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(Gospel for the 3d Sunday after Trinity.—In part parallel with Mat_18:12-14.)
8Either [Or] what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth notlight a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours [ ôὰò ößëáò êáὶ ãåßôïíáò , fem.] together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Luk_15:2. Murmured, äéåãüããõæïí . ÄéÜ indicates the murmuring of a number among themselves, which for that reason became also plainly audible to others. The cause of this dissatisfaction is, in general, that the Saviour benevolently receives and accepts men of evil name and repute ( ἁìáñôùëïýò without article). ( ÉÉñïòäÝ÷åóèáé in the sense of comiter excipere. Comp. Rom_16:2; Php_2:29.) This is the general accusation, while the following óõíåóèßåé áὐôïῖò states a special grievance. He receives not only, but permits Himself also to be received. We need not assume that the Saviour on this very day had taken part in a feast of publicans, as, e. g., Sepp will have it, who, without any ground, l. c. ii. 169, asserts that the parables here following were delivered immediately after the calling of Matthew, at the feast given by him on that occasion. The Pharisees are now thinking of what the Saviour was often wont to do, and utter their dissatisfaction with it publicly. By such a course of conduct they believed the Master lowered Himself, inasmuch as He showed to the worst part of the nation an undeserved honor, and at the same time injured the Pharisees, who previously had, indeed, now and then, allowed Him the distinction of being received at their table, but who now would have to be ashamed of such a guest.
Luk_15:3. And He spake this parable.—When we consider that the chief parable, Luk_15:11-32, is introduced only by a simple åἶðåí äÝ , and that the two examples from daily life, Luk_15:3-7 and Luk_15:8-10, bear less than the narrative of the Prodigal Son the character of a thoroughly elaborated parable, we are then disposed to assume that Luk_15:3-10 constitute only the introduction to the actual parable, ðáñáâïëÞ , which is announced in Luk_15:3, but not begun until Luk_15:11. On the other hand, however, it is not to be denied that Luke uses the word ðáñáâïëÞ in a wider sense also, and that to designate not only an invented narrative, but also a parabolic expression, or an example from daily life; see, e. g., Luk_4:23; Luk_5:36; Luk_6:39; Luk_14:7-11. It will therefore probably be simplest to assume that the ðáñáâïëÞ announced in Luk_15:3 is actually uttered, Luk_15:4-7; that the Saviour immediately after that expresses the same thought, Luk_15:8-10, in a second ðáñáâïëÞ , and finally, Luk_15:11, after a brief interval, takes up the word again in order once more to present this cardinal truth in more perfect parabolic form.
Luk_15:4. What man of you.—From this commencement, as also from Luk_15:8, it immediately appears that the Saviour appeals to that universal human feeling which impels, as well the man as the woman, to seek what is lost, and to rejoice with others over what is found again. With this He introduces the first of the three parables contained in this chapter—that of the Lost Sheep. It cannot well be doubted that this triplet belongs together, and that we have, therefore, here no chrestomathic combination of parabolic discourses of the Saviour, but a well-connected didactic deliverance, which has as its purpose to express the same main thought in different ways. As to the question whether the first of the here-given parables and that communicated by Matthew, Luk_18:12-14, are one and the same, see Lange, ad loc. We do not know what there could be against the opinion that the Saviour may have repeatedly availed Himself of the same image, once for the instruction of His Apostles, another time for the shaming of His enemies. The two parables are different: 1. In form. In Matthew the ninety-nine remain on the mountains; in Luke, in the wilderness. Luk_15:5-7 also is very different from the parallel passage in Matthew, and serves as a proof that Luke communicates the more elaborated and later developed—Matthew, on the other hand, the originally simpler, form of the parable. 2. In purpose and meaning. With Luke it is God’s infinite love for yet lost sinners; but with Matthew, Christ’s labor of grace on wandering believers, that is the main thing. According to the connection then, the purpose of the discourse is a different one in Matthew and Luke. Besides this, the image itself is so natural, so taken from life, that it cannot surprise us to learn that even in later Rabbins an analogon of this parable is found. See Sepp, ii. p. 169.
Having a hundred sheep.— Ἐêáôüí not only used as a round number, but also to bring into view the comparative smallness of the loss in opposition to what yet remains to Him. In the most striking way the Saviour now portrays the faithful love that seeks the lost, so that even on account of the freshness of the portraiture, this parable belongs, with very good right, in the Gospel of Luke. The Good Shepherd at once leaves the ninety-nine ἐí ôῇ ἐñÞìῳ , the accustomed pasturing-place of the sheep, and leaves them for the moment with entire unconcern as to the great danger to which he exposes the majority. He goes after the lost one ( ἐðß ), with a definite intention to fetch it back. Not speedily does he give up his efforts. His love is therefore a persevering and continually renewed effort for the deliverance of the lost one; and when it is finally again within His reach, he does not chase the wearied sheep unmercifully back, nor commit it even to the most trusted of his hirelings, but lays it on his own shoulders ( ἑáõôïῦ ). He bears it joyfully home, and now calls as well his neighbors as also his more distant friends together. Having heard of his loss, the well-known lost sheep, to ôὸ ἀðïëùëùëüò , they must now also share his joy, which even exceeds his thankfulness for the undisturbed possession of that which is not lost.
Luk_15:7. Likewise joy shall be in Heaven.—Here as yet quite general. Afterwards, Luk_15:10, with more special mention of the angels. It is noticeable how here the Saviour designates the joy in Heaven as something yet future ( ἔóôáé ), while He afterwards, Luk_15:10, speaks of it as of something already actually beginning ( ãßíåôáé ). We can scarcely avoid the thought that here the prospect of that joy hovered before His soul which He, the Good Shepherd, was especially to taste when He, after finishing His conflict, should return into the celestial mansion of His Father, and should taste the joy prepared for Him. Joh_14:2; Heb_12:2.
More than over ninety and nine.—The question whom we have now to understand by these äßêáéïé , has been at all times differently answered Luther, Spener, Bengel, interpret it of those already become righteous through faith, since they have already repented, and stand in a state of grace with God, such as Manasseh, a. o.—De Wette: The actually righteous, that is, more righteous than publicans, and the like.—Meyer: äßêáéïé characterized from the legal point of view, not from that of inward ethical character.—Grotius: Only an anthropopathic element of the picture, quia insperata et prope desperata magis nos afficiunt. According to our opinion, passages like Mat_9:13; Luk_18:14, are particularly to be brought into the comparison. If we consider, moreover, that the hearers of the Saviour consisted partially of Pharisees, and in what way these had, a little before, manifested their inward spite (Luk_15:12), we can then no longer doubt that we have to understand fancied righteous ones of a legal type, who, however, if one applied a higher standard, must appear yet more sinful than others. Comp. Mat_21:31-32. We know not what should hinder us here also, as often already, to assume a holy irony in the words of the Saviour, nor why He should only in the third parable have indirectly attacked the Pharisaical pride of virtue. The comparison of the greater joy over one, with that over the ninety-nine, over whom, strictly speaking, there can be no joy at all, is then to be taken just as the declaration Luk_18:14.
Luk_15:8. Either what woman.—In order to indicate that not the material worth of what is lost, in itself, but the worth which it has in the eyes of the possessor, is the cause of the carefulness of the love which seeks it, the Saviour takes a second example from daily life, but not now from something so valuable as a sheep, but from a äñá÷ìÞ , in itself rather insignificant. For the woman, however, this loss is of great importance, since her whole treasure consists of ten such drachmæ.— Äñá÷ìÞ , the common Greek coin which, at that time, was in circulation among the Jews also. The Attic drachma was = ¼ stater, [17.6 cents]; the Alexandrian twice as heavy. It appears that we have here to understand the first, which, not seldom even somewhat lighter, was in circulation at the time of the Saviour. The ten drachmae are then about equal to $1 76. See Winer, in voce.
Doth not light a candle.—In the most practical manner the labor of the woman to come again in possession of the lost drachma is now sketched after the life. It is as though one saw the dust of the broom flying around in sweeping, until she succeeds in discovering in a dark corner the lost piece, and immediately picks it up. The coin, which was originally stamped with the image of the Emperor, but had been thrown into the dust and become almost unrecognizable, is the faithful image of the sinner. “Sum nummus Dei, thesauro aberravi, miserere mei.” Augustine. As to the rest, the lighting of the lamp, the sweeping, and the seeking, belong, in our eyes, so entirely to the pictorial form of the representation, that it appears to us almost arbitrary to see therein (Stier) the indication of the threefold activity of the preacher, the eldership, and the whole Church for the saving of the lost one. “If we would attribute to every single word a deeper significance than appears, we should not seldom incur the danger of bringing much into the Scripture which is not at all contained in it; for as the artist, for the beautifying of his picture, does much that is not indispensably necessary, so has Christ also spoken many words which stand to the main matter which is to be imaged forth by the figure in only a remote, often, indeed, in no relation at all.” Zimmermann.
Luk_15:10. Likewise … there is joy, ãßíåôáé .—Here the Saviour speaks not comparatively, but absolutely; not only in general of joy in Heaven, but ἐíþðéïí ôῶí ἀãã . ô . È . It is, however, not entirely correct, if this word is used as a direct proof of the opinion that the angels rejoice over the conversion of a sinner, for the Saviour is not speaking directly of the gaudium angelorum, but coram angelis. As the Shepherd and the Woman rejoiced before and with their friends, so does God rejoice before the eyes of the angels over the conversion of the sinner; but as the friends and neighbors rejoice with the Woman and the Shepherd, so can we also conceive the angels as taking part in this Divine joy. But if it is God, in the whole fulness of His being, who is represented, it is then inadmissible to understand it exclusively, either of the Holy Ghost (Stier, Bengel), or of the Church of the Lord (Luther, Lisco). The applicability of the parable to both is willingly acknowleged by us, but that the Saviour’s intention was here to refer to the munus, either of the spiritus sancti, or of the ecclesiœ, peccatores quœrentis, can hardly be proved. Equally rash does it appear when Bengel, in the friends and neighbors of the Shepherd and of the Woman, finds an intimation of the different ranks and classes of the angels, vel domi, vel foris agentes.
2. The parable of the Good Shepherd sets forth for us, in a striking manner, the image of the pastoral faithfulness of God’s searching for the sinner. Israel had already been compared, even under the Old Testament, to a strayed sheep, Isa_53:6; Eze_34:5; Psa_119:176, etc., and Jehovah also was, even from ancient time, represented under the amiable figure of a shepherd, Ezekiel 34, and Psalms 23; Isa_40:11; as in Homer also, the best kings are designated as ðïéìÝíåò ëáῶí . But inasmuch as this pastoral faithfulness of God reveals itself most admirably in the redeeming activity of Christ (comp. John 10), we may at the same time, in the first parable, see an image of the earthly activity and of the heavenly joy of the loving Son of Man. But certainly it is going too far to find even the atoning death of the Saviour (Melanchthon) indicated in the shepherd with his sheep on his shoulder: “Ovem inventam ponit in humeros suos, i. e., nostrum, onus transfert in se ipsum, fit victima pro nobis.” Such an allusion would then at least have been as yet understood by no one of the hearers of our Lord, and yet they had no farther to look than upon Him in order to convince themselves that the Good Shepherd in the parable was no ideal, but a reality; and surprised we cannot be that even the most ancient Christian art laid hold of this symbol with visible affection. See the examples, e.g., in Augusti’s Beiträge zur christlichen Kunstgeschichte und Liturgik, ii. Even the present moment proved how much the Saviour had at heart the seeking of the lost. “Ideo Jesus Christus secutus est peccatores usque ad victum quotidianum, usque ad mensam, ubi maxime peccatur.” Bengel.
3. What the Saviour relates of the Woman and the Shepherd was at the same time an admirable model of pastoral prudence and Halieutics for His first apostles. Only when they should care for the wandering and lost with so much pleasure and love would they be fitted for the work of their calling. That they did not forget the teaching appears, among other things, from the beautiful narrative of the aged John and the young man Theagenes, which Clemens Alexandrinus communicates to us in his Quis Dives Salvetur, cap. 42,—the best practical commentary on the parable of the Good Shepherd.
4. These two parables, as in particular the third, that of the Prodigal Son, are a palpable proof of the falsity of a one-sided fatalistic deterministic view of the world, according to which the lost coin and the lost sheep must absolutely be found again, and therefore we can scarcely speak of any trouble in seeking, or of a joy in finding.
5. What the Saviour declares of the joy in heaven over that which is found again on earth, deserves to be named one of the most striking revelations of the mysteries of the life to come. To the Saviour the angel-world is more than a poetic dream—more than an æsthetic form; it is to Him a community of self-conscious, rational, and holy beings. These are acquainted with that which goes on in the moral world on earth; they take lively interest in the saving of the sinner; they rejoice as often as in this respect the work of love succeeds: this joy springs from their knowing how, even through the conversion of one sinner, the honor of God is exalted, the kingdom of Christ is advanced, the blessedness of mankind is increased, the future reunion of heaven and earth is brought nearer. The Saviour in this leaves to our faith the reckoning how high their joy, since the foundation of the kingdom of God on earth must have already risen, and what a height it shall hereafter reach when all converted sinners shall have been fully prepared and sanctified. Comp. Eph_3:10; 1Pe_1:12; and the whole imagery of the Apocalypse.
6. Were anything more necessary for the removal of any doubt in so glorious a revelation, it would be the remembrance that, according to this parable, the joy over the finding of the lost is, in God and His angels, quite as natural as in the Woman and the Shepherd. Even in an extra-ecclesiastical sphere, the striking character of this thought has been already recognized and uttered with emphasis, e.g., by Goethe, when he in the ballad, The God and the Bayadere, says:
“Es freut sich die Gottheit der reuigen Sünder,
Unsterbliche heben verlorene Kinder
Mit feurigen Armen zum Himmel emper.”
[The Godhead rejoices over repentant sinners; the immortals raise lost children with fiery arms upward to heaven.]
7. See below on the following parable.
The Good Shepherd, the image of the love of God in Christ for sinners: 1. Its unexampled compassion; 2. its persevering patience; 3. its forbearing tenderness; 4. its blessed joy.—“Till he find it,” the highest goal of Divine love: 1. How much is requisite before it is reached; 2. how heartfelt its joy when it is reached.—Rejoice with them that do rejoice!—Human feeling the best pledge of the riches of the Divine compassion.—The sinner’s salvation, the angels’ joy.—The worth of a single soul.—Grounds for the joy of heaven when the lost sheep is found.—The angels rejoice then, 1. For God’s sake; 2. for Jesus’ sake; 3. for the sinner’s sake; 4. for their own sake.—The joy of the angels on its practical side: the Saviour’s declaration hereupon contains, 1. A striking revelation of the blessed love in heaven; 2. a powerfully rousing voice to conversion; 3. a strong impulse to the work of seeking love; 4. a ground for quickening the longing of the Christian for the life in heaven.—How much the greatest unrighteousness has, on the platform of the Gospel, the advantage above self-righteousness.—The Lost Coin: 1. What the loss of it has to surprise us; it is lost, a. out of a well-guarded treasure, b. lost in the house, c. lost, almost without hope of finding again; 2. What this loss has to quicken us. It impels a. to kindle a light, b. to sweep, c. to seek till it is found.—The Lost Coin the striking image of the sinner: 1. Its original brilliancy; 2. its present deterioration; 3. its worth when it shall hereafter be found again.—The soul of the sinner the object of the greatest sorrow, labor, and joy: 1. No loss so great as when the soul is lost; 2. no trouble too great if only the soul is preserved; but 3. no joy so blessed as when the soul is saved.—The human heart needs the sympathy of others in its own joy.—No sinner so mean but that he may become an object of the joy in heaven.—Jesus’ love of sinners: 1. The objects (Luk_15:1); 2. the adversaries (Luk_15:2); 3. the ground (Luk_15:3-9); 4. the preciousness of the same (Luk_15:7-10).
Starke:—Quesnel:—The main thing that we have to do in this life is to draw near to Jesus.—The company of bad people one does well to avoid, yet he must not wholly withdraw himself from them.—Hypocrites are harder to convert than open sinners.—What a blessing it is for an evangelical preacher when even the greatest sinners like to hear him.—Osiander:—The world puts the worst interpretation on everything in faithful preachers.—Christ’s whole discharge of His office is a good summary of pastoral theology;—let us therein diligently study and imitate it.—Brentius:—Returning sinners are to be received with much love and friendship, and all previous evil of theirs to be thrown into forgetfulness.—Philemon Luk_15:10; Eze_34:16.—Quesnel:—The church triumphant and the church militant are one heart and one soul.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—A lost sinner cannot be found again so easily but that there needs a heavy besom of law and discipline thereto.—Peccatorum lachrymœ sunt angelorum deliciœ.
Heubner:—The living intercourse of a pastor with his church is more than literary activity, at which the world is agape.—The beginning of conversion is: to hear Christ’s word.—The holier thou art, so much the milder art thou too.—Even yet the world delights to mock at the conversion of the sinner.—Everywhere does Jesus show the inconsistent self-contradictions of man in earthly and in spiritual things.—As the shepherd knows his sheep and tells them, so does God His children.—God waits not till the lost one returns of himself, He seeks him.—Never has God shown Himself as love more than when He redeemed man.—“Nothing weighs too heavy for love; he is willing to take all costs who for God’s sake loves souls, and knows what Christ has done for them.”—Quesnel:—The business of men in the search of temporal, stands in contrast with their negligence in the search of spiritual, things.—By the amendment of a single sinner others again may be saved.
On the Pericope:—Heubner:—Christian care for the deliverance of lost souls.—Lisco:—How important to Jesus the saving of every sinner is.—The saving love of the Christian a copy of the pastoral faithfulness of Christ: 1. A copy which is like the model; 2. but which never equals the model.—Palmer:—1. Jesus receives sinners when they come to Him; 2. Jesus seeks sinners even before they come to Him.—Fuchs:—The different hearts of those who are mentioned in this Gospel: 1. The repentant heart of the sinners; 2. the envious heart of they Pharisees; 3. the loving heart of the Lord.—Ahlfeld:—The Son of man comes to seek what is lost:1. His toil; 2. His success; 3. His joy.—Reichhelm:—Seeking love: 1. Whom it seeks; 2. how; 3. why it seeks.—Souchon:—Jesus will make the righteous sinners, the sinners righteous.—Von Kapff:—The joy over a sinner that repents: 1. The joy of the repentant sinner himself; 2. the joy of the saints; and 3. the joy of God over him.—W. Thiess:—Jesus receives sinners: this word Isaiah 1. The one centre of the Bible; 2. the true centre of Christian preaching; 3. the chiefest jewel in life.—Rautenberg:—Who is found? 1. Whoever is drawn back from wandering; 2. carried by Christ; 3. and brought into the fellowship of His people.—Höpfner:—How great is the compassion of the Lord! 1. He seeks the lost; 2. brings again the straying; 3. binds up the wounded; 4. tends the weak; 5. guards what is strong. (Numbers 3, 5 are, however, hardly to be deduced from the text.)—Burk:—The blessed experience in spiritual things: 1. I am lost; 2. God seeks me; 3. God has found me.
The whole Pericope is, either as a whole or in part, admirably fitted to be the foundation of a communion sermon.
Footnotes:
[Of course then worth at least ten times its present value.—C. C. S.]