Very quickly Luke sets the stage for the parables Jesus is about to say to those gathered about Him this day. Amongst them are His earthly rivals, the holy men of the Israelites. They scoff that once again Christ has brought sinners before Him.
Jesus goes right to this point immediately:
Luke 15:4 – “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! 8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”‬‬
In these two parables He says the same thing, for the most part, but in a way that not only both male and females can relate too, but those that live in the country and those that live in the cities. Instantly destroying the religious leaders’ argument and show to those that understand how foolish those that hold onto man-made dogmas really are.
But let’s now look into the parables. Both deal with the property of a person that losses one part of it. It shows how they search and look for it. Jesus then says what the heavenly equivalent is. This statement of joy for just one person that repents is key of these parables.
We need to understand two key words. Sinner and repent.
Sinner – hamartolos – sinning, sinful, depraved, detestable
Repents – repenteth – metanoeo – from metá, “changed after being with” and noiéō, “think”) – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent
So any that sin, that after coming to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior begins to think differently and uses the teachings within the Bible to know what is the difference between right acting and wrong acting. Then once realizing these differences end those things within their lives that are called sin, no matter how painful that turning away from these actions could be.
The slight differences between the first and the second though is the former is aimed at someone who had already asked Jesus Christ to be their Savior. While the latter was aimed at any who come to decide to follow Jesus and ask Him to be their Savior. In both cases acknowledging that there is sin in their lives and then turning away from the sin is what is required by both. So even though Jesus is addressing two different type of sinners. The first, someone who was once a part of the vine, the other someone newly grafted into vine, which is Jesus Christ.
These two parables are fixed directly at the ridicule made by those religious leaders present at this particular teaching being made by Christ on that day nearly two thousand years ago. In the next part of this series we will take a deeper look into the parable of the prodigal son.