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WORDS for the SHEPHERDS: LUKE 15 by John H. Niemelä

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WORDS for the SHEPHERDS: LUKE 15 by John H. Niemelä WORDS FOR THE SHEPHERDS: LUKE 15 by John H. Niemelä Introduction As Christ attended to tax collectors and sinners in Luke 15:1–2, the Pharisees and scribes complained, This man receives sinners and eats with them.1 Jesus responded with a single parable having three distinct venues: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.2 Few parables are as seemingly transparent, yet so easily misunderstood and needing careful study as Luke 15:4–32. Confusion results from overlooking concerns in three primary areas, the relationships between: 1. God the Father and Israel, 2. God the Son and lost sheep, 3. Christ and the Pharisees.3 Careful consideration reveals both a magnificent casting of characters by our Lord and message relevant to those shepherding His flock today. 1 Unless otherwise noted all Scripture references are from the New King James Version (NKJV), 1982. 2 Lewis Sperry Chafer, He that is Spiritual: A Classic Study of the Biblical Doctrine of Spirituality, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967), 79–80, correctly sees Luke 15 as one parable, not three. 3 Randy C. Hillman, “Three Lost Objects: Yet Another Look at Luke 15,” CTS Journal 7 (July–September 2001): 21–33; and CTS Journal 7 (October–December 2001): 25–38. Hillman urges relaxing assumptions about lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son being believers. This article relaxes these assumptions, but observes evidence for concluding that they are believers, nonetheless. Despite concluding differently, Niemelä and Hillman approach the passage more similarly than many would expect. Readers need to examine both cases closely. 40 CTS Journal 7 (October–December 2001) An Insight into Parables The hearer of a parable may need help in determining role assignments. In 2 Samuel 12:1–5, David did not recognize himself as the villain, so he unwittingly pronounced judgment on himself. [Nathan] said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man. Then Nathan confronted David, You are the man (verse 7). Similarly, Jesus told The Parable of the Good Samaritan to a lawyer who asked Him to define neighbor. Only the Samaritan treated as neighbor the Jew who fell among thieves (Luke 10:36–37). What a shock! The Samaritan kept the law, unlike the priest and the Levite. Within the confines of the parable, that self- justifying lawyer (cf. verse 29) could almost have wished that he were the Samaritan.4 A parable’s role assignment may challenge a commoner to see life as if he were king (Luke 14:31). Still another may transform a Pharisee into a shepherd or a woman (Luke 15). In other words, the one telling the parable has complete autonomy in casting characters. Casting any hearer’s role may (or may not) resemble the person’s actual station in life. 4 The lawyer avoided saying “The Samaritan was neighbor to the one who fell among the thieves.” Even so, he caught the point. Words for the Shepherds 41 Sometimes the character assignments were obvious to the original hearers; sometimes, they were not. Christ offered three levels of interpretive assistance in His parables: 1. He may not explain who the characters represent (e.g., The Pearl of Great Price, Matthew 13:45–46), 2. He may not identify the characters in the parable itself, but do so in His explanation (e.g., The Parable of the Soils, Matthew 13:3–9 and 18–23), 3. He may identify characters in the parable itself (e.g., Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son, Luke 15:4). The phrase What man of you having a hundred sheep. ? identifies characters. Although the Pharisees did not tend sheep in real life, that is their assigned role in the parable.5 Before looking at Luke 15, consider other passages where Jesus assigns roles through rhetorical questions: In Luke 11:5 the disciples are to imagine asking a friend at midnight for some bread to feed an unexpected houseguest. Which of you [disciples, cf. verse 1] shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves. ?” They needed to understand persistent prayer, so He cast them as a petitioner facing a predicament in the middle of night. Luke 14:5 poses a dilemma for lawyers and Pharisees by assigning them the role of one owning a donkey or an ox. Which of you [lawyers and Pharisees, cf. verse 3], having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? 5 It matters not whether Pharisees liked or despised real-life shepherds; Christ assigned that role to them in the parable. 42 CTS Journal 7 (October–December 2001) Whether any of them actually owned such an animal is not germane. Jesus was about to heal a man with dropsy on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1–3), so He poses a quandary. And they could not answer Him regarding these things (verse 6). He forced the leaders to identify with His role and to see the issue from His standpoint. Just as He healed on the Sabbath, so they would rescue their own animal on the Sabbath. They could not condemn Him without indicting themselves. Luke 14:28 uses the public humiliation that leaving a tower unfinished to challenge His disciples. which of you [disciples, cf. verses 26 and 33], intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost. ? Believers seeking to follow Christ must consider the costs of discipleship: Poor planning will be evident to all. Jesus wanted the apostles to see themselves from His perspective in Luke 17:7. Therefore, He reversed roles, portraying each disciple as a master owning a servant. And which of you [apostles], having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and sit down to eat”? They would rightly expect their servant to be at their beck-and-call through the evening, even after he labored all day. Whenever Jesus assigns roles to listeners, it is to drive home His point through identification with a particular character and his dilemma. No parable assigns vacillating roles, because Jesus is not fickle.6 6 At the end of the Luke 17:7–9 parable, Jesus used likewise to return them to their real-life role, unworthy servants. Even so, throughout the whole parable, the disciples were to see themselves as the master, not the servant. Roles remain fixed for the whole parable. Roles do not switch in the middle of a play or a parable. Words for the Shepherds 43 One Parable with Three Venues Luke 15 is a single parable, which rebukes the Pharisees and scribes.7 This one parable has three distinct venues. First Venue—Shepherd with His Sheep: So He spoke this parable to them, saying: What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them (Luke 15:3–4). The first venue invites the Pharisees and scribes to understand themselves in the role that God has assigned to the nation’s leaders, under-shepherds to His flock. Thus, Jesus initially let His critics see themselves under the scriptural mandate of shepherding the flock. They needed to see what Christ already knew: a shepherd cannot ignore a lost sheep. Second Venue—Woman with Her Coins: Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin (Luke 15:8). The parable applies a second venue, the ordinary features of a household, to correct the Pharisees. Would Christ be faithful to His Father’s household, if He failed to seek out the lost coin? The Pharisees failed, but He did not. Third Venue—A Father and His Two Sons: Then He said: A certain man had two sons (Luke 15:11). This venue actually invites the Pharisees and scribes to understand the point more intimately by telling a story of a father with two sons. Lest He offend them unnecessarily, the Lord does not single-out any individual among His critics. Even so, everyone (both Christ’s friends and His foes) could intimately relate this venue to their own lives as fathers having their own sons. In regard to Christ Himself, He made attending to God’s children in need of repentance a priority. Regardless of venue the parable does not change, nor does the indictment against Christ’s would-be accusers. Christ remains the standard of judgment for weighing the Pharisees and scribes. 7 Chafer, Spiritual, 79–80, rightly sees Luke 15 as a single parable. 44 CTS Journal 7 (October–December 2001) They were shepherds who failed to seek out lost sheep; householders who squandered God’s resources; and fathers who had disowned their own sons. God the Father The first two venues depict the Father possessing national Israel through owning the sheep and the coins.
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