A Modern Parable

(hang on to those rental car keys)

Sometimes when I read the parables in the New Testament I think, “I don’t have any gold coins or sheep or mustard seeds. How can I better relate this story to my life today?” Maybe like this, (with my apologies to Luke.)

“Jesus was getting plenty of grief for hanging out with sinners and tax collectors. So he told them this parable: "Suppose one of you is visiting a far away city and has rented a car. And as you are getting ready to leave you realize you’ve lost the keys. Unless you found the keys you will miss your plane and incur a large expense to have a new key made. Wouldn’t you leave the office and the people you are working with to go out to the parking lot and look high and low until you found the keys? And when you found them, I know you would joyfully stash the keys in a safe place! Then you would call your friends together and say, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost keys!' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over all the righteous persons who do not need to repent.””

I do have a friend who lost his keys on a trip and was elated to find them after an exhaustive search. I can definitely understand that kind of joy more than finding a sheep. The point is that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He didn’t come just so we could spend the rest of lives hanging out with people just like us. Let’s try to seek and save the lost in spirit, mind or body like he did.

And there will be rejoicing in heaven!

Thanks for all you do.

Brian

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