Trinity 3
Lk
15:1-10
6/21/26
The Pharisees do a lot of grumbling in
Luke’s Gospel. After Jesus called Levi – or as we more commonly know him,
Matthew – to be his disciple, Jesus ate at a great feast in his house that was
attended by many tax collectors. So the Pharisees and their scribes
grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax
collectors and sinners?”
Later in the Gospel, Jesus sees
Zacchaeus the tax collector in a sycamore tree as he passes by and says to him,
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
Zacchaeus hurried and came down from the tree, and then and received him
into his home joyfully. Then Luke tells us, “And when they saw it, they
all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’”
Today we once again hear the Pharisees
and scribes grumble. Our text begins with the words: “Now the tax
collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” Then we learn, “And
the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives
sinners and eats with them.’”
The Pharisees objected to the fact
that Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners. And so we are interested
in who exactly these people were, and why the Pharisees felt this way about
them. Tax collectors in Galilee did not work for the Roman government, since
there was not yet direct Roman rule in this area. Instead, they worked for King
Herod Antipas. They had a reputation for dishonesty because they had the
ability to manipulate the tax gathering process in order to extract extra money
which they kept for themselves.
The term “sinners” probably included a
range of people. No doubt it took in individuals who engaged in public sin,
such as prostitutes. But it also certainly included those who did not live
according to the interpretation of the Torah that the Pharisees said a person
must observe – the so-called “tradition of the elders.”
Sinners were drawing near to hear
Jesus. The judgment of the Pharisees was that our Lord should have nothing to
do with them. So in response, Jesus told three parables – parables about a lost
sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. The last of these is the parable of the
prodigal son. Our text today includes the first two.
Our Lord began by saying, “What man of
you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave
the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is
lost, until he finds it?” Jesus described how a shepherd would seek out a sheep
that had gone astray from the flock. Why would he do this? It was because the
sheep was valuable to him. He cared about it.
This fact is seen in the man’s
response when he finds the sheep: it is one of joy. Jesus said, “And when he
has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” When the
early church father Gregory of Nyssa preached on this text, he noted the
shepherd’s action and how it showed his care. He said, “But when the shepherd
had found the sheep, he did not punish it, he did not get it to the flock by
driving it, but by placing it upon his shoulder, and carrying it gently, he
united it to his flock”
The theme of joy continues in the
parable. We learn: “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and
his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep
that was lost.’” After finding the lost sheep he calls people together so that
they can join him in rejoicing.
Then Jesus drives home the point of
the parable. He says, “Just so, I tell
you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” We learn that
God’s attitude toward the lost is that he seeks them out. There is joy in
heaven when a sinner repents.
We find the same thing in the second
parable about the woman who has lost the coin. When she realizes that it is
lost she lights a lamp, sweeps the house and seeks diligently until she finds
it. The coin had great value to the
woman and so she exerted great effort to find it.
Then, when she found the coin, there
was joy. She called together her friends
and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had
lost.” Once again, Jesus emphasized the joy as he said, “Just so, I tell you,
there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The parables in our text this morning
remind us about the character and nature of God. God is the loving God who
wants to save. He does not want to
see people receive judgment and destruction. God revealed through Ezekiel, “Say
to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.’”
God wants people to be saved – all
people. After the apostle Paul told Timothy that prayer should be offered
on behalf of all people and especially rulers so that we can live a peaceful
life, he went on to explain: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the
sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
This desire of God to save is a
reflection of his mercy and love. And it is a desire that moved God to act.
Paul told the Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent
forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
The Father sent forth the Son, as he was incarnate by the work of
the Holy Spirit. Certainly, we are like sheep who go astray as we break God’s
will. Isaiah said of Christ, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.” God judged our sin in the death of Jesus on the cross. And then on
Easter he raised Christ from the dead as he defeated death and began the
resurrection life that will be ours when the Lord returns in glory.
God’s desire to forgive in Christ continues to be good news for us.
As we live the Christian life, we stumble and fall. There are times when the
old Adam gets the upper hand and directs our actions. Our feelings and emotions
are fickle, and we struggle with doubt and anger.
We see these things. We know that they are wrong – that they are
sin. We are moved by the conviction of the law to repentance. And the good news
of our text is that God welcomes us as we return to Christ for forgiveness. Jesus
says, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.”
As Christians your life is one of continual return to your baptism.
Your baptism provides the point of reference for all of your life. Through
baptism you were buried with Christ – you were baptized into his saving death.
Your sins were washed away. And God’s action through water and the word always
remains ready to be grasped in faith. God did it, and that Gospel gift is
always true. We repent of our sin and return to the forgiveness that is true in
our baptism for God rejoices over the sinner who repents.
When Jesus was with Zaccheus
he said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Jesus is the One who seeks out the lost.
Our text is a reminder that God alone can do this. The sheep can’t find
its way back to the flock. The coin can’t find itself. Only God can do this.
He does this now through his word – the word inspired by the Spirit
and through which the Spirit still works. This word is a word of law and
Gospel. It is a word of law that
condemns sin and confronts its presence in the lives of all people. It is a
word of Gospel through which the Spirit creates saving faith in Christ. It is
through the Gospel that the Spirit works faith in those who cannot by their own
will or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.
One often hears it said, “Well, Jesus ate with tax collectors and
sinners.” This fact is often deployed in the attempt to say that the Church
needs to be more accepting of the culture around us. She shouldn’t be so judgmental. The Church
shouldn’t be so hung up on talking about sin, and instead she should just love
people where they are.
When the Pharisees asked the disciples about why they were eating
with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replied, “I have not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance.”
On the evening of Easter the risen Lord said to the disciples,
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third
day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of
sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning
from Jerusalem.”
There can be no forgiveness and salvation without repentance. The
Church is not Christ’s Church if she does not speak the truth of God’s word and
confront sin. She calls people to repentance, even as Christians themselves
continue to repent. All people are sinners. The only question is what kind of
sinner you are going to be. Christians are repentant sinners and therefore we
are forgiven sinners. We are saints – we are holy in God’s eyes because of
Christ.
There will be repentance and forgiveness in the life of a
Christian. But there will be something else as well. When John the Baptist was
preaching he said, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” The apostle
Paul described his ministry after the Damascus road experience by saying that
he “declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and
throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they
should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with
their repentance.”
The apostle Paul told the Romans, “Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? We were buried therefore
with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.”
The resurrection power of the Spirit is at work in us. The return
to baptism in which we find forgiveness is also a return to the continuing
source of the Spirit’s work in our life. Faith does not simply express relief
that sins are forgiven, and then leave things there. It also now seeks to live
in ways that are true to God’s will.
So don’t just confess sin in your life. As those who are in Christ,
by the power of the Spirit turn away from that sin. Reject that sin. Put to death that sin. And instead live in
ways that show forth repentance as you trust in God and love your neighbor.
The good news of our text today is that God wants to save. He seeks
out the lost. He found you and called to be his own. He rejoices when sinners
repent. And so rather than grumbling like the Pharisees, we give thanks that
Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.
He will now receive you at the Sacrament of the Altar. As the host he will welcome you to his table
and feed you with his true body and blood. Here he will give you forgiveness
for all of the ways you have sinned.
Here he will give you food for the new man so that you can go forth and
live the life that bears fruit in keeping with repentance.
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