Luke 15: 8 – 9
“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin which I had lost!’
Luke 15 is all about lost and found from beginning to end.
This Lost Silver Coin parable is preceded in the chapter by the parable of the shepherd who had lost one of his 100 sheep, leaving the 99 to find the one that was lost. (v.4- 6)
It is then followed by the parable of the prodigal son where the father eagerly forgives the son when he returns home, telling the other brother, “your brother was dead and is alive, and was lost and is found.’” (v.32)
Title: THE MISSING LINK
- The Lost Coin
- The Intense Search
- Finding the Missing Link
- The Search Is Over
In Luke 15 verses 8-10, a woman loses one of her ten coins. They were part of a “semedi” (pls show picture), a beautiful headdress a woman would be given by her betrothed. It represented their coming marriage or marriage. It was a symbol of their commitment to one another. To lose one of the ten coins set in that headdress was traumatic.
I. THE LOST COIN
“…she has ten silver coins and loses one coin…”
The Situation:
The woman in this parable could not celebrate because of a lost coin. The Bible does not say directly that she is sorrowful but there is something missing that when she was able to find it, there was a reason for rejoicing.
These ten silver coins may have been from the woman’s marriage dowry or a family inheritance. Besides their significant monetary value, the coins may have held sentimental value, and to lose one would have been extremely distressing.
Rejoicing is one of the marks of a righteous man.
Joy is essential to a believer’s life.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It is one of the signs of salvation.
Why could she not rejoice with what she was left with?
The Significance of the coins:
Order and completion are needed for true rejoicing.
The number 10:
- Represents God’s authority over mankind.
- Represents the perfection of divine order.
- Represents the completeness of order.
- It is connected to creation.
- It is connected to redemption.
In Judaism, rabbis regard the number 10 as a cohesive system of smaller parts that combine to create something whole.
The Silver Coins:
The Silver was invaluable.
These silver coins were typically given to the bride by her father or husband when she is married. This headband served several functions:
– It declared her status as a married women.
– Those coins also declared her independence. They were a constant reminder to her husband that if he divorced her, she was able to make a fresh start.
– It was used to identify sinful women.
– These coins were there to bring glory to the bride. As long as that coin was missing, her beauty was marred and incomplete.
That coin was precious to this woman. It was just one piece of silver, but it was worth everything.
– The silver coin symbolizes value. It filled an important place in her life.
God is complete with or without you and me, but we can never be complete when there is something missing. Silver coins point to our status, identity, glory, value and completeness.
The woman here does not represent God but Israel who has lost her link to God. She has lost her silver coin – the status as the chosen one, identity as child, the glory and completeness as a nation.
If Israel lost her link, like a branch that was cut off from the vine and we were put there as replacements, we might have lost our link.
One of the signs of a lost silver coin is a joyless life.
II. THE INTENSE SEARCH.
“…light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully…”
When this woman realizes that a coin has been lost, she springs into action to see that it is restored. She lights a light, begins to move things about and to sweep and search the house until the coin is found.
She had a WILL to find it, she WORKED to find it and in the end, she WON because she found it.
In Jesus’ day, the houses in Israel were not very big, and they were also very dark. Most were tiny and did not have windows to let in natural light. The floor would have been full of dirt, which can crack, leaving lots of nooks for a coin to fall into. If it were only an ordinary coin, she would have let it go. But this coin was more than a small circle of silver to her. It was priceless.
Where did she lose it?
– The coin was lost in the DARKNESS. It was lost in the black darkness of spiritual ignorance. Lost through SIN
– It was lost in the DIRT. When a coin was lost in the dirt, the image of the ruler on that coin would be hidden and marred. Lost through PAIN
– It was lost in DISUSE. Lost through NEGLECT
– It was lost in theDWELLING. We should not allow the presence of God to leave our homes. Lost through FEAR
When this coin goes missing, this woman sets about the business of finding it. She makes up her mind to do whatever it takes to find her lost coin.
Her reason was that this one coin was of immeasurable value to her. She was willing to do anything to see it restored.
Application: Are we doing something to restore what is missing in our life? When we lose the most important one, we also lose the meaning of the rest. And we should make up our minds to do whatever it takes to find it.
III. FINDING THE MISSING LINK
“when she has found it…”
The 10 silver coins is the 10 commandments. Everything else has its value because of that one coin, but it was missing. The first commandment, “I, The LORD, Am your God, you shall not have other God’s before me” is the foundation of the other commandments.
Israel lost God because they turned their backs on Him. They transgressed the first and the highest command. They have lost their completeness and so they must restore it.
But how did Israel lose God? IDOLATRY.
God came to a point that He had to allow Israel to be put to shame and become a disgrace because of idolatry.
As the woman sweeps and search until she finds, Israel must sweep and search until he finds. The Scripture says, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.(Isaiah 55: 6- 7)
When Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, He demonstrated that His search for you is individualized. As the Good Shepherd, He carries you on His shoulders individually as if you were the only person on the face of the Earth.
And in the parable of the lost son, He shows us how he waits for our return home and how ready He is to welcome us with a feast. That’s what makes Him the Almighty God, the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving God.
In those 2 parables the “lost” was OUTSIDE. But in this parable about the lost coin, note that the woman searches INSIDE the house. God is speaking to believers in the church.
What is your missing link? What is your lost coin? For Israel it was the 1st Commandment. For us, might be one of the 10 commandments. You need to SWEEP your HOUSE and SEARCH CAREFULLY.
What is “sweep the house and search carefully?”
“Sweep” means to sweep clean. “House” means, a dwelling; the inmates of a house, the family; property, wealth, goods.
“Search” or seek implies a search for something hidden which involves the idea of urgent need. “Carefully” means diligently.
Sweep clean your dwelling, your family, your property, wealth and goods. Search for the urgent need diligently, not carelessly.
Application: We must find our lost coin which is the missing link. We must search our lives diligently on the area where we lost it. It could be in the area of the sin of omission and sin of commission. We must have omitted that which is needful and committed that which is sinful. We must sweep our lives clean.
IV. THE SEARCH IS OVER.
“…I have found the coin which I had lost!’”
She found the coin that would complete her semedi – her status, her identity and her value. And it was time for a celebration. One day we will have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and we need the semedi – the complete coins. We are to present ourselves blameless (without spot or wrinkle) before the bridegroom.
We are supposed to live life to the fullest by having the semedi but many have lost their silver coin in the dark. And we are struggling, making every effort to find it, sweeping and searching, to no avail.
Only in the presence of LIGHT was the woman able to find the missing coin.
We need light before we can sweep and search to find our lost coin.
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8: 12)
His light pierced through the darkness during his life on earth. “The people who were dwelling in darkness have seen a brilliant light; and in those who were dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, on them light was dawned.” (Matthew 4: 16)
Jesus was that LIGHT for the woman who found her lost silver coin. He came into the dark, dusty, dwelling of Israel to bring back their semedi – completeness, life to the fullest. John 10:10, “I came that may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Jesus, our Greater Light, the Light of the World came. And his life was the light of mankind. He was the light that shines in the darkness and He was nailed on the cross throughout the darkest day to expose the devil’s work of blinding our eyes from finding what we have lost. Since the presence of light removes darkness, Jesus came in and went through the greatest darkness which is death and destroyed its power when He rose from the dead.
If his light pierced through the darkness of death, He is the only way to find our missing coin, our link to completeness.
CONCLUSION:
God was so gracious to Israel when He gave the 10 commandments. Even though it was law, there was grace. He is so gracious to write what He expects so that people can have life. But they lost one.
The parable of the lost silver coins is also about our life. We may have lost 1 or 2 coins. No wonder we can’t live life fully. We need to know how and why we lost our silver coin. We may be living in the darkness of ignorance and sin. When we know we lost it we must sweep our house and search diligently for it.
So God sent His own Son to us to bring light into our darkness. Jesus, the Light of the World is our greater light that enables us to find that which we have lost.
