3rd Sunday after Trinity + Luke 15:1-10 + June 17, 2018


Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

St. Luke tells us how tax collects and sinners drew near to hear Jesus teach. He wasn’t teaching that these public sinners were fine just as they were, that they could stay in their sins and be welcomed into the kingdom of God. His message wasn’t “God loves you just the way you.” His teaching had teeth. After Herod silenced John the Baptist by locking him up in his dungeon, Jesus entered Galilee and began preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). His message contained Law and Gospel. The Law was that sinners were not fine as they are. Sin separates men from God. So sin must be repented. Change your ways. Be different people from now on. The Gospel was that God the Father does love sinners, not in a mushy, toothless way that excuses sin and overlooks it, but with a love that causes Him to send His only-begotten Son into the sinful world to bear the sins of the world, so that all who repent and trust Christ might not perish but have everlasting life. The Pharisees and scribes didn’t like this one bit because they were self-righteous. They didn’t like the idea of public sinners and tax collectors entering the kingdom of God and second, because the message offended their sensibilities. They thought they had no sin and no need for repentance and a savior.

This is why Jesus tells the two parables in this Sunday’s appointed gospel lesson. A sheep wanders off, away from the fold. It’s only one out of one hundred, but a lamb that the shepherd loves nonetheless. The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and goes through brambles and thickets to find the one lost sheep. He finds it. He carries it gently on His strong shoulders and brings it back, rejoicing and inviting others to rejoice. The sheep is the sinner, not the just obvious ones, either. It’s not only the tax collectors and sinners. The sheep is every one of us. Isaiah writes, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Each one of, because we are born from Adam’s sinful stock, is a sinner. Everyone wanders in their own way toward their own imaged god, which generally ends up looking a lot like themselves. Like a lost sheep, we cannot find our way back to the fold but can only lose ourselves where we become the prey of the wolf, the devil, who devours us. So Christ becomes our Good Shepherd. He rescues us from our lostness, to rescue us form the mouth of the devilish wolf who stalks us as prey. He tells us in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” He lays down His life for ours. He atones for our sins by willfully suffering and dying in our place upon the cross, for “the LORD laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

In the second parable a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. This woman loses a tenth of her treasure. So she does what any of us would do when we lose something valuable. She doesn’t wait for the morning light to lighten her house. She lights and lamp and searches through the darkness for that one lost coin. The coin can do nothing to help the poor woman find it. It just sits there in the darkness. But with the light from the lamp she finds it. And when she finds it she rejoices and she invites her neighbors to rejoice with her! The coin, like the lost sheep, is the sinner. When God created mankind He stamped His image upon the man and woman. Moses writes, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:27). But Adam defaced the image of God by His willful sin against God’s commandment and since then man long bears God’s image of righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, but instead bears the image of Adam: sink, death, and unrighteousness.

Yet God is rich in mercy and loves mankind. Man is the crown of God’s creation and wanted to restore His lost image in man so He sent Christ, whom Paul calls “the image of the invisible God” (Colossian 1:15) to restore His image in us. He lights the lamp which is His Word. Peter tells us that we should heed Christ’s Word “as a light that shines in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). What does He say in the Word? The same thing He preached to tax collectors and sinners, to scribes and Pharisees, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Since we are wandering in our sins, Christ rescues us through this Word. Since we are lost in the darkness of our selfish desires and false notions about God, He comes to us through His Word. He commands that we repent of our sins. This was not just for Jesus’ day, but for every day. St. Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17:30, “God commands all men everywhere to repent.” Sorrow over your sins. Lament them as often as you fall into them. Strive against them. And Look to Christ. He is the Good Shepherd who has laid His life down for the erring, straying sheep. Look to Christ. He is the one who sweeps our hearts clean with His Law and lights the lamp of His Word to find you. He teaches tax collectors and sinners to repent, though not as the fire and brimstone preachers teach. He stretches out His hands to us and invites us to confess our sins to Him, promising perfect forgiveness all who repent.

The Pharisees and scribes then and now don’t want to hear any of this. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. He devours many by leading them to like their sins. Sinners, after all, being curved in upon themselves. They prefer the god of their own choosing rather than the True God. That’s because the god of their imagination doesn’t command them to leave their sins and trust Christ for their salvation. The god the human heart manufactures preaches that people are alright just the way they are. The devil then lures many into self-righteousness. Our sinful nature will always prefer self-righteousness to the righteousness that Christ earns on the cross and offers to all who believe. Many think they are righteous in and of themselves so when the Word of God is preached that they need to repent, it doesn’t compute. It makes no sense to them because, in their mind, they need no repentance. They are fine just the way they are. They reject repentance so they reject Christ’s mercy as well. Thus many judge themselves unworthy of the gospel.

But to you, dear lambs of Christ and coins recast in His imagine, Jesus’ words are words of comfort and warning. Comfort, because both parables remind us that “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). This is true for you whenever and as often as the Law convicts you of sin. Christ came to save you from your sins not just one day of your life but every day of your life. No matter your sin, no matter the circumstances of your sin, Christ wants to you flee to Him in repentance and faith, trusting in His mercy. His parables are warnings as well, in that they remind us that Satan continually prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour you by leading you to think like the Pharisees and scribes. Beware the temptation to learn to like your sins. Beware the temptation to self-righteousness, lest you think that there is a day in which you need no repentance. The day you stop needing to repent is the day you stop needing Christ. Daily repent. Daily trust the gospel. For this is how you remain His beloved lamb and a coin recast in the image of His perfect righteousness and innocence before God our Father. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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