The following is an excerpt from Larry Parsley’s new devotional, The Living Color of Luke’s Gospel.

Against My Better Judgment (Luke 15:1-10)

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ (15:4-6)

“I say we should cut our losses.” That’s a statement I frequently hear when discussing the business of the church. In fact, I am quite grateful for business-minded lay leaders who help me make tough and prudent decisions about profit and loss. Still, I must conclude from today’s passage that the priorities of Jesus don’t always add up.

Instead of “cut our losses,” I hear a different phrase: “against my better judgment.” That’s what we say, don’t we, when we find ourselves on a risky and time-consuming mission? For the foolish shepherd who risks the safety of the well-behaved ninety-nine to go after the rebellious one? Who brings the derelict sheep home on his shoulders, as if this rogue sheep is, in fact, some lost prince? Has he lost all sense of judgment and propriety?

Against his better judgment, Jesus will not stop searching for bad investments. Against his better judgment, he will not stop celebrating their return. Against his better judgment, he will not cut his losses with these disreputable “tax collectors and sinners” who keep demanding his attention (v. 1). Against his better judgment, Jesus will not stop.

Jesus, I take comfort in your relentless search for lost causes.

Theology in Miniature (Luke 15:11-32)

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (15:31-32)

Imagine for a moment that Christians carry around a truncated Bible in their heads. In this mental Bible are all the verses, stories, and images from Scripture which have made the deepest imprint on us. For so many years, this story of a father’s love for his wayward younger son has resided in the deepest core of my theology. I see the life of faith through its word-pictures: our senseless rebellion against our generous father, the feckless friends and wasted days of sinful living, the spiritual sobriety that begins to emerge when we “come to our senses,” and the wholly undignified running of the father to welcome back his undeserving children. This parable glues all my theology together.

Still, for so many years, I held an abridged view of this parable in my mind. It was for me, all about the younger son who sinned in dramatic, tabloid fashion in Sin City. His older brother, the “good” one, was relegated to the background. It took an unnecessarily long time for me to recognize that his story is also my own.

Sly sinners like the elder brother conceal a seething self-righteousness and absurd resentment and can be “lost” while never venturing all that far from home.

And yet the Father pursues both of us to welcome us back home.

Jesus, your grace brings dead prodigals back to life again (v. 32).

Blessed Are the Shrewd (Luke 16:1-13)

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (16:8-9)

Okay, wait, what? A manager has been skimming off his rich boss. The boss finds out and demands a final accounting before his termination is complete. In the meantime, the manager goes out to make fast friends by lowering the debts owed to the boss. And here’s the kicker: when the boss finds out, he praises the dishonest manager! No wonder that if there is any consensus about this parable, it is that it is the most difficult to interpret. So if you are expecting me to finally solve the puzzle that has stymied so many wise commentators, I am sorry to disappoint you.

Still, maybe just one little thought before I go. The dishonest manager comes to the dead-end of life as he has known it — in this case, a life in service to a master called “Money” (v. 13). His self-talk is filled with weakness and fear (v. 3) — he lacks all the resources he needs to climb out of this hole he has dug for himself. He has made a mess of his past, and his only hope is ingratiating himself to friends who can secure his future.

What this man needs, more than Money, is a friend. How shrewd to cut our losses and to throw ourselves at the mercy of the one who calls Himself our “friend”(John 15:15).

Jesus, give us a holy shrewdness about which Master can truly save us.

COMMENTS

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