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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled”. The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling that Jesus was receiving and eating with sinners, so Jesus told them essentially two parables to make the point that there is to be rejoicing over sinners who repent. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus was receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners. The Pharisees and scribes themselves should have been receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners, and so also we should be receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners. Thus our theme is “Receiving, Eating, and Rejoicing with Sinners”.
Earlier in St. Luke’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account, Jesus had another run-in with the Pharisees and scribes over His eating with sinners (Luke 5:29-32), and, as He has journeyed to Jerusalem, we have heard Him speak about feasting both on earth and in the Kingdom of God, for example, how invitations should go to the poor, crippled, blind, and lame (Luke 14:1-24). Then, as we heard last week, when Jesus spoke about counting and deliberating the so‑called “costs” or “conditions” of discipleship, He called on those with ears to hear to hear. Today, St. Luke tells us that drawing near to hear Jesus were all the tax collectors and sinners—the spiritually poor, crippled, blind, and lame. Those cast out of society and synagogue, with whom the Jewish leaders, in their showy brand of false holiness, would not receive or eat—they drew near and were received, ate, and rejoiced, while, apart from the feast, the Jewish leaders, like their ancestors in the wilderness before them, grumbled,.
The Jewish leaders grumbled, so Jesus told them a parable about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son (we heard about the lost son in the Gospel Reading on the Fourth Sunday in Lent). Despite differences and all sorts of allegorical meaning that some people claim, the main point is the same: like finding a lost sheep or lost coin or lost son leads to rejoicing, so receiving and eating with sinners should lead to rejoicing—rejoicing on earth, as in heaven. In teaching the parable, Jesus primarily wanted the Pharisees and scribes to realize that they should have been rejoicing. Instead of rejoicing, they had grumbled. They had murmured among themselves, complained indignantly, dissatisfied with what Jesus was doing, making Himself the equal of the scum of the earth by receiving and eating with them. To the Jewish leaders, Jesus’s receiving sinners may have been terrible enough, but His accepting and recognizing them by eating with them was almost unspeakably terrible. The Jewish leaders judged themselves better than other people, especially the tax collectors and sinners, and so also in this case they essentially judged themselves better than Jesus. While the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him, the Jewish leaders stayed away from His receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners.
At least we are here, right? Some people whom we know might be more like the Jewish leaders, maybe not even setting foot inside a church—where there is receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners. Yet, our being here does not necessarily mean that we are not like the Jewish leaders, that we do not judge ourselves better than other people. Despite our being here, do we nevertheless maybe judge ourselves better than those who might be regarded as notorious “sinners” in our society today? Do we maybe also judge ourselves better than some of the same sinners with whom we are being received, eating, and supposedly rejoicing? Do we maybe even in some sense judge ourselves better than Jesus, perhaps staying away from His receiving us with Individual Absolution and eating with us in the Lord’s Supper? Our lack of desire or appetite for those two sacraments can reflect a judgment that we make about ourselves and about Jesus.
Especially the parable of the lost sheep might raise some questions for us. For example, are the ninety‑nine left in the open country left there alone? Jesus does not say, and to some extent whether or not there are other shepherds there is beside the main point about rejoicing. Another such question is whether Jesus says that there actually are ninety‑nine righteous people who need no repentance. If there are, they may have already repented, and, if there are not, then Jesus may be using the word “righteous” ironically of the Jewish leaders, who apparently thought of themselves as righteous. Yet, if they were paying attention, they had to know that in Jesus’s view there is no such thing as people who need no repentance: all people need to repent. If you and I are paying attention, we also know that all people, including ourselves, need to repent. Even if we do not sin by judging ourselves better than others, including Jesus, then we sin in other ways, for we are sinful by nature. Like St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Timothy 1:12-17), in some sense we all individually can say of ourselves that we are the “foremost” or “chief” of sinners. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we are truly lost and incapable of finding our way to God. Through the Holy Spirit, He calls and enables us to repent: to recognize our sins, to be sorry for them, to want to stop sinning, and to believe that He forgives our sin. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin.
You see, God loves us who are lost, and so He compassionately seeks us out until He finds us. Already in the Old Testament, as in today’s Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 34:11-24), the Lord God promised to search for and seek out His sheep: to rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered and to bring them into their own land. And, in the person of the God‑man Jesus Christ, the Lord was doing those things, but the Jewish leaders did not seem to recognize that; they certainly did not rejoice. St. Luke’s Gospel account tells of yet another later run‑in they had with Jesus’s over his eating with a sinner, a sinner named Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1‑10), and shortly after that—perhaps even in part because of that—the Jewish leaders put Jesus to death. Yet, that death was God’s plan. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave in order to save sinners—sinners like us.
God saves us by grace through faith in Jesus, Who died and rose for us. When we believe, then He forgives our sin of being like the Pharisees and scribes, judging ourselves better than others. When we believe, then He forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be; He forgives even our sinful natures. When we believe, then He receives us sinners. With the help of 18th‑century German hymn‑writer Erdmann Neumeister, the Pharisees and scribes’ scornful statement has become, as we sang in the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Worship #229), a refrain of praise in the mouth of believers: “Jesus sinners will receive!” Jesus receives us sinners to Himself. He graciously admits us who once were rejected people, He gives us access, He receives us into His companionship. And He does so, through His Word, in all its forms—especially the ministry of preaching, baptizing, absolving, and administering the Lord’s Supper.
What we usually think of as “Good Shepherd Sunday” comes the Fourth Sunday of Easter, although today certainly seems like it could be “Good Shepherd Sunday”, with all the “shepherd” connections. In the Old Testament, many of the patriarchs and people were shepherds, and shepherds were well respected, shepherds even served as a “type” or “figure” of prophets, priests, and kings. Yet, by the time of the New Testament, shepherds were despised and rejected. The Pharisees and scribes, as religious leaders, should have been “shepherds” of a sort and modeled their ministry on Jesus’s ministry, but they rejected Him and the ways He brought the forgiveness of sins. For example, earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel account we are told that the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected baptism, while the tax collectors and other people did not (Luke 7:29-30). At the baptismal font Jesus receives sinners, and He eats with them at the communion rail. His body in, with, and under bread and His blood in, with and under wine are present on the altar, distributed by me, and received by you, for the forgiveness of sins and so also for life and salvation. Good, rich pasture indeed! With this food He binds up the injured and strengthens the weak. Here, no matter out cast-out we might feel, we truly are part of His gathered flock that in Him lies down to rest. Reason for rejoicing, indeed!
In today’s Gospel Reading, both the man who lost and found the sheep and the woman who lost and found the coin rejoiced and called together their friends and neighbors to rejoice with them. Their rejoicing Jesus likened to rejoicing in heaven over sinners who repent, and so He makes the point there should be similar rejoicing on earth. The parable shows us our sin, but it also shows us that, as we daily repent and believe, Jesus receives, eats and rejoices with us sinners. In the parable, the rejoicing almost certainly included sharing a meal together, as Jesus was sharing a meal with the tax collectors and sinners then and as Jesus does with us today. Here, with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, Jesus is receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners. Are you and I receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners? May God ever grant that we are so receiving, eating, and rejoicing with sinners.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +