Looking For Life In All The Wrong Places!
16th Sunday After Pentecost (September 16, 2007)
Rev. Steven D. Spencer - Pastor
Luke 15:1–10
1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3So He told them this parable: 4“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? 5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just 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.
8“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? 9And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
I want to take a moment to share a joke with you, which I heard several years ago. A woman, one night, was out in front of a grocery store, on her hands and knees, underneath a bright street light frantically searching for something. A couple people came out of the store and asked her what she was doing. She explained, “I’ve lost a contact lens and cannot find it.” A moment later they joined the search. Another group exited the store and asked what the group was doing. One exclaimed that the woman had lost a contact lens. They too joined in the search. This happen time and again. More and more people joining in the search. Finally quite a crowd was on hands and knees searching. A young boy came out of the store and asked, “What are you doing?” Again one of the group said this woman has lost her contact lens, would you like to help find it? The young boy said sure, where was she when it fell out? Everyone stopped and listened. The woman said, “Around the corner.” Why, then asked the young boy, are you searching here? The woman responded, because the light is better.
In our text today the Scribes and the Pharisees are at it again. They don’t get it. They’ve been looking for life in all the wrong places. On top of that they have convinced a multitude of people to look in the same place. And they still are at it today, maybe not these exact same Scribes and Pharisees, but those with the same spirit. Please listen to verse 1 & 2 again: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.” Why should they be so offended by them? Why is it so offensive to be surrounded by tax collectors (which another name and class of sinner) and sinners? One verse before our reading gives us some insight Luke 14:35 "It is neither fit for the land nor for the manure pile, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" Jesus is speaking about salt that has lost flavor. The people are now gathering around Jesus because the message of the Scribes and Pharisees has lost it flavor. And to add injury to insult Jesus says the salt isn’t even fit for a manure pile. The challenge is out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” By the way the word here for hear is akouo. It means let them be instructed, let them to be catechized.
The Scribes and Pharisees are seeing their self promoted kingdom crashing down. No longer are the people blindly following them. No longer are the people searching for life in all the wrong places. I’d love to share the message that so many preachers have on this text. How Jesus embraces the sinful, the lowly, the scum, unclean, breaking down the social barriers and living as an example for us to follow. And yes that’s true but there is so much more here than that. I’d like to be able to say that the Scribes and Pharisees were offended at Jesus eating and keeping company with these sinners, because they were unclean. But Pharisees and Scribes knew that true men of God dealt with sin. And this was especially true to the High Priest in Jerusalem. So what was it that really bothered them? It was what Jesus said in chapter 14. Luke 14:33: "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Forsake all, all possessions, all preconceived notions, and of course, self! Where were the Scribes and Pharisees looking for life? Here (pointing to the heart) and here (pointing to the head). It was all about self-righteousness. Sinful people always look inward for answers. That’s where Satan wants them to look. Don’t look up, don’t look to the cross. Just turn on the TV some afternoon and there is a multitude of programs that will try and promote a better you. Do this and have more health, more wealth, more happiness, more this and more that. “I was lost but went on the program and now I’m saved!” All trying to sell you on the idea the answer is with in you. Our old Adam loves looking inwards. But now these tax collectors and sinners were starting to look outwards, upwards to God. The sinners were repenting and hearing. The Pharisees and Scribes refused to hear and repent. But Jesus spoke the three Parables of this chapter because He loved His enemies too and wanted to bring them to repentance.
There are three parables in this chapter: Verses 3-7, 8-10 and 11-32. All three have two words in common: "lost" and found". Both words describe what has already happened to the tax-collectors and sinners. The word "lost" describes the true condition of Pharisees and scribes but they have not yet been found because they refuse to repent. I want to take a moment to mention that verses 7 and 10 tell us that the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents. Scripture mentions the rejoicing of the angels three times: 1st is at creation, Job 38:7; the 2nd is when Christ was born, Luke. 2:13-14; and the last is when one sinner repents, Luke 15:7 &10. Do you think there’s some importance to a sinner repenting? Absolutely! Regardless of how nasty and spiteful the Scribes and Pharisees have been, Jesus still desires they repent.
So He tells them: “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?” (Luke 15:4). It really makes no difference who you ask this question, most, if not all, will react in the same way. But notice that Jesus doesn’t use the word "shepherd." His hearers weren’t shepherds. Anyone, shepherd or not, would do as this man did. The point is compassion, not merely the loss of property. And so the rhetorical question must be answered with a "yes." Also the person does not give up until he finds it. That’s important, especially in application and the proper understanding of repentance. Jesus sought the tax collectors and sinners, not vice versa. This is further fortified with Luke 19:10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." It is Jesus who does the seeking. Man is fallen, man is dead in sin. Dead people cannot save themselves. Isaiah reminds us: “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Our best attempts at salvation, our righteous works are like filthy rags. It’s looking for life in all the wrong places. You see, salvation isn’t something that starts on the inside and work it way outward. No it’s just the opposite. It starts outside us and works its way in. Secondly we don’t go to it, it comes to us. The man goes out to find the lost sheep. The woman’s brings the light to search for the coin. The coin doesn’t come running to her. So it is with God’s message of salvation. We must take the light to the world. We must seek the lost sheep. And Jesus is the one who brings faith to the unbeliever, and hope to the hopeless.
It’s Jesus who seeks you. In our Old Testament reading Ezekiel 34:11: “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” And here in our reading you are the one Jesus is seeking. Why, so that you might not be lost. All three parables in this chapter are about being lost and found, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. For we once were lost, but now are found. We were blind but now we see. Not of our own doing, for we can do nothing. It was by Christ alone, by His life and by His death upon the cross. He has sought you when you could seek Him not. Verse 7: “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.” A moment ago you spoke these words
I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.
Your prayer of repentance has been heard and heaven rejoices. So on this day, you rejoice with angels and archangels over the repentance Jesus has given you. With the whole company of heaven, you sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabbath! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory!” With whole the church on earth you sing, “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” You are found, and your Good Shepherd is no less than the Lord God of Sabbath, who laid down His life to redeem you. By His Word and Sacraments we can joyfully sing, “Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me, Died that I might live on high, Lives that I might never die.“
Why? Because He sought you, and He found you! And having found you, He embraces you and calls you His own and all of heaven rejoices. In Jesus name, Amen!