Day 292 – Jesus’ Seeking of the Lost

• I don’t know about you, but I love Luke 15. What joy there is to be found in Jesus’ warm, familiar words, speaking of a Father in Heaven who loves us all and desires all to be saved. It is my prayer today that your heart will be lifted after reading today’s passages!
• All three parables in Luke have a similar meaning. If you were to sum them up, how would you do it?
• What does it mean to be spiritually lost, like the coin or the sheep? Do you think being “lost” is the same as actively rejecting Jesus, or just giving into repeated sin? Is there a difference?
• Why do you think the shepherd and the woman were not satisfied with the 99 sheep or the 9 coins? Why was it of utmost important to find what was lost? Imagine you were the sheep. Who is the shepherd in this situation? Have you ever thought of God desiring you to “return home”?
• What happened when the coin and sheep was found? Imagine what it would be like to be at a party in Heaven! Have you ever “wandered” away from your faith? Can you imagine the rejoicing in Heaven when you came back?
• The story of the prodigal son will ring true for many, many people. It starts with the younger son effectively wanting his father dead; he wanted all the material blessings of the world and none of the relationship with his loving dad. What did he do with his freedom?
• When the son came back, what was the response of the father? It would be highly surprising to see a man running in the way the father does in Luke 15:20. There was no retribution, no anger, no scolding. The father was simply delighted to have his “dead” son back, and welcomed him fully back into the family. Can you see how this is a picture of us and our heavenly Father, as shown in the related readings?
• Do you sometimes feel like the older brother, who diligently worked and honoured his father? If so, does it frustrate you to see people living wildly and then coming back to faith as if nothing had happened? If so, how can you look at your own heart? Why are you not joyful at seeing people coming back to faith in Christ?

Be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of suggesting God is naive or a “soft touch” in today’s parables. He welcomes back those who truly repent, and will do so many times if needs-be. This isn’t, of course, a ticket to reckless living with half-hearted assumptions that God will love us despite it, with no deep desire to change. Our heart should always be to serve God and to live to honour him – not to accept a life of continual backsliding!

Perhaps, though, you find real peace in these passages. You might feel that in your life you have been just like the missing sheep, or coin, or the younger son who fled away to enjoy the easy pleasures of the world. If you have felt like you’ve been in that situation with God in your life, then take heart! If you’re 292 days into a bible reading plan such as this, however, it certainly looks like you’ve made great strides to wanting to come back closer to Him again.

It might be that in years to come you’ll wander away from God’s goodness, and come to appreciate these parables in a new light years later as they take on new meaning for you.

Nothing delights me more, as a youth leader, than to see people who were turning away from Jesus come back to him in faith and trust. It’s genuinely one of the most exciting things I can witness. That might be slightly frustrating for you if you’ve been the “older brother” – the regular, always-there attender who gets less of the limelight because you’ve never been away. Don’t fall into the trap that the older brother did (that of being jealous) if that’s the case though! Instead, simply join in with being delighted at the news of anyone who was lost being “found” again.

Scripture says that there is a party in Heaven whenever that happens. I look forward to sitting down at that table one day!