part 3 of “At The Movies”
Once again, I am not going into detail and the movie plot. The reason this time is simple… it’s a newer movie and I’ve only seen it once. So I really can’t run down the plot in detail. But what I can do is what I am more familiar with and that is the plot of Luke 15. But before we get into Luke 15, I wanted to share with you a simple quote from the movie “Uncharted”.
“Lost. Not gone. There’s a difference. If something is lost it can be found.” [1]
This quote really stood out to me when I heard it in the movie theatre. I quickly got out my phone and typed into my notes app. I also immediately thought of Luke 15. Luke 15 is commonly said to be the “lost chapter” of the gospel of Luke. The reason it has gotten this nickname is because the chapter deals with Jesus telling three parables regarding lost things - a sheep, a coin, and a son. All three of the stories follow the idea of the quote from the movie. The things in the parables weren’t gone, they were lost which means they could be found. We are going to take a look at the first seven verses of Luke 15 in this post. But I encourage you to read the rest of Luke 15.
First, let’s look at the setting of what is going on:
“Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.” - Luke 15:1 NLT
In this verse, we can see the setting. Jesus is teaching a group of people. We also know who those people are - tax collectors and notorious sinners. I am sure there were other people there as well. The reason I say that is by this time in Jesus’ ministry, He was already having groups of people following Him because they had heard of the things He had done, to hear Him teach, and see the things He might do. So it is safe to assume here that there were probably some other people there besides the ones referenced. Luke goes on:
“This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!” - Luke 15:2 NLT
This verse gives us two different viewpoints. One of the viewpoints is clear because of how the verse is written. The other viewpoint is not stated in the verse but can be understood because of who Jesus is and what He was on Earth to do. So let’s look at these two different viewpoints.
VIEWPOINT #1 - GONE NOT LOST.
The Pharisees and religious leaders present at this teaching of Jesus had already determined that the sinners there listening to Jesus were gone. They were sinners and that’s all they ever were going to be. They would never be anything else. They were hopeless. So because of this mindset, they could not understand why Jesus would be talking with them and hanging around them.
VIEWPOINT #2 - LOST NOT GONE
Jesus knew that the people there listening to Him were not gone. They weren’t hopeless. They could be more. They could be better and be something other than just another sinner. Jesus knew that they were just lost and could be found - if someone would just search for them. Jesus was with them because He knew that’s where He needed to be to find those that were lost. In the bigger picture, Jesus’ whole reason for coming to Earth was to “seek and save the lost” and to “save people from their sin.” [2] This is why He was with them! Jesus then tells a brief parable to answer the murmurs of the Pharisees.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” - Luke 15:4-7 NLT
Jesus didn’t come to Earth to seek out the people that already had it together or thought that they did. Jesus came to seek out the ones who were lost and needed to be found. If you look through the Gospels, Jesus was always with people that He shouldn’t have been around. This wasn’t the first time that Jesus had upset the Pharisees over the people He chose to associate with. This was one of many things on a long list that lead to the Jewish leaders formulating a plot to kill Jesus (John 11:53) [3].
Jesus knew that people weren’t gone. They were just lost and could be found. The next parable of the Lost Coin shows that even when we are found we can sometimes get lost again and need to be found again. The parable of the Lost Son shows this though even further and that sometimes we can be lost for years, but we can always be found.
That is amazing and wonderful news!! We have a Savior in Jesus that will always seek us out. He will always find us when we are lost. He knows that just because we are lost we aren’t gone and something to be forgotten. He knows that because we are lost, we just need to be found.
Because - “If something is lost it can be found.” [1]
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[1] Uncharted, 2022
[2] Luke 19:10 and Mathew 1:21
[3] To see full the conversation of the Jewish leaders see John 11:45-57
