Joy In Heaven

Now, I come to Luke 15 – the whole chapter. It is 32 verses long and contains two questions and one parable. The parable is time-worn and well proven. It is the parable about the prodigal son. The two questions center on the man who lost a sheep and the woman who lost a coin.

What I wish to focus on may be seen in verses seven and ten. I include them here for ease of reference. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” Also, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

These two verses are the sum of the entire chapter. The two questions and the one parable were a response to the indignation the Pharisees and scribes felt when Jesus received and ate with sinners and publicans. This high profile chapter has been the base material for countless sermons. These are subjects taught to children in Bible school.

All of us remember what we've been told, but I am going to turn this around and ask the reader what Christ himself once asked in Luke 10:26: “How readest thou?” In other words, what is your take on it? Most people read through such verses so quickly, I doubt they actually see what they are reading. Do you see what you read? I know that is a strange question; most people will say, 'yes, of course, I see what I read'. Don't be offended.

There are interesting pictures which make little sense until one looks at them in a different way. When one begins to look at the empty spaces in the pictures, something new, and as yet unconsidered, presents itself. Let us examine the empty spaces in the verses I have included for ease of reference.

We usually see the thing we are told to see. In the case of verse seven, we see the lost sheep being found, or the lost coin being found. What we see is the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. But, what about the empty spaces? Allow me to repeat verse seven here.

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

Look at the latter part of the sentence beginning with the word 'more'. As we can now see, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, but that is just the 'more' part. In other words, there is more joy. An important new thought presents itself here. While it may not be more joy, necessarily, there is nevertheless still joy over the other 99 just persons.

So what is a just person, then? It is obviously the opposite of the sinner. It is a person who gets the whole thing right. It is a person who does not wander away from the flock, and therefore, have to be saved from peril and returned to the flock. The church would have us believe we're all lost sheep, yet, according to the words of the son of God, there are, statistically, 99 people who get it right for every one who gets it wrong.

This is what I mean when I use the words right and wrong in this context – to get it right is to understand one's place, to know where one belongs, to accept and remain in the relationship we have with our shepherd. To get it wrong, more importantly, to come to that state where repentance is called for, necessitates the need for help to find one's way back into the relationship.

Every member of the flock is a member who is prized and cherished. No penny in a dollar can make the dollar on it's own. That woman who lost her coin was unwilling to suffer the loss. The coin was hers. No doubt, she came by all of them the hard way. Her treasure was just not her treasure with part of it gone. In both scenarios, the return of the lost sheep and the finding of the lost coin, there was cause for joy and celebration.

Here, I repeat verse ten: “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

Here again, I wish to point out the empty spaces. Yes, there is joy in heaven – but how does Jesus put it? He could have said that the shepherd had joy, or that God or the Father had joy, but instead, Jesus employed an interesting application. The joy in heaven is not necessarily the joy of God, rather, it appears to be the joy of the angels of God.

To conclude, since God is a spirit (Jesus told us that), the angels would then be the administrators of a frame of mind, or a concept, or a creed, set of principles, faith, ideology. Angels may be seen, therefore, as the technicians who service a fundamental truth. Placing our focus on the angels, in this particular regard, may help us to make sense of such things as 'God' saying “Let us make man in our image.” Just saying . . .