The Parable of the Lost Coin, by Domenico Fetti (1589–1624)
"I sought him, but I found him not." — Song of Solomon 3:1
We are called to follow Jesus, and this text talks about searching for Him and not finding Him. But hold on a moment. Did you lose Him? How come you are searching for Him? Surely if you are to follow Him, you keep Him in your sights always, lest you lose sight of Him.
I always remember following someone else in a car to an unknown destination. The person I followed knows where they are going and I rely on their attention to me to make sure that they don't disappear off into distance. A traffic light that changes and causes me to stop after the lead car has gone through, someone coming in between us, the difficulty of getting round a roundabout together, all pose difficult situations that need our careful attention. It's so easy to get separated. And once separated it can be difficult to find each other again for one wrong turn can lead us totally astray. And so we concentrate hard on following closely. Regardless of the diversions, the people coming between, the traffic lights that hold us up, we concentrate closely on where the lead car has gone so that we don't lose them.
I wonder how hard we concentrate on following Jesus. How hard do we search and then, having found Him, do we then let the diversions of life take us away from Him again? How easy it is to look away for a moment and there he is - gone. How easy it must have been for the disciples to hang onto His every word, but then distractions in the crowd grab their attention, someone not well, a crying child, someone on the side-lines doing something they shouldn't, someone asking for help, a friend calling out. So many opportunities to turn away and stop looking to Jesus. And there He is – gone!
So where to seek for Him? If you lost Him in your prayer time, then go on your knees and pray again. If something diverted your attention, go back to that thing and turn from it deliberately turning to Jesus instead. If a desire has turned you from seeking to follow closely, then turn away from that desire. If you have neglected reading the scriptures, then turn back to reading again.
In the parable of the lost coin the woman seeks the coin frantically in the place where she last saw it. It is there that you will find Jesus again. The place you lost Him. Spurgeon says in his daily readings that “It is a true proverb, ‘Look for a thing where you dropped it, it is there.’"
Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 - Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.
Jesus said, “Come, follow me”. Are we still following Him, or have we lost Him?
Seek and you shall find. And then stick to following closely! Let Him not out of your sight, for it is a fearful place to be without Jesus.
There was a poster on the wall of the vestry in one church I attended - “7 days without Jesus makes one weak!” Indeed to lose Jesus is a fearful place to be....
Adrian Burr