The Parable of the Lost Coin
A woman sweeps the whole house for one lost coin — and God searches like that for you.
A woman with ten silver coins loses one, lights a candle, sweeps the house, and searches diligently until she finds it — then calls her friends to rejoice. Jesus says there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents.
The parable
Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
She lights a candle and sweeps the house, and seeks diligently till she find it.
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
What it means
This is the middle panel of Luke 15's three parables of the lost — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Together they answer the same complaint, that Jesus received sinners, with the same truth from three angles: God seeks the lost, and rejoices to find them.
The coin cannot wander like the sheep or rebel like the son; it is simply lost, perhaps through no fault of its own, lying unnoticed in the dust of the house. Yet the woman turns the house upside down to find it. Some people are lost not by dramatic rebellion but by quiet neglect — and God searches for them with the same diligence.
Again the emphasis falls on the joy and the celebration. The coin was valuable — a full day's wage — but the rejoicing is out of all proportion to its market price. That is the point: to God, the one is precious beyond calculation, and its recovery is worth a party in heaven.