It's easy for a pastor to preach about how mean and nasty these folks were, about how they raised their noses at all those “sinners” and demonstrated a number of arrogant haughty attitudes. It certainly would seem to be a lot like the preaching of Jesus. For surely he had a lot of angry things to say about this class of men in Palestine two thousand years ago. The problem is, we don't live in Palestine two thousand years ago. It's not really a sermon at all if it doesn't address the people sitting in the room.
Dead men don't need the hear the Law and Gospel. We do. Like good little Lutherans, we have been well trained to nod our heads and say, “Yes, I am a poor miserable sinner. My righteous deeds are like filthy rags. ” It is a comfortable and familiar thing to say, almost as if “sinner” is a good thing. And so we read or hear the parables and teachings of Jesus and he is yelling at the scribes and pharisees and getting all chummy with tax collectors and sinners and immediately we think, “Ooo, I want to be in the latter group. I want to be a tax collector and sinner!”
Bad guys versus good guys... Pharisees? Bad! Tax collectors and sinners? Good! This is a simple and moralistic way of understanding the Bible... and it's completely wrong. There are not two classes of people; Pharisees versus non-Pharisees, haughty versus humble, boogeyman versus pious believer. In fact, what we have seen most clearly in the Gospel readings the last few weeks is that Jesus makes no distinction between people at all. Jesus is not teaching “Tortoise and the Hare” morality fables. He is teaching about Himself.
He is the only one who is any different from the rest of humanity. The Pharisee and the tax collector are the same. The scribe and the sinner are the same. Only our Lord was without sin. Yes, Pharisees could be “hypocritically self-righteous and condemnatory”...but so could gentiles and Samaritans. Yes, the scribe could be haughty and judgmental... but so could the illiterate prostitute. Yes, the rich men of this world can be greedy money grubbing pigs, but so can the poor. There is no distinction of persons among men except that which we have imagined ourselves. All are simply dust, the grass of the field that withers and crumbles.
That is why the prophet Micah rejoices in God's forgiveness and mercy saying:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
And now, in the person of Jesus Christ, the God who is like none other has become the man who is like none other. He is the one hope of the world. He the one way. He is Truth and Life. He is the merciful father who joyfully receives the prodigal son later in this chapter. Like rest of Scripture, all the parables are about who Jesus is and what he has done. Today we see that our Lord is the shepherd who left everything to rescue his people. The folks put in charge of caring for the flock failed big time so, as the saying goes, “if you want something done right, do it yourself”. That is what God did. Ezekiel says:
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them…I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness… I will tend them in a good pasture… I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.
This parables talks about how Jesus leave the ninety nine “righteous people who do not need to repent” in order to save the one. This does not mean that the ninety nine were any less lost than the one stray. The phrase “righteous people who do not need to repent” is biblical sarcasm. What it means is that they think they are righteous. It is like when Jesus says that the healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick. Every single human being is still sick; most simply are not aware of it.
We we're all lost, cruising down the road to perdition late at night, humming to the radio without a clue in to the world, until the semi-truck of the Law blazed down upon us in our lane. And so we quickly pull off the one way street and end up in a low rent truck stop in the middle of nowhere. We realize we have no money, the whole place stinks and the phone's broken. Various unsavory characters sleep on the sticky vinyl benches and you notice an old rusty penny jammed into a crevice of cracked linoleum.
Then, by God's grace, you realize “that penny is you.” You are the lost coin. Jesus Christ came down to seek and save... and now he has found. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who surveys a property and discovers a pearl of great price in the field. Then he goes and sells all that he has in order to buy the field and have the pearl. That pearl is you. The church is Jesus' priceless treasure.
And so for every single soul found and brought back into the fold, there is a great party in heaven. Heaven rejoices when Christ seeks and saves the lost… when God brings us to repentance and faith. We join in a lit bit of that celebration today in the Divine Service. We began by recognizing our own sin and unworthiness and then heard about His amazing grace in Jesus Christ... who is a God like you?
Who is a God who empties himself of all glory and honor and crawls around on the floor for hours with a boar-hair brush and a flashlight searching for a penny fallen under the hardwood floor? Who is a God who “welcomes sinners and eats with them”? There is only One, and he has proved it this morning, as he does week after week. For, he comes to you, to you the tax collector and to you the Pharisee. And here, he pours out his own blood and righteousness for all. Forgiven by that blood, bathed in pure water, Jesus sinners doth receive.
This man welcomes Pharisees and eats with them. The man Christ Jesus welcomes you despite all the secret baggage, the angry thoughts and rebellious attitudes you've nurtured during the week. He eats with you, prepares the table, serves you, waits on you hand and foot, despite the fact that you're probably thinking more about lunch.
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”. Yes and praise God that he does! This morning we only get a small “foretaste of the feast to come,” but we are assured herein that forever and always we will be welcome guests at the great heavenly celebration with our savior Jesus Christ. For he has sought you. He has found you. He takes you joyfully upon his shoulders and shouts “Rejoice with me…I have found my lost sheep!”
+ Amen +
Nice job!
ReplyDeleteExcellent sermon.