You can’t read Luke 15 with out noticing the common theme among the three parables: all concern something lost and then found. The three parables — lost sheep, lost coin and lost son – obviously go together. The careful reader will also notice another pattern, one that on the surface makes no sense. It is this anomaly, however, which draws the three parables into one powerful lesson concerning the pervasive grace of God.
The lost sheep
The first parable concerns a shepherd who has a flock of 100 sheep, one of which wanders away. Leaving the 99 in the open range and, apparently without supervision, the shepherd heads off to find the stray. Tramping over the hills, he eventually locates the wayward animal, puts it over his shoulder and carries it back.
The Lord Jesus interprets the tale for his listeners, a mixed group of Pharisees and sinners (v. 1). The moral: There is great joy in heaven over the repentance of even one sinner. That’s great news —but have you ever asked yourself just how repentance is demonstrated in this story? The lost sheep, so easily identifiable as any of the wayward human race (Isa. 53:6) did nothing to symbolize repentance. Its role in the parable was restricted to getting lost! If you were assigned to write amoral for the story, would you conclude that this story taught repentance?
The emphasis falls on the activity of the shepherd, not the sheep. The shepherd goes out, searches for the sheep, finds it and then carries the sheep home on his shoulders. This last detail is absurdly humorous; an adult sheep weighs a couple hundred pounds with filth and feces caked to its greasy wool coat. To throw this beast on his shoulder meant a burden of uncleanness! But the main point is this: absolutely nothing in the sheep behavior indicated anything that could symbolically represent repentance. Stray it did, but returning home to the flock was entirely the work of the good shepherd. Based on the text, one would expect the Lord’s interpretation to focus on the shepherd’s behavior, not the sheep’s.
The lost coin
The next parable concerns a woman searching for a lost coin. The nine coins of known whereabouts are temporarily forgotten in the quest for the one missing coin. Again, the first-time hearer or reader of the parable would expect the teaching to highlight the woman’s diligence and persistence. Yet Jesus again draws out a lesson of repentance, an attitude clearly impossible for an inert object, such as a coin, to portray.
Did the woman’s behavior illustrate repentance? Nonetheless, we learn there is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. That’s a comforting teaching, even if the parables seem incongruent with the moral. We have a non sequitur before us; but the Lord isn’t finished with his lesson.
The prodigal son
Now we come to the third parable, the prodigal son. Finally, we have a parable that clearly demonstrates repentance. He wastes his inheritance, engages in reprobate behavior, makes a thorough mess of his life, and then comes to his senses. At his nadir, he acknowledges his sins and opts to go back to his father, pleading only for a position among the servants: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v. 19 NKJV).
The prodigal’s behavior and attitude model the process of repentance. Acknowledging and turning away from sin, he humbles himself and seeks only the lowest position. The father’s reaction surprised no one who heard Jesus tell the parable recorded in the previous chapter about taking the lowest place. “For everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” The father runs to greet him while he is at a distance, and lavishes a reception of kingly honor upon him.
Now we have a parable that plainly teaches repentance, but where is the moral? The Lord offers no interpretation; rather he goes on to relate the selfish attitude of the older brother, who finds himself unwilling to share in the joy of heaven over a sinner who repents (vs. 26-28). Perhaps the prodigal’s story is too obvious to require interpretation, but maybe the Lord intended a synthesis of the three consecutive parables to dramatically teach the way of the Almighty regarding salvation.
Repentance is the Father’s work
Jesus’ point is this: We can take no credit even for our own repentance, for it is God who is already seeking and finding His lost souls. Spoken to an audience of both Pharisees and sinners, Jesus’ message is clear: you all need repentance, and in your repentance don’t even think to take any personal credit. It is the work of the Father.
Yes, the prodigal had to come to his senses; this demonstrates that we all have to make the personal choice of repentance. But deceitful human intellect can pervert even so humiliating an act of renouncing one’s past so that repentance becomes in one’s mind “a good deed” for which God now owes us something. To counter such an attitude, before he taught the human side of repentance as embodied in the prodigal, the Lord first gave two examples of providence.
God searches on our behalf, finds without any help from that which is lost, and alone does the entire work of restoration. Jesus appended the moral of repentance to these two parables, the ones that emphasized God’s role, but not to the third, the only one which illustrates the subject!
One can only conclude that repentance, while fully an act of our free will, occurs under the guiding hand of a compassionate Father who is always searching for those whom He might save. If we think to take any personal credit for our repentance, then we fail to grasp the pervasive grace of the Father in heaven. The three lost and found parables form a single lesson: repentance is our response to a loving Father who accepts our recognition of utter dependence on Him. When we come to our senses, He is already there. He then carries us on His shoulder that there may be great joy in heaven.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One