Lost, Sought, Found
J. W. Burn. Luke 15:3-7 And he spoke this parable to them, saying,… The three parables in this chapter fall into two sections, each setting forth separately one-half of a great truth, and both in combination exhibiting the whole. 1. The first two parables illustrate conversion on its Divine side. Christ had to seek these lost publicans and sinners in order to find them. 2. The third parable illustrates conversion on its human side, and was intended to imply that these publicans and sinners would never have been received by Christ unless they had sought Him. 3. The three parables combined illustrate conversion on both its Divine and human sides, and, consequently, the complete truth: God seeking man, and man seeking God; and the twofold search rewarded, by God and man finding each other. I. Lost. 1. In the first parable the loss falls mainly on what is lost. By sin (1) man loses himself; (2) man loses protection; (3) man loses comfort. 2. In the second parable the loss is sustained exclusively by the owner, and is considerable. One out of ten pieces. (1) The piece of silver was lost in the house, not in the street. (2) The piece of silver was lost to usefulness. 3. In the third parable we have a double loss. The nature and extent of the loss reach their climax here. Of two sons the father loses one — the loss of one-half as against the loss of one-tenth or one-hundredth. The son has only one father; and losing him he loses all. (1) Measure God's loss, as represented in this parable. Man is lost to Him not by death, but by depravity, which is far worse. (2) Consider man's loss. No possible compensation. The loss of God is the poverty, the forsakenness the degradation, the bondage of the soul. II. SOUGHT. 1. In the first two parables the seekers are DIVINE. Let us endeavour to trace them. (1) The shepherd represents (a) the self-sacrificing seeker; (b) the persevering seeker. (2) The woman represents the careful and painstaking seeker. How suggestive of the minute and searching work of the Holy Spirit — Christ's fan and Christ's fire. 2. The seeker in the last parable is HUMAN, and it is just here that all experience, and the plan of salvation laid down in Scripture, would lead us to expect to find him, and exactly as here portrayed. Now we see where the other parables have been leading us, and to understand that their help is imperatively required. For notice — (1) Light dawns upon the prodigal and conviction pierces his soul. He passes through three preliminary states of experience as a lost man. First, danger and misery, when he begins to be in want; then uselessness and degradation, when he is sent into the fields to feed swine; and, finally, guilt, when he says, "I have sinned."(2) Hope now arises within his convinced and enlightened soul. How is this hope to be accounted for? Undoubtedly on the ground that the person he had sinned against was his father. But the moment it arose it would be confronted by a variety of opposing forces. The very thought of this filial relationship would summon before the memory the fact that it had been broken by an unpardonable outrage on a father's love. Conscience, again, would discourage the hope by urging the necessity of a now impossible reparation. And reason would finally tend to crush it by representing the folly of return now that having had, and having spent his portion, there was nothing to return for. It is well to remember all this. God is indeed our Father, and in that fact lies the sinner's hope to-day. But how much there is to hinder us from taking advantage of it! "God is my Father, but I have disowned Him. He has lavished His gifts upon me, but I have wasted them. What, then, can I expect but rejection if I return?" And yet the hope survives. The sinner still clings, and clings desperately, to the fact that God is his Father. Where did he get it from? Not from Nature, net by intuition, not through the deliverances of consciousness or the processes of deduction. From any one or all of these sources man may get his idea of God, but not his idea of a heavenly Father. No sinner ever said " My Father" until Christ taught him to do so. One voice, and one alone, has proclaimed this relationship, and thus formed the basis for the sinner's hope — namely, His who said: "No man cometh to the Father but by Me." And to maintain this struggling hope against contending forces is tim Good Shepherd's work. (3) The prodigal returns — the last stage, and the one without which all the others are traversed in vain. The strongest conviction of our sinfulness, the deepest remorse for it, and the clearest knowledge of the way out of it will avail nothing unless we arise and go to our Father. III. FOUND. 1. Notice the finding. The shepherd finds the sheep, the woman the piece of silver, the father and the son each other. Christ has found the sinner and done what He, as the Good Shepherd, alone could do, opened and revealed the way back to God, encouraged the sinner to return, and provided the basis of reconciliation. The Holy Spirit has found the sinner and done what He, as the careful and painstaking Seeker, alone could do, wrought conviction and repentance. The sinner now does what neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit can do for him, but, with the help of both, finds the Father, to the peace and joy of his soul. The train of evangelical thought is now complete, and this trinity of parables made to illustrate the work of the Blessed Trinity in converting the sinner from the error of his way. 2. Notice the finding as it is regarded by heaven and earth. (1) The father receives the son with every demonstration of love and joy. (2) There is joy in the presence of the angels of God. And this joy is quite natural, for, first, the angels are perfectly pure and unselfish beings, and therefore spontaneously rejoice in the felicity of others. Then, again, they move eternally within that sphere the centre of which is the source of blessedness, and, therefore, delight to see wretched men brought into fellowship with the blessed God. And, lastly, much of their happiness consists in doing God's will. (3) All this, however, is in marked contrast with the conduct of the elder brother who "was angry and would not come in" to join in the general joy. He even repudiated the relationship of his brother, and contemptuously referred to him in his father's presence as "this thy son." He ventured to do what the father never did, threw the past in his teeth, and begrudged the hospitality which the poor starveling received. Who is this elder brother? Without question the Pharisee, either Jew or Christian. The men who stand aloof from their prodigal brethren, and who reproduce in our day the old, hard, sectarian, loveless spirit, are those who are here condemned. The man who revels in his father's bounty, who plumes himself on his own worthiness of it, who will not share it, is the elder brother and the Pharisee. (J. W. Burn.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he spake this parable unto them, saying, WEB: He told them this parable.