The Lost Coin

LUKE 15:8-10
Jesus follows up the parable about the lost sheep with one comparing God's joy at recovering a lost sinner to that of a woman who has recovered a lost silver coin. William Barclay describes the environment and urgency of the woman's search.

The coin in question in this parable was a silver drachma ... It would not be difficult to lose a coin in a Palestinian peasant's house and it might take a long search to find it. The window was not much more than about 18 inches across. The floor was beaten earth covered with dried reeds and rushes; and to look for a coin on a floor like that was very much like looking for a needle in a haystack ...

There are two reasons why the woman may have been eager to find the coin.

(i) It may have been a matter of sheer necessity. It was more than a whole day's wage for a working man in Palestine. These people lived always on the edge of things and very little stood between them and real hunger. This woman may well have searched with intensity because, if she did not find, the family would not eat.

(ii)there may have been a much more romantic reason. The mark of a married woman was a head-dress made of ten silver coins linked together by a silver chain. For years maybe a girl would scrape and save to amass her ten coins, for the headdress was almost the equivalent of her wedding ring. When she had it, it was so inalienably hers that it could not even be taken from her for debt. It may well be that it was one of these coins that the woman had lost, and so she searched for it as any woman would search if she lost her marriage ring.

This parable illustrates the sinner lost through no fault of his own such as those who are unknowingly led astray by others. When we are lost and innocent of blame, we are still lost nonetheless. The road to God can be a hard and long one no matter what the reason. I love the fact that He is anxiously urging us toward him just as the woman is frantically searching for her coin. We never make that journey alone. In fact, in such circumstances, we are just like the silver coin ... not knowing that we even are lost until He picks us up.