Luke 15:8-10 8Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10Thus, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The second parable about lost things Jesus told to the Pharisees and scribes is about a woman who lost a silver coin. This parable starts off like the previous one about the lost sheep. The same plot development is followed but much briefer and simpler. If anyone had trouble understanding the first story, the second one would clear it up. The coin mentioned in this story is a drachma. This word occurs only in this story in the New Testament. It was a Greek silver coin that had various values, depending on the source of information. It could have been worth the average day’s wage to as much as the price of a sheep. Whatever the value, it was a substantial amount of money to lose.
Jesus begins the story as a question with the assumed answer that no woman would just go on in life after losing such a valuable coin. The story line is simple, with three key movements. First, the woman searches diligently for her lost coin. This point is emphasized with the effort she goes through by lighting a lamp so she can see in the corners and also sweeping her house in case it fell on the floor. She checked all the obvious places where it could be and looked in the hard-to-see places. The second point is that she found it. Her efforts paid off. The third point is that she rejoices and lets her friends and neighbors know of her success.
The story ends with the spiritual application that has two parts. The first part of joy in heaven is dependent upon the second part of the sinner repenting. Again, the balance of grace and human response is clear. The coin represents the sinner. The woman represents God. The gracious God looks for the sinner and offers the message of salvation. In the kingdom, Jesus is the offer of salvation. But the sinner must repent out of free will. Otherwise, salvation is not experienced. Heaven rejoices when even just one sinner repents and believes.
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