PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE LOST COIN
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 15: 8-10
JANUARY 31, 1999
In this parable of The Lost Coin, Jesus gives us two teachings, and the first teaching concerns the nature of God. From this little parable, we get a glimpse of the nature of God.
I know that many of you were not alive during World War II, but most of you know that during World War II, the allied powers, the allied nations, sought to stop the atrocities of Nazi Germany, stop a madman named Adolph Hitler. Most of you know that during World War II, the allied powers sought to stop Imperial Japan with its insatiable thirst for global conquest. Historians tell us that World War II killed more people, destroyed more property, changed more lives and had more far-reaching impact on this world than any other war in history.
It was Chaplain Robinson who tells the story of his father, who fought in World War II, and came back right after the war to the United States of America Literally, on the highways of America all across this country, there were soldiers in uniform hitchhiking, seeking to find their way home to family and to loved ones. Mr. Robinson found his way home to his family, but the joy was diminished, because when we got home, he discovered that his mother was in ill health. She had a grave ailment of the kidney. She was in desperate need of a blood transfusion, and without a blood transfusion, she would die that night or perhaps the very next day.
The problem was that Mr. Robinson’s mother had AB negative blood. AB negative blood was rare back then, and it’s rare today. In the 1940’s, this nation didn’t have the blood banks and the blood supplies that we enjoy today. No one else in the Robinson family had AB negative blood. The doctors told Mr. Robinson that his mother was going to die because there was no AB negative blood, and she didn’t have long to live. He left the hospital and got into his car and began to drive toward the house.
As he was driving down the highway, he saw a soldier in uniform hitchhiking. He wasn’t really in the mood to pick up a hitchhiker, but he didn’t want to abandon a fellow soldier, so he stopped the car and opened the door. The soldier got in. The soldier could see that Mr. Robinson had been crying. He had tears in his eyes. He said, “What’s wrong?” Mr. Robinson said, “Well, my mom’s dying.” He told the whole story to this complete stranger. He told how she had this kidney ailment and how she was in desperate need of a blood transfusion, that she would die that night or perhaps the next day without that blood transfusion. He told him that she had AB negative blood, and they couldn’t find any.
There was silence in the car. Suddenly the soldier took his dog tags from around his neck and held them out for Mr. Robinson to see, to show him that he had AB negative blood. He said, “Why don’t you turn this car around and let’s go back to the hospital and save your mom.” And they did that. This soldier gave his blood, AB negative, and that mother’s life was saved. She lived another 47 years, just died a few years ago. To this day, the Robinson family does not know the name of that soldier who gave his AB negative blood. To this day, the Robinson family wonders whether he really was a soldier or an angel in uniform.
They know this. They know that that man who gave his blood that day had the very nature of God, because, you see, it is the nature of God to give Himself to save the dying. It is the nature of God to give Himself to rescue the lost.
As we come to the communion table this morning, we celebrate God’s sending of His Son into our world. We celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ who died in substitutionary atonement, who gave His blood for us, who gave His blood that we might have life, that we might have forgiveness of sins. He gave His blood that all of us who believe in Him as Lord and Savior might have salvation and eternal life. But the work of God is not done because there are millions of people, indeed there are billions of people the world over who do not yet believe and God seeks them. It is His nature to seek the lost.
In this little parable of The Lost Coin, Jesus tells us of a woman, a poor woman, who had ten silver coins. These ten silver coins were drachmas. This is the word that Jesus used, and this is the only place in the whole of the Bible where the drachma is mentioned. Drachma was a Greek coin, roughly the equivalent of the Roman denarius. The drachma was equal to one day’s wage. This poor woman, her entire savings consisted of ten drachmas, ten silver coins, ten days of income. That’s all she had. She lost one drachma, one silver coin. She lit a lamp and began her search.
Archeologists tell us that poor people in Israel or Palestine in biblical times had small houses with one window. Archeologists have found that most of these little houses had only one window, 18 inches wide. These little houses were dark, even in the daytime. Poor people didn’t light a lamp in the daytime because they couldn’t afford to burn the oil, but this woman was desperate to find the lost coin and so she lit her lamp. She began to sweep the floor. In the homes of poor people, the floor was hardened earth and it was covered by dry straw and reeds. To find a coin that fell was like searching for a needle in a haystack, but Jesus tells us that she swept the floor, perhaps hoping that she would see the coin or hear the coin, that it would glisten or tinkle and that she would be able to find it.
Jesus tells us that she searched diligently for this coin. We can imagine that she got down on her knees and she crawled around looking for this coin. But the amazing thing is, Jesus was painting a picture of God. In describing this woman’s behavior in seeking this coin, Jesus was describing God. Almost all Bible scholars tell us that the woman represents God. There are a few Bible scholars who believe the woman represents the church, but it doesn’t really matter, because, through the church, God seeks the lost. It’s in His nature. It’s in His nature to seek diligently those who are lost. If you are lost today, He seeks you. If you are lost today, He seeks diligently to find you and bring you home to him. Such is God’s love for you.
I noticed in the newspaper yesterday, in conjunction with the Super Bowl, that the city of Atlanta, 27.2% of the people read their Bible regularly. In the city of Denver, only 17.1% of the people read their Bible regularly. We can only hope that God doesn’t hold that against us today. But why is it that so few people read their Bible? In Denver, or Atlanta, or anywhere else in the world, why do so few people read their Bibles. I can tell you. Most people don’t read their Bible because they really aren’t seeking God. If they’re unbelievers, most of them are not seeking God. Even if they’re believers, they’re not seeking to draw closer to God, and that’s why most people do not read their Bibles. But, you see, what Jesus is saying to us is God seeks us. If you’re a non-Christian, He is seeking you. If you’re a Christian and you’re not walking close to Him, He is seeking you. If you’re a sinner, He is seeking you because this is the nature of God.
Jesus tells us, in this little parable, that when this woman found her coin which had been lost, she called her neighbors and friends and she said to them, “Rejoice with me for I have found the coin which I had lost.” “Even so, I tell you,” Jesus said, “there is rejoicing in heaven before the angels of God when one sinner repents.” This is the nature of God. He seeks the lost. He seeks the dying, and having found them, He rejoices.
There’s a second teaching from this little parable of The Lost Coin, and the second teaching concerns the value of man—speaking generically of man as male and female, the value of people. The first teaching in this parable concerns the nature of God, but the second teaching concerns the value of man, the value of people. People are precious to God.
In this little parable, we see this poor woman who has ten silver coins, ten drachmas. She loses one silver coin; she loses one drachma. This drachma is precious to her. This drachma, this silver coin, has tremendous value to her. Some Bible scholars believe that this lost silver coin was actually part of her shatweh. Now, the shatweh was the marriage or wedding headdress which women had. A woman in Israel generally had a shatweh and this was the wedding headdress which normally consisted of ten coins. The coins could be made of gold, or they could be made of silver. If the woman was poor, it would be made of silver coins, and they could be tetra-drachmas or didrachmas or simple drachmas. But if the woman was really poor, as this woman was, they were simple drachmas.
Some Bible scholars believe that this coin that was lost, that somehow the chain that held the coins together had broken and this coin was part of those ten that comprise the shatweh, and it was part of her headdress. And so, the coin not only had economic value, but the coin had sentimental value. We really don’t know that. We really don’t know that that’s what Jesus had in mind in telling this parable, but we do know this. The coin was precious. The coin had great value to the woman. Jesus wants us to understand the ten silver coins, these ten drachmas, represent humanity, represent people. People are precious to God. Lost or found, all the coins, all the people are valuable to God, and of course the one who is lost is precious to God, precious to the Lord. He wants us to understand that as we hear the message of this parable. The value of people.
In this little parable, we should understand it follows the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, and he followed that parable up with this little parable, the lost coin. The two parables are related. The parable of the last sheep would have appealed to men, because most shepherds were men. It would have appealed to the rich because the shepherd in the parable at the lost sheep had 100 sheep. This was not a poor shepherd. However, this parable of the lost coin would have appealed to women, and it would have appealed to the poor. He wanted everyone in His audience to understand His message, whether they were male or female, rich or poor. He wanted them alt to understand the value of people to God and the value of lost people to God. He wants you to understand today, whether you are male or female, whether you are rich or poor, regardless of your race, people are precious to Him. People have extreme value to him.
Most of you have heard of William Booth. William Booth was born near Nottingham, England in the year 1829. He was reared in poverty. He became fatherless at the age of 13. At the age of 15, he
went into Nottingham. He went down in the basement all by himself and he knelt in the basement of the Wesley Chapel in Nottingham, and he asked Jesus Christ into his heart. He asked Jesus Christ to be His Lord and Savior. William Booth would later say that his life had been shaken by the darkness of poverty and the light of the gospel.
He became an evangelist, an evangelist that sought to lead people to Christ, but an evangelist with a peculiar burden for the poor. He constantly called men and women to reach out in compassion in the name of Christ to the hurting and poor of the world.
The year was 1865 and William Booth was 36 when he founded a little ministry in London, England. He called that ministry The Christian Mission, a very simple name. Thirteen years later, in 1878, he changed the name and, of course, he called his ministry The Salvation Army. It was William Booth’s wife, Kathryn, she was the genius behind The Salvation Army. She was the one who brought the brilliant strategy and structure to that ministry. All eight of their children served in London in The Salvation Army. Evangelist Cory Booth, one of their children, brought The Salvation Army to the United States and to Canada, and ultimately she became the International Director of The Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army has built hospitals. They’ve built drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. They have purchased and built camps for kids, boys and girls clubs, senior citizen care facilities, day care centers. Today, The Salvation Army has 14,0000 community centers that they have built all over the world. They have 25,000 full time ministers on their staff, and they minister in 85 nations of the earth, and it all began when a 15-year-old boy knelt by himself in the basement of the little Wesley Chapel in Nottingham, England and asked Jesus into his heart.
But this was no normal young man. William Booth, even at the age of 15, understood God cares about people and God values all people. He understood even at the age of 15 that God values the poor, God values the rich, God values women and God values men. God values the old and God values the young, and he wants us to value all people as we reach out with the gospel and in compassion to this world.
So, this morning as we come to the Communion Table, we are reminded of the nature of God. He is a loving God who seeks the lost. He’s a loving God who seeks to save the dying, seeks to find the lost and He rejoices when the lost are found. We also understand, through this little parable, the value of people. All people are precious to God and God wants all people to be precious to us. As you come to this Communion table this morning and you partake of the bread and the cup, celebrate what Christ has done for you as we do this together. It’s a time to recommit ourselves to loving people, to showing compassion to people, to taking the gospel to people, all people, regardless of color, regardless of their socio-economic status, regardless of their gender, that we would make this commitment that we will take the gospel to all people, to all the lost.
If you are lost, this would be a great morning to give your heart to Jesus Christ so that you, too, can celebrate holy communion and the grace and mercy of Christ. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.