Lottery Ticket

The New York State Lottery had a big winner last month. Big. Millions of dollars big. It was confirmed that one person—no sharing involved!!—bought the winning ticket a couple of days before the drawing. The only problem is that the winning ticket is lost.

Now, if it were me, if I had knowingly bought a lottery ticket and there was even a small chance that it was the winning piece of paper, I would be searching high and low for it. I would check every pocket of every pair of jeans I owned even if I hadn't worn them in years. My purse would be dumped out and all the contents would be sorted through. I would clean out the dryer's lint catcher even if that meant only finding pieces of the ticket. Nothing would keep me from searching for it.

That reminds me of a parable that Jesus told in Luke 15. In His story He shares three different situations where something is lost and how the owners go about looking for them.

The first is the lost sheep. The shepard has 100 sheep in this flock and one goes missing. When he finds the absent one, he breaks his legs and “he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” (v. 5-6)

The second is about a woman who loses one of her ten coins. She hires an overnight cleaning crew to come and search the house high and low looking for it. She finds the misplaced money and “calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’” (v.9)

The final story is about losing something even more serious and heart breaking. This story is about a man who loses one of his sons. One day the man's younger son asks his dad for his inheritance so he can go away and “live the good life.” He runs off to Vegas (OK. OK. Maybe not Vegas) and squanders away all of his money. His dad's money. He wakes up one day to discover he is broke. He is hungry. He is desperate.

The son realizes his predicament and wisely chooses to move back home. His dad, of course, welcomes him home with open arms. Actually it was more like “his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (v. 20) And I am sure he picked up his phone and called all of his friends to inform them that his son had come home and it was time to rejoice. Then he got on Face Book and posted “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” (v 23) and invited everyone over to the biggest backyard BBQ he had ever thrown.


All of these examples Jesus gives us is to remind us of how He feels when a lost soul is found. When someone puts their trust in Him and His power to save them from hell. Each illustration given is a glimpse of how we are to rejoice when one of our loved ones comes to know Jesus. How we are to be searching for the lost ones. High and low. Across the valley. Under the bed. Across the street. At the grocery store. Or even in the next cubicle.


We need to search for those who don't know Him. Then when they become believers we are to call all our friends, rejoice, and have a party. Just like I am sure the owner of the missing lottery ticket will do when he finally finds it.