Lost Sheep, Coin, and Son
Third Sunday after Trinity| Luke 15| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| July 6, 2025
In Luke 15, our Lord Jesus tells us a three-part parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story in the parable serves to address the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes, who complain that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. Each story in this parable helps explain who these sinners are, what Jesus is doing by receiving them, and what it means to grumble against Him for receiving them.
First, Jesus teaches us about sin. Your sin is worse than you think it is. Sin makes you stupid, like a lost sheep that wandered from its fold. Sin makes you helpless, like a lost coin, which cannot do anything to help itself. Jesus’ story of the lost son gives us the most vivid picture of sin. And I hope you can all recognize yourself in this stupid, lustful, prideful, and helpless young man, who broke his father’s heart.
A man has two sons. The younger asks to receive his inheritance early. So, the father divided up the property and gave it to his sons. Why did the son want his inheritance early? Because he did not want to live under his father’s authority. He gathered up all his wealth and moved to a faraway country and spent his money on loose living, because he wanted to do what he wanted to do. He thought he knew better than his father. And that is how you behave when you embrace your sin, when you think you know better than God on how you should live your life.
The boy quickly spent through all his money and was struck by poverty. He lost all his friends. No one would help him when he was down and out. The harlots showed him no love when he couldn’t pay them. He hired himself out to a citizen of that country to feed pigs, a most degrading job for a Jew. And he was paid so poorly, that he longed to feed on the cobs meant for swine feed. Now, you may be thinking that Jesus is exaggerating the point. This is an extreme example of a boy falling into sin. But if you think that then you do not understand anything about sin!
Sin is not freedom. Sin is slavery. Jesus says, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” So, the boy left his father’s house where he was an heir and master, he and went off to be a slave to his foolish pride and lust. And that is what Christians do when they forsake God’s Word and think that they know better. Oh, this is just a pet sin, a little sin. I don’t need to take everything God says seriously. I’m just going to engage in my lust a little bit. I’m going to make my own rules, but they’re good rules. I can keep it under control. But you’re not in control. Sin is like a serpent, that when it fits its head in, its entire body can slide on through. Sin is like a slick icy hill, that once you start sliding down it, you cannot go back. It is a slave master that urges you on and on. You’ll soon discover that your lusts, whether they are sexual, greed, or laziness are not freedom, but bondage. And the rules you make for yourself are far less forgiving than those made by God.
While not everyone falls into the greatest sins or falls away from the faith, that potential is in each of you. It is called your old Adam or your sinful nature. St. Paul says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.” (Romans 7:18) And St. James warns, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15) You cannot look down upon a person trapped in his sin and unbelief and despise him as if that could never happen to you! St. Paul warns, “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) Your old Adam is capable of every wicked sin imaginable, even abandoning the faith. No, if you are kept from more shameful sins than what oppress you and if you do not fall away from the faith, that is by the grace of God.
So, sin is a slave master. Pride and lust will separate you from God and lead you to hell. The image of the boy starving in a pigsty is a picture of every sinner separated from God.
Second, Jesus teaches us what it means that He receives such sinners. He teaches of a shepherd, who seeks out his one lost sheep out of one hundred and rejoices when he finds it. We think of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, and how He laid down His life to save us His sheep. Jesus teaches us of a woman, who loses a single coin, and lights a lamp and sweeps and searches diligently until she finds it. That woman represents the Christian Church, to whom Christ has given the light of the Gospel. The church will not stop proclaiming the Gospel in this world until the last of God’s elect, those coins with His image imprinted on them, are gathered home. Finally, Jesus teaches us of a father, who loves his wayward son.
The father’s love is greater than his son’s sin. You would think he would be resentful. You would think that he would refuse the son’s offer to be a hired servant, because a hired servant implies that he would get paid. No, he deserves to work like a slave until he pays back everything he stole from his father, for the shame he brought upon him. But the father refuses his son’s offer to become a hired servant, not to make him a slave to his debt, but rather to welcome him home as a son. He sees his son return home ragged, starving, and filthy, and he runs to meet him. He falls on his neck and embraces him. He takes off his ragged clothes and puts fine clothes on him and throws a feast. And he gives good reason for his rejoicing. “This my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” That is how Jesus feels about those tax collectors and prostitutes who came to eat with Him. He loves them. He’s been praying for them. And now He is rejoicing that they have returned spiritually alive again.
Any father here could imagine embracing a long-lost child, forgiving everything, and celebrating the return. But there is no father’s love as pure and deep as our Father in heaven. His love dips down deeper than the deepest depths of sin. And we see this in what He has paid for our ransom. He has given His own Son for us all. Christ Jesus is true God and He became true man, so that He could pay our debt of sin on the cross. Psalm 49 states, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” (vss 7-9) But Jesus is no mere man. He is God. So, His passion and death for our sin is greater than all sins everywhere, so that St. John says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) And that is why Psalm 49 also says, “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.”
The father felt compassion on his son. Compassion. That is, his guts wrenched in pain for his son’s suffering. And so, Jesus’ parable foreshadows His own suffering and death to save us sinners. You do not realize how harmful your sins are. But much more, you cannot comprehend how compassionate God is. Our minds cannot grasp the mystery of the Godman. How much less can we grasp the magnitude of His passion, which makes up for the sins of the whole world.
And so, as the father commands his servants to clothe his son in fine clothes and slaughter the fattened calf to celebrate, so our God clothes us in the robe of Christ’s righteousness and even feeds us Christ’s very lifegiving body and blood in the Sacrament when we return to Him in sorrow over our sins.
The Prophet Isaiah writes, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” And so, you and I and everyone in the world are sinners. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Yet there are three categories of sinners. First, there are those sinners who are comfortable in their sin. They feel no remorse. They continue to disobey God without repenting. They don’t care what God says. Or they lie to themselves and say that God gave them permission to sin. They are lost, but they do not know that they are lost. Second, there are the self-righteous, who trust in themselves and condemn those whom they think are worse sinners than themselves, even those who later repent. Included in this second group are the scribes and Pharisees, who grumbled that Jesus received sinners and ate with them, and the older brother, who refused to celebrate that his younger brother returned home. They are lost, but they do not know that they are lost.
It is the third group of sinners that Jesus wants you to be in, so that He may receive you and dine with you. The third group are those who recognize the wickedness of their sins, mourn over them, and repent. Now, repentance has two parts. First, is sorrow over sin. This is why Jesus teaches you that sin is worse than you think it is. If your sin does not terrify you, then you do not recognize your sinful condition. It is like having cancer but denying that you have it. Yet, sorrow over sin is not full repentance. The second part of repentance is faith in Christ. This is why Jesus teaches us that God’s compassion for you is greater than your sin. If you think that your sin is greater than God’s love for you, or that your debt of sin is larger than Christ’s payment on the cross, then you will not return to God for forgiveness, because you will not believe that He forgives you.
It is only the third group of sinners, those who mourn their sins, whom Jesus receives and eats with. It is the third group that was lost but is found. Those who continue in their sin without repenting, who are not sorry, will not dine with Jesus. And the self-righteous will not save themselves by their self-righteousness. The Pharisees and scribes need to be received by Jesus and to eat with Him, just as well as the tax-collectors and sinners. The father welcomed his younger son home as a son, yet his older son still wanted to be a hired worker. Jesus calls both groups to repent of their sin and self-righteousness, and to receive His forgiveness.
Finally, God rejoices over the repentance of sinners. When sinners repent, God’s children come home and are saved. The angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents. That means that every Sunday that we have church and we confess ourselves to be poor, miserable sinners, and we receive Christ’s forgiveness through faith, the saints and angels in heaven are rejoicing. And when you bend down on your knees and pray to God for Christ’s sake to forgive you those sins which trouble your conscience, God not only welcomes you as a father welcomes his son, but He commands his angels to rejoice with Him. And they do willingly.
And so, you should never despise those who repent of their sins and turn to Christ. You are not a hired worker. Rather, you are a child of God through grace. And whatever is His is yours. Do not begrudge the sinner whom God welcomes but rather celebrate with your God and Father that your brothers and sisters have been restored to the family, alive and well. May this parable of our Lord Jesus lead us to forsake our sin and to rejoice in our Father’s love and compassion for us. Amen.