Mummy look

Wednesday 15^th March

Read Luke 15:8-10

“‘Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.” ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’” (NIVUK)

A wise woman commented that this parable is really about someone having a ‘mummy look’. Though admittedly ‘mummy look’s are often in response to children losing things rather than losing them herself! But the determination and single-mindedness of the search, the diligence with which it is done, is of a piece with Jesus’ parable.  However, the purpose of the parable is to teach us about the nature of salvation (v10). If the first parable reminds us of the shepherd’s exertions to bring back the lost and foolish sheep, what does the woman with the lamp teach us about the nature of salvation?

There are at least two noteworthy features. First, the object of the search is not a warm and cuddly, if lost, sheep – but an inanimate coin. Coins are precious and valuable, particularly if it is one of only ten, but they also can’t reveal themselves. In contrast to the life of the sheep – they are lifeless and dead. Second, the woman must light a lamp to find it.  This may simply be a device in the story suggesting that after searching all day, this ‘mummy look’ stretches into the evening – it is a very determined search! Alternately, perhaps the story is told in this way to indicate that not only is that which is precious inanimate and unable to save itself, but it is lost in darkness.

If this second parable does tell us of the work of the Spirit in salvation through the mission of God’s people (the woman with the lamp), it is entirely appropriate that the picture of sinners it presents is of people who are dead in sin, wandering in darkness, and in desperate need of the enlivening and enlightening work of the Spirit. This miraculous, and divine, act should be a continuing source of rejoicing and thanksgiving. Spend time today reflecting on Paul’s prayer giving thanks for this divine gift…and ask who you can share this amazing news with.

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins..” (Colossians 1:9-14) (NIVUK)