Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
THOUGHTS:
This text from St. Luke's Gospel tells a couple of parables of things that are lost and the rejoicing that occurs when they are found. A sheep and a coin were lost and in both of them Jesus lifts up the importance of the single person who is lost and then found by God.
How important that has been in recent weeks when one was found among the rubble in Haiti, or Chile or Turkey and the rejoicing that followed. These parables raise for us the consciousness and awareness of what is really valuable.
I read recently a devotional that talked about the value of our possessions – how common possessions can become extremely valuable, even priceless if they have been owned by someone who is powerful, wealthy or famous. For example, did you know that Napoleon's toothbrush sold for $21,000? Can you imagine paying thousands of dollars for someone's crude old toothbrush? Hitler's car sold for over $150.000 years ago! At the Sotheby's auction of Jackie Kennedy Onnassis' personal belongings, he fake pearls sold for $211,500 and JFK's wood clubs went for $772,500. It is not that the items themselves are worthy, but that they once belonged to someone significant.
If we, as humans, place value on things because they belonged to people – stop to think for a minute of the value of something owned by God. God singles us out and places value on us that is beyond human comprehension. God cares about EACH and EVERY ONE of us as individuals and will never stop searching for us when we get lost and will rescue us at whatever the cost might be. Now that's what search and rescue is all about! That's the value and importance of ONE that God makes in claiming us found!
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your continual search and rescue efforts in our lives – especially when we find ourselves lost from you. Thank you for never giving up on us even when we give up on ourselves. AMEN.
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Thoughts by Pastor Mike Magwire, King of Kings Lutheran (Fairfax, VA)
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