The Joy of Being Found—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 14C (Luke 15:1-10)

Luke 15:1-10 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

⁸ “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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                When you lose something you value, you rejoice when you find it. You might even celebrate the fact. Jesus told several parables that spoke about finding lost things. There is a parable about lost sheep and one dealing with a lost coin. Don’t forget the prodigal son who was lost and then found. Of course, Jesus doesn’t just tell stories about finding lost things. He uses these parables to make a point. He’s concerned about people who, for whatever reason, end up standing on the margins of society, people who are deemed by many to be lost. For his part, Jesus seems intent on finding them and bringing them into God’s realm, so they might share in the blessings that come with living in God's realm.

                Here in Luke 15, Jesus offers up three parables that speak of finding lost things. The first involves sheep. The second speaks of a lost coin. The third one is the parable of the prodigal, but it is not part of our reading for the day. Nevertheless, we need to acknowledge its presence because the three parables respond to the religious leaders who criticize Jesus for hanging out with tax collectors and sinners.

                The first parable focuses on the Lost Sheep (parallel passage is Matt. 18:10-14). Jesus opens the conversation with his critics by asking a question. Which of them, having one hundred sheep, if one were lost, would not leave the ninety-nine to go look for the one that was lost? On the surface, that is an easy question to answer. Of course, you would go and find the lost sheep, or would you?  While each member of the flock is important, do you not risk the ninety-nine if you leave them alone to find the one that was lost? After all, in this parable, Jesus doesn’t suggest that they are all safely gathered in a pen but rather are gathered in the wilderness. Isn’t this rather risky, even if the one that is lost has value? The parable raises an important question for pastors, who have to balance care for members with outreach to those who have left the fold or simply never were part of it. Sometimes churches expect the pastor to engage in evangelism while at the same time demanding that the clergy take care of the members (the ninety-nine). It’s not an easy balancing act.

Now, Jesus doesn’t leave room for an answer to his question. Instead, he assumes that one would rescue the one who was lost. In his parable, the shepherd, having found the lost sheep, places it on his shoulders and rejoices in finding what was lost. Not only that, but this shepherd calls all his friends together and has a party to celebrate. The image of the shepherd’s concern for his sheep has deep roots in the Hebrew Bible. We see God portrayed as a shepherd caring for his beloved sheep in Ezekiel 34:11-12 and Isaiah 40:11. As we ponder this parable, we can ask whether it has eucharistic dimensions. What might it say about what happens at the eucharistic table and who might be welcome?

The first parable involves a shepherd who risks everything to save the one sheep that went astray or is lost. The second parable involves a woman who had ten silver coins (drachmas), which together were worth ten days' wages, lost one of them, and went to great lengths to find it. Jesus asks his audience of religious leaders, would they, having lost a coin, light a lamp, sweep the house, looking for the coin until it is found. The risk of losing the other nine is not as great as losing ninety-nine sheep, so this parable seems to make more sense. We’ve all gone to great lengths to find something we think is valuable. We might even clean up our offices! What is interesting here is that, like with the lost lamb, this woman, once she finds the coin, invites her friends and neighbors over for a party to celebrate. I’ve always wondered whether this woman spent more than the value of that one silver coin to throw the party.

There is something seemingly foolish or at least odd about the behavior described in these two parables. They overturn what we might think of as normal behavior. Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi recognizes the strangeness of this behavior, offering this word:

The parables reverse the priorities; the shepherd seeks for one lost sheep and rejoices and celebrates when the one is found. The woman seeks for her one coin and celebrates when she finds it. Both parables conclude with heaven’s celebration when on fool, one who lives in the world-is-flat logic, discovers God’s merciful solidarity. The sinner who repents is the fool who gains new sight and perspective, whose contingent location of self-interest and self-indulgence is recognized not as ultimate but contingent. Consequently, solidarity transforms self-interest and self-indulgence; justice and restoration transform exploitation and destruction. The sinner who repents becomes a wise human being constantly alert to the danger of making the contingent the transcendent and confusing the temporal with the eternal.  [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, WJK Books, p. 387].

While it may make no sense to celebrate as these two parabolic figures do, they prefigure the heavenly celebrations.

Jesus closes both parables with a message about the joy in heaven when one who is lost is found. That is, there is joy in heaven when God reclaims the sinner who repents. When we speak of repentance, we’re speaking of turning from the kind of foolish path of destruction that the lectionary reading from Jeremiah 4 speaks of. Why does Jesus hang out with sinners and tax collectors? It’s because they’ve become lost and need to be found. When they are found and restored to their rightful place, it’s time to party. The same message is found in the Parable of the Prodigal.

I mentioned earlier the possible eucharistic connections present in these parables, since each involves some kind of feast to celebrate the recovery of what was lost. I recently published a book advocating an open table, such that all who would come are invited to share the meal. I titled it Eating with Jesus: Reflections on Divine Encounters at the Open Eucharistic Table (Cascade Books, 2025). I argue in that book that our eucharistic practice should reflect Jesus’ own understanding and practice of table fellowship. He was criticized for eating with sinners and tax collectors. He responded to these charges by pointing out that it is exactly these folks that he sought out to restore them to fellowship. Unfortunately, for most of history, the church has fenced the table, placing obstacles in front of people, preventing them from coming to the table where they might experience Jesus’ presence at the Table. When Paul wrote about eating and drinking unworthily by not discerning the body of Christ, he wasn’t thinking that one must understand the presence of Christ in the eucharist in a specific manner. He was concerned about the way people were behaving (1 Cor. 11:27-43). I have embraced a theology of the open table because I believe that by including everyone at the table, everyone has the opportunity to experience life-changing encounters with Jesus.

When it comes to life-changing encounters with Jesus at the Table, I believe that Sara Miles’ experience, which she shares about in her book Take This Bread, offers the best argument. Miles writes in the book about her first visit to St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. She tells us how the priest invited everyone to come to the table. So, she went up to the Table, and what happened there was, in her view, a conversion experience.

I still can't explain my first communion. It made no sense. I was in tears and physically unbalanced: I felt as if I had just stepped off a curb or been knocked over, painlessly, from behind. The disconnect between what I thought was happening— I was eating a piece of bread; what I heard someone else say was happening— the piece of bread was the “body” of “Christ,” a patently untrue or at best metaphorical statement; and what I knew was happening— God, named “Christ” or “Jesus,” was real, and in my mouth— utterly short-circuited my ability to do anything but cry.  [Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (Kindle pp. 58-59). Random House].

The message of these parables is that when someone, like Sara Miles, is lost and then found, there is great rejoicing in heaven. For Miles that began at the Table, for, as she writes,  when she tasted the bread and the wine, “Jesus happened to me.”  When Jesus happens to us, there will be rejoicing! This is the good news that comes from Jesus hanging out with the wrong crowd!

Image attribution: Moyers, Mike. The Seeker, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57153 [retrieved September 8, 2025]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.