God loves people. Every individual person on earth is of the highest worth in His eyes. There are no classes of people in God’s heart. No one is more important than another. Everyone is a priority and the object of immense love and compassion.
When I read the parables of the lost in Luke’s Gospel I am stirred by the images. A shepherd searches for his lost sheep, a woman looks for her lost coin and a father welcomes his repentant son.
In the first two parables the urgency and intensity of the search is striking.
Once the shepherd realizes one of his sheep is missing, he leaves the ninety-nine others and goes looking for the one that is lost. The tenacity of the shepherd moves me and comforts me. Nowhere does Jesus give the slightest hint that the shepherd would ever give up. That lost sheep needs the shepherd and the search will go on until the two are reunited.
In the parable of the lost coin, a woman has lost one of her silver coins. As soon as she becomes aware of it she puts her day-to-day domestic concerns on hold. She lights a lamp, sweeps her house carefully and looks everywhere. Jesus chose a coin of rather small value purposely to tell this story. The coin in question, a drachma, was worth about a day’s wages. From a monetary point of view the loss was not significant. Yet, Jesus insists that it warranted a thorough search.
The coin had one thing that set it apart from everything else – it was stamped with the image of the Emperor. This alone gave the coin intrinsic value and made it worth recovering. The analogy is powerful. It is the fact that people are made in the image of God that gives each one a value so precious that nothing can diminish our worth in God’s sight. And each lost individual deserves to be sought out.
This is the heart of the message in these parables. People are of invaluable worth and without God they are lost. We must never forget that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
More than anything, evangelism is a response to God who loves the world and searches for the lost. Let’s go with Him confidently and provide people with the message of His boundless love for them.
BY JACQUELINE DUGAS