3rd Sunday after Trinity + Luke 15:1-10

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

Jesus, a teacher of righteousness, accomplishes quite a feat. “All the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” Tax Collectors worked from the Roman government, collecting taxes and customs. They were notorious for demanding more than the required amount to skim that bit off the top and increase their own wealth. This job attracted the greedy and dishonest. Greed and dishonesty are of course sins, but what makes their sin that much worse is that they do it openly for all the world to see. They were what we called “manifest” sinners. Their sin was well-known and obvious. Then there’s the “sinners” who draw to Jesus. Luke doesn’t mean “sinners” in the sense of people who fall into sin because of human weakness, but people who live their lives in open sin. Anyone with a hint of moral fiber would stay away from these people and be ashamed to be seen with them, let alone share a supper table with them. But Jesus, the Messiah, preaches to these open sinners and welcomes them to table to share meals with Him.

What’s impressive about this is that these manifest and open sinners draw near to Jesus at all. Jesus didn’t peddle a soft gospel of “God loves you just the way you are.” He didn’t teach that they could remain in their sins and still enter into the kingdom of God. He told them the exact opposite. He preached repentance from sin. He taught them their willful, deliberate sinning would only lead to condemnation and eternal death. He taught them that the only way to escape God’s righteous wrath and judgment was to repent of their sins. Be sorry for them. Regret them. Sorrow over them. Desire to be rid of them. This had been Jesus’ message from the beginning of His earthly ministry. After John was put into prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. St. Mark records the sum of that preaching: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). This is what He preached to these open sinners. Repent of your sin. Then believe in the gospel that God loves sinners in spite of their sin and sends His only-begotten Son to atone for the sins of the world, so that all who believe in Him may be declared righteous in God’s sight, sins fully forgiven and removed in God’s sight. This is why all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus. They knew their sins. They felt God’s wrath. So they flee to Christ, filing their ears of His message of repentance and free forgiveness.

The Pharisees are opposite the tax collectors and sinners. Outwardly they are pious and holy. They’re good religious folk who pray in the temple, tithe from all they own, and live outwardly according to the Word of the Lord given to Moses. They’re the opposite of the tax collectors and sinners inwardly, too. They’re arrogant and proud. They think they have no sin and therefore they don’t have any need for repentance. This external righteousness fools everyone including themselves. But Jesus’ preaches the same gospel to the Pharisees. They too deserved God’s righteous judgment for their sins and the only way out of that was to repent. Be sorry for them. Regret them. Sorrow over them. Desire to be rid of them. But the Pharisees wouldn’t have any of it. They honestly thought they were righteous of themselves because of their outward righteousness. Jesus condemned them elsewhere for this very reason, saying “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). The Lord says in Ezekiel 33:11 that His will is “that the wicked turn from his way and live.” But the Pharisees reject God’s will for them, choosing to plead their own righteousness before God, which is no righteousness at all, and will only end in condemnation.

These are the two types of sinners. Not open and secret. But penitent and impenitent. These tax collectors and sinners were both open sinners and penitent, while the Pharisees were secret sinners and impenitent. There are also many who are open, manifest sinners, whose sins are obvious and public, but are impenitent. The world is full of people who lives in willful, open sin and yet think they’re righteous, not by any actual moral standard, but by their own heart’s standard. They suppress their conscience lest it convict them of sin. They sear their conscience through willful sinning so that it loses all feeling. Many in our day are like this, a sinner/Pharisee hybrid, openly sinning for all to see yet defiant that they are righteous in God’s sight in spite of their sin. Because they imagine they’re righteous and that they don’t need repentance, their end will be eternal destruction. No, it doesn’t matter if your sins are concealed in the heart or manifest for the entire world to see. All that truly matters is repentance and faith in gospel that Christ brings.

Jesus shows this by the two parables He tells. A man loses one sheep out of one hundred. He goes after it, not just for an hour, not just for an afternoon, but until He finds it. And when he finds it he hoists it upon his shoulders and rejoices because that lost and straying sheep, precious to the man, has been found. His joy is such that he invites his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him over the recovery of the one lost sheep. So it is with Christ, the Good Shepherd. He seeks after the one straying sinners who is lost in his own delusions and sins. And when He finds the sinner, giving him repentance and faith, He rejoices and so do His friends and neighbors, all the holy angels. Meanwhile there isn’t any rejoicing over ninety-nine sinners who are self-righteous, imagining they need no repentance. Similarly, a woman loses one silver coin of ten. She lights the lamp and sweeps the entire house until it is found and when she finds it she rejoices, inviting her neighbors to join in her joy over the recovery of her treasure. So it is when one sinner repents of his sins and by the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts Christ for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.

It has to be by the power of the Holy Spirit because sinners are lost sheep and lost coins. Neither can they contribute to their rescue. The sheep only stray further; coins only sit where they fall. You can’t contribute to your salvation. Christ, the Good Shepherd, searches for you. He lights the lamp of His Word to enlighten your eyes. He sweeps out the house of your heart with the broom of the Law, condemning your sins so that you repent of them. He preaches the Gospel to you that God loves sinners in spite of their sins and wants to forgive all who repent and trust in Christ’s suffering and death for the sins of the world. The faith which believes the gospel and makes it your own, even that is a gift of God so that no one can boast that he’s contributed to their salvation. Christ is not ashamed to be associated with tax collectors and sinners, nor is He ashamed to draw you to Himself, no matter your sins, be they open and obvious, or hidden in your heart. Nor does He want you to think that these parables only apply to the initial conversion to the Christian faith. No. He wants you to live lives of daily repentance, continually seeking God’s mercy in Christ so that He might continually have mercy upon you, forgiving you your sins each day and applying Christ’s perfect righteousness to you. Repentance is a daily walk because we daily sin. But Christ calls us into His holy Church where He daily and richly forgiveness the sins of all who repent and trust His merits and atoning death. May God grant us to be daily walking in repentance and faith. Amen.

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