I remember when I was first learning how to ride my bike without training wheels. I was about four years old. I was geared up with my pretty pink bicycle with a white wicker basket and silver sparkly tassels dangling off the handlebars. I was appropriately donned in a matching helmet and so excited I could have peed myself. I was finally a big girl. Ridin’ mah bike. No training wheels. And I was going to own it like a boss.
Dad and I trotted down to the sidewalk (because riding in the street was just plain nonsense, not to mention unsafe.) My dad lovingly instructed me to saddle up, and I was all too willing to take off.
I climbed aboard, and heeded Dad’s final warning.
“Remember, Lil’ Bit, don’t go past the boundaries, ok?”
I nodded in excitement. And then I was off. It was the most exciting thing EVER.
Until...
The results were catastrophic…and pokey…and painful…and traumatizing…
What does this illustrate? (other than the fact that cacti are the devil and cacti + beginner cyclist = recipe for disaster)
That we’re going to fall off the bike.
In our spiritual walk, whether we are willing to recognize it or not, there are going to be times when we are going to fall off and fall head-first into a spiritual cactus. We’re going to fail and fall short. We are going to sin and we may even turn our backs on Jesus for a while.
If we’re being honest here, chances are it’s already happened before, and it will most likely happen again. That’s the thing about being fallen humans. We’re predisposed to suck it up once in a while. If you’ve been a Christian for longer than 2 minutes, you’re probably already well aware of this fact.
The question then becomes how do we deal with that?
We come from a past that feels like it will always stand between us and leading the life of a disciple.
We love God but have sin in our lives we can’t seem to shake.
We’ve wandered so far off the beaten path it feels like there’s absolutely no way we can ever find our way back to God – and even if we did, He probably wouldn’t want us back anyway because we loused it up so bad.
What then?
Dr. Luke spells out this scenario for us in three different ways in chapter 15 – which is probably one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. Chapter 15 is about how the lost get found and how to run back to Daddy when we fall off the bike and mess everything up. He gives it to us in a three-in-one parable from the lips of Jesus.
Point 1: The Lost Sheep[1]
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together saying ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Did you catch that? Heaven rejoices when the one who is lost gets found again.
Did you also notice that the shepherd went actively looking for that one lost sheep until it was found? He didn’t just sit idly by until the sheep wandered around a while and found its way back to the flock. The Shepherd looks and looks, and is pleased as peaches when He finds his lost little sheep.
When we fall off our bikes head-long into a pile of cactus, Jesus comes looking for us to pick us back up again.
Point 2: The Lost Coin
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me! I have found my lost coin!’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Same situation here. When we fall away or get lost, heaven rejoices when we get found again.
Probably my favorite parable is that of the Prodigal (Lost) Son. It breaks down like this:
The son lives it up until he runs out of money and finds himself eating scraps from the pig slop on someone else’s property before he snaps out of it and comes to his senses.
So the son swallows his suuuuper sore pride, and heads home. He’s naked, he has squandered all of his father’s inheritance away, he’s filthy and probably stinks like nobody’s business…he’s basically in dire straits with nowhere else to go.
Have you ever fallen away that bad? I know I have. And I can think of one other person who has as well.
Peter failed pretty hardcore, right? It doesn’t get a whole lot worse than that.
I think when we fail like that – well, ok, at least I know when I fail like that – I’m often too scared and ashamed to even consider going back to my Daddy. I’m bruised and beat up, and it’s because I did something wrong. Because I know I’m at fault, I expect Him to greet me like this:
But that isn’t what Scripture tells us. Scripture clearly says that when we return to our Father, when we wander off but come around and come home, he greets us like this[2]:
So the moral of the story, dear readers, ends up being this: Jesus came to save the outcast – anyone and everyone who would believe in Him. He trained up those who dedicated their lives to being His disciples, preparing them for a future where He wouldn’t be tangibly among them. This includes us here, right now, as disciples. Jesus is completely prepared for us to fail, to fall away and fall off the bicycle. Into a cactus. He’s ready for that – in eternity past He knew every sin we would ever commit, and He decided to take that punishment of His own free will on the cross. There is no sin we can ever commit that will surprise, shock, or even catch Jesus off guard.
And when we do, He is waiting for us to come back to Him in repentance, so that He can throw a great big party in heaven – each and every time one of us falls off the bicycle, gets up, dusts ourselves off, and gets back on to keep riding where He wants us to go.
That’s it for us from the gospel of Luke. I hope it was beneficial to you as a discipleship manual. It’s been a blast. Until next time…stay classy. :)
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