We
are obsessed with our self-worth and individuality and self-worth today. You
can see it clearly in our commercials, with slogans like “Because your worth
it”, “Challenge Everything”, and “I am what I am”. You can see it in the
language we use, the catchy little sayings we pick up from our celebrities,
like “You do you” and “Be who you are.” You can also see it in the ongoing
identity-crisis that our upcoming generations are facing. Before the 20th
century, your destiny was pretty well set for you from birth. If your father
was a blacksmith, you were going to be one, too. But, in the 20th
century it became possible for people to be upwardly mobile. So, parents began
to tell their children, “You can be anything you want to be, but you need to be
something.” There was mobility, but there was still expectation. Then,
beginning in the 60s, it has become less and less popular to prescribe any
expectations for our children. Now, instead of saying “You can be anything you
want to be, but you need to be something”, we just say, “You can be anything
you want to be.” So, children today grow up with no identity. They are told
that they matter more than anything in the world, and they can choose any and
every path in this life. The result of this consistent messaging is that we
have a generation of adults who don’t know who they are. They’ve been told they
can do whatever they want, so why not just sit at home. They’ve been told they
can love whomever they want, so why be hurt by love at all.
But,
for all of our focus on the individual and self-worth, this has led to gross
abuse. For, to be the most valuable person in the world means that no one else
has any value. So, the woman who wants to do what she wants with her own body
will scream, “my body, my choice” while the doctor tears an unborn child who is
made in the image of God from her womb. And, a white supremist who thinks his
value is tied up in his race will scream out, “Go back where you came from” while
spraying a Walmart with .223 rounds. It’s all the same thing. It’s all a
decision to value one’s own life over the life of another.
Yet,
it’s nothing new. From the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, all the way
through to the 19th chapter of Revelation, we have the record of
man’s devaluing of his fellow man. Cain wanted God’s approval without
repentance, so he killed his faithful brother in hopes of gaining it. The
Pharaoh of Egypt wanted to defend his crown against the rising population of
Jews, so he committed mass infanticide to cut down on their population. Haman
hated the Jews so much that he used trickery to try and wipe them all out on a
single day.
And,
while there are small rays of hope in the stories of Israel, we still find a
people who value their own self-worth over that of another. Even though God
gave them the 10 commandments, the Israelites still devalued life. They
enslaved whole peoples, murdered the prophets, and offered their children as
sacrifices to the Canaanite gods. Even after exile the people still found ways
to devalue life. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the best at it. They had
established practices that would elevate their own value before men while also
setting up ways of devaluing other people. They did everything in public to
gain admiration, all while they relegated the blind, leprous, and infirmed to
lives of poverty.
So,
when they find Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners at the beginning of
Luke 15, they think that they finally have a reason to disqualify this new,
upshot Rabbi. Jesus answers their grumblings with three parables that get at
the heart of their complaint. The second parable of the woman and the lost coin
is short but beautiful.
Jesus
starts this parable by telling a story about a woman who had 10 coins. There is
one thing that I want you to notice about this woman and three that I want you
to notice about the coins. First, the Pharisees would have noticed a pattern
that Jesus is using with the characters of the first two parables. In the first
parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus uses the character of a shepherd to represent
God. Now, in this parable, he uses a woman to represent God. In Jesus’ day,
there were no two greater despised groups of people than shepherds and women.
Shepherds, because of their close contact to animals, were labeled as “unclean”
by the Pharisees. Therefore, they weren’t considered worthy to come into the
temple, and Pharisees believed that touching them could make you ceremonially
unclean as well. Women were treated more like property than like people in
Jesus’ day. They could not own property, could not enter into contracts, and
were not considered credible witnesses at trial. Yet, we know from the very
beginning of the Gospel stories, that God has made the first to be last and the
last to be first. The first group of people to hear of the coming Messiah in
Luke’s Gospel is a woman, Mary and Elizabeth. The second group to hear were
shepherds. Now, Jesus uses that same idea to show that the Pharisees have
greatly misunderstood the priorities of God. God values people more than laws.
In fact, the whole point of the Law was so that His people might walk in
communion with him.
The
coins that this woman owns say three things about our worth as well. First of
all, women of this time would have been given a small dowry to keep with them.
In fact, often times, women would take this dowry and weave it into their hair
or wear them in a headband. So, this gives you some understanding of how
valuable this money is to this woman. You get this, because even today we put
more value on things than just what they can sell for. That necklace that your
mother gave you or that ring that your grandmother passed down isn’t just worth
the few hundred dollars that someone might pay for it. In many ways it is
priceless. In a similar way, brother and sisters, understand that your value
before God is not measured by what you can do for him or what he can gain
through you. No! Your value before God is in the value he bestows upon you as
His image bearer. And this is good news, too, because if my value before God is
to be measured by my work or my worthiness, then I would never make it. But, if
my value to him is based on something that he gives, then I cannot lose my
position before him because of my health, my position in this life, my
abilities, or even my sin.
Second,
notice that these coins are all of the same value. They are all what the Romans
called a “drachma”. It was a silver coin that was worth a day’s wage for a
laborer. In the parable, there is not one coin that has any more value than the
other. Now, with the parable of the lost sheep, we might have been able to say
that the shepherd risked it all because this was his favorite sheep, but we
can’t say that about these coins. Brothers and sisters, you are not worth any
more or any less than the person sitting next to you in this church. Oh, how
important this is for us to understand as members of the body of Christ. Your
giving, years of membership, or faithfulness do not make you any more valuable
than the weakest among us. This is not only true of the church, but also of the
world. Remember, Jesus is using this parable to compare coins to tax collectors
and sinners. There is not one person in this church or out there in the world
who is not made in the image of God. Are they of a different race? They are
made in the image of God. Are they an immigrant? They are made in the image of
God. Do they have a special need? They are made in the image of God. Do they
have an addiction? They are made in the image of God. Do they have everything
this world could offer and yet don’t know Jesus? They are made in the image of
God.
Finally, notice
that this woman is willing to overturn everything in her house to find just one
missing coin. And, when she does find it, she, like the shepherd in the
previous story, throws a party to celebrate. Jesus says in verse 10 that this
celebration is akin to the celebration that happens in heaven when one sinner
repents. I get from this that we’ve got our priorities all wrong. So often, as
good Christian folk, we are just like these Pharisees. I’m afraid we would be
just fine with people going to Hell as long as they would act right while they
are here on earth. Brothers and sisters, the Gospel is not patriotism. The
Gospel is not morality. The Gospel is not for a particular race and is not
represented by a particular nation. The Gospel is for “whosoever”!
Friend,
the Gospel is for you! You may be here today, and all you have known of the
Gospel so far is what you’ve heard in a country song. You may have thought that
it could not be for you because you have a tattoo, or like to get rowdy on the
weekends, or you have a past you don’t want good church folk to know about.
Yet, Jesus says through this parable that you are valuable. You aren’t valuable
because of what you’ve done, and you can’t make yourself any more valuable by
what you will do. You are valuable to God because he has made you in his image.
Turn to Christ and trust In him for the forgiveness of your sins. He has died
for you. Won’t you live for him?
Brothers
and sisters, may we love the ones that Jesus loves. So many times, our love for
our neighbor is shaped more by our political leanings and social standing than
by our allegiance to Christ. May we repent of that and seek to find the lost
coins, regardless of where they lie.
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