“What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” Luke 15:8 ESV¹

Read Luke 15:8-10

One February day in the late 1980s over a bucket of chicken, my then-boyfriend got down on one knee, pulled a ring box out of his pocket, opened it, and asked me to be his wife. After my initial shock, I said, “Yes.” We were still in college but we planned on getting married as soon as we both graduated. We were so much in love and spent as much time together as possible as we looked with excitement to the future.

One day, shortly after I accepted his proposal and the sparkling new engagement ring, my fiancé and I went together—probably hand in hand—to the campus gym to get some exercise. When I changed into my workout attire, I slipped my brand new, precious piece of jewelry, which represented to me all that love and hope had to offer, into the pocket of my blue jeans for safekeeping.

After exercising, I decided not to change back into my street clothes. Instead, I planned to shower and put on fresh clothes at home. So, I picked up the clothing I had been wearing before I worked out and my fiancé and I walked toward his apartment talking and laughing as we went. At his door, we intended to part ways and each go on with the day in our separate ways. It was then that I remembered my engagement ring.

I expected to put the ring on my finger and admire it as I walked to my car. But when I reached into the pocket of my jeans, my ring was not there! I had lost it! My husband-to-be had spent all he had saved for several months, working many hours of overtime, to purchase that ring. There was no hope that it could be replaced—at least for quite some time. Immediately, a mixture of shock, fear, panic, sadness, and disappointment fell upon us. What should we do now?

Keep fresh in your mind all the emotions that well up in you concerning the experience I just related because those feelings are probably not unlike that which would have been experienced by the main character in the following parable of Jesus.

“‘What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents’” (Luke 15:8-10).

In the time in which Jesus walked this Earth, as it is in many places today, “a lawful Jewish marriage requires an act of kinyan (that the bride be given – and that she accept – something of nominal value from the groom). In ancient times, coins were typically given. (They are still used by many Sephardic and Oriental Jews). Since the 7th century [A.D.], rings replaced coins in most [places] as the ‘gift of choice.’”²

The scene Jesus was painting was likely that of a young woman who had recently accepted ten silver coins from her betrothed and was planning and favorably anticipating her upcoming marriage. Somehow, though, she had the misfortune of losing one of those precious coins. She would have experienced a panic similar to that which my fiancé and I felt the day I lost my engagement ring. But her sudden outbreak of fear would have been amplified.

According to the author of the blog “My Jewish Carpenter”³ at WordPress.com, the coins a Jewish woman receives at her engagement represent more than a symbol of her fiancé’s love or their coming marriage. The state of these coins is directly connected to her character and her appreciation for her future groom.

Evidently, from the day a young woman received the coins until the day of her marriage, she would continually take out those coins and admire them. She would spend time polishing them while thinking of her future husband. The more diligent she was in this process, the more those coins would shine. On the day of her wedding, she would display the coins as ornaments, either on her head or on a chain. The more the coins shone, the more evident her love for the groom would be and the more bride would be considered a woman of worthy character. If the coins were dull, it would appear that she was lazy or that she did not really love her husband-to-be. The situation would be much worse if she had lost one of those coins! Her groom could assume she was not a responsible woman of character or that she was not interested in him. He could end their engagement or call off their marriage at that point.

That is the dire circumstance in which the protagonist of Jesus’ parable found herself. Her reputation and her future hinged on the outcome of her search for her lost coin. Similarly, the fate of those listening to this story was at stake; they just didn’t realize it.

This was the second of three parables Jesus told in response to the reaction of the religious leaders who were chastising Him concerning the company He kept. (The other two parables were one of the tellings of The Parable of the Lost Sheep and The Parable of the Prodigal Son). Luke informed us:

“The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:1-2).

The self-righteous religious leaders continually defamed Jesus’ character and repeatedly objected to Jesus’ ministering to those whom they felt were unworthy of the attention of a man who claimed to be from God. This attitude not only prevented them from seeing those around them as God saw these people, but it kept them from discovering what God had for them personally.

God loved the people of Israel with a passion, not unlike that with which a man loves a woman. Over and over in His Word, God used the image of marriage to explain His compassion and His preference for His people. (For one example, check out Ezekiel 16). And over and over, God equated Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him with adultery. (See Hosea 2 & Jeremiah 3).

After rescuing the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, God made a covenant with them and gave them ten “silver coins” in the form of the Ten Commandments. In their fervor to religiously keep these commandments, the others recorded in the Scriptures, and the more than six-hundred extra rules which they added to the mix, the religious leaders to whom Jesus told this parable had lost track on the most important commandment:

“‘You shall have no other gods before Me’” (Exodus 20:3 & Deuteronomy 5:7).

In their legalistic passion, they became their own gods, worshipped their own ability to keep rules, and despised those who could not keep up with them.

On the contrary, those that the religious leaders called “sinners,” had, in Jesus’ presence, begun to realize some of the “silver coins” they had misplaced. They came to Jesus with a desire to repent from their spiritual irresponsibility and to regain that which they had lost. Therefore, Jesus explained,

“‘I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents’” (Luke 15:10).

But Heaven did not rejoice over the religious people who knew the commandments of God but elevated their own worthless regulations to the level of God’s righteous precepts and commanded the people to obey these rules over the requirements of God (see Mark 7:9-13). There was no joy over the fact that those who poured over the Scriptures, studying all the Messianic prophesies, missed the Messiah when He stood before them. Not only were these religious leaders stumbling blocks for others, but they also prevented themselves from finding the path to life eternal. Jesus proclaimed:

“‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in’” (Matthew 23:13).

 How to find what has been lost

Through this parable, Jesus was attempting to direct the attention of the prideful religious leaders to the way to discover that which they had again and again overlooked. He did that by drawing attention to the actions through which the woman in His parable went in her search for the thing of extreme importance which she had lost.  So, what did the young woman in Jesus’ parable do to aid her search and secure her destiny?

She lit a lamp

One cannot find that which he or she has lost if one insists on stumbling around or feeling his or her way through the darkness. Similarly, continuing in the same manner in which one has always acted will not yield different results. Just as a light of some kind is necessary for one to see what is hidden in the dark, a Light must be activated to reveal what is hidden in the depths of one’s heart.

“Jesus spoke to [the Pharisees], saying, ‘I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life’” (John 8:12).

Jesus is the Light we humans need to look into our souls. This Light is activated by faith. But when He shared this revealing truth with the religious leaders of His time on Earth, they continued in their previous manner and argued with and dismissed Him. In doing so, they missed the opportunity to discover what they had lost. Because of that, their destinies were sealed.

She swept the house

The woman in Jesus’ parable didn’t stop with turning on a light; she got out her broom and began to gather all the dirt, dust, litter, and random objects that had accumulated on her floor. She carefully sifted through the grime in search of the precious coin she had misplaced. Once Jesus shines His Light on the heart of one who turns to Him, he or she is able to take the next step of looking intently at his or her life and distinguish between the garbage and the valuable.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘If you return, then I will restore you—you will stand before Me; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become My spokesman’” (Jeremiah 15:19NASB³).

The “sinners” who were coming to Jesus were beginning to recognize what was worthless in their lives and they began to draw close to the preciousness of Jesus, His message, and what He had to offer. Because the religious leaders thought they had already achieved righteousness, they failed to take heed and did not realize the rot eating away at their souls. Jesus said as much when He declared,

“‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but, on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness’” (Matthew 23:27-28).

She didn’t give up until she found that for which she was looking

Have you ever heard someone exclaim when describing his or her search for something, “It was in the last place I looked!”? Of course, it was! One stops looking after he or she finds that for which he or she has been searching! The same is true for us spiritually. We were created with a spiritual void that can only be satisfactorily filled by Jesus Himself. To fulfill this desire, humans often try to close that gap with all kinds of lesser things. Trial and error are what so often finally reveal that only Jesus is able to give full contentment.

Those whom the religious leaders termed, “sinners,” had indeed tried to fill their spiritual voids with ungodly things. But when they found Him who truly satisfied, they were willing to stop their search, turn their backs on that which didn’t ultimately fulfill their needs, and experience Him who was the actual desire of their hearts. Conversely, the religious leaders were so satisfied with their own self-righteous efforts that they saw no need to look any further than their own distorted mirrors.

In describing the result of the woman’s concentrated effort to find her lost coin, Jesus used the phrase, “when she has found it,” not “if she finds it.” It was so entirely essential that the woman in Jesus’ parable find the lost coin that she persevered until she recovered it. Likewise, spiritually speaking, it is indispensable that we find what has been lost when it comes to the eternal fate of our souls. Thankfully, that is possible.

“‘You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD’” (Jeremiah 29:13-14a).

She rejoiced with others

The woman in Jesus’ parable, didn’t just rejoice privately. She didn’t quickly place the coin with the other nine and hide the fact that she had made a terrible mistake. The woman public confessed her error. She excitedly related the details of her search to all those she knew. And she compelled those in her presence to share in her happiness.

One of the reasons so many “sinners” and common people gathered around Jesus was that those who found Him told their friends about Jesus.

“One [who] followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ … The next day Jesus … found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ … Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph’” (John 1:40-41, 43 & 45).

When Jesus “saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ And he rose and followed Him. [Shortly after that] as Jesus reclined at table in [Matthew’s] house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples” (Matthew 9:9-10).

When we are honest about our imperfections, those who are well-aware of their own weaknesses feel comfortable in our presence. When we share about our search for Jesus and what led to our realization of our need for Him, they may be able to identify. When we recount all that Jesus has done for us, they just might want to know Him in the way we know Him. They may choose to follow Jesus too. Then there will be rejoicing both on Earth and in Heaven.

After the experience of losing one of her coins and finding it again, the coins were undoubtedly more precious to the woman in Jesus’ parable than they had been before. She was probably much more cautious of their care. When we realize how far we had fallen before we found Jesus and the level to which He has lifted us since we turned to Him, our love for Him will show. We won’t be able to keep from sharing about Him.

 “‘He who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:47b).

 Oh but, he or she who has been forgiven much loves much! That love bursts forth from him or her and draws others to the Subject of his or her love. This is wholly different from winning over people to one’s point of view. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were good at that. But He was not pleased:

“‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves’” (Matthew 23:15).

Jesus is willing to help us find what we have spiritually lost

Way back in the Garden of Eden, the first humans on Earth, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and lost the gift of an intimate relationship with God Himself. This loss was passed down to all humans after them. But God sacrificed to help humans find what their first parents had lost. With His Body and Blood, Jesus bought back what humans no longer possessed. Now, He is freely giving back this gift to all who desire to be His Bride. There is a party in Heaven each time someone accepts Christ’s engagement gift! Let’s emulate that joy by keeping what Jesus has given us at the forefront of our minds. May what He has sacrificed to give us be shining brightly at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (see Revelation 19:6-9)!

Thanking God that what was lost has been found

As soon as my fiancé and I realized my engagement ring was missing, we hit our knees in prayer imploring the All-Knowing, Eternally Loving, Merciful God to help us find the ring. We retraced our steps and it wasn’t long before I saw something sparkling in the snow. I went over and picked it up; it was my engagement ring! Right there, we returned to prayer thanking God for His amazing grace toward us.

The rejoicing continues. Even now, when I look at the diamond ring on the ring finger of my left hand, I am reminded of the unconditional love and the grace of God that allowed me to be reunited with it. But that isn’t the only thing that comes to my mind; I remember how I was once separated from Jesus and how by God’s grace and by His unrelenting love, I have been reunited with Him. And that is a story I never tire of telling.

Related articles: Search and Rescue and Take Your Goat and Have a Party

 

¹ Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.

² https://www.jfedgmw.org/wedding-customs-old-new-and-reinvented

³ https://myjewishcarpenter.wordpress.com/parable-of-lost-coin/

⁴ NASB: Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995.