Forming Faith Blog

Losing and Finding Oneself (Luke 15)

Posted on March 11 2025 by Gregory Rawn

Jesus tells three parables of losing and finding to the judgmental Pharisees. All three lead to celebrations. His point? The return of what has been lost (including us) is a cause to celebrate!

A pig looking at the camera. The younger son realized he was losing himself when he had to feed pigs.
Photo by mali maeder on Pexels.com
The Journey of Lent 

In our reading back on Ash Wednesday, Jesus reached a literal turning point and “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Jesus continued his ministry to the people (though with more of a focus on teaching with parables, it seems), but this is no wandering, peripatetic ministry. Jesus has a destination in mind: the cross. 

We, too, have a destination in this season of Lent: Good Friday. Of course, the cross gives way to the empty tomb as Good Friday gives way to Easter Sunday. But Lent is a time of reflection, compassion (the Good Samaritan: Luke 10:25-37), and repentance (Luke 13:1-5). Now, we hear three parables about losing, finding, and celebrating.

The Prologue of the Sheep and Coin

The Pharisees criticize Jesus for hanging out with the wrong crowd: greedy traitors (tax collectors) and the generically disobedient (sinners). The fact that Jesus is sharing table fellowship with them shows that he accepts them the way they are, rather than to convince them to change their evil ways. I would guess that the only acceptable reason for Pharisees to have contact with “those people” at all would be to convert them, but that might be reading some modern Christian practices into the past.

Jesus does accept and love these individuals as they are, but it’s also true that he wants them to change their ways. He illustrates this with three parables. The first two are short and parallel (5 verses and 3 verses respectively):

  1. Something is lost (a sheep, a coin).
  2. The owner (a shepherd, a woman) expends a lot of effort to find it. 
  3. That which was lost is found.
  4. The owner calls for a celebration.

Jesus (more or less) explains these allegorically:

  1. A person is separated from God by going their own way (a sinner) = something is lost.
  2. [Interestingly, there is no hint of the “owner” seeking what is lost.]
  3. The person returns to God (repents) = that which was lost is found
  4. God (and everyone around God) celebrates. = the owner calls for a celebration

With no hint of the owner seeking and finding what was lost, the parable’s connection with the lost sheep and coin breaks down. But, this explanation directly sets up the third parable: The Parable of the Flagrantly Wasteful and Selfish Son.

The Son’s Rejection (or F*** You, Dad!)

The younger son (and main character of this parable) doesn’t just wander away like the sheep or drop out of sight like the coin. No, the son is unbelievably selfish and disrespectful: he asked for his share of the inheritance he would normally get after his father died. So, in some ways, he is saying “F*** you, Dad. Let’s pretend you’re dead.” And it’s even worse than that. A large portion of the father’s wealth would be tied up in real estate, particularly the family farm. And in order to use his inheritance for dissolute living, he had to cash it out. So, while his father is still alive and running his household, the younger son sold off one-third (it’s not half, since the older son would get a double portion) of the source of the household’s income. So, this is pretty much the ultimate d*** move (sorry, I mean disrespectful action).

The Son’s Realization (or Oh S***, I Really F***ed up This Time!)

This younger son was clearly only concerned about living for himself. He was not satisfied with his work on the farm (or estate, since the family was presumable reasonably wealthy). He wanted to see the world and experience all that it had to offer. So, he threw his newfound money around, fulfilling his every whim and desire.

But, as is not unusual for people who suddenly gain a lot of money they didn’t work for, he ran out of cash. It turns out that spending money without earning any is bad for the wallet. He probably has no marketable skills (a hardworking son would be unlikely to do many of these things), so he’s left with one of the most degrading things a Jewish boy could do: feeding pigs. And it seems that he didn’t even earn enough to feed himself, since the pig slop was starting to look tasty. He had hit rock bottom and realized how much he had screwed up.

He had f***ed up so badly that he knew he was past forgiveness. There was no restoring his relationship with his dad and his old status. But he knew his dad was very generous, so perhaps he could work alongside his father’s slaves and at least keep his belly full. So, with that tiny flame of hope for his future, he started back home.

The Relationship Restored (or Thank God, You’re Alive!)

The father is unreasonably generous (one might say prodigal). He was willing to concede to his son’s impossibly disrespectful demands. I would have just looked at my kid and said, “Um… no” or something along those lines. And so his easy forgiveness of his selfish son is not really out of character. He obviously cared for his progeny more than he did about his property.

But he did one impossible-to-imagine thing after another. Even after being treated like a piggy bank by his son, he ran (something older men didn’t do in this culture) to meet him and threw him a party. The way I read this, the father didn’t even care about his son’s apology. The son did something much more important. He. Came. Back.

Our Paths, God’s Steadfast Love

Jesus had made the underlying principle of these parables pretty clear:

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Luke 15:7

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 15:10

The son rejected his father and the way of life he had been provided. Instead of being a member of the family with his part of the responsibilities and the joy that comes with that, he was selfish and went his own way. 

We often use the metaphor of a path (and journey) to talk about a way of life. The son’s lifepath took him from his home to a foreign country, a pigpen, and back home. While the Greek for repentance (metanoia) means literally to change (meta-) one’s mind (nous/noia), the Hebrew equivalent would have had a more concrete meaning of a physical return. And they work together. A change in action without a change in mind is disingenuous. A change in mind without a change in action is superficial at best.

The son literally turned around and walked the path back to his father and family. The father didn’t love and forgive his son because he returned and apologized. It is clear from this parable that the father never stopped loving the son, no matter what he had done.

Likewise, God calls us to turn around, change our minds, and return to walking God’s path. But this doesn’t cause God’s love and forgiveness. Those were there the whole time. But we can’t accept and live in that love if we’re running away from it.

That’s the good news: God loves and forgives us no matter how much we f*** up.

In Christ’s incomprehensible love,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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