Kingdom Designs

“Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that He was associating with such sinful people; even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: ‘If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbours, saying, ‘rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! ‘Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbours and say, ‘rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.’” (Luke 15:1-10) (Also read Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17) Here are two parables that describe, at least in part, the nature of YAHVEH’s Kingdom. These are brief stories that carry with them profound insight. They come as responses to an inquiry raised by Yeshua’s opposition. His popularity was without question. When the crowds continued coming to Him, the Pharisees brought this charge: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” What a fellow this must have been! He broke the customary laws of table etiquette and welcomed strangers and outsiders to the table. His openness to all people, His readiness to love even the unlovable, are as charged with questioned passion today as they were then. So we are grateful that He gave us these two stories to help us see the greater priorities; those that drove His moral choices. Look at these insights.

I.) First, YAHVEH has compassion for those on the outside looking in. He loves the lost, the disenfranchised, the bewildered, those who reside on the edge of respectability. A little sheep or a little coin is lost, out of place, unaccounted for. Here is a descriptive image of the human predicament. Yeshua doesn’t here use the word “sin.” Instead He calls attention to the waywardness of our condition. Being lost is a terrible thing.

II.) Second, YAHVEH seeks the lost; as conditioned by His love. What is YAHVEH like? YAHVEH is like a good shepherd that leaves behind the ninety-nine sheep in the fold and, rather precariously, goes out to find the single little lost lamb. He gives Himself entirely to the task. YAHVEH is like a woman searching diligently for the single silver coin. The Shepherd would look behind every rock and in every dangerous place. The woman would sweep and re-sweep her house. Why such exhausting labour? Because every little lost lamb is loved and each coin is unique.

III.) Third, YAHVEH is persistent in reaching out. YAHVEH doesn’t give up quickly. The shepherd doesn’t give up the search until the lost sheep is found. The woman doesn’t end her search until the coin is found. YAHVEH’s love is never satisfied as long as there is one sheep out of the fold or one coin lost from the collection.

IV.) Fourth, YAHVEH rejoices when the lost is found. No one else may have cared for the single sheep and logic would never allow risking ninety-nine for one. But when the lost sheep is found, there is joy. Surely the woman had more to do with her time than invest it all in the search for a single coin. But when it is found, there is again rejoicing. There always is when that which is lost is found. We can rest assured that our Adonai’s parables were not about sheep or coins. They were about living human beings who were also lost and needed more than their next breath of oxygen to be found. Yeshua came, He said, not to save those who were already well. He came as a physician for the ill. He came to seek and to save the lost.