Sermons often relay this to modern listeners as admonishments to go out into the world and seek the “lost” and present to them the Gospel - the Good News of Christ’s freely-given love and unearned forgiveness.
But the text itself might be offering us a slightly different message. Each listener must primarily consider himself to be the “lost.” Every hearer must say to himself, “I am the lost coin” or “I am the lost sheep.”
Even though I am a regular churchgoer and call myself a ‘Christian,’ even though I study the Bible and give money to the poor, even though I pray regularly - I must still consider myself to be one of the lost. Jesus saves the lost, not the found.
The great comfort offered by these texts is this: that if you are “lost,” then have no fear! Jesus Himself is looking for the lost, and will bring them home, and our hope in Him is confident, because His efforts to seek and save the lost are invincible.
If we rely on our own human efforts to rescue the lost, then we have good reason to be worried. Our efforts are deficient and fallible. But Christ’s work is invincible.
The message in Luke 15:1 and 16:14 is that those are concerned that they are “lost” need not fear, because Jesus will rescue them; those who should truly fear, the Scribes and the Pharisees, are those who consider themselves to be not lost.
It is the arrogance of Scribes and Pharisees which Jesus condemns. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice writes,
Through countless biblical stories we are led to understand that Christ did not just say these things; he lived them. He dined with outcasts, touched the unclean, recruited women into his ministry, revealed himself after the resurrection to these “second-class citizens,” and chastised hypocrites who piously kept the letter of the law but cared little for their brethren. In the end, he would refuse to save himself from death on the cross in order to fulfill the promise of the resurrection — and in doing so, save mankind.
Perhaps the surest way to avoid Heaven and enter Hell is to consider yourself worthy of Heaven and worthy of God’s favor. Jesus condemns this conceit.
Those who are aware of their imperfections, flaws, and brokenness need not fear: the message is that Jesus will redeem them.
