up the name of disciple without being prepared for all that name involves.1 CCCLXVII. THE LOST SHEEP. St. Luke xv. 1–7. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. The Publicans or Tax-gatherers were ranked with notorious sinners, and reckoned as outcasts. No Scribe nor Pharisee, no one who had a reputation for knowledge of the Law, or who trusted in himself that he was righteous, would associate with such. He would not receive them into his company even for their good; much less eat with them, which was reckoned most defiling." Our Lord did both. His old antagonists renew their murmurings. This seems to have scandalized Scribes and Pharisees everywhere; though had they known the meaning of that Law which they professed to teach and to keep, they would have justified Him. These self-righteous ones murmured among 4 3 first lesson in the School of Christ. It leads to further discoveries. 2 Acts xi. 3; Gal. ii. 12. 3 St. Matt. ix. 10-13. St. Matt. xii. 7. themselves. 4 3 They do not seem to have ventured directly to attack our Lord. He however, who knew what was in their hearts, addresses Himself directly to them. He asks them if He does otherwise than any one of them would do. He is only doing in the case of a human being, what they would feel bound to do in the case of one of their own beasts. He repeats for their instruction a Parable He had related before, though with a different purpose. There it was to bring out the value of a single soul in the eyes of the Good Shepherd; here "to shew that no sheep can have strayed so widely, but He will seek it, and rejoice over it when found." It must not be supposed that the ninety and nine were neglected in the wilderness. The wilderness had yet its green pastures and still waters, and the sheep were left safely folded there. An hireling, "whose own the sheep are not," may seek a stray sheep for a time, but only the owners of the sheep will go after that which is lost until he find it. He would not lose one in an hundred. The size of the flock shews the care of the shepherd for a single sheep. If the recovery of the lost brings joy, the stability of the rest gives satisfaction. "It is the mother concentrating for the moment all her affection on her sick child, and seeming to a bystander to love none but that only, and rejoicing at that one child's recovery more than at the uninterrupted health of all the others." Thus the Lord, who came down from Heaven, and knows what passes there," illustrates the joy above by this similitude taken from things on earth. If these Scribes and Pharisees had really been justified persons, no longer needing a complete repentance, they would have recognised this, and have shared in that heavenly joy over returning Publicans and sinners. CCCLXVIII. THE LOST COIN. St. Luke xv. 8-10. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. What pains this woman took to find the lost piece of silver! It was only a small coin she had lost, not more than nine pence of our money; for that was about the value of the silver-piece or drachma,1 as it was called, which is the coin here meant. Yet see the pains she takes to find it. She does not say, I have nine other pieces besides; why should I take the trouble to look for this? She uses all the means in her power. She lights a candle; for in that country, at that time, the cottages of the poor had scarcely any windows, and no glass at all; so that they were dark enough, even by daylight." She not only searches, but sweeps; and that not in one part only of the house, but all the house over. She seeks diligently, and does not give over her search till she finds the piece she had lost. God gave the light by which the woman saw, and without which she would have sought in vain; but she lit the candle. And so must we; that is, we must use the means, the heavenly light, 3 1 The Attic drachma down to the time of Alexander was about 9 d. After that time it slightly decreased. See Smith's Dict. of Anlt. 2 All who have visited the long buried and now partially unearthed towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and seen the inferior habitations there, will recognise the force of this point in the parable. The windows, so called, are more like the loop-holes of our modern barns. 3 Jer. Taylor (Via Int.) has a curious application of this parable with reference to the erroneous reading of the Vulgate :-"The woman that lost her groat, everrit domum,' not 'evertit.' She swept the house, she did not turn the house out of doors. That was but an ill reformation that untiled the roof, and broke the walls, and was digging down the foundation." 3 which God puts within our reach, puts even into our hands. Let us not overlook the fact that whereas in the former of this pair of parables it was a man who had lost his sheep, here it is a woman 1 who loses her piece of money. It seems intended to teach us the love and care of the Good Shepherd and of His Church after Him. As He came to seek and to save that which was lost, so is she evermore seeking to recover those who, having been signed in Holy Baptism with the sign of our salvation, stamped as it were with the Cross of Christ and bearing His image and superscription, have been lost to any good purpose, lying useless and unprofitable. Therefore, as "a keeper of Holy Writ," she lights her candle, kindled at the Divine source of light, and uses all the means put into her hands, the ministry of Christ's Word and Sacraments, that the souls of men, more precious than silver, may be recovered and restored to that Treasury of the Temple from which first they issued. And when even one such is found, it augments the joy of Angels; 5 makes those blessed Beings happier still. We are apt to think less than we ought, less than Christ and His Apostles did, of those happy inhabitants of Heaven. This thought that Angels are looking on should be a spur to our exertions. For (such is the value of a soul) the repentance of a single sinner adds even to angelic happiness. It is the teaching of the two parables. For, just as the misconduct of one gives many grief; just as a man who goes wrong brings others into trouble besides himself; just as a woman who equivalents Friendess and Neighbouress. 1 We have the same distinction in another pair of parables, St. Matt. xiii. 31-33. 66 2 Abp. Trench points out other peculiarities. The Shepherd says, my sheep" the Woman, "the coin." He says, "which was lost;" but she, "which I lost." "For a sheep strays of itself, but a piece of money could only be lost by a certain negligence on the part of such as should have kept it." The "friends and neighbours are severally masculine and feminine in the original; a distinction which we lose in our version, though once, as the Abp. remarks, we possessed the 3 Art. xx. Of the Authority of the Church. "The long-lost coin is stored at In Treasure-House Divine." 5 James Montgomery's beautiful Poem on Prayer is inspired partly by the moral of this Parable. "Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice Returning from his ways; falls involves others in her shame; so the repentance of one brings joy to many. The repentance of a sinner is the joy of Angels. This adds even to the bliss of Heaven.1 CCCLXIX. THE PRODIGAL SON. St. Luke xv. 11-16. And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him. This third and larger Parable2 the Lord here adds to encourage at once repentant Publicans and Sinners, and to instruct hard and self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes. That crowd of listening people was made up of both. The Parable consists of two parts, and there is a distinct lesson for each. The Jewish Law did not allow to a father the arbitrary disposition of his property. The first-born had a prescribed portion, two-thirds. The remaining portion is what the 3 1 1 St. Pet. i. 12. Bengel has an interesting note on the difference of the tenses in vv. 7 and 10, "joy shall be," "there is joy." 2 "We may thus contemplate these parables as a trilogy. . . There is a seeming anti-climax in the numbers named. . . one in a hundred, one in ten, one in two; which is in reality a climax, as the sense of the value of the part lost would naturally increase with the proportion which it bore to the whole. And other human feelings and interests are implied in the successive narratives, which must have helped to enhance in each successive case the anxiety for the recovery of what was lost . . . Thus we find ourselves moving in ever narrower, and so ever intenser, circles of hope and fear and love."-Abp. Trench. 3 Deut. xxi. 17; v. 31 below. |