Lost penny
The parable of the lost drachma , also called the parable of the lost penny in the tradition of the Luther Bible ( Luke 15 : 8-10 LUT ), is a parable of Jesus that is found exclusively in the Gospel according to Luke and belongs to the Lukan special property .
context
In the introduction, the evangelist Luke reports on the general situation: The Pharisees and scribes are offended by the fact that Jesus has fellowship with tax collectors (who are considered to be deceivers) and other sinners and that Jesus eats with them. Thereupon Jesus tells them three parables, each of which deals with the motif of the lost: in Vv. 4–7 the parable of the lost sheep , in Vv. 8–10 the parable of the lost penny and in Vv. 11–32 the parable of the prodigal son .
The parable
The text says:
" 8 Or if a woman has ten drachmas and loses one of them, doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the whole house, and look tirelessly until she finds the coin? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says: Rejoice with me; I have found the drachma that I lost. 10 I say to you, in the same way there is joy among the angels of God over a single sinner who repents. "
interpretation
The focus is on the tireless search of the main character and their subsequent joy at finding the lost coin. In the same way, God will rejoice over a sinner who leaves his wrong path and returns to him. Although the woman is the only acting figure, the parable, like the other two parables of the lost, is often interpreted as a call to repentance , also because the text expressly suggests this interpretation. But in this parable it becomes clearer than in the parallel parables that finding again comes from God alone: The coin is completely passive and cannot contribute anything to its being found, it only owes it to the patient and persistent searching of the owner.
The emphasis on the woman's persistent search for the lost coin has led some commentators to advocate the term "parable of the searching woman". It shows God as someone who cares intensely for the lost person and wants to win him back by all means. Since Jesus uses this parable to explain his own actions towards the socially excluded “lost” of his society, he also emphasizes the value that he attaches to these people and that every person has for God.
The context shows that Jesus tells all three parables to the Pharisees and scribes after they were offended by his fellowship with sinners (15: 1-3 EU ). As in the other Lukan versions of parables, third parties appear here too, who share the joy of the woman with what has been found again. The question is therefore also whether third observers are happy about the return of the lost and thus become part of the kingdom of heaven of which the parable speaks, or whether they close themselves to this joy and thereby exclude themselves from the kingdom of God.
Finally, the fact that in this parable a female protagonist can easily stand for God is also striking.
Web links
- Charles Spurgeon : The Lost Dime . Sermon by an English Baptist preacher of the 19th century on the text of the parable; Retrieved December 8, 2016
- Gerd Theißen : Sermon on the parables of the lost in the Peterskirche Heidelberg on June 28, 2009; Retrieved December 7, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Klein: The Gospel of Luke. Göttingen 2006, p. 519.
- ^ Robert H. Stein: Luke (= The New American Commentary. Vol. 24). Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville 1992, p. 404.
- ^ Frédéric Godet: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Brunnen, Gießen 1986 (= 2nd edition, Hannover: Meyer, 1890), p. 422.
- ↑ Wolfgang Wiefel: The Gospel according to Luke (= ThHNT . Vol. 3). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1988, ISBN 978-3-374-00040-1 , p. 279 ff.
- ↑ So Christa Mulack : Die Fraulichkeit Gottes (1983). Lecture by Jan Rohls : Protestant Theology of Modern Times. Volume II: The 20th Century. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1997, p. 796.