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.