Tag Archives: Trinity 3

Reconsidering Repentance – Sermon on Luke 15:1-32 for the Third Sunday after Trinity

Luke 15:1-32

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The night Jesus was born, shepherds were out in the field keeping watch over their flocks. A multitude of the heavenly host arrived praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” Heaven was filled with rejoicing the night of Jesus’ birth because your Savior had come to rescue you from sin, death, and the devil. Now, in this Gospel lesson, Jesus says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one winner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:7).

Well, there aren’t ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance; there has only ever been One righteous person who needed no repentance, Jesus Christ. This is probably a little ridiculous and silly, but should we imagine the joy of those angels the night of Jesus’ birth is multiplied by 99 plus a bit more when one sinner repents? Well, joy isn’t measured in units, so forget about attempting the math problem. But we can know from Jesus’ own lips that heaven rejoices more at the repentance and salvation of one sinner than it rejoiced over Christ’s birth.

Because Jesus brings the topic up in this text, the question for us today is: What is repentance? The word translated ‘repent’ or ‘repentance’ simply means “a change of mind,” but throughout the New Testament, you will find that repentance refers to a complete spiritual change. In fact, many of the times you come across the word ‘repent’ in Scripture it carries the whole idea of conversion.[1] The Bible does not teach that repentance is one step in some twelve-step salvation program. Salvation is instantaneous; just like in creation, God speaks, and it is. And salvation is always an act of God’s grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The Bible does teach that repentance is necessary for salvation, but if we see repentance as something we do, as our little contribution, then salvation is no longer a free gift. It would be dependent on you. 

So, let’s reconsider repentance, what it is and what it looks like from this parable Jesus teaches.

The Pharisees and scribes are complaining that Jesus receives sinners. Luke tells us that Jesus’ response to their grumbling is telling them “this parable” – singular. Luke could have said, “so He told them these three parables,” but he doesn’t. “This parable.” One parable. Three sections, parts, or chapters – it’s fine to think of it that way – but it’s one parable. And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: we typically know these three sections or chapters of this one parable as the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. But it would be better if we referred to them as the seeking shepherd, the seeking woman, and the seeking father because that would help us keep the emphasis on the right syllable when it comes to seeing what Jesus teaches about repentance.

Now, in the first two sections of this parable, it’s a little hard to see where repentance comes into the stories. A sheep gets lost, the sheep gets found, and the shepherd throws a party. A coin gets lost, the coin gets found, and the woman throws a party. Just looking at the stories, we would probably conclude that Jesus isn’t teaching about repentance. He’s just talking about salvation. But Jesus concludes both of those sections by talking about heaven’s joy over repentance, so repentance has to be in there somewhere. According to those two parts of the parable, repentance is nothing more than the lost being found and restored by the owner. Then, the owner celebrates because of the joy of restoration.

Now, you might be saying, “Pastor there’s a lot more to repentance than the lost being found and restored. To repent, you have to feel bad about what you’ve done. You have to recognize the hurt and pain you have caused. You need to be scared because of the punishment that’s coming. You need to want to do better. That’s repentance.” To which I have to say, “Well, not according to this parable.” Guilt, shame, fear of punishment, and resolve to do better are all right responses when it comes to our sin, and all of those things may accompany repentance from time to time. But they aren’t necessary for repentance to be true or genuine.

A lost sheep might be scared. I don’t know enough about sheep to know if they feel remorse, but a lost sheep might wish it had never wandered away from the flock. A lost sheep might try to find its way back to the herd. But in the first section of this parable, the repentance of that sheep is somewhere in the shepherd’s finding and carrying this sheep back to the pen. In the second section of the parable, the coin doesn’t have any feelings or sorrow. A lost coin just sits in the crack gathering dust. And the repentance of that coin is nothing more than the woman picking it up and putting it back in her purse. So, these first two sections picture repentance as something God does to the lost.

Just so you know I’m not making this up: In Acts 10-11, we are told the story about how Peter went to preach at Cornelius’ house. Cornelius was a Gentile, so a lot more could be said about the whole story, but I’m going to keep it short. Peter arrives there and preaches about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Peter’s Pentecost sermon is very similar in it’s content, but unlike that Pentecost sermon, Peter doesn’t hammer everyone with heavy Law. He just says that Jesus died and rose again, and he announces that everyone who believes in Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins. The people who hear that sermon are filled with the Holy Spirit and are Baptized. All of that takes place in Acts 10. When you get into Acts 11, Peter is in Jerusalem and is being accused of hanging out with the wrong crowd (similar to Jesus here in Lk. 15). Peter simply relays the story of what happened. And the response is incredibly interesting. The Jerusalem church leaders respond, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life” (Act. 11:18). Dear saints, repentance is a gift given by God.

Now, when we get to the third section of the parable, things are a little different. In the third chapter of the parable, it sure sounds like the younger son is repentant. But where does his repentance take place? Now, we have to set this up a little bit.

The third section of the parable has three main characters – a father and his two sons. The younger son tells his father to drop dead. That’s how you get an inheritance. Basically, the younger son tells his dad, “I want my share of your stuff, but I want it without you.” And the father gives it to him. Now, this would have meant public shame for the father because it would have involved selling off at least 1/3 of his estate to give the money to his little brat of a son. The son takes the cash and blows it all. He becomes so desperate in his effort to stay alive that he hires himself out to a pig farmer and is jealous of the slop the pigs are eating. 

Now, just a quick aside here. This also gives us a picture of what our sin does. Our sin isn’t just us getting lost. Sin is worse than a sheep aimlessly wandering away from the flock or a coin getting dropped. No, our sin makes us lower than and jealous of pigs.

Sitting there in the pigpen, the son starts crafting a speech. And that speech sounds like repentance, but it isn’t. Instead, the younger son realizes his father’s employees have plenty of food, and he’s dying of starvation. He plans to go to his father and say, and listen carefully, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” So far, completely true and right. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” No duh. “Treat me as one of your hired servants.” Now, all of this, again, sounds like repentance. He recognizes the stupidity of his actions and the ramifications of his rebellion. But it’s that last part that shows the brat’s real intention. He wants his dad to give him a job so he can have some food. The interesting thing that I had never noticed is the wording Jesus uses in this part of the parable.

Jesus doesn’t use the normal word for a servant which is doulos. A servant, a doulos, would live on the estate of the master and would even eat meals with the master’s family. But the younger son uses a different word here, misthios. A misthios is someone who would commute to work at the estate. A misthios would have no relationship with the master except when it was time to get paid for work done. His speech just shows how lost and unrepentant he still is. He still wants the benefits his dad can offer, but he doesn’t want anything to do with his dad. In his despair, he’s basically saying, “Dad, I screwed up big time. Can you just help me to stay alive? I won’t bother you and you won’t have to bother with me.” That’s his prepared speech.

He starts his walk home. But as he rounds the corner, his father comes running to him, embraces him, and kisses him. The son begins his speech, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father, the father doesn’t care. He restores him to his rightful place as a son. “Bring the best robe and a ring and shoes; put them all on him. Kill the fattened calf and let’s throw a party. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” It is in that love and finding and restoration of the father that the son is granted repentance. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” The son had a worldly grief that would have left him in the death of a lost relationship with his father. But the father here lets the godly grief of his lost son, that true and right realization of what he had done, produce a repentance that leads to salvation and complete restoration. The son doesn’t get to finish his speech. He doesn’t get to be misthios, a hireling. He gets to be a son again – nothing more, nothing less.

Now, I know this sermon is getting long, but I have one more thing, so please bear with me. I made a big deal about this chapter being one parable with three sections. Well, the third section has two parts. There is still the issue of the older son. The older son, who never left, was out working in the field. He comes home, hears the partying, learns what is going on, and is livid. He refuses to join the party. And even though this older son never left his father, he is just as lost as the younger son was back in the pig stye.

And here is why I bring this up. We wrongly think that God is happy when we are doing everything we are supposed to. We think God is happy with us when we are consistent, strong, and can show all the things we’ve accomplished. But that isn’t the case. Your heavenly Father is only happy when His children are forgiven and together with him at the feast. That is why the father leaves his own party and pleads with this older son to come back into the fold.

Dear saints, stop dwelling on your unfaithfulness and sin. Yes, you’ve been the rebellious younger son. But your heavenly Father has sought you out and heaven rejoices at your repentance and salvation. Stop dwelling on your obedience and work for God; don’t be the entitled older brother. Yes, go serve, love, and do your good works diligently, but don’t think that God is going to throw a party for your commandment-keeping.

Heaven rejoices with God when He brings you back into His grace and mercy where nothing is earned or deserved. Instead, it is all freely given for the sake of Jesus, your Savior. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Clear examples would include Mt. 4:17; Lk. 5:32; 13:3; 16:30; 24:47; Act. 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10.

Lost & Found – Sermon on Luke 15:1-10 for the Third Sunday after Trinity

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Luke 15:1-10

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

3 So 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? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 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 that was lost.’ 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.

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? 9 And 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.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Our text shows one scene and that is Jesus sitting with the lowlifes, the riff-raff, the notorious sinners. Not only is Jesus sitting and talking with them, He is eating with them. In the Jewish mind, eating with someone was like putting a rubber stamp with big, red letters “APPROVED” upon their behavior and life. Our text reveals this one scene, but there are two very different reactions to it.

The first reaction is from the Pharisees and scribes. So just imagine the worst of the worst – the burn-outs, the promiscuous, the hoodlums, the rioters, you name it – Jesus is right in there with them. He’s not even shy about it. The scribes and Pharisees see this, and they are triggered. They grumble and murmur. That’s the first reaction.

The second reaction is not something that we see. It isn’t part of Luke’s narration which is only the first three verses. But we know this second reaction is going on because of the parables. The reaction is in heaven. The angels look down on this same scene, and they throw a party. When heaven sees Jesus receiving lost sinners, it sees God keeping His Word and promise. Heaven looks down and sees the holy, eternal, almighty Son of God in the flesh eating with the most despicable people you could imagine, and heaven rejoices.

Now, it is easy to get mad at the scribes and Pharisees. Our tendency is to point the finger at them and say, “They shouldn’t be so hard-nosed. They think they are so good and holy and better than everyone. They should understand no one’s perfect.”

Repent. As soon as you say that, you’ve become just like them. Because when Jesus tells these parables to the scribes and Pharisees, heaven continues to rejoice because He is still doing what God always does. He is seeking after His lost sheep, and in this case the lost sheep are the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus wants to save them as well. He wants to rescue them, bind them up, bring them into the fold, and be their Shepherd. With these two parables Jesus is doing that very seeking.

Now, these parables make sense, but only to a certain point. After that, they become extremely odd. A shepherd certainly might leave 99 sheep to search for the one that is lost. The shepherd has a connection to the sheep and doesn’t want it to die. Even thinking strictly in a business sense, a 1% loss isn’t a huge deal, but it hurts. We’ve probably all looked for something longer than is reasonable. But there comes a point where you have to just cut your losses and move on. Spending all the time and effort just isn’t worth it.

Notice the language Jesus uses in the parable. The shepherd goes after the one that is lost “until he finds it.” That’s a good translation. This is an exhaustive, continual, unending search. The shepherd doesn’t go out for a while, return to make sure the other 99 are cared for, and head back out again. No. The shepherd doesn’t stop, doesn’t rest, doesn’t take a break until he finds that one lost, wandering sheep.

And when he finds the silly animal, the hard work really begins. The shepherd hefts that sheep up onto his shoulders. But he isn’t grunting and complaining, “Dumb sheep.” No! The shepherd is rejoicing while he lugs the 60-pound, wooly, hairy beast back home. Can you imagine how hot that would be around your neck? And instead of collapsing in exhaustion, putting up his feet in his recliner, and complaining to his buddies about the stupid animal, he invites the whole town over for a party that he’s going to have to do more work to prepare.

Think about that. What is it going to take to have a party? Food. What do shepherds serve for food? Sheep.

The same thing is true in the parable of the lost coin. The woman loses one coin and begins her search. To put this in perspective, imagine you had a bunch of errands to run. Your first stop is the bank to get ten $5 bills to send out in birthday cards. You head over to Target to get the cards. You make a trip the Sam’s Club, then run to Hugo’s, and finally buy stamps at the post office. When you get back home, you realize that you only have 9 $5’s. It doesn’t make any sense because you used your debit card at all the other stops. It’s not in your purse or wallet and not in your car. You must have lost that $5 somewhere in your running around. It’s frustrating, but it doesn’t make a lick of sense to drive all around town to go and find a single $5 bill. Once you’ve driven a handful of miles from your home, the IRS says that you’ve spent more in mileage than it’s worth, and someone has probably already found it and put it in their wallet. It makes a lot more sense to just get another $5 later. But not to the woman in this parable.

She lights a lamp. And, you have to understand, this is a costly endeavor. We take light for granted today. In Jesus’ day, you didn’t just light a lamp whenever the sun went down. When it gets dark, you go to bed. The phrase “burning the midnight oil” is economically costly. The olive oil used in those lamps was expensive. Every minute of light is money out the window. Why didn’t she just wait until the morning and start her search again? But she doesn’t do that. She burns that oil and sweeps the house, again, “until she finds” that one lost coin.

And, just like the shepherd, what does she do when she finds it? She throws a party. And her party, just like the shepherd’s party, is going to cost her. That party is going to cost more than the value of the coin that had been lost.

Here is the point: When God seeks after lost sinners, He is spending and sacrificing more than what the prize is worth. It cost God the Father more than you or I are worth to redeem you and me. But God spares no expense to find you lost sinners. Jesus goes to the cross and suffers in your place. He goes to death and the grave. Jesus pays the heavy price for you.

It’s easy to say, “Well, this is what God does. Should we really be surprised at this?” Yes, we should! That’s the point!

Jesus drives it home in the third parable which we didn’t read today. God goes after lost children who tell Him to drop dead, which is what the younger son basically says when he asks for his inheritance.

Today, please, please, please don’t see these parables about others. Many people online and on social media have taken the parable about the lost sheep and turned it to mean things it doesn’t mean. The parables are about you who are lost and Christ who finds you.

After both of these parables, Jesus says, “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” That word ‘repents’ is in a specific form. It is a present active participle, and if you aren’t a grammar nut like I, I’ll explain it. A participle sounds like a verb but doesn’t function as a verb. In English, you can put ‘ing’ after it. You could translate Jesus here as saying, “There is joy in heaven over one repenting sinner.”

The fact that this is in the present tense is important because it means that this repenting is continual. No matter how many times you wander from the 99, no matter how many times you get lost in a dusty crack in the floor, no matter how many times you say to God, “I wish you were dead,” all of heaven rejoices with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who finds you, with God who is like the persnickety woman, when your heavenly Father restores you.

With these parables, Jesus is redefining repentance. Too often, we think that repentance is the least we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. We think repentance is our trump card that we play and say to God, “Here is my repentance. You have to be good to me now because of this repentance.” That’s not how repentance works.

Instead, Jesus pictures repentance in these parables as being found. What did the sheep contribute to its being found? All it did was wander off and get lost. Same with the coin. All it did was lay in a dark crack gathering dust. But both are found and restored. And the restoration of both is cause for rejoicing.

Again, Jesus says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who is repenting than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” You know what? There aren’t ninety-nine who need no repentance. But there is One who needs no repentance.

Remember how the multitude of angels came down the night Jesus was born and rejoiced? Do you hear what Jesus is saying when He says, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who is repenting than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”? Jesus is saying that heaven rejoices more over you when Jesus finds you than if ninety-nine Jesuses came who needed no repentance. Jesus finding a lost sinner causes heaven to rejoice more than it did at the birth of Jesus because you are the fruit of Jesus’ labor.

Dear sinner, there is joy in heaven over you. You lost have been found. You have been brought to repentance, back into the fold, by your Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Feasting with Sinners – Sermon on Luke 15:1-32 for the Third Sunday after Trinity

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In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You can take each of these parables out of their context, and they will correctly teach you about the Kingdom of God and His grace and mercy. When these parables are taken out of context, they become nice stories about how Jesus seeks out you who are lost sheep, lost coins, and lost sons, and the angels in heaven rejoice at your being brought into the fold. To view yourself as the lost sheep, coin, or son is not entirely wrong, but neither is it entirely right.

So first, let’s consider the context of these parables. The reason Jesus tells them is the grumbling of the Pharisees when Jesus is eating with and welcoming sinners. So, the point of each of the parables is to pound into our heads the joy of heaven over one sinner who receives grace. The parables show us the ludicrous feasting and joy of God’s mercy, pardon, and steadfast love over sinners.

Lost Sheep from Luke 15.jpgIn each of these parables, what is lost – the sheep, the coin, and even the son – is not valuable. That is the point of the parables. This is most apparent in the parable of the lost coin. The party the woman throws costs more than the coin that she recovered. That one sheep was worth less than the cost of the party that the shepherd threw. Even that one son was not worth the cost of the party. And don’t pish-posh that statement.

The son had told his father to drop dead. The twerp demanded that his father sell off everything. The little brat went off, blew the inheritance, and returned only when he is tired of sharing swill with swine and thinks he has a chance at getting some bread. He came sauntering back to negotiate a job for himself. Had the father brought him on as a hired hand, it would have been gracious. Restoring him to sonship is merciful. Throwing a party about the whole business is unimaginable. No, the son is not worth a party.

But that is the point. The point is that God is like an obsessive and foolish shepherd, woman, and father who loves too much. God pays for work not performed and for merchandise not delivered.

If these parables give you a picture of a God who seems reasonable, then you are reading them wrong. Your heavenly Father turned His back on His perfectly good, entirely faithful, and completely obedient Son to purchase those who killed Him. Jesus laid down His precious life for sinners.

To paraphrase our Old Testament text (Mic. 7:18-20), “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression? You do not retain Your anger forever, because You delight in steadfast love. You have compassion on us, and You will have compassion us again and again.”

ShadenfreudeBecause of our sin, we are broken. No one wants to admit it, but we are happy when our neighbor suffers and we are sad when he rejoices. The Germans created a word for this by combining their words for ‘harm’ and ‘joy’ into one word, Schadenfreude. The worst part is we justify our Schadenfreude. We enjoy others’ pain because we figure they deserved it. We want others to get what we think is justice. But this is the opposite of compassion and is from the devil.

Satan wants justice for others. His desire is that you get the wages of your sin – death. And when we desire and demand justice, we join our voices to the serpent and receive nothing but hell and condemnation.

Like the Pharisees, we live good, respectable lives but only in an outward way. We mow our lawns and use our turn signals. We volunteer, pay our bills, and give to charities. And we think we deserve good, peaceful lives because of it. When we encounter any trouble or trial or cross, we conclude that God isn’t being fair. And worse than that, when God showers blessings on others, we figure God is rewarding bad behavior. And instead of repenting, we judge God to be unjust. We are entirely foolish for thinking so.

The Pharisees were angry at Jesus for receiving sinners, so they are damned and go home condemned. They refuse to repent. And they refuse to repent because they hate grace – even though they will never admit it. Irritation at God for accepting sinners through grace is the height of hubris and pride.

Instead of being encouraged that God forgives sinners whom we deem worse than us, we get jealous and think that God should simply accept us as we are because we are so much better than others. It is the same as saying, “I don’t need mercy, so others shouldn’t get mercy.”

Repent. The sheep, the coin, and the son are not worth the cost to restore them nor the party thrown afterwards. And, sinner, you are not worth the cost of your redemption. Let me repeat that and let it sink in: You are not worth the cost of your redemption.

But God does it anyway. How great is God’s steadfast love toward us and others?

No one is worthy of the banquet. No one is worthy to enter the feast. The feast is full of sinners accepted by God’s grace alone. Otherwise, what is Jesus doing on the cross?

The father in the parable slaughtered the fattened calf in order to celebrate the fact that Cross and Communionhe restored and received his son back into the family. Sinner, your heavenly Father has fattened up Jesus, His faithful Son, to serve as food for you who are unworthy.

Come, you poor, lame, cripple, and blind. Come, you who have no other options or choice. You and I are sinners received entirely by God’s grace without any merit or worthiness of our own.

Heavenly Father, teach us to rejoice in this and in nothing else. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Father’s Feast – Sermon for the Third Sunday of Trinity on Luke 15:1-32

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Three parables. A shepherd seeks and finds his lost sheep. A woman seeks and finds her lost coin. And a father seeks and finds his lost son. Yes, the father is the one doing all the work to restore his son – not the other way around.

Jesus teaches these parables in response to the Pharisees and scribes who were grumbling about the company Jesus was keeping. Christ was eating with tax collectors (read thieving traitors) and sinners (read prostitutes and adulterers).

Now, it is not as though the Pharisees and scribes would say they were sinless and perfect. They would admit their sin, that they weren’t perfect. But in their minds, their sin certainly wasn’t as bad as those shady characters surrounding Jesus.

In fact, these grumblers might have argued that they cared about the tax collectors and sinners more than Jesus because they didn’t want them to continue in their sin. They would have called them to repent and change their ways. Try harder. Live better. Do some good works.

The Pharisees and scribes see Jesus associating and eating with these sinners as though their behavior doesn’t matter at all. Is Jesus soft when it comes to sin? Is Jesus liberal when it comes to lifestyles? Is He tolerant and affirming of their evil? Does Jesus’ mercy mean that sin doesn’t matter to Him?

Tuck that question in the back of your mind because we will find the answer when we compare the parables. The three parables all have the same outline and progression. Something is lost; that thing is found and restored; and there is a party. But Jesus tells all three. He could have just told the parable of the shepherd seeking and finding his lost sheep, but He didn’t. Each parable helps us to see what is happening in the others.

First, we have to see who the hero is in each of the parables, and it is the one who finds, restores, and invites to the feast. As the shepherd finds and restores the sheep and as the woman finds and restores the coin, we have to remember the father finds and restores the lost son.

The son is not the hero. The son’s pig-pen plan is not to become a son again. As he is sitting in the slop, he realizes that his life would be better as a servant of his father. But the father is like the shepherd who does the work of searching out and carrying home the lost sheep. He sees his son from a distance, runs to him, and brings him home. The father is like the woman sweeping her house. He picks up his son from the dust of his slavish plan. The father cleans the piggy poo from his boy and brings him back into his home.

 

You see, the heroes in each story all do the same thing. They seek, find, and save the lost. Then, the hero throws a feast. So back to our question: By eating with these sinners, is Jesus implying that the sin doesn’t matter?

Well, again, look at the parables. Consider each thing that gets lost. Sheep get lost, and shepherds don’t blame the sheep. And the only time a coin gets lost is when its owner messes up. So, if Jesus had only told the first two parables, we might think that sin doesn’t matter. In fact, if we only consider the second parable the lostness is God’s fault.

But then, comes the third parable, and we see what causes that separation. The son who wishes his father was dead. The son who wastes his father’s living. The son who brings embarrassment and shame to his entire family. The son who squanders his father’s good gifts until there is nothing left. The son is to blame for his lostness.

The scribes and Pharisees were tough on sin, but Jesus is even more so. Jesus knows who He is eating with. He knows what these sinners have done. And He knows what you have done.

Jesus knows what you have taken. Jesus knows what your eyes have seen when they should have turned away. Jesus isn’t blind to your sin. He knows it all. He knows that you have acted like the lost son wishing that He were dead and out of your life.

And, yet, He still sees you as His lost sheep. He cherishes you and searches for you. He loves you regardless of yourself. He spares no cost in restoring you and rejoicing over you. This is how your heavenly Father is toward you, sinner.

Today, on Fathers’ Day it is good for us to remember that God is the source of all fatherhood. Too often, we flip the script. When the Bible talks about God being our Father, we think that our earthly fathers are where we can get an idea about who God is. It’s the other way around.

Fathers, learn your vocation from your Heavenly Father. Be the loving, seeking, restoring, patient, kind, merciful father to your family in the same way that God has been toward you. And remember that God and all the hosts of heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents and is restored.

You see, God cares about all the lost. He cares about the one out of one hundred. He cares about the one out of ten. He cares about the one out of two. And He still cares about the one who will not come and feast with Him. Your heavenly Father cares about all. He cares about you.

Because Jesus has died and lives again, He invites you to His feast. So, come. Come and celebrate your Father’s mercy toward you and toward all. Rejoice with God in what He is doing and what He has done. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus. Amen.