[AI translation] Every evening for the past week, I have asked the preachers here to deliver the message as if they were meeting us only once. This aspect, I confess, was the hardest to apply to myself. For me, who preaches the Word almost every Sunday and who serves here several times during the week, it is difficult for me to speak as if we only meet once. And if I do try to do so now, I feel very well that it means to me that tonight it is not possible to be clever, philosophical, to say beautiful and interesting things, to talk about details. The time is pressing, everything has to be condensed into one sermon. The most important things, and very simply and seriously. So this is how I would like to tell you some of the serious and urgent messages of God that I saw in Jesus' parable of the lost sheep. The first thing Jesus says to us tonight. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever kind of person you are physically, mentally or spiritually, you are of immeasurable value! I am not saying this, but Jesus is saying it through this parable.I've often wondered why the woman was so concerned about the lost drachma that she made such a big deal about it? She turned her whole house upside down, lit candles, swept, cleaned. Was the drachma of such great value? Was its value that high? No, I looked it up, it wasn't particularly valuable money at all. There were coins of much higher value in circulation. For example, the talentum, which was worth tens of thousands of forints. The drachma of which the woman lost one was worth 1.50. So it was worth about the price of a transfer ticket. So why was the woman so keen on it? She called all her neighbours to come and rejoice with her because she had found her drachma! After all, the cost of such a rejoicing party was far greater than the value of the money she had found! So obviously it was not the real value of the money that mattered, but something else. What? At that time, the bridal party was decorated with polished pieces of money, ten of them, and a drachma. This woman may have been preparing for her wedding. She was a bride - that's why the drachma was so expensive for her. She may have had her wedding a long time ago, and then she treasured it as one of the most precious memories of her life, and couldn't come to terms with losing it. So its value was not intrinsic. It wasn't worth something in itself, but it was worth so much because it belonged to someone, because it was so precious to someone, for someone. Somebody used it as a headdress on the best holiday of their life, so they couldn't be missing one.
Can you see why I said that God's first message to you today is that you are an immeasurably precious possession? How could you not be, for at the wedding feast of the Son of the King, the final, great victory feast of Jesus Christ, you are to enhance the glory of His bride, the Church, as a bridal headdress, as a shining jewel! Your true worth is not in yourself, but in your physical, mental and spiritual abilities. You are not of immense value as if your currency were great, as if you were some particularly extraordinary person, a great specimen, a distinguished individual. You may be that, but that is not your real value! It is that someone has chosen you for himself! To someone, for someone, you are such an extremely precious asset! And even if you were physically quite depressed and spiritually quite backward, you would be just as indispensably important to that someone as the most brilliant person in this world. As the holiest, most cultured person you've ever seen, because without you there can be no wedding! No matter how insignificant that piece of money may be, you can't miss a single one! Do you understand? God's first message to you is that you are of immeasurable value!
God's next message to you is that this immeasurably precious value, this drachma - you and me - is out of place. It has fallen somewhere, it is lost. I know that's not very nice to hear. Now you are thinking to yourself that here comes the usual turn of evangelism, that we are such and such sinners and must repent. Here again it is about being lost. Who is lost? Am I lost or are you lost? We, of all people, who have come together in such a beautiful way, to practise what is almost the most Christian of acts? Lost is the man who is now staggering drunk outside the door of some liquor store, or who has drunk away his month's earnings and is waiting in vain at home for his hungry children. Or who has been caught up in a nasty scandal. Or who has sold his soul to the devil. But we are not lost! - Wait! Just because he's lost, doesn't mean he's become a depraved, degraded, disgusting man. It means he's out of place, he's not where he should be. Do you know where he should be? Near God, in the presence of God! In the presence of God, in the company of Jesus. In fellowship with Jesus, in His friendship, in intimate, good relationship with Him. Pure and shining like a polished drama, so that we may please the One who owns us. To be thus with God, that would be our true place. And are we there? As I look at you now, and as I know you all more or less, let me tell you: I know you are not there. None of you are. Because, for example, someone lives in discontent and has a heart full of constant complaining. Or when one lives in a constant hurry, in such a state of uselessness that he cannot even for half an hour be quiet before God. But that soul has rolled very far away from where it should be: from God's closeness, which gives peace and encourages gratitude! Or when one lives in constant fear and dread - I don't know if there are any of you - and walks in this world with the nightmare of an impending illness or death, he is not where he should be. It is not in the safety and peace of God's shelter and protection. Then that person is lost. When, for example, one is disappointed or disillusioned with oneself or with people, and seeks escape in the intoxication of alcohol or morphine because one cannot face reality, the bankruptcy of one's life, then that person is not where he or she is supposed to be.
Dear Brother, your place is not in despair, in intoxication, in unbelief, or in the arms of a strange woman or man! Not where your soul may be harmed, where you may lose your salvation - for I know that there are such among us - but in the stronghold of God's purity and holiness. When one is angry with someone, or sad about someone, or walking in this world in arrogance, in lying, in self-centredness - and how many of us are in this world! How many of us are like that! Such a person is not where he should be. Not in living communion with God, not in intimate, good relationship with Jesus. And there is also someone who is living in unloveliness. He may be said to be a believer, even a leading believer, but he has no love. He cannot love. And then he is lost. Understand that you are not where you are! That is not your vocation, that is not your place. You should be somewhere else, you should be somewhere else. To increase the joy of God, to shine the glory of Jesus!
The lost drama that Jesus speaks of in this parable is us. You see, it's you and me. Some have rolled farther, some farther away from where they should be. For it so happens that our lives slip imperceptibly out of communion with God. When such a piece of money starts to roll, it rolls further and further away because of its own inertia, until it hits something and gets buried in the dirt and rubbish. In some dark corner. It gets covered in dust, loses its shine, oxidizes. It no longer shines, it has become invisible. Because all these coins had the face of the ruler embossed on them. And on us, the image of God, because He created us in His image - right? This image of God has been washed away, so corroded by rust. We wouldn't even know what a man made in the image of God should look like if God hadn't presented him to a new man - Jesus in his life. You see, you and I should be like Jesus. Like the son of the carpenter of Nazareth. Look in the mirror for once and try to see if you still look like Jesus? I read that Sundar Singh once knocked on the door of a friend's flat in England. His friend's little girl opened the door and when she saw him, she turned around and said: 'Father, Jesus is here! If it had been you standing there, how would that little girl have announced me? Father, a tired, sad, very debauched looking man is here!? An unfriendly, unpleasant stranger is at the door!? What has happened to the image of God that God created you to have? It is indeed distorted beyond recognition, lost. Do you still object when God says today that the lost drachma is you?
There is a third thing God has to say to you: but God will do everything to find you. What that woman is doing for the drachma, lighting candles, sweeping, making a mess, cleaning up, looking under everything, is all a vague hint of what God is doing for you! God also begins by lighting the world. That's why He put the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, on this earth! He has lifted Him up on high, like a burning torch. He has set it on a tree, so that in the beam of light that shines from it all sin and misery, including yours, will be exposed, and dust, dirt and filth will be very clearly seen. Let every nook and cranny be illuminated where it might have rolled away to find that precious treasure. Have you ever felt the relentless, unbearable beam of light shining on you from the cross of Jesus? You involuntarily bow your head and just feel that there is nothing to hide here, I am unmasked. Now, in the light of the cross of Calvary, God begins to sweep, and the drama that had begun to feel at home in the place where it had rolled, began to get used to it, to settle in, suddenly finds that something is storming around it. Something is coming closer and closer to him, making a big noise, and he has no idea that his master is looking for him. Suddenly he notices someone moving the chair leg that had been such a good support, so used to his new position. Now, as if shaken by a great earthquake, he loses all his support. Everything has happened for him, and perhaps his soul cries out that at last I am so well settled in this miserable world, that I have found my place and reconciled myself to my fate, that now everything around me is shaking, that now I must fall?! My brother, God is looking for you! God is raising this storm around you. He is turning the room and the whole world upside down for you, because He cannot be satisfied not to find you.
I read once about a miner who got hit by a shaft. He was pulled out alive, but his spine was broken and he was crippled for life. One day his pastor came to see him, and went to see him just as this man with the broken spine was playing cards with his drinking buddies. There was brandy fumes and blasphemous words, and when they saw the pastor, they slapped the card down, and the patient shouted at the pastor, "Thank you, Reverend, but I don't need God! God would have been there when the mine fell on me! The pastor told his parishioners that evening, many of whom knew the man, and decided to bring him to church next time. Forcibly, but they brought him to Bible study. Then again, and then always from then on. The Word he had heard had its effect. This man began to feel more and more that the greatest misery in his life was not his broken back, but his sinful heart. His life was lost. He began to seek the peace of God, and found it in the cross of Jesus. From that moment on, everything changed, his disordered family life was restored, his old friends were gone, but new, dear brothers and friends came in their place. The swearing was replaced by prayer and the psalm, the brandy bottle disappeared and the Bible took its place. When the pastor visited again, he said with a smile: 'When I get to the throne of God, I'll thank you for breaking my back. Because if God had let me run then, I would have run straight to hell. But His love grabbed me hard, saved me, and I want to thank Him for that.
Every storm, every tribulation, every tragedy, every pain in your life was because God was looking for you. For Jesus says: if a drachma is lost, does not the woman light a candle and search diligently until she finds it? In fact, last week's evangelism was also because of this! That's why people from Újpest, Jászkisér, Sárbogárd, Gyöngyös came here to interpret God's message, because God wanted to find you anyway! Did you feel that when the Word was spoken, God reached out to you, to lift you out of the garbage, the dirt, the dust? When Jesus was spoken of here this week, did you feel like Jesus' hand was wiping the rust off of you? Like the image of God was shining on you again?! Like the blood of Jesus washed away your sin? As if God had put you back where you had fallen, where you had lost your way?!
That is indeed what happened: God found you. Now He wants you to be His precious, polished jewel again. Can you give thanks now? Could you look at yours differently at home? Could you caress me with your eyes, your words and your hands? Could you behave differently with people? Live happier, more liberated, more joyful lives? After all, that's what this whole week has been about!
Once, a man who was always walking around gloomily, sullenly, made peace with his anger in the name of God, and when he went home, his little daughter looked at him with fear at first, because she was used to that unpleasant look on her father's face, but she didn't see it now. She ran up to him and said: 'Father, you are so beautiful now! Will they see in you, brother, at home, your colleagues, the people, that you are not as you used to be? You are cleansed in the forgiveness of sins. You are so beautiful now because you are the jewel of Christ!
Amen
Date: 26 March 1960.