The Value of One

As Christians we hold that every single individual is of value. Luke 15:1-10 speaks to why we value each individual.

Read Luke 15:1-10

In this passage, we are told sinners and tax collectors were “coming near to listen” to Jesus as he taught. They are drawn to him. They want to hear him. But this irritates the religious leaders and they begin to grumble, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” And so, to help the religious leaders understand why he welcomes sinners, Jesus tells them two parables: one about a lost sheep and one about a lost coin.

If they had a hundred sheep, and one went missing, wouldn’t they go out and search for that one sheep until they found it? Of course, they would. If a woman had ten coins, and lost one. She would turn on the lights, sweep everything clean and carefully search for that one coin, until she found it.

Notice the nice, round numbers that Jesus uses: a hundred sheep, ten coins. Those nice, round numbers are important because they signify completion, perfection. Now, we don’t live in a perfect world. Sometimes close enough to perfect is good enough for us. Let’s say I have a busy day ahead of me and so I make a list. On my list I have a hundred things to do. If I get ninety-nine of those one hundred things done, I’m going to consider that a pretty good day. Ninety-nine out of a hundred, not bad. Not bad at all.

But, according to these parables, God’s not looking at things that way. God doesn’t discount that one simply because he has ninety-nine. No, God’s going to go in search of the missing one. Why? Because every single individual person is of unsurpassable value to God.

When God creates humanity, God creates the individual human in the divine image. And yet, each individual is different. That means there is no one just like you. There has never been anyone just like you, and there will never be another one just like you. Each one of us are a unique glimpse into the wonder and beauty and goodness of an infinite God. So, God isn’t looking at you saying, “Ah, it doesn’t matter about her, it doesn’t matter about him. I’ve got a bunch more just like her. I’ve got thousands just like him.” No, he doesn’t have another one just like you. You are it. And so, you are considered precious, invaluable to the One who created you.

Or, think about our Lord’s Incarnation. I imagine our Lord could have come into the world in any number of ways. Maybe he could have come into this world as a bright light that engulfs everyone at once. Or, maybe our Lord could have come into this world as a loud voice that everyone hears all at once. But that’s not how he comes into this world. He comes into this world as an individual person, located at a particular time, in a particular place. He was an individual person, just like you or me. And why does he come into this world as an individual person? He comes into this world as an individual person because that is who God loves and that is who God sent the Son to redeem, individual people.

Now who do the religious leaders tend to value? If God values each individual person, who do they value? It’s pretty clear from this passage (and others) that the religious leaders had a tendency to carve the world into two groups: the righteous and the sinners. As Christians, that may sound odd to us, I hope it sounds odd to us. As Christians, we are so used to this idea that all have sinned and fallen short, that no one is righteous from God’s perspective. In other words, everyone is in need of grace. But for these religious leaders there was this distinction between sinners and the righteous.

To them, the ones of value, the ones that God values are the righteous. So, they had a tendency to discount those who they considered sinners. If sinners were not loved by God, why should they love them? So, part of what Jesus is doing is giving the lie to this assumption that God doesn’t care about those that they considered to be sinners. On the contrary, if all people were righteous and there was only one sinner left, the Lord would go in search of that one sinner.

And you can see this difference between how God views things and how these religious leaders view things in the passage itself. Jesus is drawing these sinners to himself. He welcomes them. Whereas, if the religious leaders had their way, Jesus would repel the sinners, Jesus would push them away. But that’s not what’s happening. He welcomes them. And not only that, he welcomes them with joy.

That’s the other part about these two parables. There is a stark contrast between the joy expressed in the parables and the grumbling of the religious leaders. When the shepherd finds the sheep and the woman finds the coin, they both call all their friends together and say, “Hey, this is so wonderful, it was lost but now I’ve found it, Rejoice with me! Let’s celebrate this wonderful thing!” And that’s kind of the rub to this passage. It’s as if Jesus is saying to the religious leaders, “Why aren’t you rejoicing with me that these sinners and tax collectors are gathering around me? Why aren’t you celebrating the fact that they have come to hear about God’s kingdom? You’re grumbling about it when you should be rejoicing with me.” And that’s really the irony of this passage. Why would they resent God’s love for sinners?

A couple years back there was a tourist bus in Iceland that had stooped to look at a volcanic canyon. As they were preparing to leave, they notice that one of the tourists, a woman, was missing. The bus driver waited and waited and eventually they called the police. Search parties were organized and off they went looking for this missing woman. A helicopter arrived to help, they had people in vehicles looking, people on foot looking, including the rest of the tourists who also joined the search.

After several hours the authorities called off the search because they discovered the missing woman wasn’t really missing. She was actually in one of the search parties that was looking for the missing woman. In other words, she was looking for herself; although, she didn’t realize at the time. Apparently, when they stopped to look at the volcano, she decided she would change clothes and freshen up. Well, the other passengers didn’t recognize her, and so they panicked. As time went on, she realized she fit the description. When she was being interviewed she said, and I quote, “I had no idea that I was missing.”

That’s much like what is happening in this passage. The religious leaders, when they think of a sinner, they think Jesus is referring to someone else. They’re looking for someone else. It never seems to occur to them that they might be that lost sheep, that they might be that lost coin.

The religious leaders want to carve the world into groups and then stand in the place of God and say, “This group is loved by God, this group is not." And Jesus says, "That’s a lie." If every single person in the world were righteous but one, the Lord would go in search of that one. From God's perspective, every single individual is of inestimable value. And, every single individual is loved by God. And, therefore, so it is with us.