Lost and found - how?

[AI translation] I read an unusually long passage from the Bible as the text for this sermon. It contains three beautiful parables, each of which could not only be the subject of a sermon, but of a whole series. But now I would like us to see these three teachings of our Lord, which are essentially identical, together. The whole chapter presents Jesus as the friend of sinners, seeking what is lost. The decisive introduction to the whole is, "And all the publicans and sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them" (Lk 15:1-2) Here, over the table spread, would that the presence of the great friend of sinners were made real to us all, and that we might be convinced that even now he "receiveth sinners, and eateth with them"!All three parables are about something or someone being lost and found. The sheep did not wander off in a premeditated way, with no well-considered intention. He did not make a conscious decision to stay or to get away from the flock. He only knew that grass tasted good and that there was pasture beyond where grass grew. That's how he wandered away from the flock, from the shepherd's watchfulness, from his caring protection, that's how he wandered into a strange pasture, that's how he became unprotected - lost! This is the story of many, many of us. Many times man has no explicit intention to do something wrong, to do something bad, but simply lives - so to speak - an animal life. All the sheep cares about is that there is good fat pasture this way or that way, and that's the way it goes! The animal does not see ahead. It has no conscience, it is not constrained by certain moral obligations. Human beings can live in this way, without any limitation of their desires, guided by their inclinations, instincts, without foresight, their actions and behaviour being dictated solely by physical, material advantages. And so, without any particularly evil intentions, they go further and further astray, until they find themselves in a dry sand desert. He who is not consciously and deliberately under the guidance of the Good Shepherd is already lost, lost. So our mere carelessness, our non-attention to the Word, can lead us into terrible dangers.
In the second parable, the drachma is lost. Imagine a piece of money. The piece of money is heavy, so it fell, round, so it rolled away, lifeless, so it was left lying. Some people are more like things, objects, than people, they are so completely without will, they let themselves be led by their circumstances. It was not the piece of money itself that caused the roll-over, but the law of gravity that caused the accident. The coin just didn't have the power to resist the law.
It is as true of human beings that they have no power to resist the pressure of circumstances or temptation, just as a piece of money falling from an open hand. Yet we are not objects, but human beings, and yet we are shaped by our external circumstances, by the events that happen to us, by our fate, as if we had no power over them. But we should not be so subordinate to our circumstances, we could overcome them! For example, the same difficulties and problems in life can depress one person and strengthen another. The same piece of stone lying in the street, one person stumbles over it and falls, the other picks it up because he can use it for some purpose. Circumstances, difficulties and temptations become the masters and commanders of the foolish and servants of the wise. The same wind can take ships in different directions. It all depends on how the sails are set and how one holds the rudder. Likewise, the same circumstances in life can take people in different directions. One is pushed further and further away, the other closer and closer to the anchorage. We should not live the dead, mechanical life of the drachma, submitting unwillingly to whatever people, circumstances, the world wants to do to us! Why do we allow ourselves to be led by forces that drive us away from God?
The third parable speaks of the prodigal son who openly rebelled against the Father's sovereignty, denounced the filial relationship and cut himself off from the Father's community of life, the family. He wanted to be his own master. He longed for a place where he could enjoy the fleeting pleasures of life without paternal supervision or interference. He wanted to live life to the full. That's why he moved far away to the country. This is the lowest point of the lost condition: a severing of the ties that bind a human heart to God; a callousness and ingratitude for the blessings that man can enjoy in communion with God. A spirit that consciously resists all fatherly direction and control, that does not need the Father's love! This life is quite lost, for it is not by ignorance, not by the drift of its circumstances, that it has been placed outside God's blessing and protecting circle, but by a willful desire, as one who expects better from the world than the Father can give it.
The first parable speaks of a hundred yahrens, the second of ten drachmas, the third of two sons. In the first case, the loss is one per cent, so it is quite small in proportion; in the second, ten per cent, which is a serious matter; and in the third, fifty per cent, which is a very serious matter! Did Jesus have a purpose in mentioning these figures? Surely! What is the purpose? If we were to say that the loss of one sheep out of a hundred is the least, because it is only one per cent, and the loss of the prodigal son is the greatest, because it is fifty per cent, we could say that this is the opposite, that for that one sheep the shepherd leaves the whole flock, goes down into a steep precipice among thorny bushes and dangerous rocks to look for the one, and then carries it back to the fold on his shoulders, while the father waits for the lost boy to return home, and the young man returns on his own. By the measure of the numbers, then, the loss of the sheep seems a smaller loss than the loss of the boy, but by the measure of the effort and struggle to find the lost one, the reverse seems true. We must therefore obviously see a different measure here.
All three parables speak of the infinite, incomprehensible love of God, which cannot resign itself to loss! The loss of someone. He certainly claims, reclaims and wants back the one who is lost. When Jesus speaks of the woman who, having lost a piece of money worth a forint, lights a candle, cleans up the house to find what she has lost and then invites her neighbours and acquaintances to rejoice with her, Jesus is giving us a glimpse into the heart of God. That is our God! Whether we have lost our way like an unwise sheep, whether we have rolled away from him like a dropped coin, or whether we have consciously and willingly separated ourselves from him like the prodigal son, his wonderful heart wants to love us back to himself. The most wicked man, perhaps no longer worthy of the name of man, is a greater treasure to God than our dearest child is to us.
King David had many sons. One of the many was a traitor, who, in his attempt to dethrone his father, made a direct attempt on his father's life. And it was the death of this son that almost broke David's fatherly heart. Death had snatched several of his sons from him, but over none did he mourn as over the traitor Absalom: 'And the king was troubled, and went up to the house over the gate, and wept, and said in his mouth, My beloved son Absalom! "My sweet son, my sweet son Absalom, would that I had died in thy stead, Absalom, my sweet son, my beloved son!
Here we sense something of the fatherly heart of God. What David could not do for his wicked son to save him from the danger of the end, "would that I had died for thee," God did just that for His lost sheep, His Drahmas and His sons! As the Apostle Paul says, "God, having sent forth His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom 8:3) And if we have wandered away from Him into all kinds of strange fields and now fall into a deep abyss, grieving over our unwise ways, or if we have drifted away from Him in our passive, unwilling abandonment to our circumstances and temptations, or if in our conscious rebellion against Him we have chosen the pleasures of sin rather than the joy of fellowship with Him;- that is to say, if we are lost to God, in whatever way, the gracious message is now being sent to us that He is not lost to us! For when the sheep was lost, the shepherd went after him! When the coin was lost, the woman went to look for it. When the son was lost, the father always waited for him at home!
That's what the heavenly Father is doing to us now! Witness this table laid before us! The broken body and the shed blood, the testimony of which he is here to distribute among us, measure the greatness of the divine love that was able to pay such a price for the recovery of our lost lives! Let this then cause our hearts to resolve, like the prodigal son's, "I will arise and go to my Father."
We can all come - free! Behold, on the table is the testimony that indeed "the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost!" (Lk 19,10)
Amen
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