honor would perhaps be an “atta boy” but might be forgotten pretty quickly.
The woman lost one of her 10 coins. Side note: The coins were actually part of her wedding jewelry, not just spare change laying around the house. With this understand we see that losing one of these precious coins would be like losing a stone from a wedding ring, this clearly brings more shame to a woman who cannot protect the symbol of her marriage and more honor when it is found and the piece made complete again.
In this culture the patriarch of the family is in the highest position and sons are the highest honor for the father. To lose one of them would bring the worst shame and the most honor to this family and have the greatest affect their community. You can see the progression there.
The personal loss to each of the three also accelerated. 1%, 10%, to 50%. In other words, if you didn’t catch the meaning the first time, Jesus raised the stakes to pull everyone in and show them concepts that should be life altering. - The settings and characters changed.
The first setting of the story involved familiar, young and poor people. Everyone knows or knows of these people but shepherds aren’t direct members of the audience unless it was a job that had earlier in life. If Jesus is speaking mostly with the tax collectors, sinners, and the religious elite there probably aren’t as many who can really relate to the care of sheep in a deeply personal way, but more of a cultural familiarity.
However when you speak of a woman with her wedding jewelry you’re now hitting home to every woman who might be in the audience. How about the men who have paid for the coins? This is reaching more of the audience members who have personally experience the loss of a valued possession.
When the story telling turns to the father and son this hits home with every one of these guys. No matter whether you think you are high and mighty or you associate with friends in low places, they know the shame of a son leaving home, they know the honor of a repentant son returning.
What are the lessons?
What really spoke to me this week were the pairs.
There are two types of people in the audience. The sinners and the righteous.
There are two types of people/or things in each parable. The safe and the lost.
There is a central lesson for each.
For the sinner who is lost the message is, You are valuable. You are worth searching for and worth waiting for. When you repent and rejoin the flock, etc. You’re decision is worth celebrating! Not alone, but with others. It is a very big deal to God Himself! Wow. Just think about that. You are worth pursuing and worth celebrating. Creator, Holy, All-Powerful God Almighty is doing the pursuing and inviting you to leave your sin behind and is also the One celebrating you as His adopted child.
For the safe. All of your inheritance is already made available to you, don’t complain. Don’t point fingers and find fault. Don’t be selfish and pout over the work that God is doing in someone else’s life, but join the celebration. Better yet, join the search for those people that might appear to be unworthy. God leaves the well and the safe to go search for the one who is in trouble, help Him.
