Lost Coin
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
OUTLINE:
Again, let’s remember the context of the story - Jesus is responding to Pharisees who are calling him out on all the time he spends with publicans and sinners.
And now we come to the story of a woman, who has ten silver coins.
After describing the story of a shepherds pity and care of one lost sheep, we now we come to the story of a woman, who has ten silver coins.
First we might ask what these 10 silver coins might represent. Drachma - a day’s wage, a Greek version of a denarii.
For example, I was hanging something and I misplaced 3 things in a row. A pen to make a mark, a level, and the tape measure.
Some think it could be a dowry necklace that she is saving for her wedding day.
When I look for it, I look first on the kitchen counter, then my nightstand, then the living/dining room tables, then the bathroom, then somewhere on the floor. That’s the order. I go in with that travel arrangement in mind.
Some think it could be a poor woman’savings.
Some think it’s just the collection of her paychecks over two weeks.
One thing that is clear - the passage doesn’t bother telling us what this money is for, only that this
This woman is looking with herself in mind. She wants to use this silver coin for some unspoken purposes. This coin is vital, part of her set, and she needs it to make her intention and purposes whole.
Either way, the woman
woman who has lost a coin. She lights a lamp, sweeps, the house, and seeks diligently to find it.
The woman is seeking diligently, and this is what it says it looked like.
Today we have a story of a woman who has lost a coin. She lights a lamp, sweeps, the house, and seeks diligently to find it.
First she lights a lamp - the homes would have been made of stone or mud bricks, windowless, with dark interiors.
sweeps the house - Many dwellings did not have stone floors, so it may have been buried in an earthen floor.
she is searching diligently - conveying a painstaking search. “No it-will-turn-up-sooner-or-later attitude here.”
Megan says that it’s about 75-80% of the time.
God is the light to see in darkness
God is the light to see in darkness
God uncovers us in the dirt and
A most sour feeling in life is when you misplace something, and you know you have it, and you can’t find it, and you’ve darn near torn up the house, gone to all your usual spots, and it’s no where to be seen, and you need it now.
the heart to seek diligently.
and the heart to seek diligently.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently 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 before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
ten silver coins = ten drachmas - a drachma is the greek version of a roman denarius - or a day’s wage.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Luke The Lost Sheep and Lost Coin (15:1–10)
conveying a “painstaking” search. No it-will-turn-up-sooner-or-later attitude here.
Luke 15:
celebration with the heavens and invites friends and neighbors
The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke Parables of the Lost Sheep and Coin (15:1–10)
When a sinner turns to God, heaven throws a party. The prospect of such joy keeps Jesus associating with sinners.
The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke Parables of the Lost Sheep and Coin (15:1–10)
Finding lost “sheep” and missing “coins” is a disciple’s priority. Jesus involved himself with sinners; so should disciples.
the coin, lost within the home. you have the value in you, but you can’t find it.
the lostness and finding is different.
End with the parallel to Jesus - Jesus is the light that has come into the world, and when he shines,
he got down into the dust, literally, became human,
and he entered into the labor to seek and save the lost.
he then calls us to become the light of the world,
he calls us to get into the dust,
and he calls us to seek diligently.
this time is a time for calling us back to Jesus.
God has a plan and intention and a purpose through all people.
(CGSL): Vers. 8–10. The Lost Drachma.—The anxiety of the woman to find her lost piece of money certainly does not proceed from a feeling of pity; it is self-interest which leads her to act. She had painfully earned it, and had kept it in reserve for some important purpose; it is a real loss to her. Here is divine love portrayed from an entirely different side. The sinner is not only, in the eyes of God, a suffering being, like the sheep on whom He takes pity; he is a precious being, created in His image, to whom He has assigned a part in the accomplishment of His plans. A lost man is a blank in His treasury. Is not this side of divine love, rightly understood, still more striking than the preceding?
Wherefore He first bids us light a candle, that is to say, the divine word which brings hidden things to light, or perhaps the torch of repentance. But in his own house, that is, in himself and his own conscience, must a man seek for the lost piece of silver, that is, the royal image, which is not entirely defaced, but is hid under the dirt, which signifies its corruption of the flesh, and this being diligently wiped away, that is, washed out by a well-spent life, that which was sought for shines forth. Therefore ought she who has found it to rejoice, and to call to partake of her joy the neighbours, (that is, the companion virtues,) reason, desire, and anger, and whatever powers are observed round the soul, which she teaches to rejoice in the Lord. Then concluding the parable, He adds, There is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth.
Gregory of Nyssa
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