Jesus Spends All Day Sweeping

A Few Thoughts on the Character of Jesus from the Parables

In Luke 15, Jesus told three stories that are familiar to all of us - perhaps too familiar at times. The first story is about a man who loses one sheep and leaves the ninety-nine to search for the lost sheep until he find it. When he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders, carries it home, and throws a party celebrating its return.

In the second story, a woman loses one coin. Similarly, she lights a lamp and carefully sweeps the house until she finds the coin. In this parable, like in the first, a sacrifice is made. The man goes into the wilderness to find the sheep. The woman lights the lamp to find the coin, and of course she also throws a party.

In the third story, the father doesn’t leave his estate to find his estranged son, but he does spend his days waiting and watching for his boy. The moment that he sees him, he runs to him, falls on his neck, kisses him, and before the son can start making excuses or deliver his prepared speech, the father is already calling on his servants to… you guessed it… throw a party.

Jesus spares no expense in finding his lost sheep. He goes into the wilderness until he finds it, placing the lamb on his back. He sweeps the house carefully and rejoices when the coin is secured. And he spends his days waiting and receives us with such extravagance that there is no question about our forgiveness and inclusion in the community.

But the way some talk about Jesus make us forget about the celebrations thrown by the shepherd and the woman or the party thrown by the father that the had undoubtedly been planning since his son left, knowing the end from the beginning. Instead, Jesus is treated like a cruel lord who reaps where he does not sow.

In Matthew 18, Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive his brother - seven times? Jesus’s told Peter to forgive his brother seventy times more than that. Jesus then proceeds to tell a parable about a servant who was forgiven 10,000 talents, which was the price of genocide in Esther 3:9. Instead of forgiving others as he had been forgiven, he treated his fellow servant cruelly, seizing him by the throat and demanding what he was owed.

This is the picture many paint of Jesus. Jesus took on flesh and learned obedience through suffering so that he could… hold it over our heads and treat us cruelly? That’s the impression some give with their checklists, demands, and hair-trigger view of sin and condemnation. But the author of Hebrews says that Jesus took on flesh to release us from fear and to become the source of eternal salvation (Hebrews 2:14-15; Hebrews 5:8-10).

Jesus is the man who searches for his sheep until he finds it. Jesus is the woman who sweeps the house until the coin is found. And Jesus is the father who runs to his son and embraces him with total forgiveness. And, of course, Jesus is the one planning parties and sending invitations to everyone in the “highways” and “the hedges.”

I don’t know about you, but this gives me so much peace.