“To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.” Luke 15:11-13 NLT
Trilogy of loss.
Luke weaves together a few of Jesus’ parables or stories about loss. In one story, about sheep, there is clearly a large number of sheep comparative to just one – a 99 to 1 ratio. The point, of course the one is important and needs to be found. Jesus tells this story in the context, the audience of religious leaders seemingly devaluing the sinful commoners. Maybe Jesus flips it and suggests the sinners are the 99 and safe, but the Pharisees, the religiously lost are the one and are in danger!
Then Luke gives us the story Jesus told, of the woman with ten coins. It may have been part of her dowry from her father. It may have been the life savings of a poor or even widowed woman, likely her retirement plan for living out her old age. This is a 9 to 1 ratio, but this one coin could mean complete poverty once she runs out of money.
Then we get to the “lost sons.” This ratio is a 1 to 1. But this isn’t a sheep that you are responsible for. Nor a coin that endangers your quality of life. This is your blood, your boy, your highest priority of love, pride and promise! No one says, “well good thing I’ve still got one boy,” or “that’s why we have an heir and a spare!” No, this is a heart-crushing experience that every good mother and father fears the most – losing a child!
I have so much compassion and deep agony over any parent that loses a child – I have buried sons before their time! It is out of sync with expectations of how life should go. Oh, I know the boy here in the story didn’t die, but almost worse he clearly declared he wanted to be DEAD as far as his family relationships were concerned. Truth: the money the son demanded at this point meant NOTHING to his father. The father was forced to drink a bitter poison of failure, shame and shattered future.
As the son goes off to pay and play on Pig Island – the Decapolis (Gerasenes), the Dad was daily in mourning. This loss was so personal, so deep that the men who listened must have been jerking and twitching to hold back tears. No father, no parent should ever experience this kind of loss.
Who are we in these stories? Maybe we are the one sheep, lost and longing to be found. Maybe we’re the one coin, causing a anxious ripple in the future livelihood of its owner. Maybe we’re the one father who has to face the ultimate rejection of his love, whose life and legacy is linked to the well being of his children.
Which one of these is God? Is He the shepherd, the widow, or the father who mourns? It gives me chills to think the gospel is all about going after lost things. God is all about pursing that which others have given up on. The biggest difference in the these stories… is that the shepherd searches, the widow seeks, the father – WAITS.
Prayer
Dad,
Whew, I got a little emotional thinking about these stories of loss, the sheep, coin and son. The one that hit me the hardest was the loss of a child. I could barely breath when I officiated Chad’s burial, with his mom and dad standing there, just empty shells of pain. I had the worst theological dilemma ever when I helped officiate Josh’s funeral attended by a thousand of his friends. This kind of parental loss is not like the others. Yet, I see that this is also your heart towards us, especially those who have DEMANDED their cut to live a life as far away from you as possible. I don’t know how you bare that kind of pain, but I am thankful you did it for me, for all of us.