The Result of His Diligence

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” (Luke 15:8 ESV) Three of the most well-known parables of Jesus all speak to the nature of God’s work of salvation. While we may grumble at His choices, God in Christ is diligently looking for every lost person even as all are precious to Him – including you and me. Today at International Lutheran Church we confess not only the reality of our own lost condition, but we testify to what God has done for us in sending His own Son, Jesus, to call all to repentance and faith in Him.

The parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son or sometimes called the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-32) – are three of the most well-known parables of Jesus reflecting the heart of God concerning our condition. Unique to Luke’s Gospel, these three stories form a complete picture of the desire and intent of God in relation to His fallen creatures. They are set, Luke tells us, in response to the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day who grumbled that He would choose to associate with certain people – namely the tax collectors and the open sinners of His day. All three stories end with a similar joyous celebration – highlighting the response of God and all the angels as these lost ones who are found come home. We are probably more familiar with the first and last story, so on this weekend, I would like us to consider the example of the woman, who is diligent about her search for the lost coin.

One of the surprising things that I was not aware of when we were settling my father’s estate was the need to produce the “abstract” of the house where he lived. This abstract is an extensive document spanning the entire recorded physical ownership of a particular property – in this case, the home I grew up in. In Iowa, to sell any property, one needs to produce this document. It is an ongoing record of the property, its owners, and any liens or obligations that have ever been placed upon the house that might impact its true ownership. The abstract has to be reviewed and turned over to the new buyer or there is no sale. When my sister wrote and asked if I knew where it was, we went into a complete panic. I had never heard my father even mention such an important document before and he had been so thorough with helping us understand everything related to his estate. Well as you might imagine we ended up turning the house inside out, only to find it had been at the bottom of the drawer in his office desk. Indeed, we rejoiced at finding it and saving ourselves many months of delays in trying to create a new one.

As Jesus tries to impress on us the heart of God with special detail to His actions at seeking and saving the lost, He uses a powerful image of a woman who turns her house inside out in order to find what already belongs to her. The word that is often translated diligently only occurs in this one place in the New Testament but is related to a similar word used in Luke 10:34-35 meaning to take care. It is a certain kind of action that is deliberate and precise. Unlike the frantic search my sisters and I went through to find that which was lost, this action was a systematic and carefully executed plan. Step-by-step our Savior sought us out, not in a frantic panic but in a deliberate and careful search. This image of care and precise action is a window into God’s act to deliver you and me. Like a skilled and careful craftsman, who step-by-step deliberately executes an artistic plan, our God purposefully sent forth His own Son to deliver us from our sin.

We, like Paul, even become examples of His diligence into which others too can see that Jesus came for them especially as we make known again and again His own grace in our own lives. We do not consider ourselves better than “those people” or anyone else. Instead we see more clearly each day just how carefully our Savior sought us out. As we prepare to worship Him this Lord’s Day and join Him and all His angels in His joy, we do so knowing that we are “the result of His diligence.”

Pastor Carl