Luke 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, the eager attention that tax collectors and sinners gave to Christ’s teaching. Large crowds of Jews had been following him (Luke 14:25), with such confidence that they were sure of God’s kingdom, that Jesus had to say things that would shake their false hopes. But here, many tax collectors and sinners came near to him with humble fear, worried that he might reject them. To them, Jesus had to give encouragement, especially because proud people looked down on them.

Tax collectors were men who gathered tribute for the Romans. Some of them may truly have been bad men, but all of them were badly spoken of because the Jewish people hated their work. They are sometimes grouped with prostitutes (Matthew 21:32), and here and elsewhere with sinners, meaning people known for open wickedness and loose living. Some think these sinners were Gentiles, and that Christ was then on the other side of the Jordan, or in Galilee of the Gentiles. They came near at a time when the larger crowd of Jews may have drifted away after his teaching in the previous chapter, just as later the Gentiles would take the Jews’ place in hearing the apostles after the Jews rejected them.

They came near him, afraid to come too close, but willing to listen. They did not come, as some did, mainly to ask for healing. They came to hear his good teaching. In all our coming to Christ, we should have this goal in mind, to hear him, to hear his instructions, and to hear his answers to our prayers.

Next, we see the offense the scribes and Pharisees took at this. They complained and used it to insult the Lord Jesus: “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). They were angry that tax collectors and Gentiles were given the means of grace, were called to repent, and were encouraged to hope for pardon if they repented. They thought their case was hopeless, and they acted as if only Jews had the right to repent and be forgiven, even though the prophets called whole nations to repentance, and Daniel especially spoke to Nebuchadnezzar.

They also thought it lowered Christ’s honor to be friendly with such people, to welcome them into his company, and to eat with them. They could not openly condemn him for preaching to them, even though that was what angered them most. So they blamed him for eating with them, which was more directly against the tradition of the elders. Criticism often falls not only on the best people, but also on the best actions, and we should not be surprised.

Christ defended himself by showing that the worse these people were, the more glory would come to God if they were brought to repentance through his preaching. Heaven would take greater joy in seeing Gentiles come to worship the true God than in seeing Jews continue in outward religion. It would also rejoice more in seeing tax collectors and sinners live uprightly than in seeing scribes and Pharisees keep up their empty way of life. He explains this with two parables, and both teach the same lesson.

The first is the lost sheep, which we also saw in Matthew 18:12. There it teaches God’s care for preserving his people, as a reason not to cause them to stumble. Here it teaches God’s joy in converting sinners, as a reason for us to rejoice in it. A sinner who keeps walking in sin is like a lost sheep, a sheep that has gone astray. He is lost to God, because God does not receive the honor and service he should from him. He is lost to the flock, because he has no fellowship with them. He is also lost to himself, because he does not know where he is, keeps wandering, and is always exposed to danger, fears, and terrors, away from the shepherd’s care and without green pasture. And by himself he cannot find his way back.

The God of heaven still cares for these poor wandering sinners. He continues caring for the sheep that did not stray, and they are safe in the wilderness. But he gives special attention to the lost one. Though he has a hundred sheep, a full flock, he will not give up that one. He goes after it with great care. First, he finds it by following after it, asking after it, and looking until he finds it. In the same way, God follows backsliding sinners with the calls of his Word and the work of his Spirit, until at last they begin to think about returning.

Then he brings it home. Even if he finds it worn out, tired, and hurt by wandering, and unable to make the journey back on its own, he does not leave it to die or say it is not worth carrying. Instead, he puts it on his shoulders and brings it back to the fold with tenderness and effort. This clearly points to our redemption. Humanity had gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). To God, the value of the whole human race was not greater than that of one sheep to the owner of a hundred. What loss would it have been to God if all had been left to perish? There is even a whole world of holy angels, like the ninety-nine sheep, a noble flock. Yet God sent his Son to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).

Christ is said to gather the lambs in his arms and carry them close to his heart, showing his pity and tenderness toward poor sinners. Here he is said to carry them on his shoulders, showing the power by which he supports them. Those whom he carries on his shoulders can never perish.

God also takes pleasure in repenting sinners who return. He lays the sheep on his shoulders rejoicing that his work in seeking it has not been in vain. His joy is greater because he had almost given up hope of finding it. Then he calls his friends and neighbors, the shepherds who keep their flocks nearby, and says, “Rejoice with me.” Perhaps the shepherd songs of that time had words like this as a refrain for such a moment: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” They would never sing, “Rejoice with me, for I have lost none.”

Notice that he still calls it “my sheep,” even though it had strayed. He has a right to it, for all souls belong to him. He will claim what is his and recover his rightful possession. That is why he goes after it himself: “I have found it.” He did not send a servant, but his own Son, the great and good Shepherd, who finds what he seeks and is found by those who were not even seeking him.

The second parable is the lost coin. Here the one who loses the coin is a woman, who would likely grieve more deeply over her loss and rejoice more when she found it than a man would. That makes her a fitting figure for the lesson the parable teaches.

She has ten silver coins and loses only one. This should lift our thoughts to God’s goodness, even though the human world is so sinful and miserable. In the earlier parable, ninety-nine out of one hundred remained safe. There are many beings, perhaps countless worlds of beings, that never fell away or wandered from the purpose for which they were made.

The lost item is a silver coin, a drachma, worth a fourth of a shekel. A soul is like silver because it has real worth and value. It is not like iron or lead, but like silver, which comes from rich mines. Silver is also coin, stamped with the king’s image, so it must be given back to him.

At the same time, the coin was not very valuable in worldly terms. It was only about seven pence halfpenny. That reminds us that if sinful people are left to perish, God is no loser. Yet the coin had fallen into the dirt, and a soul buried in the world, covered over by love for it and care for it, is like money in the mud. Anyone would say it is a great pity to leave it there.

The woman takes great care to find it. She lights a lamp, looks behind the door, under the table, and in every corner of the house. She sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds it. This pictures the many ways God uses to bring lost souls back to himself. He has lit the lamp of the gospel, not to show himself the way to us, but to show us the way to him and to reveal us to ourselves. He also sweeps the house through the convicting power of his word, and he keeps searching until he finds the lost.

There is also great joy when the coin is found. She says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin I had lost” (Luke 15:9). People who rejoice want others to share their joy. She is glad she found the coin, even though she may spend it in treating the friends she invites to celebrate with her. The joy of finding it is so strong that it bursts out in delight, “I have found it, I have found it.”

The meaning of these two parables is the same. “There is joy in heaven,” and joy before the angels of God, “over one sinner who repents,” as those publicans and sinners did, at least some of them (Luke 15:7, Luke 15:10). If only one of them repented, Christ says it was worth his care. The repentance and turning of sinners on earth is a cause of joy in heaven.

The worst sinners are not beyond hope. As long as there is life, there is hope, and we should not give up on them. If the worst sinners repent and turn, they will find mercy. God delights to show mercy. He counts their conversion as a reward for all he has done for them. There is always joy in heaven, because God rejoices in all his works, especially in the works of his grace. He is glad to do good to repentant sinners with all his heart. And he rejoices not only over whole churches or nations turning to him, but even over one sinner who repents.

The good angels also rejoice when mercy is shown. They do not resent it, even though some of their own kind, the angels who sinned, are left to perish and are not shown mercy. They are glad that sinners who were once low and vile are received into fellowship and will soon be made like them and equal to them. The conversion of sinners is the joy of angels, and they gladly serve them for their good after they turn to God. The saving of mankind was also a joy in the angels’ presence, when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14).

There is even more joy over one sinner who repents and turns from a clearly wicked life than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. This means more joy for the rescue and salvation of fallen human beings than for the keeping and confirming of angels who stand and never needed repentance. It also means more joy for the conversion of the Gentile sinners and the publicans who were then hearing Christ, than for all the prayers and thanksgivings of the Pharisees and other self-righteous Jews. They thought they needed no repentance and that God should be especially pleased with them. But Christ says it is the opposite. God is more honored and pleased by the broken heart of one of those despised sinners than by all the long prayers of scribes and Pharisees, who could not see any fault in themselves.

There is even more joy over the conversion of a great sinner, such as Paul, who had once been a Pharisee, than over the steady conversion of someone who has always lived decently and well and only needs a smaller change. Of course, it is best not to stray at all. Yet God’s grace, both in its power and in its pity, shines more clearly when it brings back great sinners. Often those who have been the greatest sinners before conversion become the most earnest and useful believers afterward, and Paul is an example of that (Galatians 1:24). Those who have been forgiven much will love much.

This is said in human terms. We feel deeper joy when something lost is recovered than when something is simply kept. We are more moved by health restored after sickness than by health that was never broken. It is like life from the dead. A steady life of faith may be better in itself, but a sudden return from a wicked path can bring a stronger and more surprising joy.

If there is such joy in heaven over the conversion of sinners, then the Pharisees were far from having a heavenly spirit. They did all they could to stop it, and they were grieved by it. They were angry with Christ when he was doing the work that was, of all works, most pleasing to heaven.