The Story of the Lost Coin - through the eyes of a peasant and a bedouin

The Story of the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)

 

Jesus often used parables in pairs. The story of the Lost Sheep revolves around a man; this one - around a woman.

Observe 

 

1. One makes a man, the shepherd the chief actor; the other - a woman.

2. In one, a sheep is lost - outside the fold; in the other - a coin is lost - inside a house.

3. In one, the sheep's ignorance is the cause for the loss; the other, the woman's carelessness.

Nevertheless, each story can stand on its own and on its own right. Each has its own amazing depth and simplicity.

These two stories are viewed by most commentaries as a Double Story:

A woman has ten silver coins; she loses one coin in her house.
She then lights a lamp - sweeps the floor; she seeks diligently until she finds it.

 

 

photo of the Bride's head dress

 

Having found it, she tells her friends and neighbours - and cries, "Rejoice with me -
for I have found my lost coin."

The emphasis is on the preciousness of that coin. - and of the sadness turning to joy when the woman found it.

That lost drachma of a coin was one tenth of her pathetic savings; and one-half of the Temple Tax. But the real value lies far more than the monetary worth of the single coin.

 

# the Beauty of a Necklace as a Whole is not there - when one coin is missing.

 

# a Bride's Betrothal-Wedding Gift - her most precious, treasured gift.
 

 Hence - the intensity of her search. She searches until she found it - followed by Joy.

 

 

 

 

Picture of the Wedding Couple-

A Jew would accept an aggrieved man crawling back to God; but not a God - seeking and searching
No Pharisee would dream of a God - like that.

 

Understand. Appreciate the Cultural Elements

Searching of money of the poor makes the loss of a coin a sad event. Most peasant villages are self supporting.

They make their own cloth; grow their own food. Hence the loss of a silver coin is of greater value in the homes of these peasant women. 

 

Kenneth Bailey who lived and worked amongst Middle Eastern Culture for over 20 years says that
"a distinction must be made between a bedouin and a villager. Bedouin women wear their dowry in the form of coins hanging on their veils.

 

Village women do not. Village women, however do wear coins on necklaces."

The Coin can be found. Movements of peasant women in village houses are extremely limited - as most houses are crammed. The woman has not been out; the coin has to be in the house. It can be found... if she keeps on sweeping the floor - though made of packed and pounded earth.

Why did Jesus tell these stories?!

 

He used the proscribed, denounced shepherd for the Lost Sheep Story. Now.... Jesus used the inferior status of a woman.

He is challenging and rejecting the Pharisaic Discrimintion - against the Outcasts and Common People.....

Insight reveals deeper meanings.  One out of ten coins is lost - against one in a hundred sheep.

And the coin has - Values beyond monetary worth. The search is now the confines of a small villlage house as against the wide open wilderness.  And the Assurance is the more intensified - that lost one can be found - if foresight and effort are there.

Witness the Drama of Life. The tragedy of life is followed by the grief stricken search - and then comes the Joy of Finding.

We share our Griefs.. Share also our Joys! 

 

Never return a Kindness. Pass it on 

 

And that would warm God's heart as well.

 

 

Pastor Edwin Khoo