The Lost Coin
Read the parable
- Luke 15:8-10 Primary account
Context
The second of the three "lost" parables answering the Pharisees' complaint that Jesus received sinners. A drachma was roughly a day's wage, and ten drachmas may have been the woman's savings or, as often suggested, part of her dowry headdress. A Palestinian village house was dark, with a low door and a beaten-earth floor; finding a dropped coin genuinely required lighting a lamp, sweeping, and searching diligently.
Meaning
Like the shepherd, the woman searches "till she find it", and like him she calls friends and neighbors together to rejoice — the coin mattered wholly to its owner however small it might seem to others. Jesus again draws back the curtain: "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." The parable presents God's seeking love in the figure of a poor woman's determined search, and it rebukes any religion that shrugs at the lost instead of sharing heaven's joy when they are found.
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.