Lost and Found 失而復得

I have been reflecting in the last few days about losing and finding things in the context of Jesus’ three parables: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Luke collects them together in chapter 15 to impress on us how important this is to our understanding of Jesus. The righteous Pharisees and scribes could not understand why it was that the tax collectors and sinners loved to be with Jesus so much and why it was that Jesus was so comfortable hanging out with them.

In the first two parables, Jesus shows them how important the lost sheep and lost coin are to their owners by the effort they make to find them. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and the woman sweeps out her whole house. Then the joy of finding what was lost is underlined by the party they throw to celebrate their recovery. Finally, Jesus stretches back the earthly storyline from the shepherd and the woman into the heavenly picture of God and the angels having a party in heaven. Jesus shows us just how important these ‘lost ones’ are to God.

However, in the last parable, it is the father in the earthly story who himself explains that the reason for the barbecue celebration is that the family has been reunited by the return of the lost son. In the first two parables, Jesus takes our stories and lifts them into heaven. In the last parable, He brings heaven itself down into our stories.

The implication is that God sees all of humanity as His family that is in need of restoration in one way or another. We are either lost to His love or blind to the implications of His love. We are either part of the restoration story or in need of some spiritual eye surgery. The tax collectors and sinners were so comfortable around Jesus because He first received them as a family and then secondly helped them to find a better story than the one they had known.  So often in our churches, we tend to approach it the other way round. We want the lost to hear and receive Jesus before we welcome them into the family, so making the second the precondition for the first.

But we find life more complicated than a simple either/or because humanity is the only stage on which we see our lives play out. So when a loved one dies we feel the loss so acutely because they are lost to us. No amount of effort in searching and sweeping for answers will bring them back. Yet God does come down into our stories to tell us that that which has been lost has been found. Despite the anger pain and sorrow, we can take joy that Jesus has found our loved and will restore them safely.  We can’t at present see beyond the curtains of heaven into the eternal reality of the parties and the celebration, but we can know that God’s family will one day be reunited.

過去幾天，我在思想關於「失去和尋找」，想到了耶穌關於「失而復得」的三個比喻：迷羊的比喻、失錢的比喻和浪子的比喻。路加將這三個比喻並置在路加福音十五章，就是想我們知道，這對我們理解耶穌是多麼的重要。那些自以為義的法利賽人和文士，總是無法明白為甚麼稅吏和罪人那麼愛跟耶穌在一起，也不明白耶穌為何可以那麼自在地跟他們相處。

在首兩個比喻裏，耶穌讓他們知道那失去的羊和失去的金錢，是何等重要，因為失羊和失錢的主人為要尋回所失去的而費盡心思。牧羊的人留下九十九隻羊，為要尋找失去的那一隻；而婦人也為此點上燈，打掃屋子，細細地找。他們找著了，就因此歡喜快樂，又請朋友跟他們一同歡喜。最後，耶穌把這牧羊人和婦人在地上的故事情節，延展到天上——上帝和天使也這樣為罪人悔改而歡喜。耶穌要告訴我們，這些「迷失的人」在神眼中是何等的寶貴。

在最後一個比喻裏，這位地上故事的父親親自解釋「宰了肥牛犢」又「吃喝快樂」的因由：他的兒子失而復得，他一家又再次團聚了。首兩個比喻裏，耶穌將我們的故事高舉到天上；在最後一個比喻裏，祂將天上的場景帶進我們的故事裏面。

這些比喻想要帶出的是，上帝看每一個人都是祂的家人，每個人都需要某種的修復或復和。我們可能迷失了，找不著祂的愛；又或是看不見祂的愛如何展現。我們可能是復和故事的一部分，也可能需要進行某種屬靈的眼科手術。稅吏和罪人之所以在耶穌身邊感到自在，是因為祂首先接納他們為家人，然後幫助他們發掘一個更好的故事。然而，我們的教會常常把先後次序倒轉了：我們想要迷失的人首先聆聽和接受耶穌，然後我們才歡迎他們進入教會這個家庭，結果將事情本末倒置了。

不過，我們發現生命原來不只是非黑即白的，生命很複雜，有很多層次，而人生是我們唯一的舞台。所以，當我們所愛的人離開世界，我們感受到很強烈的「失去」，因為他們的確離我們而去了。無論我們如何花盡心思尋找答案，也不能將他們帶回來。然而，上帝來到我們的故事當中，祂告訴我們，我們所失去的，如今已經尋回了。儘管我們憤怒、痛苦、哀傷，但因著耶穌已經尋回了我們所愛的，並會保證他們的安全，我們就可以從祂得著喜樂。雖然我們目前無法打開天上的幕子，無法看得見在永恆中的歡慶，但我們可以安然信靠主，確信我們將來會在祂的家裏重聚。