CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 15:1. Publicans and sinners.—I.e., tax-gatherers, odious to the whole nation on account of their occupation and their unscrupulousness in carrying it on, and persons from whom the religiously minded held aloof because of their gross and sensual life. The parables imply that they came to Jesus because they were penitent—a fact which should have led the Pharisees to rejoicing rather than to murmuring.
Luke 15:2. Murmured.—I.e., among themselves. Receiveth sinners, etc.—An important and affecting testimony to Christ’s attitude towards the sinful; He admits them into the circle of disciples, and treats them as now worthy, because of their penitence, of fellowship with Him.
Luke 15:4. What man.—The word is emphatic. Christ appeals to ordinary human feelings—pity for the lost, desire to recover a valuable possession, and parental solicitude (in the three parables respectively)—as explaining and justifying His conduct. An hundred sheep.—This parable illustrates the Divine compassion, as the loss of one out of a hundred would be no great matter to the owner. The wilderness.—I.e., the plains on which sheep were pastured. Until he find it.—Persistent and careful search (cf. Ezekiel 34:6-11 ff.).
Luke 15:5. Not mere self-interest, but love and pity, explain the gentleness with which the shepherd treats the sheep when he finds it (cf. Isaiah 40:1-2). “No blows are given for the straying—no hard words; mercy to the lost one—and joy within himself—are the shepherd’s feelings; the sheep is weary with long wanderings—he gives it rest” (Alford).
Luke 15:6. When he cometh home, etc.—The joy is so great that it needs to be imparted. Those who have fellow-feeling with the shepherd, who are animated by the compassion he manifested, rejoice with him; so would the Pharisees and scribes have done, when they saw sinners recovered from the error of their ways, if they had partaken of the spirit of Christ.
Luke 15:7. Joy in heaven.—A glimpse into the unseen world (cf. Matthew 18:10). Just persons.—The reference is to those who thought themselves righteous, and who had never been guilty of the conduct figuratively represented by the straying of the sheep. The truly penitent enter into a more blessed condition than that of those who have never risen above a higher standard of conduct than that of mere legal obedience.
Luke 15:8. Ten pieces of silver.—This parable illustrates the preciousness of the human soul. The loss of one out of ten is a much more serious one than that in the preceding parable. Perhaps the ten coins were a set worn as an ornament, according to the custom of Eastern women. The piece of money specified is the Greek drachma (worth about 8d.), and equal to the Roman penny (denarius). Light a candle.—Rather, “a lamp” (R.V.). The houses in the East were commonly without windows.
Luke 15:9. Which I had lost.—Observe the difference between this and “which was lost” in Luke 15:6. In the one case the bewildered animal wanders away, in the other the piece of silver is an inanimate thing, unconscious of its own value and loss. A certain fitness in the comparison to a coin arises from the latter bearing the image and superscription of a king. So, too, the soul though lying in the dust, and unaware of its miserable state, bears traces upon it of Him in whose image it was made and to whom it belongs.
Luke 15:10. In the presence of the angels.—And shared by them, as is implied in the words “Rejoice with me.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 15:1-10
The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.—These parables illustrate the fact that a more active interest in any possession is aroused by the very circumstance that it is lost. The sheep that is lost is not on that account disregarded by the shepherd, but receives for the time greater attention than those that remain in the fold. The piece of money that has gone a-missing becomes on that very account of greater immediate importance to the woman than all she has safe in her jar in the cupboard. So it is with God. The very circumstance that men have strayed from Him evokes in Him a more manifest and active solicitude in their behalf.
I. God suffers loss in every sinner that departs from Him.—To the Pharisaic mind this was a new light on the character of God. The Pharisee himself trusted little to tenderness, much to rigid law. Naturally he thought of God also as standing upon His rights, enforcing His will by compulsion, and with equanimity punishing and driving into permanent exile those who had strayed from Him. It is a revelation to them to hear that the lostness of the sinful is God’s loss; that God suffers more than the sinner in the separation. For God loves the sinner, and this love is wounded, whereas the sinner has no love for God that can be wounded by separation. It is God who suffers, and not the heartless sinner, who, without a thought of the wounds he is inflicting, goes his own wretched way, and courts the destruction which Christ died to save him from. All the broken-heartedness of parents who, year by year, watch the failure of their efforts to lead some misguided child to well-doing; all the crushing anguish of wives who see their husbands slowly hardening in vice and sinking out of the reach of their love; all the varied misery that love must endure in this sinful world;—is after all but the reflection of what Infinite Love suffers in sympathy with every sinner who spurns it and chooses death. Look at the sorrow of God in Christ, and say whether the loss which God suffers in your separation from Him is true or feigned.
II. The very fact of our being lost excites action of a specially tender kind towards us.—God does not console Himself for our loss by the fellowship of those who have constantly loved Him. He does not call new creatures into being to fill up the blank we have made by straying from Him. He would rather restore the most abandoned sinner than blot him from his place to substitute an archangel. So long as things go smoothly, and men by nature love God, and seek to do His will, there is no anxiety, no meeting of emergencies by unexpected effort, hidden resources, costly sacrifice. But when sin brings into view all that is tragic, and when utter destruction seems to be man’s appointed destiny, there is called into exercise the deepest tenderness, the utmost power of the Divine nature. This appears in—
(1) the spontaneity of the search God institutes for the lost. The shepherd, missing one of his flock, straightway goes in search of it. He does not expect that it will seek him; he goes after it. He knows the recovery of the sheep depends wholly on himself, and he prepares for trouble, provocation, risk. And so God is as truly before-hand with the sinner as the shepherd with the sheep. The initiative is God’s, and all that you desire to do in the way of return to righteousness is prompted by Him. He has already sufficiently shown that He is alive to the emergency and that no trouble is too great, no sacrifice too great, while there is a possibility of saving the human soul.
(2) God’s search is also persistent. The woman of the parable sweeps out every dusty corner; she shakes out every article of clothing; she lifts boxes that have not been lifted for years; she carefully searches drawers where she knows the coin cannot be; she reads the face of every one who has come near her house for a month; she exhausts every possibility of finding her piece of money. And so God makes diligent search. He leaves no stone unturned. With active, intelligent, unwearied search, He strives to win the sinner to purity and love. Christ astonished men on earth by the company into which He found His way, and by the affection with which spoke to low and worthless people; and so does He still, by means less observable, but equally efficient, seek to win men to the recognition of His love, and of all the good He makes possible.
III. The exceeding joy consequent on the restoration of the sinner.—The joy is greater than that over “the just which need no repentance,” because the effort to bring it about has been greater, and because for a time the result has been in suspense. So that when the end is attained there is a sense of clear gain. The value of the unfallen soul may intrinsically be greater than the value of the redeemed; but the joy is proportioned, not to the value of the article, but to the amount of the anxiety that has been spent upon it. To the sinner, then, these parables say, It is your unspeakably happy privilege to give God joy. There is no joy comparable to the joy of successful love; of love, that is to say, not only recognised and returned, but which succeeds in making the object of it as happy as it desires, and does so after many repulses and misunderstandings and hazards. This is God’s greatest joy. When God succeeds in securing the happiness—the inward purity and rectitude, and therefore the happiness—of any one who has been estranged from Him, there is joy in heaven. What can more worthily give joy to intelligent beings than the increase of goodness? This joy we have it in our power to give to God.—Dods.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 15:1-10
Luke 15:1-2. Christ in Society.—It is astonishing how often we read of Jesus being at feasts. He began His ministry by attending a wedding. Matthew made Him a feast, and He went and sat down among the publican’s motley guests. He invited Himself to the house of Zacchæus, another publican. Indeed, His eating with this class of persons came to be notorious. But He repeatedly dined with Pharisees as well. There was no fear of Him, in any company, obscuring His testimony for God. In these occasions of table-talk He dignified life, and embraced golden opportunities of doing good. You will be surprised to find how many of His words are spoken to His fellow-guests at meals. Some of His most priceless sayings, which are now the watchwords of His religion, were uttered in these commonplace circumstances.—Stalker.
Receiving Sinners.—We are indebted to the Pharisees for this testimony to our Lord, and His way with men. He takes His text from their lips. They would make Him a sinner because He seeks to save such sinners as they have never thought of saving. They would have it understood that He prefers such sinners; that these form the best material out of which His disciples and apostles can be made. And much preaching founded upon this course of action of our Lord has tended, unintentionally, to give a similar impression in these and other times, as if the best preparations for conversion and a holy life were a gross and degraded life! No mistake could be greater. He nowhere teaches that reckless and open vice is the best way to meet Him, or the best prior education for His disciples.—D. McColl.
Publicans attracted to Jesus.—The tax-gatherers were the home heathen of Palestine, and none were more scorned than they. These and other outcasts were drawn to Jesus. They kept far from other religious teachers, but somehow they could not help being drawn to Him. He had a magnet-like power over them. Just as the swallow is drawn to the sunny south, as the flower turns to the sun, and the chicken to the mother bird, so great sinners, shunning others, turned to Jesus in the days of His flesh. But the most decent and religious people murmured scornfully. To defend Himself and shame them Jesus spoke the three parables of grace in this precious chapter.—Wells.
It is an Epitome of the Gospel.—Originally, it was the saying of foes, not of friends. In this cavil there spoke for once the commonly suppressed voice of a self-ignorant and self-flattering world. The world exactly inverts the judgment of God and heaven. God hates the sin, yet loves the sinner; the world casts out the sinner, but will eat and drink with the sin.
I. The world’s definition of “sinners.”—Those who have transgressed the world’s morals. The world has its tariff of sins, and its register of sinners. The solemn saying of the Old Testament is forgotten by the religious world, “By Him actions are weighed.” Weighed, not counted. Weighed, rather than measured.
III. They meant, This man loves the company of the wicked.—“A man is known by the company he keeps.” A taunt which found no sanction from His judges. Pilate and Herod agreed as to His innocence. The taunt has had no acceptance with posterity.
IV. The words are true in their amplitude, and in their grandeur.—Christ refuses none. With what mind on their part? With what view on His? Not resolving to continue in their sins. Not to bid them sin on. He takes them to forgive, to heal, to help, to go and sin no more. Christ receives no man except to rid him of his sin, and because that is his desire.—Vaughan.
Jesus Christ ignoring Social Distinctions.—In reference to the various classes of Palestinian society Jesus was not the slave of custom or class. He broke through them in obedience to the requirements of “judgment, mercy, and faith.” Scribe and Pharisee stood aloof from Him. Publican and sinner drew near. But His “whosoever will” was equally for all. There was to be no respect of persons. Just as gladly would He have ministered in the fellowship and ministries of the faith to Pharisee as to publican. He often did, and does so still. Barriers are self-erected. Beneath all social accidents were souls. And these, in their priceless value, would survive earthly distinctions. He traversed social distinctions in the interest of that higher society which might, without clashing with them, be inclusive of all. In so acting He ran counter to the principles and narrow-minded, cold hearted practice of exclusionists. In His love for man, He aroused the hostile opposition and criticism of certain men. Custom, indeed, is not to be violated for the sake of singularity. But the example of Christ justifies the doing of it for the sake of the great things of “judgment, mercy, and faith.”—Campbell.
Luke 15:1. Holiness United with Love.—That which attracted publicans and sinners to Jesus was holiness, united with love; they were repelled by the haughtiness of the Pharisees. Goodness appeared to them in a guise they had never before known or even dreamed of.
“To hear Him.”—Not merely to see His miracles. The motive that drew them was of a spiritual character, and contrasted strikingly with that of many who came to the Saviour. Hence, He “received” them, welcomed them, and opened up to them the treasures of Divine love.
It was precisely these who felt they had no means to build the tower, no forces to meet the opposing king; and hence they sought resources from One who manifested power, and through Him desired “conditions of peace.”
The humble hear and learn; they find the grace of God in the word issuing from the lips of Jesus. The proud murmur and condemn; their dark understandings would fain quench the love of God where it shines most brightly.
Luke 15:2. “Murmured.”—A twofold ground of offence:
1. Jesus receives persons of evil name and repute.
2. He allows Himself to be received by them, and consents to sit at their tables.
“This man receiveth.”—They were scandalised at His procedure, and insinuated—on the principle that a man is known by the company he keeps—that He must have some secret sympathy with their character. But what a truth of unspeakable preciousness do their lips, as on other occasions, unconsciously utter!—Brown.
A Culpable Pride.—There is truth in the Pharisaic principle of abstaining from intercourse with sinful and defiled men, if it proceed from anxiety to avoid being tempted by their sins. In them, however, it was the result of haughty feeling which made them keep at a distance from such unfortunate men, even when their minds showed an inclination towards something better.—Olshausen.
Christ Eating with Sinners.—The words were meant as a reproach. 1. How much Christianity has done to change the prevailing estimate of men and things! It is no reproach now for a teacher or minister of religion to seek out the sinful. Such conduct is understood now, thanks to the gospel.
2. Still, we are cruel in our treatment of sinners in private and common life. How severely do we judge when we ourselves are not at the bar. To “receive sinners and eat with them” is still a crime in Christendom. And, of course, in some senses it would be a crime. To prefer by choice the company of the immoral: this would be a just reproach—no virtue, but the very contrary. All depends upon the motive. If we would imitate Jesus in His treatment of sinners, let us imitate Him by His grace in His principle and in His motive.
3. He was not the friend of the sin, but the friend of the sinner. He would not leave the sinner in his sin. Not to embolden them in evil, but to win them for good. So the friend of the sinner must, to be Christlike, be the foe of the sin.—Vaughan.
Luke 15:4-10. The Lost One Sought.—The twin parables have much in common. They both exhibit the seeking love of God. Jesus shames the Pharisees for their pride and holding aloof. He gives them two short parables.
I. The lost one.—The two pictures of outdoor and indoor life were very familiar to His hearers. It is a figure of all, even of the Pharisees, if they had only known it.
II. Who seeks it.—The seeking Shepherd is a common figure in Church windows and in sacred pictures. Jesus is still seeking the lost,—by His Spirit, in His Church, through His people.
III. How He seeks it.—The Incarnation. The earthly life. The atoning death. The Church, too, holds up the candle of the Word. Joy fills His heart at the discovery and restoration of even one wandering sheep, one lost coin.—Watson.
Christ’s Sympathy for Sinners.
I. A yearning sympathy.
II. An active sympathy.
III. A tender sympathy.
IV. A joyful sympathy.
Walker.
The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
I. Love sorrowing.
II. Love seeking.
III. Love rejoicing.
Lessons.—
1. The value of the soul.
2. God does not need to be made willing to save you.
3. Here is unsurpassed encouragement for every penitent.—Wells.
God’s Love for the Lost.
I. The loss.
II. The finding.
III. The rejoicing.—Taylor.
The Persistence of Thwarted Love.—I. But first let me say a word or two about the more general thought brought out in both these clauses—of the Shepherd’s search. Now, beautiful and heart-touching as that picture is, of the Shepherd away amongst the barren mountains searching minutely in every ravine and thicket, it wants a little explanation in order to be brought into correspondence with the fact which it expresses. For His search for His lost property is not in ignorance of where it is, and His finding of it is not His discovery of His sheep, but its discovery of its Shepherd. We have to remember wherein consists the loss before we can understand wherein consists the search. Now, if we ask ourselves that question first, we get a flood of light on the whole matter. The great hundredth Psalm, according to its true rendering, says, “It is He that hath made us, and we are His; … we are … the sheep of His pasture.” But God’s true possession of man is not simply the possession inherent in the act of creation. For there is only one way in which spirit can own spirit, or heart can possess heart, and that is through the voluntary yielding and love of the one to the other. So Jesus Christ, who, in all His seeking after us men, is the voice and hand of Almighty Love, does not count that He has found a man until the man has learned to love Him. For He loses us when we are alienated from Him, when we cease to trust Him. Therefore the search which, as being Christ’s is God’s in Christ, is for love, for trust, for obedience. If, then, the Shepherd’s seeking is but a tender metaphor for the whole aggregate of the ways by which the love that is Divine and human in Jesus Christ moves round about our closed hearts, seeking for an entrance, then, surely the first and chiefest of them, which has its appeal to each of us as directly as to any man that ever lived, is that great mystery that Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, left the ninety and nine that were safe on the high pastures of the mountains of God, and came down among us, out into the wilderness “to seek and to save that which was lost.” And, that method of winning—I was going to say, of earning—our love comes straight in its appeal to every single soul on the face of the earth. Do not say that thou wert not in Christ’s heart and mind when He willed to be born and willed to die. He seeks us by every record of that mighty love that died for us, even when it is being spoken poorly, and with many limitations and imperfections. And here, in our midst, that unseen Form is passing along and speaking to our hearts, and the Shepherd is seeking His sheep. He seeks each of us by the inner voices and emotions in our hearts and minds, by those strange whisperings which sometimes we hear, by the suddenly upstarting convictions of duty and truth which sometimes, without manifest occasion, flash across our hearts. He is seeking us by our unrest, by our yearnings after we know not what, by our dim dissatisfaction, which insists upon making itself felt in the midst of joys and delights, and which the world fails to satisfy as much as it fails to interpret. He seeks us by the discipline of life, for I believe that Christ is the active providence of God, and that the hands that were pierced on the Cross do move the wheels of the history of the world, and mould the destinies of individual spirits.
II. And now, in the second place, a word about the search that is thwarted. “If so be that He find.” That is an awful if, when we think of what lies below it. The thing seems an absurdity when it is uttered, and yet it is a grim fact in every life—viz., that Christ’s effort can fail, and be thwarted. Not that His search is perfunctory or careless, but that we shroud ourselves in darkness through which that love can find no way. God appeals to us, and says, “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done unto it?” His hands are clean, and the infinite love of Christ is free from all blame, and it all lies at our own doors. I must not dwell upon the various reasons which lead so many men among us—as, alas! the utmost charity cannot but see that there are—to turn away from Christ’s appeals, and to be unwilling to “have this Man” either “to reign over them” or to save them. One great reason is because you do not believe that you need Him. Some of us think we are in the flock when we are not. Some of us have no inclination for the sweet pastures that He provides, and would rather stay where we are. We do not need to do anything to put Him away. It is a very easy matter to turn away from the Shepherd’s voice. “I called, and ye refused. I stretched out My hands, and no man regarded.” That is all! That is what you do, and that is enough.
III. So, lastly, the thwarted search prolonged. “Till He find!” That is a wonderful and a merciful word. It indicates the infinitude of Christ’s patient forgiveness and perseverance. We tire of searching. “Can a mother forget” or abandon the seeking after a lost child? Yes! if it has gone on for so long as to show that further search is hopeless, she will go home and nurse her sorrow in her heart. For that is another thing that this word “till” preaches to us—viz., the possibility of bringing back those who have gone farthest away and have been longest away. The world has a great deal to say about incurable cases of moral obliquity and deformity. Christ knows nothing about “incurable cases.”—Maclaren.
“That which was lost.”—None of these parables is meant to set forth with completeness either what wanderers have to do to go back to God, or what God has done to bring wanderers back to Himself. If this had been remembered, many misconceptions would have been avoided. They were meant to show us that a human instinct which prizes things lost, because they are lost, has something corresponding to it in the Divine nature, and so to vindicate the conduct of Christ.
I. The varying causes of loss.—The sheep, the coin, the son—each was lost. But in each case, the reason for the loss was different. The sheep was heedless. It was lost through heedlessness. Many men live just so, and, all unwitting, wander from the right road. How considerate of our Saviour to put this explanation of men’s condition in the foreground. In the second parable, the drachma did not lose itself, but, by the law of gravitation, rolled into a dark corner. It had no power of resistance. So there are people who are things rather than persons, so entirely have they given up their wills and so absolutely do they let themselves be determined by circumstances. There are masses of men who have no power to resist temptation. This thought lightens the darkness of much of the world’s sin. The third parable is a picture. The other two are parabolical representations; this is the thing itself. The exercise of self-will, impatience of control—these are causes of loss that underlie the others, and which make for every one of us the sinfulness of sin. It is rebellion, and it is rebellion against a Father’s love. There is the individual choice in each case, desiring a separation, and kicking against control.
II. The varying proportions of loss and possession.—A hundred, ten, two. One per cent, ten per cent, fifty per cent; a trifle—more serious—heart-breaking. The ascending proportion suggests increasing pains and anxiety. There is something in human nature which makes anything that is lost precious by reason of its loss. Its absolute value may be little: its relative worth is great. Divine love goes after, not the greatest world, but the lost world.
III. The varying glimpses we have here into God’s claims upon us and His heart.—Ownership describes His relation to us in the first two parables: love is the word that describes it in the third. It is a most blessed and heart-melting thought that God accounts Himself to have lost something when a man goes away from Him. God prizes us, is glad to have us, feels a sense of incompleteness in His possessions when men depart from Him. Think of the greatness of the love into which the ownership is merged, as measured by the infinite price which He has paid to bring us back. Let it lead us all to say, “I will arise and go to my Father.—Ibid.
The Twin Parables.—These two parables are an inseparable pair. They are a double star; you cannot tell how much light comes from the one, or how much from the other.
I. Compare their structure.—
1. They are alike.—In each there is a loss, a seeking, a joyful finding.
2. They differ in the extent of the loss, the manner of the loss, and the toil of recovery.
II. Compare their teaching.—
1. They are alike in teaching the lesson as to the lost condition of the sinner, the willingness and power of God to save the sinner, and the importance with which God and angels regard each sinner’s salvation.
2. They give different views of the sinner. He is wayward, weak, and foolish, like a sheep. He is dead and helpless, like the tarnished coin. The shepherd represents Christ’s active and suffering work for man’s salvation; the woman’s work illustrates better the work of salvation in the soul itself—enlightening, cleansing, transforming work, necessary to fit it for close relationship with God.—Taylor.
Luke 15:1-7. The Lost Sheep.
I. The shepherd misses one when it has strayed from the flock.
II. He cared for the lost sheep. Although he possessed ninety and nine, he was not content to let one go.
III. He left the ninety and nine for the sake of the one that had wandered.
IV. When he finds it he does not punish and upbraid it.
V. He lays the sheep upon his shoulder.
VI. Far from being oppressed by the burden, he rejoices when he feels its weight upon his shoulder.
VII. He invites his neighbours to rejoice with him over his success.—Arnot.
Luke 15:4. The Bewildered, the Unconscious, and the Voluntary Sinner.—The parable of the Lost Sheep represents the stupid and bewildered sinner; that of the Lost Piece of Money, the sinner, unconscious of himself and of his own real worth; that of the Prodigal Son the conscious and voluntary sinner, the most aggravated case.—Alford.
“What man?”—Jesusappeals to those who had condemned His conduct, and asks whether they do not in the lower order of things usually manifest the pity which they blame in Him. “Does not a shepherd show compassion towards a sheep that has wandered from the fold? Shall not I much more show compassion to a poor, wandering sinner?” It is pity rather than self-interest that moves the shepherd, for the loss of one out of a hundred sheep would not be very serious. His kindly feelings are excited towards the sheep which has not the sense to find its way back to the fold, and which cannot defend itself against its enemies.
“In the wilderness.”—I.e., in the place of pasturage, where they were safe. The section of the nation who were faithful to the law and to religious duties, enjoyed means of grace which those who had openly broken with the covenant between God and His people had deprived themselves. They were in the place of pasturage, and if they made diligent use of their advantages, would certainly attain to salvation.—Godet.
The Office of the Shepherd was to Seek the Lost. It was the office of the shepherd to seek the lost sheep (Ezekiel 23:6; Ezekiel 23:11; Ezekiel 23:23), yet with this the Pharisees and scribes found fault.
Luke 15:5-6. Love Manifested.—The loving heart of the shepherd is manifested
(1) in the perseverance with which he seeks the wandering sheep;
(2) in his carrying the exhausted animal upon his own shoulders;
(3) in the joy with which he bears the burden;
(4) in his summoning his friends and neighbours to partake in his happiness.
Luke 15:5. “Found it.”—It is one by one, and not in masses, that souls are saved. Jesus saves the Samaritan woman by convincing of the depth of her need, and leading her to seek the Living Water; He saves Zacchæus by inviting him to receive Him into his house as his Guest and Redeemer. He saves Nicodemus by showing Him the necessity of being born again before he could enter into the kingdom of heaven; and He saves Mary Magdalene by delivering her from the power of seven evil spirits.
“On His shoulders.”—For He bare our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:4-6; Hebrews 9:28).
Luke 15:6. “Rejoice with Me.”—It is a beautiful principle of our nature that deep feeling, either of sorrow or of joy, is almost too much for one to bear alone, and that there is a feeling of positive relief in having others to share it. This principle our Lord here proclaims to be in operation, even in the Divine procedure.—Brown.
Christ’s Joy in Finding the Lost.—Christ experienced a perfect rapture of delight when He found a lost sheep; witness His bearing at the well of Sychar, when His joy over the repentance of the woman of Samaria made Him forget hunger, insomuch that the disciples wondered if any man had given Him to eat. That joy, hoped for or experienced, made all His burdens light, made even the cross itself, abhorrent to His sentient nature, more than bearable. Therefore, in drawing the picture of a faithful Shepherd, He might with a good conscience put in this trait, “rejoicing.”—Bruce.
Luke 15:7. “I say unto you.”—Let us not, in this “I say unto you” miss a slight yet majestic intimation of the dignity of His person: “I who know, I who, when I tell you of heavenly things, tell you of Mine own (John 1:51; John 3:11), announce to you this.”—Trench.
“Joy shall be in heaven.”—We can scarcely avoid the thought that here the prospect of that joy hovered before His soul, which He, the Good Shepherd, was especially to taste when He, after finishing His conflict, should return into the celestial mansion of His Father, and should taste the joy prepared for Him.—Van Oosterzee.
“One sinner that repenteth.”—He does not joy over the sinner as a sinner, but over him repenting. He joys over his repentance, over the sinner ceasing to be a sinner.
Unity of the Kingdom of the Good.—The kingdom of the good thus appears as standing in mutual connection and loving unity, so that if one member rejoices, all members rejoice along with it. Heaven and earth are joined together by the bond of perfectness, love.—Olshausen.
“Need no repentance.”—The Pharisees, indeed, were not called to manifest a repentance like that of the publicans and sinners, for they had kept from gross vices; yet even in them a profound change of heart was needed. They murmured at that which caused great joy in heaven, and thereby showed how far they were from true communion with God.
Something Higher than Legal Righteousness.—The ninety and nine just persons are those who are righteous according to the legal standard, than which there is, however, something higher, even as there is something more inward. And unto this more blessed condition the truly penitent sinner is translated, so that his conversion is more a matter of rejoicing than the strict observance of the law by others.—Speaker’s Commentary.
Luke 15:8-10. The Lost Coin.—A totally distinct idea is conveyed by the parable of the Lost Piece of Silver from that in the parable of the Lost Sheep. Pity moves the Shepherd; self-interest moves the woman to patient search. And so Christ teaches that man has value in the sight of God. He is made in the image of God, he is destined for service, and therefore God has need of him.
I. The Owner of the silver piece as representing God.
1. Her anxiety to find. The coin, like the soul of man, is valuable in itself; it is one of a number, or set, and if it be lost the store is broken in upon, and if it be not found, another may get it, whose it is not.
2. Her diligence in seeking—light brought into dark places, defilement swept away.
3. Her success.
4. Her joyfulness.
II. The silver piece as representing the soul of man.
1. Its innate value.
2. Its unconsciousness of loss.
3. Its helplessness.
4. Its proper place in God’s keeping.
The parable teaches—
I. That man is lost.—
1. By ignorance of the truth.
2. By falling into vice.
3. By his own heedlessness.
II. That he may be found and restored to his true place and value.
III. That his recovery occasions joy.—
1. To himself.
2. To Christ.
3. To friends and neighbours.
4. To angels and to the spirits of the just made perfect.
Luke 15:8. “Ten pieces.”—The ten pieces of silver indicate in passing that the woman is not so rich as to be indifferent to the loss of even one piece; that is, one soul is estimated by the Spirit in the Church, not in the proportion which one piece would bear to the hoard of a man with millions, but in its proportion to the scanty store of such a woman as this.—Stier.
“Piece of silver.”—A drachma. Man, made in the image of God, and bearing a Divine superscription.
“Sweep the house.”—The parable referring originally to the Jewish people, the “house” may be taken as representing the Church; the lighting of the candle and the sweeping, as representing the Spirit’s giving light to the world, stirring up the dust of worldliness which conceals the sinner’s true worth, and so applying the truth that he is found.
Luke 15:10. “Joy in the presence of the angels.”
I. God rejoices over returning sinners, and that just because they were once lost.
II. God delights to have the inhabitants of heaven share in His gladness. “If the ‘sons of God’ shouted for joy and sang together at the first creation (Job 38:7), by how much better right when ‘a new creation’ had found place, in the birth of a soul into the light of everlasting life (Ephesians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:12)” (Trench).
Joy Shared with the Angels.—Note carefully the language here employed: “in the presence of the angels of God.” True to the idea of the parables, it is the Great Shepherd, the Great Owner Himself, whose properly the joy is over His own recovered property: but so vast and exuberant is it (Zephaniah 3:17), that, as if He could not keep it to Himself, He calleth His whole celestial family to rejoice with Him. In this sublime sense it is joy before or “in the presence of the angels”: they only catch the flying joy, sharing it with Him.—Brown.
An Unexpected Good.—The angels delight in beholding a continued and uninterrupted course of righteousness. But yet in the deliverance of a sinner God’s mercy shines out so brightly that Christ attributes to angels a greater joy in it, arising out of an unexpected good.
Divine Joy over Repenting Sinners.—Not joy among the angels, but joy in “the presence of the angels.” The joy of God Himself.
I. What is implied in sinners repenting?—There are many incorrect and superficial views on repentance. Sorrow in consequence of sin has nothing to do with repentance. A man may even dislike sin and not experience true repentance. Repentance is a change of mind and heart, leading a man to turn from sin and turn to God. There must be both changes—in mind and heart. Beliefs and sentiments in regard to spiritual things must be renounced, and others embraced in their stead. The affections must cease to be under a selfish or worldly bias, and become directed to God and the things of God. This experience is sweeter to God than even the songs of heaven.
II. What is implied in God rejoicing?—Absolutely there can be no accession to the happiness of the ever-blessed God, and yet there must be a real meaning in this language. This joy of God is the
(1) joy of manifested mercy. He “delighteth in mercy” and in every opportunity for its exercise.
(2) Joy of gratified benevolence. God is benevolent as well as merciful. He not only pardons, but crowns with blessing.
(3) Joy of recovered possession. Man was made for God—has wandered from God. The bringing back of the wanderer, the repairing of injury, the renewal of what has been defaced, the healing of the wounded—such a change the all-loving Father cannot look upon but with complacency and delight.—Alexander.