Luke 15.1-10

Pentecost 14 (Revised Common Lectionary) | 09.11.22 | Lk 15.1-10 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him (Jesus).  And the Pharisees and the scribes murmered, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he (Jesus) told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  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 neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine persons who need no repentance.

“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 neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”                                                            [Revised Standard Version]

“But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal Life.”                                                                                             [1 Timothy 1.16]

  In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Focusing on the conversations that run from the LORD God to and between us during this Pentecost season is not always easily maintained.  The conversations mix in with the stuff of this world’s life – football and baseball games of some importance, the testing of good and bad ideas in the emerging political season, weighing the competency levels of those who intend to serve on local, state and national levels, and stark reminders of what happened twenty-one years ago on 09.11.

Of all this stuff, it is clear that the recall of 09.11.01 is healthy for all the people in this country.  Yes, it catches us up in the horrors of that day, but it also recalls the determination that saw a country climb out of those horrors.  We are still struck how people responded with no hesitation to give assistance to others, even if it meant that they would lose their own lives.

It is in that context, then, that our Lord, through today’s Gospel, chooses to move our attention to the realities of his Life, particularly as they spill out from his Forgiveness.  It is such Forgiveness that creates his people and sustains them.

The Lord’s Forgiveness reveals itself in following circumstances: we see people in the Lord’s parish communities offering their abilities and efforts for long hours so parishes can do their work well; we see people in the Lord’s parish communities stepping into his Scriptures and Sacraments Sunday after Sunday even though their lives are being squeezed so hard they can barely breathe; we see people in the Lord’s parish communities quietly reflecting his Life in their work places, their schools and their homes.

What is going in these situations is that the Lord’s Forgiveness is working its ways into the lives of such people, re-creating, sustaining and energizing them!   It is also the Lord’s Forgiveness that swarms us with the deepest joy possible!

Such joy contrasts sharply with the joy surrounding us in this world’s life.  In the world’s life deep joy would be – companies where you could work your entire life, a permanent shut-down of all the evil in the world’s people, success in whatever you set out to do, lives that would be free of illness.

According to the Life given us by our Lord in Baptism, though, deep joy is unleashed when Forgiveness swarms the persons who repent!  This is the reality thundering out of today’s Gospel!

Luke notes that all the tax collectors and sinners, that is, people with no reputations or shoddy ones, are coming to listen to Jesus.  The tax collectors were Jewish natives who worked for the Roman occupiers of their country and were well paid for it – their fellow countrymen resented both the taxes they had to pay as well as the higher life-style of these collectors.  The sinners were Jewish people who either had no interest in the high standards of the Pharisees and scribes, or could not match their commitment levels.

However, the Pharisees and the scribes, the ones with the glittering reputations, are grumbling about Jesus.  This “grumbling” is the same word used to describe the “murmuring” of the Lord’s people as they made their way through the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt.  The Pharisees, who emerged in the years between the Babylonian Exile and Jesus (from the 400s BC to Jesus’ birth), kept the Law, including its oral traditions, in the smallest detail.  They were so intent on not going into another Exile that they expanded the Ten Commandments to Six Hundred Thirteen, and were highly serious about paying close attention to them!  They looked down on and kept themselves separate from those individuals who did not share their understanding and their commitment.

The scribes were experts in the Law – they studied the Law to protect and defend it (remember it is detailed in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament).  They instructed others in the Law, passing on their learning without any fees or charges; they also served as judges in the administration of the Law.

The high view that the Pharisees and scribes had of themselves shows up in the way they address Jesus in today’s Gospel.  “This ‘fellow’ or ‘man’ (note the lack of respect!) welcomes sinners (obviously they are not in the same category!) and eats with them (horrifying!)!”  As he responds to their grumbling, Jesus relates two parables.

In the first one he describes the search for a lost sheep and the joy at finding it (sheep do not have ability to take care of themselves, this explains the drive to find it).  Jesus notes the “joy” in heaven that erupts over the finding (the Greek word is describing the Life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!).  This “joy” comes from eternity into this world through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Today this joy keeps coming from eternity into this world through the Lord’s Scriptures along with his Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist.

Such joy is unleashed by one repentant sinner (the people who discover they have been living for themselves and now are being turned back to the Lord who baptized them)!  This joy is not unleashed by the crowd that needs no repentance (a critical observation about the Pharisees and scribes!).

In the second parable Jesus describes the search for a lost coin and the joy at finding it.

The lost coin was a Greek drachma, similar to a Roman denarius; it was worth a day’s earnings (today’s pay of fifteen dollars per hour would amount to one hundred twenty dollars).  In Jesus’ day, ten of these coins could be the life savings of a family, seeing them through the periods when there was no work; that’s why there was this intense drive to find it.

The same Greek word is used for the “joy” at the finding of the lost coin, turning us again into the eternal Life of LORD God.  Jesus points out the “joy” among the Lord’s angels that is triggered by one repentant sinner, one person being swarmed with his Forgiveness; one person who has found out that living for oneself results in a dead-end.  It is striking to observe that this repentance is not occurring on a massive scale (it’s like twelve people being fed in the Eucharist rather than the five thousand in John 6; the occurrence is like one day rather than all three hundred sixty-five).

Notice, however, the pattern in both parables – something is lost, there is a determined search for it, what is lost is found, there is great joy at the finding.  Deep joy erupts in heaven and on earth when a person discovers that he or she has been pulled away from living for self and now begins to live in the Lord who rescues and sustains his people.  Such repentance, signaling a person’s turn from the self to the LORD God, swarms him or her with the Lord’s Forgiveness.

This repentance enables us to see the people in the Lord’s parish communities who quietly reflect his Life in their homes, their work places and their schools.  It enables us to see the people in the Lord’s parish communities stepping into his Scriptures and Sacraments Sunday after Sunday even though their lives are being squeezed so hard they can barely breathe.  It enables us to see the people in the Lord’s parish communities offering their abilities and efforts for long hours so parishes can do their work well.

The realities of our repentance and the Lord’s Forgiveness are seen most clearly in Jesus’ Cross.  The Cross pulls our sin (our instinctive self-absorption) into it, crushes it and re-sets us in the Life streaming from his Baptism.  If we’re like the Pharisees or the scribes in today’s Gospel (a very real possibility for today’s Christians), there is no need to repent!  If we’re like the tax collector or the sinner (also a very real possibility for today’s Christians), there is a significant and driving need to repent!

If we’re like the Pharisees or the scribes, we avoid the Cross; if we’re like tax collector or sinner, we let the Cross embrace us.  The Cross vividly reminds us that the LORD God steps into the messiness and sorriness of our self-centered lives, crushes the sin that is always grinding us down, restores us to his Life and now swarms us with his Forgiveness!  May that Forgiveness continue to run through the conversations we are having with our Lord and one another as we make our way through the stuff of this world’s life!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

   hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com