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Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue “prepositional truth” by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.
A few years ago, I was standing at a rental car counter when a woman, seemingly out of nowhere, rushed up beside me.
One of the employees held up a lidded cup. “Oh, you found it!” she gushed. “Thank you so much!”
With that she took hold of the cup, which she had accidentally left in her rental. She walked away looking exceedingly happy.
The employee smiled. I asked, “Do people often come back looking for things they’ve left behind?” “All the time,” he said.
“Sometimes people return desperately hoping we still have something of theirs that seems to be of little value. Like that cup, for instance. Once someone drove for miles just to retrieve an open package of sunflower seeds,” he said with a chuckle.
“But this is what really amazes me.” With that he stepped over to a file cabinet and opened a drawer. It was crammed with laptops, tablets, cell phones, wallets, purses, and jewelry. These were items of significant value. Many had been sitting in the Lost & Found drawer for months.
“It’s so interesting what some people think they simply have to have,” said the rental car guy. “And what others seem to have completely forgotten about.”
In a single chapter of one of the Gospels, Jesus tells back-to-back-to-back stories about things that are lost.
Luke 15 describes a lost sheep and a lost child. A shepherd leaves 99 sheep in the security of the sheepfold and goes looking in the wilderness for sheep No. 100, which may not survive the night unless rescued. A brokenhearted father hopes and prays that a runaway son will come to his senses and return home.
There is deep emotion behind each of those familiar stories. God seeks the one who is lost.
Squeezed in between is a parable, not nearly as well known, that’s only three verses long. But it stirs emotions that must surely have resonated with Jesus’ original audience.
“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? 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 (EPI) one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10).
The woman has 10 silver coins. The Greek word here is drachma, which (like the denarius), was worth about a day’s wages.
In today’s money, she has about 10 x $100, or $1,000. This is probably the family savings account. Imagine her panic when she goes to count her coins one night and only finds nine. Ten percent of her 401(k) is missing. Has she dropped it? Was it stolen?
She can’t hold off until morning. She takes her oil lamp and searches every nook and cranny of her packed-earth floor. She sweeps every corner and every seam. She looks under mats and shards of pottery – once, twice, three times – always looking at things from a different angle.
And then, at last, she sees a glint of silver. It’s here! After hours of anxiety, all is well.
She can’t wait to tell her neighbors. They’ll join her in screaming for joy.
Jesus declares “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God EPI one sinner who repents.” We recall that prepositions, though small and seemingly inconspicuous, are powerful words that play a vital role in the meaning of a sentence. They generally show direction, location, or time.
So what does EPI signify in this parable?
Whereas EPI typically means “upon,” its translational bandwidth includes “over, at, by, before, across, against, among, beside, in, and on the basis of.”
Jesus seems to be saying that God’s angels are intimately wrapped up in the drama of human salvation. They’re paying attention. EPI in this verse might be rendered “concerning.” “This is how my Father feels whenever you’re off the spiritual grid,” Jesus says. “His heart is beating hard. He’s desperate to find you. He won’t stop searching. And the angels themselves are rooting for a happy ending.”
Who is this God who cares that much about you?
He’s the Good Shepherd. And the Waiting Father. And the Searching Matriarch who will throw a party the minute she knows you are safe.
Whenever you feel stuck, or adrift, or thwarted, or paralyzed, or running away, or simply lost in the fog of not knowing what to do next, there is Someone who will always come back for you.
That’s because you yourself are the ultimate treasure worth retrieving.