“Lost” is a little word with enormous meaning. We use it spiritually, relationally, materially, athletically, financially, and in just about every other way you can imagine. In its ultimate sense, lost means to be estranged from God and the life He desires for us, but it’s quite possible to be in relationship with God and have some lostness in your life in other ways. In fact, I think we all do and will until we see Him face to face.
But we’re not alone in this.
I think God experiences lostness as well. Even though He is perfect in every way, He feels the lostness of His creation—of all people who are alienated from Him (Ezekiel 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9. This is why all heaven celebrates when one who was lost comes home. That person experiences restoration and in a lesser sense, so do we.
Then there’s the lostness of just being . . . well, out of sorts. Something isn’t quite right. Maybe you know what it is, maybe you don’t. We’re anxious and we don’t know why or we’re feeling down and out but can’t put our finger on what exactly is going on. Welcome to life, right?
All lostness (whether it’s in the ultimate or a lesser sense) goes back to the garden in one way or another. Sin entered the world and lostness followed. We were alienated from God, from each other, even from ourselves. Since that time lostness has been on display in all its forms.
We find ultimate lostness in the gospels in obvious places—Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus—even the criminal on the cross. Then at times we find it in where we’d expect, but in more forms than we expected. This is true in two of Jesus’ most well-known and beloved parables (The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Sons) There’s lostness everywhere you look.
In this parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s obvious that the traveler (“the man going down from Jerusalem” – v. 30) is lost. He had been attacked by thieves and left on the side of the road. He’s needed someone to rescue him. But he is not the only one who is lost. The “expert in the law” (Luke 10:25) whose conversation with Jesus prompted Christ to tell the parable is lost in his self-deceit. After he told Jesus the greatest command in the law was to love God and to love your neighbor, he tried to muddy the waters by asking who his neighbor was (v. 29). Luke tells us he did this because “he wanted to justify himself” (v. 29)—he was trying to excuse his failure to practice what he knew to be true. He was more concerned about “appearing right” than actually getting it right!
We’ve all known the lostness of duplicity. When we’ve said one thing but acted in another way. This does two things: it sets us at odds with the world around us, but it also sets us at odds with the world within us. We lose some of our self-respect because we know we haven’t been truthful to God or ourselves.
If we don’t make a course correction, it leads more unraveling. This is why faith matters are off-limits to some people—they gave up on maintaining any kind of personal integrity and don’t want to be reminded of that in any way, shape, or fashion. Some of the most militant voices against faith are from people whose rejection of truth has turned into resentment of faith.
The priest and the Levite were in a similar situation as the expert in the law. Perhaps they had just served in some capacity at the temple in Jerusalem. Perhaps they wanted to protect their ritual cleanliness. Whatever the case was, they failed to show the man mercy. They whiffed in understanding that God desires mercy over sacrifice (Matthew 9:13, 12:7; Hosea 6:6). This is why they were fragmented and the Samaritan was whole. This non-Jewish person was the only one in the parable who’s actually put the Torah into practice in the way God intended!
When we turn to the parable of the prodigal sons, we’re on more familiar ground in terms of thinking about lostness. We’re certainly accustomed to seeing the younger brother (the one who leaves home) as lost until he makes the decision to return to his father’s house. We also understand the older brother is lost as well since he has no appreciation for his brother’s return home. His heart is nowhere near God’s who throws a party when that which was lost is found (15:7,10, 24,32).
Most helpful to us is that God is represented by the father in the story. He has a lost son who is physically away and a lost son who is living in the house with Him. This affects him—he is lost in his grief—it can be no other way! The opposite is also true. When his son comes home, he has a profound sense of joy because he has been found.
This is one of the points where the parable speaks to us. If we have our Father’s heart, then His concerns are our concerns. And what is His concern? Like any parent, He wants those who are lost to be reconciled to Him. And until that happens, He is “lost”—mourning for his estranged children to be reconciled to Him.
When Jesus spoke of those who mourned being blessed, I think this was part of what He was talking about. We mourn the sin in our lives, but also in the lives of others. Jesus did this is (Luke 19:41ff). Paul did it (Romans 9:2-3). He told the Corinthians they should be doing it (1 Corinthians 5:1-2).
So, you’re feeling a little lost, are you? It could be a wakeup call for you if you are lost like some the characters in these two parables. If you’re feeling lost because of someone else’s estrangement from God, it’s a healthy thing. And if you’re feeling lost because you’re just a little out of sorts with some circumstances of life, that’s okay too. It just means we have a continual need for Jesus and He’s more than up to the task of helping us sort things out!
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 