We only scratched the surface of the story of the lost son in Episode 8. Today, we take a closer look at the three stories Jesus used to confront the scribes and Pharisees.
These teachers of the Law would have understood and related to the stories of the lost lamb and the lost coin. Any one of them, where they a shepherd, would certainly leave the rest of their flock secure in the fold to seek, rescue, and restore a lost lamb. The lamb was valuable and vulnerable.
Likewise, they would have understood the story of the lost coin. In the first century, it was customary for a Jewish groom to give his bride-to-be ten silver coins. She would cherish them and wear them as adornments to show everyone that she was devoted to him and him to her. These coins were precious, not just for monetary value, but for the value they demonstrated to her, and, as she cherished them and displayed them, they were precious for the value she demonstrated to her husband.
One lost coin would be like losing a diamond from an engagement ring or even losing the ring itself, and, in that first-century culture, it meant even more. It brought shape and reproach.
Everyone in Jesus' audience would have understood the value of that lost coin.
But, when Jesus spoke of the treacherous, wayward son, none could relate to him. He shamed himself and his father by wishing his father dead when he demanded his inheritance. The father owed him nothing and should have sent him away with nothing, but he gave him half of all he owned.
When the son finally returns and is welcomed, the Pharisees couldn't understand the father's attitude or actions. This son deserved nothing once again. He shamed his father when he left. He shamed him even more, and shamed himself, when he returned.
But Jesus saw it another way. The family is not complete until every lost child is home.
The Pharisees were home, but they were still lost. They moved about in the Father's house, but they were dead.
We come to life and become a part of God's family when we run to him in the abject humility of a lost son or daughter shamed and scorned by the world but loved and never forgotten by our Dad.
There is no greater pain for a parent than the loss of a child, and no greater joy than that child restored. Unimaginable joy.
"My son was lost, but now he is found. He was dead, and now he is alive."
Huge thanks to Mike Bridgewater our engineer, JD Miller our musical wizard, and Mt Gilead Church our home to record.
Thank YOU for listening. We pray our efforts help you focus on Jesus the author, editor, and publisher of everything worth believing in.
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