Presented to Swift Current Community Lenten Lunch, 07 March 2013, Swift Current Salvation Army and CKSW Radio 10 Mar 13 and TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 05 October 2025 by Captain (Major)Michael Ramsay
This is the 2025 version. To view the earlier version, click here:
https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2013/03/luke-1511-32-lost-boy.html
A prominent
big city pastor was driving through a small town. He became a little turned
around and when he was lost his eyes fell upon a child not more than two feet
tall at the door of one of the houses. The boy was on tiptoes valiantly
attempting to reach the doorbell. Amused at the efforts of this small boy and
wanting to help, the pastor parked his car and went over to assist the boy. He
reached up and pushed his finger onto the button and the chimes rang inside.
Satisfied that he had done his good deed for the day, the pastor turned to the
child, and said,
“Okay,
what happens next?”
With
a smile the child replied, “Now we run!”
.
The
pastor of our story today was at a loss, as he was lost in in the small town.
Today we are speaking about the lost. We read the parable of the lost son. This
is actually the 3rd parable in a series of 3 or 4 parables. The parable of the
lost son and especially the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the
lost sheep are all speaking about how important the lost are to God and just
how much He will do to bring them to salvation, to bring them back to Him.[1]
The next parable after this one, after all the parables of the lost, goes on to
explain just how important this salvation really is. God really loves us. As
such, it bothers Him when we are lost.
.
Who
here likes to lose things? How do you feel when you lose your keys? You know
that feeling? You think you put them somewhere but they are not there. You are
running late. You need to be somewhere and your keys are missing. This is like
the parable of the lost sheep.
.
Now
imagine that you find your keys and you head to the store; you go in, buy your
groceries, you walk to where your car is (or at least where you think it is)
and it is not there. Your car is lost. You look around. You fumble for your fob
to try and make the horn honk or the lights blink but it is raining and you
have your hands full and you are sure that this is where you left your car but
it is lost and you are franticly scanning the parking lot wondering where it
might be. This is a parable of the lost coin.
Now
imagine that you are still standing there completely disoriented with your
hands full in the middle of the parking lot franticly looking for you car and
you spot it, so you walk over to the car. You are wondering why you can’t get
it to unlock and then you realize that it is not your car at all. It is just
one that looks like your car. You look around. You can’t find your car anywhere
and you are really starting to get concerned now because, even though you know
you shouldn’t have, you left your two-year-old grandchild or child in the car.
This is the parable of the lost son. These are the progressive emotions that
Luke is trying to evoke in his original audience as they read / hear these
parables from Jesus.
These
three parables are of the lost: the lost coin (vv. 3-7), the lost sheep (vv.
8-10) and the lost son (vv.11-32). They are a progression of intensity, and
they all address the questions raised by the Pharisees in verses 1-2: “Now the
tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and
eats with them.’”
Jesus
answers the muttering with these three parables explaining that not only does
he welcome sinners and eat with them but Jesus says: Verse 10, “In the same
way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner who repents”; Verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will
be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who do not need to repent”; and Verse 32 “…we had to
celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive
again; he was lost and is found.’” This is how much it means to God when we His
children come to and/or return to His safety and His protection.
Now
the primary parable of the lost that we are dealing with today is that of the
son. Sometimes, it seems that almost everything that could ever possibly be
said about this parable has been said already. I have read I don’t know how
many journal articles and books on the prodigal son; I have seen I don’t know
how many pieces of artwork on the prodigal son; I have heard I don’t know how
many homilies, devotional thoughts and inspirational talks on the prodigal son.
I have heard sermons spoken from the father’s perspective, from the prodigal’s
perspective, from the older son’s perspective and maybe even from the pigs’
perspective. I myself have even written a children’s version of this story many
years ago and years before that even I remember playing the prodigal son in a
musical when I was an elementary school student back in Victoria, with Emmanuel
Baptist Church’s Hosanna Singers.
There
is a story that was told and re-told quite a bit about one of our performances.
I, as a 10- or 11-year-old boy, was playing the prodigal son. My costume was an
old potato sack. You know the kind. I was wearing that and I had dirt and or
stage make-up on. We performed this play on a number occasions and a number of
locations. I remember once, we were playing for a smaller audience. We were
performing at the inner city Mustard Seed Street Church in downtown Victoria.
Because it was a smaller venue back then, while I was waiting to make my
entrance, to return to the father, I was waiting outside in my potato sack on
the streets of downtown Victoria – and I believe the door may have even been locked
on me. So there I was; a child in a potato sack pounding on the door of the
street mission as it is time for me to go on stage and then along comes a
little old lady who instead of letting me in, kindly places a nickel in my hand
and tells me everything will be alright and continues on her way. To this day,
I think that nickel made me the highest paid actor ever in the history of the
Hosanna Singers.
The
main thing about the parables of the lost is that God loves us and He wants us
all to be found. He doesn’t want any one of us left outside in the cold on the
streets. Verse 10, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Our repenting,
turning to God is so important not only to us but even more so to God who loves
us so much.[2]
There
is another aspect to this parable that I should address too and that is the
role of the older son in this story. He has an interesting reaction when he
comes home and finds that his family is having this party that no one
apparently invited him to or even told him about. Along these lines, I have
another tale about the lost that I would like to share here. This one is based
on a children’s story that my eldest daughter shared with us when she was in
elementary school. It is from a Canadian children’s book. I believe that it is
set on the east coast. There is a family. The father is a fisherman. They live
by an area of the ocean that can be particularly treacherous for people caught
in a storm near a place called Ledgy Island.
One
day – as I understand the story having only heard it second hand – a young boy
named Harold and his pet parrot, who is also named Harold, get up early. The
boy Harold goes to play in the attic and the parrot Harold flies to the
dangerous Ledgy Island. As the other members of the family wake up and get
going for the day a family member calls out, “Where’s Harold?” and a voice from
the attic replies, “on Ledgy Island” – the parents start to panic. There is a
storm brewing and Ledgy Island is a very dangerous place in the storm so they
call out the search parties to look for him on and off the island, they call
all their relatives, they call the RCMP, they call the coast guard, they call
everyone they can think of to help find Harold the boy whom they fear must be
lost in the storm. Now of course, it is Harold the bird who did leave for the
island but he arrived there without incident: he is fine. The community is
searching high and low for Harold the boy however, who never did leave the
safety of his own home.
At
some point during the day, Harold the boy, who is playing in the attic hears
all the noise as the searchers are gathering below and decides to come down and
check it out – it sounds like a party – he walks into the midst of everyone and
no one notices him. He sees people watching TV with his face on the TV, he sees
the RCMP running around the living room. He sees people everywhere and He sees
neighbours bringing over food and Harold figures this definitely must be a
party. He stays in the middle of all this activity as – unbeknownst to him –
everyone is looking for him and then Harold notices that everyone looking and
sounding sad. Nobody is having fun at this party. Some people are crying;
nobody looks happy; so, he pipes up in the middle of this crowd and says, “Some
party this is!” It is only then – when they take a break from what they are
doing that they see what is right in front of their eyes and they notice that
Harold is actually standing in their midst – the lost has been found.
Harold’s
reaction to this impromptu party in his honour that he was not aware of is not
entirely dissimilar to the older brother’s reaction to the impromptu party
thrown in his brother’s honour that he is not aware of. The brother is not
happy. In this instance he is not upset as Harold was because everyone is sad.
The brother is upset because everyone is happy. Here the brother had always
been serving his father. And -as far as we know- he has constantly been doing
his best at serving his father and –as the text states- he had never had such
an event thrown for him (15:29); but his little brother who had just run off
and partied, cavorted with gentiles and eaten with pigs, he all of a sudden
shows up again and he’s the centre of all this attention. It’s not fair. He is
the good son: the one who has been doing everything right. The sentiment the
older son is expressing is, in essence, the same sentiment expressed by the
religious leaders off the top of our text, Verses 1-2: “Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law muttered: Jesus, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with
them.’” Jesus, God, the father in the parable of the lost son, celebrates when
the son turns and returns to him.
This
pericope that we have been looking at today has been referred to as, ‘the
Gospel of the outcast’.[3] Here at The Salvation Army, we have sometimes been
referred to as a rag-tag group; we are sometimes thought of as a group of
prodigals, particularly in downtowns of large urban centres. Some of us and our
friends who regularly come here and to the Bread of Life and our shelter , some
have been living the life of the woman at the well -who have had so many
husbands, common-law and otherwise- that she doesn’t know what to do (John 4);
we have members of our group who have struggled with addiction and have even at
times stolen as a means to support that addiction; we have alcoholics who are
in various forms of recovery; we have members of our group who have served time
in jail. I don’t know what it is like in the other congregations’ ministries in
town but I hope that we will always welcome home with open arms those who have
been left out on the margins of our society. I assure you that those who have
been out there really do need to know that the love of Jesus can exist even
here in the church.
This
is my encouragement today: if we ever see someone who we do not know sitting
next to us here, down at the Bread of Life, the Shelter; or even more, if we
see someone who we do know who has done some things
even as bad as the prodigal in our story - squandering his father’s wealth, his
inheritance and his promise for the foreseeable future – or worse, do we
welcome them with the love of Christ? We need to reach out to everyone, including
the least and the last of the lost because, Verse 10, “In the same way, I tell
you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
who repents”; Verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who do not need to repent”; and Verse 32 “…we had to celebrate and be
glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost
and is found.’” This is how much it means to God when we his children come to
and/or return to His safety and His protection. So for those of us that are
already living at home with our Father, let us come in, join the party and
celebrate with our brothers and sisters who were lost and now are found, who
were dead and are now alive; and for those of us who have not yet come home, if
you are here today and maybe thinking of coming to or returning to the Lord, I
pray that you will come now and join us at the feast prepared in your honour in
the Name of the Lord.
Let us
pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1]
Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 254
[2]
Cf. Barbara E. Reid, 'Beyond Petty Pursuits and Wearisome Widows: Three Lukan
Parables'. Interpretation 56 no. 3 (July 2002): 288
[3]
Walter L. Leifeld, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis
CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/V. Teaching and Travels Toward Jerusalem
(9:51-19:44)/E. Further Teaching on Urgent Issues (14:1-18:30)/4. Parables of
joy (15:1-32)/a. The lost sheep (15:1-7), Book Version: 4.0.2: This section
begins what Manson (Sayings of Jesus, p. 282) has called the "Gospel of
the Outcast." The large body of material in chapters 15-19 is unique to
Luke and dramatically shows Jesus' concern for the social outcasts of his day.
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