Luke 15:8 – 10:  “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 which I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus shared three parables in succession – the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son to teach the Jewish leaders about the heart of a loving God which cared for the lost. For this reason, He dined with sinners and tax collectors, to help them find their way back to God.

When a Jewish bride left her home, she was given a necklace of ten silver coins by her parents as a safe deposit, to sell and use it in the event of a crisis. If friends and well-wishers noticed a missing coin or coins in the necklace, they would come to a conclusion, that she was going through troubled times in her married life. The joy of this woman knew no bounds when the lost coin found its way back to the necklace because it conveyed to her on-lookers that all was well with her marriage.

The rejoicing of this woman was compared by Jesus to the celebration in heaven, when one lost sinner found his way back to God.

 Jesus seemed to indicate through this parable, that just the way the coin went missing from the body of the woman, a believer in the body of Christ (church) can also be lost and the shepherd of the flock should restore the believer to God.

Thought for the day: One can be physically present in church, yet spiritually lost.