Luke 15:8-12 - Losing money and sons

15:8-10

The message of this parable is very similar to the previous one, though the emphasis is almost entirely on searching for the lost. It is interesting as well that Jesus uses a woman as the one who is seeking, though there may be no significance in this and one certainly should not read too much into it. There is always the danger of over-interpreting parables. The coins would be the woman’s savings, each coin representing a day’s wages. The rabbis had a lost coin story, but that involved a man seeking for the Law of God, not God seeking out sinners. Jesus is again making the point that God actively seeks out lost souls, and again it is rejoicing over a “sinner who repents”. No sinners, no repentance, no salvation. In Jesus’ day the greatest need of the religious types was to understand that God seeks out the lost. In our day, the greatest need of the religious types (which possibly includes you and me!) is to understand that it is repentant sinners whom God saves. In both Jesus’ day and our day, all of us need to realise what God’s attitude is to a repentant sinner, it is to give him or her a rich welcome.

15:11,12

After two relative short parables on God actively seeking out the lost we get the famous parable of the prodigal son, though actually the emphasis is more on the heart of the Father. It is so important that we understand the father’s heart.

The Father in the parable has two sons, one of which asks for his share of the inheritance. Being the younger son he would probably get one half of what the elder son would receive. It was possible for the son to receive his share before the death of the father. In such a case the father would continue to receive the income from the estate until his death. Arrangements something like this can be made in our own society, where a parent can give the property to their children but retain the right to live in the house.

God lets the younger son have his desire. This is like God allowing man to go his own way. God quite often lets rebels do want they want to do and so receive the consequences.