A Sermon on Luke 15:1-10 for the Third Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

A little over three weeks ago, I realized that I didn’t know where my passport was. And I was in full panic mode. I needed my passport to fly to Minnesota for Synod Convention. I hadn’t bothered with Real ID on my driver’s license because I figured they’d just keep kicking the can on that one, but it’s for real this time, apparently. I looked where it usually was in the dresser drawer but remembered that when we were packing, I moved it somewhere safer and had forgotten where that was. I was sweating digging through totes and bins, not just because it was hot in the garage but because I was panicking. But then I found it. This moment of release and calm. Everything could go forward as planned. It was all going to be okay. It didn’t matter that I had to clean up the mess I made, I was so happy that I had discovered what I was looking for, that I had found something that was lost.

I’m sure that you’ve had similar moments whether with your phone or your wallet or your keys. When something’s lost and you know it’s missing, you get frantic and won’t rest until it’s found, no matter what that might take. Jesus knows exactly how that feels and tells two stories that express that same sentiment of searching for what is lost and rejoicing when it is found. Ultimately, we see that this is how Christ views His flock, with love for the lost and joy over the found.

This parable of the lost sheep is one those accounts that’s subject to overdramatization, of people filling in the gaps with things that sound nice and maybe make a good point but aren’t really there.

In some of the tellings of this story that I’ve heard, leaving the ninety-nine is presented as this foolish and reckless act. They’re left stranded in the wilderness with no real safety or protection, forsaken by the shepherd who decides instead to go off and find the lost sheep. It makes the search for the lost something dramatic, unexpected, irresponsible to highlight the love and the effort put in to the search.

Now, this parable is certainly about love for the lost and putting in the effort to find them. But phrasing it in that way is unhelpful, because that’s not how Jesus presents it. He says, “What man of you … does not leave the ninety-nine?” It’s a rhetorical question. Yeah, of course you’re going to do that. That’s not something extra, it’s not going above and beyond, it’s just what you do when you lose a sheep. The others are presumably safe, they’ll be fine, it’s natural to go looking for the lost. This point is made more plainly in the parable of the coin; if a tenth of your savings goes missing, yeah, you’re going to look for it.

As we examine these parables, we meditate on searching for the lost: what that means and what that looks like. So we need to look at how we view and internalize our efforts of outreach and evangelism, of telling people about Jesus, searching for the lost.

Is evangelism something natural, a rhetorical question, “Yeah, of course,” or is it something extra, something additional? To put it more bluntly, is your attitude more like Jesus or more like the Pharisees? For Jesus, searching for the lost is part of the job, for the Pharisees, it’s going too far.

Now, I know that we all think of outreach and evangelism as good things that we need to be doing, but what about when that responsibility is placed on you? Is it something for the pastor to do ‘cause that’s his job or something for the congregation to do by putting on events or is it something that’s natural, even expected for me to do? Is that going too far, asking too much?

Is your faith something that stays put, that stays here at church or in the home, or something that reaches out, that seeks for the lost? Do we look for those opportunities or do we just wait for them to jump out at us? And when they do jump out at us do we just let them pass us by?

What Jesus presents as natural and expected, we frame to be something extraordinary, something only Jesus could do, instead of something for us to do, too.

Where does that leave us? We recognize our shortcomings, but that doesn’t exclude us from the flock. Where does that leave us? Well if you’re here, you are one of the ninety-nine! You’re already a part of the flock! That means that the same love that seeks after the lost has already found you.

Whether as an infant or as an adult, our Shepherd was looking for you and found you. He was always going to find you, that was never a question, never something too hard or too much. Of course He was going to.

While the searching is something natural and expected, the motivation behind it is extraordinary as His love exceeds all bounds. His love caused Him not just to go looking for you when you were lost, but to come down to this earth, the Almighty God as a human being.

Just as a shepherd lifts up a sheep and carries it on his shoulders, so Jesus took the burden of our sin, placed it on Himself, and carried it to the cross. Jesus shouldered our burden so that by His death and resurrection we are carried back home with Him, reconciled and restored to God, to the great joy of heaven.

Just because you’re in the flock now doesn’t mean that that love or that joy has stopped. But we continue to experience and receive His love as we gather together around Word and Sacrament and we join in the joy of heaven as we worship Him along with the angels.

The flock is a place of security, where those who were once lost are now found. But the flock is not complete. There is always one more wandering sheep that needs to be welcomed into the fold.

As we reach out to the lost, we need to stay focused on our motivation: the love that has been shown to us. The shepherd doesn’t search for the lost sheep because his numbers are down. Whether it’s one out of one-hundred or one out of ten, the same love is shown, the same search is made, the same value is given.

The shepherd doesn’t search for the sheep because he needs the sheep’s offering money. No, he loves the sheep, cares for them, that’s what motivates the search.

As we do our work of outreach and evangelism, of connecting people with the Jesus who is searching for them, we always need to remember why. Not because of what they can do for us, but because of what we can do for them, showing them the love of our Shepherd.

The Pharisees criticized Jesus by saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” What a perfect summary of the Gospel. Jesus not only receives sinners, but goes out looking for them so that He can bring them in and eat with them. May we in our lives always show the love that has been shown us and rejoice when the lost are found, as we have been found. Amen.