This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of
God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)
Our Gospel reading today tells us about two parables of Jesus: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. And these two parables are some of the favourite parables of Christians everywhere. These two parables also come from Luke chapter 15, where we also read about the parable of the prodigal son. In each of these parables, we read about something that was lost and then found: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.
Right at the beginning of the chapter, we read about the reason and the occasion why Jesus told these parables. It says: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
On the one hand, we have the Pharisees and scribes. On the other hand, we have the tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were a Jewish sect or faction that existed at the time of Jesus, and they were particularly noted for their strict observance of the law and various traditions. Today, when we hear the word Pharisee, we often think of someone who was self-righteous or hypocritical. We often think of the Pharisees in a very bad light. But sometimes we forget that the Pharisees were very devout and pious people. The scribes too, were also very knowledgeable people who studied the Scripture, and knew it thoroughly.
So the Pharisees and the scribes had some good traits, in that they were devout and pious, and also learned in the Scriptures. But they fell into a very bad trap: they trusted in their own righteousness. They thought, because of their observance of the law and their traditions, that they were unclean people, and pure and holy in God’s sight, because of what they did.
On the other hand, we have the tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors were generally thought of quite badly in those times, and they are often singled out and mentioned. Of course, people in general don’t like paying taxes, but this isn’t why the tax collectors weren’t liked. The reason is that these were Jewish people who were collecting tax for the Romans—they were working for the other side—and also they often lined their own pockets with a bit of extra for themselves. So not only were they thought to be betraying their own people, but also “ripping off” their own people.
We also read, that there were all kinds of sinners that were coming to Jesus. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we are told that the young son asked for his father’s inheritance, and then went and squandered his property in reckless living. When he came home, his older brother said, that this son of yours… has devoured your property with prostitutes.
And so, we read: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
The question for us today is: who are you? Are you a tax collector and a sinner, or are you a Pharisee and a scribe? You see, one of the most important things about Christ’s kingdom and his church, is that there is a huge difference between what things look like, and between what things actually are. The Pharisees and the scribes are looking at the outward appearance of things. They look at themselves and they see good, clean people, who are morally upright, and decent, and righteous. They look at the tax collectors and sinners, and they see bad, dirty people, who are morally bankrupt, and shameful, and corrupt. And they see Jesus talking to these people and eating with them, and they say: If Jesus is who he says he is, then he should be eating with clean people like us, not with the dirty people like them.
The truth of the matter is that the tax collectors, sinners, the Pharisees and the scribes, are all sinners. They are all corrupt, they all are made of the same flesh, they are all tainted, they are all sinful, they have all fallen short of the glory of God. The difference is that the Pharisees and the scribes actually think that they have something in and of themselves to offer to God. The tax collectors and sinners have nothing. But what this means is that the Pharisees and the scribes refuse to come to Jesus for his righteousness, because they already think that they have their own. They think that because they are better than those people, that they are more presentable to God.
It’s not true. In fact, salvation is not throughout own works, or piety, or sanctity, or righteousness, or sanctimoniousness. It is through Jesus Christ alone, and his righteousness alone. In John 16, Jesus teaches the disciples that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. There is one thing that saves us: faith in Jesus Christ. And there is one thing that condemns us: refusal to believe in Jesus Christ. As St Paul says in Romans: For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Now this self-righteousness of the Pharisees is a very dangerous thing. It is very common, and we always need to be on guard that we don’t fall into this kind of self-righteousness ourselves. In fact, it is so common that in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus talks about the self-righteous as ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Yes, we need repentance. We have nothing in and of ourselves to present to God to make us holy and righteous in his sight. In fact, we need repentance every day. Repentance is not something that we do once, and it’s done. Repentance is a daily business, a continual turning to God from all our sin, and self-righteousness. And even this repentance is not our work, but it is a result of Jesus himself having come and looked for us, and searched for us, and found us.
And so, Jesus tells us the Parable of the Lost Sheep. He says: 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? Why would a shepherd bother to go after one lost sheep, when he already has ninety-nine others? Can’t he afford to be one short? Is it just because he’s stubborn that he goes looking for the one sheep, and says: I started with 100, I’m going to finish with a 100?
Listen to Jesus’ words in John 10. He says: I am the good shepherd… The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
Do you hear how much Jesus talks about the sheep recognising and hearing the voice of their shepherd? Sheep actually do this. They recognise the voice of their farmer. If you raise a lamb, it will recognise your voice, and will come to you when you call it. The same for this lost sheep. The shepherd goes after the lost sheep, because it’s his, and he loves it, and he knows this sheep by name, and this sheep matters to him, because it’s one of his, and he raised it.
In Isaiah 53, we read: 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. This is a wonderful passage. We see, on one hand, we the wandering sheep, going astray, going to our own way. On the other hand, we see God the Father laying our sin upon our Good Shepherd, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, he laid down his life for his sheep, and made a sacrifice for each and every sin of the whole world.
But in our reading today, we are not so much reading about the way in which Jesus died for the sins of the world, but the way in which he rescues each and every one of us individually. We read: And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 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.
And so, this is exactly what was happening in our reading, that the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling about. Jesus found his lost sheep, and laid them on his shoulders, rejoicing. These sheep recognised that that they had failed God, that they had no hope in themselves, that they had the commandments of God but they had broken them. It’s not as if Jesus found sheep that were already saints. No, he found sinners, and they were lost and condemned by the law.
But Jesus wants to lay down his life for them. He will take their sin, and make a sacrifice for it. And so, in our reading, he welcomes them, receives them, and eats with them.
This is the wonderful message of Christianity. Sometimes we read in the bible, for example, on the day of Pentecost, that 3000 people converted all at once to the faith. But many times, we read about one person at a time. We read about a Roman centurion with a sick servant, we read about a Canaanite woman with a demon-possessed daughter, we read about a paralytic, we read about 10 lepers, but only one that thanked Jesus. What about Zacchaeus, the tax collector? What about the blind man who wanted to be washed in the pool? What about the thief on the cross? What about Paul on the road to Damascus? What about the Philippians jailer? What about the Ethiopian eunuch? What about me? And what about you? You see, Jesus converts us, and leads us to repentance, and saves us, one person at a time.
No matter who the important people in the world might be, no matter what might be happening, no matter what’s going on, when God shines the light of his grace on one sinner who repents, that person is the most important person in the world. We read: When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Jesus says, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
But then, let’s hear the second parable of Jesus. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
There’s something very interesting about these two parables. He tells the same parable twice, but with different pictures, and with different people, and with a slightly different point. For example, in the first parable, we have a shepherd, in the second parable, a woman. In the first parable, a lost sheep, in the second parable, a lost coin.
You know, it’s always the nature of a parable that Jesus wants to relate something to people. He’s reaching out to people, to put wonderful heavenly truths in their own hands, so that they tick over in their mind, so that they can think things through in light of their own experience and their own lives. You can also imagine Jesus saying, “Now, you shepherds, let me tell you something that you can relate to.” And then he says, “Now, you ladies over there, let me tell you something that I know that you have experienced.”
And this is very interesting, because we can often look at the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and think of Jesus as the shepherd, which is true. But in the parable of the Lost Coin, Jesus compares himself to a woman, who just happens to have lost something at home.
But there’s something very special in this, because it shows to us, yes, that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who searches for us. But he tells different kinds of stories about looking for different things, because he wants to let us know that we Christians are also to be involved in the searching out for lost sheep. He will use his own people in this work, and for this purpose. So for example, in Ephesians, we read that the church is Christ’s wonderful bride. And that just as a husband and a wife are joined together in marriage in one flesh, so also Christ and his church are joined together in a spiritual way, through holy Baptism, through the water and the Word, through the water and the Spirit.
And so, just as Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is always searching for his sheep, so also the mission of the church, Christ’s bride, is always to reach out to the lost for the salvation of souls. Jesus tells these parables in all kinds of different ways, because he wants to show on one hand, how he works in all kinds of different ways, but also because he wants to show us how his Christian people will also work with him. That is to say, just as Christ has compassion for the lost, so also we should have compassion for the lost. Just as Christ goes out to find the lost, so also we should also go out to find the lost. But also, just as Christ deals with one lost sheep at a time, so also we should never underestimate the importance and the significance of dealing with one person at a time.
So in the parable of the coin, we read about a woman who has ten silver coins and loses one. Now, in Australia, a silver coin, like a 50c, 20c or 10c piece, is not worth very much. We might not bother too much searching our whole house for 20 cents! However, in these days, a silver coin, the drachma, was worth a day’s wage for a labourer. It might be better to think of this woman looking for a $100 note.
I remember, about 10 years ago, being once at a family’s house, and the son had just received his first pay-cheque and had lost it! You can imagine everyone was quite in a fluster about it all! Whatever value we might put on this silver coin that this woman has lost, we know that it is of great value to her. That’s the point. The missing coin is valuable!
And so, this woman, lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and seeks diligently until she finds it. She needs the light to see, but she also cleans everything else up. This is how the church works: we hold the light of Christ and his word in our hands, and look diligently for the lost coin. In fact, Christ searches together with his church, because we know that he has given his church the light of his Word to preach and to speak, and so we see here a wonderful unity of Christ and his church.
If we don’t hold the light of Christ’s Word and his Gospel in our hands, we will never be able to see. If we hold something else in our hands, and simply want to be a kind of social club, or we are looking for people simply to boost our numbers and pay a budget, then we lose our mission for the salvation of souls. When we come to Christ, we come out from the darkness, and we come into his light. We come out from being stuck behind a couch somewhere, and we are placed into the woman’s hands. We are brought from being lost, into the company of those who are found.
So we thank Christ for saving us, for baptising us, and receiving us into his kingdom, into his church, and together with him, we hold his light in our hands, looking for those who were lost, just like us. What a wonderful joy and privilege and honour it is to be part of Christ’s kingdom!
Now, let’s assume for a minute, that this woman is really desperate to find this coin. She’s planned her finances for the week, and without this one coin, she can’t pay her rent, or something like that. Sometimes, as well, someone we know and we love, who is close to us, decides to live in darkness, and we don’t know what to do about it. This person is precious to us, and we love them, and even we think about talking to them about Jesus and the faith, and the relationship between us and them just becomes worse. The joy over one sinner who repents is great, and so too the sadness and the grief over one sinner who hardens their heart is also tremendous.
Remember: Jesus is the Good Shepherd. You don’t know how Christ has used you for a person’s blessing in all of this. Don’t underestimate the value of your words and your conversation with them. Ask him to go before you, to go without you, and find his lost sheep. Ask him to go to them – remember that he went to Paul, when he was still breathing threats and murders against the Christians. Remember how after Easter, when Jesus went and met the two men on the road to Emmaus, and they recognised him. In the meantime, we Christians, Christ’s bride, hold the light of Christ’s Word in our hand, searching diligently. The church is involved in the saving of souls, but it is Christ and the Holy Spirit who saves them. We speak the Word of God, we pray, we receive people through baptism, we strengthen people with God’s heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. However, the work of saving belongs to Christ and the Holy Spirit. As Paul says: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. At least, in our Gospel today, we are taught that the value and the significance of each individual person in the sight of God is far beyond we can imagine.
This is the reason why when we come together, we sing words which are
taught to us by angels. We sing: Alleluia! Glory to God in the highest. Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. The church sings these words every Sunday,
because we join in with the joy of the angels who rejoice over one sinner who
repents. So we say with the words of Psalm 148: Praise the Lord from the
heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all
his hosts! Let’s thank our Good Shepherd, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, for
his wonderful mercy, his love, his forgiveness, his compassion for us, his
people, that in all your insignificance, your lowliness, he searched for you, and
he found you. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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