Luke 15:8-10, The Parable of the Lost Coin

Book of Luke Christian Mission Sermons
/ By Randall Johnson

The Parable of the Lost Coin

⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Parable of the Lost Coin (15:8-10)

Structure

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins

A and loses one

B Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it

C she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me

B’ I have found the coin

A’ which I had lost

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents

Exposition

Unlike the parable of the lost sheep the theme of joy is not doubled; there is no burden of restoration. Once the coin is found it is restored. But the theme is still in the center and at the end, so is the climax of the parable.
The scarcity of money in the hands of the people makes the loss a sad event. Such peasant communities are self-sufficient, making their own cloth and growing their own food. Cash is a rare commodity.
Coin may be a part of the woman’s dowry. Bedouin women wear their dowry in the form of coins hanging on their veils, but village women usually make a necklace. The beauty of the necklace as a whole would be hurt if one coin was lost.
The movement of peasant women in the community is extremely limited, so she knows the coin is in the house somewhere and can be found, if so, by sweeping the lightly packed dirt floor.
Using a woman as an illustration requires a decision to reject the Pharisaic attitude toward women in society as inferiors.
Two aspects of the imagery in the parable of the Lost Sheep are intensified in this one: relative value of the thing lost (one in ten, not one in a hundred; and perhaps a value beyond its actual worth), and a more narrowly confined place of search (the lost one can certainly be found if one puts out sufficient effort).

About the Author Randall Johnson

A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.

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