Do you ever think deeply about “lost” people? The church of which I’m a member has as one mission to “find the lost”.
Jesus was at a dinner party one evening. He had just invited Levi (Matthew) to leave his job as a tax collector for the Roman government and join his group of disciples. In fact, Matthew went on to become one of the inner circle of 12 and then to write about his experiences.
At the party were a bunch of Pharisees. These were the people who thought they had already earned God’s grace through their good works (meaning obeying laws and rituals, not meaning helping people).
Also at the party were a number of “tax collectors and sinners.” Notice in the Gospels that these are always two groups. Matthew was not just a sinner, but a special kind of sinner–a tax collector.
Now these two groups of people did not like each other. In fact, they probably rarely ever socialized together. Read the Gospel of John and see how much John didn’t like the Pharisees! Anyway, imagine the grumbling of the “righteous” about Jesus’ associating with the not-so-righteous.
So Jesus, recognizing the tension, tells three stories. They are all about the celebration when something that is lost is found.
The third story is the story of the man and two sons. The man (God) loves his two sons. But they are very different. The elder son (Pharisees) always does the right thing. He’s always there. The younger son (Sinners and Tax Collectors–or, in reality, us) doesn’t do what’s right. In fact, he expresses the wish that his father were dead so that he could collect his inheritance and quit working.
You know the story. He gets his wish, goes away, spends everything, lives with the pigs (really revolting to a Jew), and finally comes home intending to just be a servant.
At this point, probably both groups at the dinner party were with Jesus. They recognized the elder/younger distinction. And that the elder inherits first. And that the younger son who was so offensive is going to get his just retribution (we’d say today thrown into Hell).
But…
The man throws a big party, restores the son to his place in the family and consoles the elder son who feels the lack of “justice.”
But the man said, your brother, who was lost, is now found.
Lost means not with the family. The kid wasn’t just wandering around in the wilderness with no sense of direction–physically. Only metaphorically. He was lost not being in the family. Found is returning to the family.
Just so with us and our fellow humans. God loves each and every one of us. He wants us to be in the family. He’ll celebrate every individual who returns to the family. So should we.
On of our tasks in life is to be, not like the elder brother pointing our finger in condemnation of others, but like a guide helping people return to the family.
Faith Venture 
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