Rejoicing Over the Lost That Were Found

 Prayer Practice

Lectio – Read today’s passage through once. Then spend some time praying and asking God to show you what you need to pay attention to in the text. Read it again. Now ask the Holy Spirit to help you see what this text, and the part that has stood out, may mean for you. Don’t expect to get a clear word every time but always be ready to really hear from God’s Spirit through this Word.

DAILY READING

Luke 15: 1-31

REFLECTION

Rejoice With Me

 by Dan Kidd

I suspect many of us like to hear and tell stories about ourselves. When it comes to stories about religion in the first century, the Pharisees were used to playing the lead. They’d worked hard for that role. They’d spent years studying Scripture, teaching, working out, and practicing their faith; they dressed the part. And they were the ones who were ready to notice and redress anyone who wandered off the path of faithful, Godly behavior. And now they observe Jesus—this teacher and prophet with incredible wisdom and insight into the Scriptures, who spoke with uncanny, divine authority, and who’d gathered quite the community of disciples—devoting his attention to sinners and tax collectors instead of themselves.

Jesus noticed their discontent—their dissatisfaction with playing anything but the lead role in a religious story—and he told them some parables.

Each parable culminates with this invitation: “Rejoice with me!”

“I have found my lost lamb!” “I have found my lost coin!” “I have found my lost son.” “Rejoice with me!”

Jesus was on mission to seek and to find and to save. Like a shepherd tracking the trail of wayward sheep. Like a woman turning her house upside down in pursuit of that misplaced coin. Like the father who stood gazing into the distance, anticipating his son’s return so that he could sprint to him and embrace him again.

And, when the older son is missing from the party—sulking in protest like the Pharisees—the father notices his absence and goes searching for him too.

I’ve missed this before, but this time through I was struck by how gentle the father was with the older son; That is to say, how gentle Jesus was to the Pharisees. “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.” Pharisees, for all your envy, pettiness, and everything else, don’t you see that you were always with me, and everything I have is yours too? Knowing that I see you, love you, and consider you my family, can we not celebrate together the resurrection of these who were dead and are now living again?

Lord, I realize that I am prone to self-centered narratives and spotlight envy. I’m also prone to believing that some people are so lost that they are beyond your crook or embrace. Place in me a selfless heart that rejoices with you for what you are doing in the lives of others. Set me straight whenever I cast a cruel eye on someone. And when I wander, Holy Spirit, lead me back to yourself so that what is yours will be mine also.

Classic No Fair

Luke 15:11-32

“I will set out and go back to my father,” v18.  Music to a father’s (and mother’s) ears. I can imagine Dad on his knees each night praying, “Son, come back to me. Come back.” So when it happened, the emotions must have been overwhelming. Dad’s prayers had been answered.

One of the most powerful things we can do as parents is pray for our kids. And our prayers get really fervent when they leave us – physically, emotionally, spiritually – and we beg for their safe return.

Our Heavenly Father calls out to us when we stray and rejoices upon our return too. We may think God has enough going on, he’ll never even notice we’re gone, but he notices and wants nothing more than to be reunited with us. He likes the admission of sin part, but that's an added bonus. The important thing is that we’re home.

Now this is how I imagine the older brother’s perspective… “Are you kidding me?!? I can't even believe this!” It's hard for him to see the situation through any lens other than the one of sibling rivalry.

Just as I picture Dad praying for his son’s return, I envision Brother saying “Good, now that he's gone it's all mine. Dad is mine. The fields are mine. The money is mine.” So the horrible idea of having to share it with this screw-up is just as overwhelming as Dad’s joy.

I wonder, does the older brother eventually come to see this as a blessing or does he hold on to the anger? Does Dad’s lost and found speech pierce through and change his heart? I'd like to think so – that everyone has a happy ending. Sometimes it's the one who never left who needs to return.

Finally, I can only imagine the joy when the Father has all his children under one roof living happily together. What a glorious feeling that must be.

Jesus Seeks

Are you a t-shirt reader? Do bumper stickers draw your attention? Do you look at church signs as you drive by them? If so, then you have seen the message, “Jesus saves.” Even if you know little or nothing about Christianity, “Jesus saves” is likely a familiar refrain to you. Yet when we move beyond the sound bite and examine the gospel message behind it, we find that, before Jesus saves, Jesus seeks. He seeks us. In fact, He seeks us intently.

How important is it to Jesus that people know and understand His seeking heart? When a group of Pharisees muttered among themselves about Jesus engaging the spiritual outcasts of the day, He told them in no uncertain terms it was these very “sinners” whom He had come to call back to Himself. Like a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep to find the lost one, and like a woman scouring her house for a missing coin, and like a father scanning the horizon for his wayward son, God searches for those who are apart from Him.

It’s not as though Jesus doesn’t know where we are; He does. Yet history shows we are perfectly capable of shutting God out, even when He reveals Himself to us in jaw-dropping ways. When Jesus miraculously healed the sick on the Sabbath, how did the religious leaders respond but to accuse Him of breaking the moral law? After God performed miracle after miracle to extricate His enslaved people from Egypt, how did they react to threatening circumstances but to beg Moses to escort them back there?

So Jesus calls to us in ways only our hearts can hear. How deeply moving is it, for instance, to receive kindness and care from another who expects nothing in return, especially when that person is a total stranger? Have you ever noticed “something different” about a person, later to discover it was the joy and peace of Christ shining out from within? Have you ever heard stories of non-believers who startled themselves by calling out to God in a moment of crisis? And sometimes we just reach the end of ourselves—weary and disillusioned—only to find God there with us, just as He had been all along.

When we finally hear Jesus’ voice and turn to Him, what fills our vision but His wide-open arms eager to embrace us and carry us home. No one is happier at our return than Jesus is, for we are His in the first place. We gratefully experience salvation from the vantage point of the endangered sheep, but He celebrates our return as the One who cares enough to leave everything behind to come and find us. “I tell you,” He said, “. . . there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7).

Jesus seeks. Jesus saves. Jesus celebrates!

Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. (Luke 15:6)

[See the daily reading in Luke 15:1-7]

Away games

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”  
Luke 5:29, 30. 

If you’ve played organized sports at any point in your life – or taken a road trip to follow your favorite team – you know the unsettling feeling of an “away game.”  The fans are still avid, but instead of yelling for you, they’re yelling at you.  Instead of cheers, you get jeers.  And every time something goes wrong for you, the crowd roars its approval.  But if you want to be a champion, you have to play – and win – on someone else's home court, home field or home ice.  

Did you ever notice that Jesus was unafraid to compete in away games?  Think of all the arenas in which Jesus took on the adversary!  In the home of tax collectors and sinners ... in Samaria ... among lepers ... before Gentiles ... in the Decapolis.  For Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.  And where are they found?  Wherever they call home. 

And that’s the point.  A road game for Jesus was, at the same time, a home game for those he came to save!  In great love, he met people wherever they were.  He left his home court in order to walk onto theirs.  And now his banner hangs in heart-shaped venues all over the world!  “King of Kings!”  And “Lord of Lords!” 

As well-intentioned as it may be to invite non believers to worship with us, we need to realize that church to someone who has yet to accept Christ is still to them an uncomfortable away game.  So while we do well indeed to invite them, we should be even more willing to meet them on their turf. Next door ... at the gym ... on campus ... at work ... on the streets ... at the bar ... wherever they call home.  That’s where the game is played.  And won.  

Lord, grace us to bring your life and love to others right where they live.  May they come to know you – your freedom, grace and life.  Be glorified in newborn hearts today, wherever they are found. 

[Click here to see the daily reading in Luke 5:27-32.] 

Celestial celebrations

Very early in my wife’s freshman year of college, her roommate entered the room very upset.  She had lost a contact lens outside.  With a strong penchant for helping people, Peggy said, “Let’s go look for it.”  Her roommate declined the offer – the thought being so preposterous – but upon further urging, she reluctantly agreed.  And Peggy quietly prayed, “Lord, please help us find her lens.  And if we don’t find it, at least let her know she's loved.” 

The lawn was vast, so Peggy asked, “About where were you when you lost your contact?”  In a tone of voice that suggested this is so ridiculous, her roommate said, “Right about here!”  Peggy bent down and separated two blades of grass.  “Is this it?” she asked, spying the glistening lens.  Her roommate bent down, eyes wide and mouth agape.  There it was!  She bent down and picked it up, hugged Peggy and jumped around a bit, for against all odds, the lost had been found! 

God searches intently, far and wide, for something much more valuable than a contact lens.  Us!  The people of his creation and redemption!  Some of us are easier to spot, I suspect, while others of us are improbably found in the most unusual circumstances of life.  But regardless of where we are when God reaches down and lifts us up, there is celebration in heaven.  Great celebration!  Unimaginable celebration!  Speaking as one who’d been there, Jesus said, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). 

Have you entrusted your life to the saving power of Jesus Christ?  If so, there was celebration in the heavens over you!  Yes, you!  Individually, you!  Who knows ... maybe it’s still going on! 

So now we get to join God as he continues to look for his missing “lenses,” for he wills to shine his light into their soul as well.  And when God bends down and picks up the “one sinner who repents,” the angelic celebration over another redeemed treasure begins anew!  Hugging and jumping around in celestial proportions.

Lord, please lead us to those who do not know you.  Use us today in whatever capacity you will.  Open their eyes to behold your beauty.  Open their souls to know your love and salvation for them.  And may your angels celebrate new life this day. 

[Click here to see the daily reading in Luke 15:8-10.]