A Different Perspective
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | March 30, 2025
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Read Luke 15:11 - 32
If you have ever lost anything there is a high probability that you had hopes of finding it again, some day. If we are being totally honest, whenever we lose something, even when it seems there is no hope that it will ever be found again... deep in our hearts, we keep praying that it will turn up one day.
(And that is the exact reason that I have made the decision that I will no longer try to LOSE weight…)
In all seriousness, let me suggest that there are times when we lose something that finding it requires looking at things from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
Several years ago, I was getting ready to walk out of the house when I realized I did not have my glasses on. So, I went to the two places where my glasses would normally be... the bedroom and the computer room. But for some reason, my glasses were not in either place. This was somewhat perplexing since I could not remember having them anywhere else the previous day.
That led me to start searching earnestly for my glasses... all to no avail. As the time got closer to when I needed to leave... my search became even more frantic. And once my quest to find my glasses reached a fever pitch... I did the only thing that I knew to do. I called out to God to please find my glasses... because clearly, He was the only One who knew where He had put them. But try as I might, I still could not find my glasses.
It was at that point that I silently began commiserating with Ron who had lost his new glasses just a few weeks earlier. I started speculating about what kind of gremlin might have found its way into our home and taken to stealing all of our eyeglasses. Seemingly with no other options for where my glasses might be... I grabbed an old pair and decided I would just have to postpone my search until I returned home that evening.
That is when I went out to the car to load up the things I would need for the day... and surprise, surprise, surprise... as I started to come up the back steps to walk into the house... there they were... laying on the floor right in front of the stove. My glasses had been there all along... hiding in plain sight.
I figure I must have walked past them at least five or six times, if not more, as I searched from room to room. And yet, I had not been able to see my glasses on the floor because I was not looking at things from the right angle.
It really is amazing what can happen when we start to look at things from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
And with that thought in mind, I want to invite us to consider our text for the morning from Luke’s Gospel. It is there that we find a parable that is likely familiar to us. It is often referred to as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” or the “Parable of the Lost Son.”
During our Bible study this past week, we were taking about how Jesus used parables to help His followers gain an understanding of difficult subject matter by using a story format that made it easier to grasp the concepts He was trying to teach them. In a nutshell, parables can be defined simply as earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.
Now, the Parable of the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son is the third parable that is found in chapter 15 of Luke... it follows the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
And all three of these parables share a common theme of rejoicing at the recovery of something that was lost... like my eyeglasses.
All three parables also encourage us to consider looking at things from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE... highlighting the need to shift our attention away from what we have – so we are able to focus on whatever it is that we need to find.
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus asked the Pharisees and teachers of the law:
Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue (Luke 15:4 – 7).In other words, in order to find the one, we have to turn our attention away from the ninety-nine. It’s not because the ninety-nine are not worth as much as the one. And it doesn’t mean that we simply don’t care about the ninety-nine. Jesus’ illustration reminds us that the ninety-nine good sheep will stay where they are while we change our perspective and go look for the one that is lost.
Then Jesus goes on to tell them:
… imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she’ll call her friends and neighbors: ‘Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!’ Count on it—that’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God (Luke 15:8 – 10).How much was that single coin worth? Probably not a lot. After all, the woman is not described as wealthy... she lights the lamp and sweeps the floor herself to look for the lost coin. It would seem she does not have servants that she can send on the quest to find what she has lost.
And although that one coin may not be worth a lot by most people’s standards... to this woman, that coin was well worth the time it took for her to search every nook and cranny in order to find it.
And once it was found... the Scriptures tell us that just like the man who rejoiced over finding the one lost sheep... there was great rejoicing when the lost coin had been found as well.
And that brings us to the story of the Lost Son…
Now, if we were to look at this story from another vantage point... the Parable of the Lost Son could just as easily become the Parable of the Loving and Forgiving Father or perhaps the Parable of the Jealous and Unforgiving Brother.
It’s all a matter of seeing things from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
When I was attending Ashland Theological Seminary, I took a course on the Life and Times of Henri Nouwen, who was a Dutch priest and noted author. As we were discussing one of Nouwen’s books entitled, “The Prodigal Son,” the professor asked us which one of the main characters did we most identify with – the prodigal son, the father or the brother?
After a lot of reflection and soul searching, I realized that I could honestly identify with all three. It really was a matter of looking at things from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE... something that we also talked about in our Bible study and book discussion last week... the ways in which we can see ourselves in multiple characters in the parables.
There have been times (in my past of course) ...when I was like the prodigal son... wanting to go out and sow my wild oats without regard for the consequences. But like the prodigal son, I, too, came to realize that life does not come without consequences. If we are not careful... just like the prodigal son, we can lose our possessions, our status, our health and well-being as well our relationships – including our connection with the Father.
Now, the lost son in this parable came face to face with the reality of what it means to lose everything when he hit rock bottom. However, there is something phenomenal about hitting rock bottom... our perspective changes because the only place we have left to look... is up.
And when the lost son looked up... he realized that although he had made some really poor choices in his young life... he still had a father he could turn to. And while the son envisions having to grovel at his father’s feet and beg for mercy and forgiveness... before he can even reach his father’s front steps... something amazing happens.
The story takes on A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE and our attention is turned from the lost son to that of the loving and forgiving father.
The Scriptures tell us that when the lost son was still a long way off... his father saw him… that is because a loving parent never truly loses sight of their child... no matter how far they may roam. And the good news is that... it is that way with our heavenly Father as well.
In spite of our best efforts to go to the four corners of the world, we are never out of God’s sight. In fact, Psalm 139 says:
There is nowhere we can go and nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God. Romans 8(35 – 39) says it like this:Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7 – 12)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.No matter how lost we think we may be... God has absolutely no problem finding us.
Now, it would be a nice fairy tale ending if the story of the lost son stopped right there... with the long anticipated happy reunion. However, that is not quite how the story ends. Before father and son can ride off into the sunset... we are introduced to the jealous and unforgiving son.
Ironically, it is while this other son is recapping the ways he has been the ideal son that we see a rather ugly side come out of him.
This son starts asking, “Hey Dad, did you forget that I have been here with you all along, never giving you a minute’s trouble? Did you ever consider rewarding me for my loyalty? Did you stop and think that maybe I would have liked to have a party thrown for me and my friends? No, but let this ne’er-do-well brother of mine leave and spend his inheritance on wine, women and song, and you throw him a banquet fit for a king.”
If we think about it for a minute, is it really so hard to see things from this older brother’s perspective?
After all, you have always been the one to do the right thing. You show up at work early and leave late on a daily basis. You always turn in your assignments ahead of the deadline. And yet, that co-worker that is known for being a slacker is the one who gets recognized with a pat on the back and an atta-boy just for finally coming to work on time. And while the high-fives are being passed around the office... you are silently seething in your cubicle.
It’s not easy to sit back and watch someone else receive accolades for doing less than you have been doing consistently... all without being acknowledged. But the good news is that your faithfulness and loyalty really have not gone unnoticed by the only One who truly matters.
Just as the father in our text for today tells his son, “You don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours.” Jesus reminds us that we need to look at this from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. It should not be about tooting our own horn or seeking recognition from other people.
Our true reward is in heaven... and when we get there, the rejoicing and celebration will far exceed our wildest expectations. In Matthew 6, Jesus encourages us:
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:2 – 4).God sees and God knows exactly what we have been doing. Now that fact can either encourage us or scare the living daylights out of us... depending on what we have been doing. It truly depends on our perspective.
Have we been living a life of reckless abandon like the lost son? Have we shown compassion and forgiveness to those who have wronged us like the loving father? Or have we been harboring bitterness and animosity towards someone else like the jealous and unforgiving brother?
Whatever the case may be, there is good news today – that which was lost has already been found.
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:16 – 21).We all have the opportunity to start fresh, to start over from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE, when we surrender our lives to Christ.
In 1779, the hymn, “Amazing Grace” was published. This hymn was written by John Newton who was a former captain of a slave ship... and someone who knew a little something about looking at life from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
The story is told that although Newton grew up without any religious conviction... he experienced a true spiritual conversion during a violent storm off the coast of Ireland in 1748. And while he continued in the slave trade for several more years... it is said that he made sure the slaves on his ship were treated humanely. And eventually, Newton got out of slave trading as well as seafaring altogether... and went into the ministry.
It is truly amazing what happens when God’s grace leads us to see life from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
Now, as we prepare to shift our perspective to the Communion table and sing our Hymn of Discipleship, Amazing Grace... I want to encourage us to listen to the lyrics and reflect on how truly amazing God’s grace is...
God’s amazing grace affords us the opportunity to look at life from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE... which is why we are able to rejoice knowing that because of God’s great love for us... that which was lost has now been found... never to be lost again.
Amen.
Hymn of discipleship: Amazing Grace #546
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