In all three cases the recovered one is said to have been lost. The
sheep was lost. The coin was lost. The son was lost.
If we study the illustrations in detail we shall see that there are three
ways described in the chapter in which this loss is brought about.
It is brought about, in the case of the lost sheep, through simple
ignorance and the folly of pursuing each passing object of attraction.
The wandering sheep has no particular intention of going wrong. It does
not set off with a deliberate wish to run away; it is simply led on step
by step by any attraction that lies beside its path. And is not this the
case with thousands of those who have wandered from the Shepherd’s care?
In the second parable the loss is occasioned by the neglect of others.
The piece of money is lost through carelessness, without any fault of its
own. The person who had the charge of it took no heed to be sure that it
was safe. How many are there in exactly that position? They have been
lost, humanly speaking, through want of care.
But the third character is quite distinct from both the others. The
Prodigal Son was lost because he deliberately and determinately left his
father’s home. He was totally unlike the wandering sheep led on from
step to step without a plan, for he had a plan, and he deliberately
carried it out. This, then, is far the worst of the three. It
represents one living in the midst of privileges, but deliberately
casting away his faith. He has life and death brought before him, and he
chooses death, or, at all events, he chooses that which leads to death.
Oh! how marvellous is the boundless grace and mercy of our God, that He
should go out of His way to seek and to save any one so unthankful and so
guilty!