Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Luke 15:8 and following. Indeed, according to the traditional interpretation, the woman represents the Church who is in pain (the woman diligently seeks and puts order throughout her house) to save the soul of the sinner. This is represented by an inert part whose value is no longer useful, since the coin is lost and hidden. It is more a state than a situation due to a movement of bewilderment, as in the parable of the lost sheep. Once found, the value of the coin is shown to the friends. The coin can now be used by future large companies, as in the parable of the talents. Joy is public and the Church involves her friends and, Jesus tells us, the anges rejoice. The woman invites her neighbors and friends to her home. No doubt she will offer them a meal. Like this drachma, a coin with the effigy of the sovereign who issued it, man is in the image of the One who created it. But lost, what could it be used for? It has become useless (Rom 3:9-18).
Each parable mentions the joy of the rightful owner, a joy that seeks to be shared. That of God meets an echo in the angels. If we hear them singing at the time of creation (Job 38:4-11) and then at the birth of the Savior (Luke 2:8-14), joy also fills heaven “for one sinner who repents.” For the price of a soul is so great in the eyes of the God of love! This woman has ten drachmas, she lacks one; he wishes to possess his treasure in its entirety; it is committed to it; she wants to find the one that is lost. To do this, she turns on the lamp, scans the house, and searches until she finds it. This inert piece, unaware of his state, is also an image of the state of man, dead in his faults and sins, as Paul presents it (Ephesians 2:1).
Man would remain forever in his state of perdition of which he is unconscious, if the Holy Spirit did not bring the divine light to show him and did not seek him in the sweeps of this world where he has gone astray. When the woman finds her drachma, she “gathers the friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma I had lost. It is always the joy of the seeker, that of God and that of those who are in communion of thoughts with him as to the salvation of a soul. Jesus said, “Thus, I say to you, there is joy before the angels of God for one sinner who repents.” Angels do not understand god’s grace to the sinner. They desire to “look closely” in the plan of redemption (1 Peter 1:12). They have seen man fall, move away from God, dishonor him, and now they are witnesses of God’s joy when one of these lost beings repents, while for themselves, if they fall, there is no salvation. It can be noticed that it is not said that there is joy in heaven for all sinners who will be saved, which is true, but for one who repents. This shows the greatness of God’s love, the importance of a soul in his eyes.
How beautiful the sky will be, while all the redeemed will be glorified! The Lord will enjoy “the work of his soul, and will be satisfied” (Isa 53. 11). God, it is said, “will rejoice with joy about you: he will rest in his love, he will brighten up in you with a song of triumph” (Zep 3.17). The shepherd seeks, as well as the woman, until he finds, because he is interested in the object he is pursuing; and when the sheep is tired of its wanderings, it does not need to walk to turn back; the shepherd puts it on his shoulders and carries it home. He takes care of everything, happy to have his sheep back. This is the spirit of heaven, whatever the heart of man on earth: it is the work of Christ, the Good Shepherd. The work of the woman is an image of the care that God gives himself in her love, so that her work represents more that of the Spirit; light is brought, the woman sweeps the house until she finds her room: this is how God acts in the world, seeking sinners. The odious and hateful jealousy of one’s own righteousness finds no place in the spirit of heaven where God dwells and reproduces, in the happiness that surrounds him, the reflection of his perfections.
However, although neither the sheep nor the drachma does anything to be found, there is nevertheless a real work carried out in the heart of the one who is brought back; but this work, however necessary it may be for a man to have peace or even to seek it, is not what this peace is based on. Similarly, guilty, at the moment when turning his back on his father, the prodigy son crosses the threshold of the paternal house, that at the time when he eats the pods with the pigs, the man deceived by sin, is presented here in the last state of degradation where sin leads him. For having spent all that has fallen to him according to nature, the destitution in which he finds himself (more than one soul feels the famine he has attracted upon himself, the emptiness of all that surrounds him without a desire after God or holiness, and often in the degradation of sin) does not push him towards God, but leads him to seek a resource in what Satan’s land provides him, where nothing is given; and it is with the stalks.
But grace acts, the thought of happiness that was in her father’s house awakens in her heart, as well as that of goodness that made everything blessed around her. For when the Spirit of God acts, there are always two things: conviction in the consciousness and attraction of the heart. It is truly God’s revelation to the soul, and God is light and He is love; as light, conviction is produced in the soul, but as love there is the attraction of goodness and true confession is produced. It is not simply that we have sinned, but that we are dealing with God, restrained while desiring Him, by fear of what He is, and yet we are led to go. This produces the conviction that one perishes, and a perhaps but real weak feeling, of God’s goodness and happiness that is in His presence, although one is not guaranteed to be received: but one does not remain where one perishes. There is a feeling of sin and humiliation, a feeling that there is goodness in God, but not yet a sense of what God’s grace is: it attracts, one goes to God, but one would be happy to be received as a servant – proof that, although the heart has been worked by grace, it has not yet met God.
But the progress of the soul in spiritual things, though real, never gives peace. There is a certain rest of the heart that arises from returning to God, but we do not know what welcome we will find after the abandonment of God of which we are guilty. The closer the prodigal child gets to home, the more his heart must beat at the thought of his meeting with his father. But the father takes the lead before his arrival, and acts towards his son, not according to the merits of the latter, but according to his heart as a father to him, the only measure of God’s ways towards us. He is on his son’s neck still in his rags, before he could say, “Treat me like one of your mercenaries.” The son, the object of such a welcome, could no longer speak like this: it was the request of a heart, anticipating how he would be received, and not of a soul who had encountered God. For the servants are invited to bring the most beautiful robe and put it on.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
The parable of the lost and found drachma:
· Economy
Gen 41:35-36 Let them gather all the products of those good years to come; let them make, under the authority of Pharaoh, piles of wheat, supplies in the cities, and have custody of them. 36 These provisions shall be in reserve for the country, for the seven years of famine which will arrive in the land of Egypt, so that the country is not consumed by famine. Pr 21:20 Precious treasures and oil are in the abode of the wise; But the foolish man swallows them up. John 6:12 When they were satiated, He said to His disciples, pick up the remaining pieces, that nothing might be lost.
· Diligence, virtue of the business world
Pr 10:4 He who acts with a cowardly hand becomes impoverished, but the hand of the diligent enriches. Pr 13:4 The soul of the sloth has desires that he cannot satisfy; But the souls of diligent men will be satiated. Pr 22:29 If you see a skilful man in his work, He stands with kings; He does not stand with obscure people. 2 Pet 3:14 Therefore, beloved, in waiting for these things, strive to be found by him spotless and irreprehensible in peace.
· Innocent rejoicing
Neh 8:12 And all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions, and to indulge in great rejoicing. For they had understood the words that had been explained to them. Pr 17:22 A joyful heart is a good remedy, but a dejected spirit dries out the bones. Lk 6:25 Woe to you who are satiated, for you will be hungry! Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will be in mourning and in tears! John 4:9 Feel your misery; be in mourning and tears; may your laughter turn into mourning, and your joy into sadness.
· Heavenly Joy
-The incarnation of Christ Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly he joined the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying:14 Glory to God in the highest places, And peace on earth among the men whom he approves!
The return of the repentant sinner Luke 15:7 Likewise, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven for a single sinner who repents, than for ninety-nine righteous who do not need repentance.
-The elevation of the Lamb Rev 5:9-10 And they sang a new hymn, saying: You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; for you have been immolated, and you have redeemed for God by your blood men of every tribe, language, people, and nation; 10 you have made of them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign over the earth.
-The meeting of the saints in heaven Rev 14:2-3 And I heard from heaven a voice, like a sound of big waters, like the sound of a great thunder; and the voice I heard was like that of harp players playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new hymn before the throne, and before the four living beings and the old men. And no one could learn the hymn, except the one hundred and forty-four thousand, which had been redeemed from the earth.
-The triumph of righteousness Rev 19:6 And I heard as a voice of a large crowd, as a sound of great waters, and as a sound of loud thunders, saying: Hallelujah! For the Lord our Almighty God has entered into His kingdom.
From all of the above, we note that if we are loved and welcomed by God into our miseries, we are clothed in Christ to be introduced into the House of the Father; we do not bring this best robe; our God and Father provide it to us; it is an entirely new thing: it is Christ himself; and we become justice of God in Him. It is the most beautiful dress in the sky! Everything is now joy, except in the man of his own righteousness, the true Jew. Joy is the joy of the father, but the whole house participates in it. The eldest son who is not in the house, although close, refuses to enter it: he does not want the grace that makes a poor prodigal the subject of the joy of love. Nevertheless, grace acts; the father goes out to beg him to enter. Thus, under the Gospel, God has done it for the Jew: but the righteousness of man, who is only selfishness and sin, rejects grace. Now, God does not want to abandon the latter, which is proper to his nature: God wants to be God; and he is love. This replaces the claims of the Jews who rejected the Lord and the fulfillment of promises in Him. What gives peace and characterizes our position according to grace are not the feelings acting in our hearts and which really exist, but those of God himself. Thus, the parable of the woman who seeks a drachma that she has lost still presents God’s love for the lost sinner. Here again, all the activity comes from the one who seeks, because a coin can come back even less from its wandering than a sheep. To find man in this state of unconsciousness, God must do all that is necessary by the power of the Holy Spirit whose activity the woman represents precisely. Then the Holy Spirit “lighting the lamp” set to work diligently and found us in our darkness and dust. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” the parable of children in the public square.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.