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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“Or suppose a woman has
ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and
search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her
friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost
coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:8-10
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I wonder if you’ve ever
done something like I did the other day.
I had gone to the dollar
store and picked up a couple of items. I went up to the cashier who rung up my
things at the register and told me I owed $2 and 12 cents. Well, I reached into
my pocket and grabbed a couple of ones and then checked my change. I only had
eleven cents, one penny short.
So did I immediately
grab another $1 bill from my wallet and get a lot of change back in return?
Not exactly because the
first thing I did was look to see if there were one of those “leave a penny, take
a penny” trays but as luck would have it, there wasn’t one. And so I did the next
best thing.
I looked to see if
someone had maybe inadvertently dropped one of those pesky copper coins on the
ground and, much to my delight, I fixed my eyes on one such penny which was
just waiting to be found.
And with that, I scooped
it up, added it to what I had and I was good to go. Paid for my items, got my
receipt, and was out the door, rejoicing over my found penny.
Okay…hold that story in
thought for a moment because we’re coming back to it. For now, I need to go
back in time to a place I think we all are at some time in my life.
I remember the time for
me was in my twenties and as I was growing into becoming an adult, I languished
quite a bit while trying to figure out who I was, what my purpose was in life,
and how I fit into the big scheme of things in the world.
In order to settle my quandary,
I tried all kind of things while seeking my comfort zone and niche in life.
First, I tried to rely
on myself to figure out who I was, trying to find myself on my own. That ended
up being a fruitless effort.
Next, I tried to turn to
any number of people who I hoped would help me find myself but none of them
could provide me what I was looking for.
Looking back now, it all
was an exercise in frustration and futility. For my pursuit was grounded in
hopelessness because the truth of the matter was that I was lost and there was
no way I could find myself.
Instead, I had to be
found. Just like that penny at the dollar store.
With all this as a
backdrop, let’s move to our scripture verses and a look one of Jesus’ many
parables. In this illustration, we find our Savior telling of a woman who was
looking for her lost coin. Look again at these verses here:
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she
light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when
she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice
with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is
rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke
15:8-10
I think it’s important to
remember that the homes in Jesus’ say often had no windows. There would not be
natural light inside and so when the woman loses one of her silver coins,
falling somewhere onto the dark floor, she would need a light to find it.
Further, she would need to sweep the floor in order to help bring the coin out
of hiding where it might be seen.
Note here that the lost
silver coin cannot find itself, no more than I could when I was growing up or
the penny could on the dollar store floor. The coin would remain lost unless
someone went looking for it and found it.
What was the woman’s
reaction upon finding her lost coin?
It was sheer elation and
rejoicing as she calls her friends and neighbors to share the good news with
them, anticipating they will celebrate with her. For her lost coin, that was
once lost, was now found.
So what does this have
to do with Christianity and the cause of Jesus?
It has everything to do
with it.
For Jesus caps off His
parable with its meaning and the central point He was trying to drive home
through His teaching saying:
“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The silver coin would
have remained lost unless it had someone looking for it. It could not rescue
itself from its fallen state.
The same applies to
every person who has ever lived. Like the lost coin, they go through life unrescued
unless someone searches for and finds them.
Thanks be to God that
Jesus never stops searching for the lost “coins” within creation. And when one
who was lost is found, when a sinner repents and finds their salvation and new
life in Christ, then there is great rejoicing in the presence of the angels, a
divine version of the woman celebrating with her friends and neighbors over her
salvaged piece of silver.
Friends, like that
woman, we are to be constantly searching for people who are lost and need to be
found, sinners who can’t save themselves but once found can be saved by Jesus,
their Savior. We need to be shining the light of the Lord into the darkest
places and sweeping the floors of our communities to reveal those in need of
rescue and then connect them to their Great Rescuer.
The call is not
optional. It is actually was given as a command before Jesus ascended to sit at
His Father’s right hand:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
The search for the lost
is one that is ongoing and will be until Jesus returns. Until then, He is with
us until the end of the age, helping those who have gone astray to be
discovered and found, not just temporarily but forever.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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