A sermon on Luke 15:1-10 for the Third Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.
“Bad company corrupts good character.” Is that something your mom ever had to say to you growing up? If she did, it was probably a little judgmental, right, she didn’t like your friends or the people you were hanging out with, but she did have a point, right? You are influenced by the people you choose to surround yourself with and especially when we’re impressionable we need to make good choices. And that statement is actually more than just a cliché, “Bad company corrupts good character” is in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:33 if you don’t believe me, so it must be decent advice.
But isn’t that what the Pharisees are saying in our Gospel lesson for today? They see Jesus hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners, although they’re maybe thinking less “bad company corrupts good character” and more “birds of a feather flock together.” Right, if this is who Jesus hangs out with, doesn’t that tell us something about Him? Shouldn’t that color how we view His teaching?
Jesus doesn’t live up to ordinary advice. It doesn’t apply to Him, He surpasses it. The Pharisees accuse Him, “This Man receives sinners,” and Jesus shows them just how true that is. Across these parables, Jesus shows Himself to the friend of sinners as leads them to repentance and receives them.
I. Sinners Repenting
Of course, throughout this scene, the Pharisees aren’t really concerned about Jesus and His character and His reputation. They’re the ones trying to call it into question and tarnish it. The offense that they’re taking doesn’t stem from any concern about Jesus, but that they don’t like what He’s doing.
“This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” He doesn’t just hang out with them, He has table fellowship with them, eating with someone was a far more significant thing in the ancient world.
And they’re not thinking of forgiveness. That doesn’t even occur to them as a possibility. How could it? These people are gross, outward sinners. The filth of their lives is evident to everyone. Surely there’s no chance of forgiveness for them, so why is Jesus even bothering?
It’s against that mindset and attitude that Jesus tells these parables. They’re clearly a rebuke. The concluding statements drive that home, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” Heaven is rejoicing when these lost are found, why aren’t you?
Although the main thrust of these parables is a rebuke, I don’t think that that’s what we should be taking from it. I don’t think that we suffer from the same exact attitude the Pharisees have. Right, we’re happy when we see someone new in church. We know that sins are forgiven, that’s what we’re all about, we’re not going to hold someone’s past against them. We, too, rejoice when one sinner repents.
But if that’s how we view ourselves when we approach this text, where does that leave us in the parable? If we’re not the “one sinner who repents” and that’s someone else, does that mean that we’re the “ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance”? The self-righteous Pharisees who think that they don’t need to repent?
While our attitude is not as crass as theirs, I think we suffer from the same affliction. We see the lost sheep, we see the sinner who repents and think of someone else, that that must refer to someone who has led a life of sin but then in a moment repents and is converted. Maybe that has been your life. But if you’ve been a Christian all your life, how do you fit in to that dynamic?
I think many of us, most of us, face the same temptations as the Pharisees. The temptation to a false security. “I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to do,” just run through religion on autopilot, don’t think about it that much or that seriously, because I’m doing alright, right?
If our lives are becoming too easy, if spiritually, you’re getting a little too comfortable, we need to be reminded of what Jesus is really talking about here. When He says, “one sinner who repents,” that’s not a one-time action in the past. That verb is a present participle, it’s an ongoing, continuous action. It’s not “one sinner who repented,” “one sinner who is repenting.” We are in continual need of repentance. And if we let our guard down, we might just start going astray.
Like Luther said in the first of his ninety-five theses, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance isn’t a one-and-done. It’s not something we ever get over or get through. Because we keep on sinning. We keep on going astray. We can never get too comfortable because we are constantly reminded of our sinfulness. Repentance isn’t for the sinners out there, it’s for you. Because you’re a sinner, too. “We all like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Is 53:6).
II. Sinners Received
We need to have a proper view of who needs repentance and that repentance is ongoing. But then we are also led to see who works repentance and what that means for the sinner who repents.
Repentance gets brought up in the conclusion, but that’s not what the parables are about. The parables aren’t about the sinners needing to turn from their ways and seek God on their own, that’s not what repentance is. The parables are about seeking and finding what is lost. Repentance is equated with being found.
If you feel sorrow over your sin, that doesn’t mean that God has abandoned you. It means that your Shepherd has found you. When you long for forgiveness, that means that you have it. God is the one who works repentance. He leads us to see our sin and turn to Him. He is the one who goes out to seek us and find us and turn us to Himself.
Where do you see yourself in this parable? Not as the lost sheep. Not anymore. You have been found by your Savior. He has picked you up and placed you on your shoulders. Indeed, He has taken away the burden of your sin and placed it upon Himself. He is able to receive sinners because He has taken away their sin. He has taken it to the cross, where the Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk 19:10). To bring you safely into His fold.
“This Man receives sinners.” Of course He does! That’s who we are. He not only receives them, He goes out and finds them and brings them to Himself.
The world has a hard time looking past someone’s past. And so often we hang on to our guilt and shame. But Jesus receives sinners. And makes them sinners no more. He forgives their sins. And heaven rejoices. The pain that your sins have caused God is drowned out by the joy over repentance. When Jesus finds you, there is a burden to carry, but He does so with rejoicing. “I have found my sheep which was lost!”
“This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” What a great blessing we have to eat at the table of our Lord. We come, not out of our worthiness, but because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. As we eat Christ’s body and drink His blood, we are sinners no more, our sins are forgiven. We approach His table, being drawn with repentance, we kneel [bow] in humility and adoration before our Lord, and He comes to you. He finds you. He forgives you.
And heaven rejoices. That’s how you celebrate, with a feast! The Shepherd calls together His friends and neighbors, we enter into this mystery “with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven” as we join in their song, “Holy, holy, holy” as a little piece of heaven comes to us, as we receive the joy of forgiveness.
“This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” God be praised! How true. God has led us to repentance, to recognize our sin and just how lost we are. And He has found us, removed us from our sorry state, that we might sin no more. He brings us home, rejoicing, and feeds us with a feast. Jesus is the best company we can have. Amen.
