Don’t you just hate it when you lose something? Something important like your wallet or your checkbook or your keys? You know where they ought to be and you think you know where you put them down the last time you had them in your hands – and now you can’t find them. Can’t find them anywhere! Often this happens when you really don’t have time to look for them – maybe you’re headed out the door to work or to do some shopping, and you get stopped dead in your tracks because you can’t go shopping without your money or you can’t drive the car without your keys. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? So you start searching like crazy, looking high and low. More often than not the missing items are found, and you breathe a big sigh of relief. You probably don’t hang around to celebrate because you’re already in a hurry. But it does make you feel good to know that what was lost has now been found.
Jesus tells not one but three different parables in the Luke chapter 15. The first two parables, which we heard in today’s Gospel lesson, are about things that were lost and found. The third parable is about a person, the prodigal son, who also was lost and found, and those verses served as our Gospel lesson almost six months ago.
We begin today with these words: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” The ironic thing about their grumbling is that these are actually some of the most beautiful words in the Bible. “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” What we are seeing here is the actual fulfillment of the prophets, men like Ezekiel whose words we heard in today’s Old Testament lesson. Here is God Almighty searching for the lost to bring them back into fellowship with Him – the fellowship that was broken and destroyed when Adam and Eve committed the first sins in the Garden of Eden. Here is a true reason for joy. But the Pharisees and the scribes refuse to believe. They think that they are far better than those disgusting sinners, and their holier-than-thou attitude makes it impossible for them to see that they really are every bit as sinful as the people they detest. So Jesus begins telling parables about the lost and the found in order to help the Pharisees, the scribes, the tax collectors and all sinners understand the true reason for the joy that he mentions.
In the first parable, Jesus compares God to a man who sets out into the wilderness to find a lost sheep. I’m not sure that we can relate one-to-one for this situation, but if you’ve ever lost a pet that you loved, you have at least an idea about the emotions we’re talking about here. If our dog or cat suddenly disappears, we go searching for it. We may walk or drive around for a while calling out its name. We may ask neighbors if they’ve seen our missing animal. We may put up some posters with pictures or even place an ad in the newspaper. But after a while we give up. We quit looking. We resign ourselves to the fact that our pet is gone and is never coming back. It’s not easy, but we deal with it. We move on.
But that’s not the picture that Jesus paints in our Gospel lesson. Luke writes that the man leaves his remaining 99 sheep in the open country and sets off to find the one that is missing. The word translated here as “open country” really refers to a desert or wilderness area. A bad place to be, a bad place to leave 99 sheep unprotected, and a really bad place to look for the one sheep that has disappeared. Just imagine how hard this would be – searching high and low in a rugged wilderness area, trying to backtrack to where the sheep might have disappeared, trying to think like a sheep to figure out where it might be. But the man just doesn’t give up. When he does finally find it, he has to carry that sheep in his shoulders to bring it home. If this were you and me, do you think we might be more than a little upset that this dumb animal put us to all of that work and frustration? Probably so. But not the man in our parable. He rejoices all of the way home, and when he gets home he calls his friends and neighbors together so that they can rejoice, too.
In the second parable, Jesus describes a woman searching for a coin that has been lost in her house. Two thousand years ago, many people in Israel lived in small one-room houses with dirt floors and no windows. The only light would come from an open door or a small lamp. The image that Jesus paints with His words is that of a woman crawling around holding a lamp in one hand while she carefully sweeps the floor with a broom, looking for a coin that was probably not much bigger than a dime. She slowly searches every square inch of that house until she finds her missing coin. And she rejoices.
The climax of both of these parables is the party. Both the man and the woman start celebrating the instant they find what was missing, and they immediately call all of their friends and neighbors to join in the celebration. Finally, Jesus concludes each parable by saying that there is continuous celebration in heaven for every sinner who repents.
The message that Jesus teaches here is plain and simple, but it isn’t necessarily the message we expect. These are not images of power and might and important people doing important things. No, these are humble images – a man who endures the hardship of the wilderness, and a pathetic woman crawling around her house on her hands and knees. Ultimately these parables show us the hardship and the shame that God is willing to endure to search for us and to find us when we sinners have been hopelessly and helplessly lost.
If you honestly think about it, we are worse – far worse – than a small coin that has become lost through no fault of its own. We are far worse than a sheep that has innocently wandered off from the rest of the flock. We are those who have deliberately turned our backs on our Good Shepherd, choosing to go where we should not go. Choosing to do what we should not do. To speak what we know we should not speak, to think what we know we should not think, to desire what we should not desire, to see what we should not see. We truly are the worst of sinners.
But today's Gospel comforts us with the sure and certain knowledge that no matter how sinful we are, our God is a seeker. The man in the first parable was willing to endure any hardship to find his sheep. The woman in the second parable was willing to crawl around in the dirt of the floor to find her coin. So also, God is willing to endure the deepest hardship and shame to find us.
His search brought him into this world. As He searched He humbled himself by hiding His glory in His humanity. Ultimately, His search took him to the shame of suffering and death on the cross. There He gathered together His lost sheep, His lost coins, you and me. In John 12:32 Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
But God's search didn't end at the cross. He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. From there He sent the Holy Spirit into the world to continue the search. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us. He carries us to our new shepherd, the Son of David, Jesus Christ who heals our injuries by washing them in his own blood. Through the waters of Holy Baptism we are joined to his flock, the Church. In His Church we have the opportunity to feed on the good pasture of God's Holy Word. We have the opportunity to eat the body and drink the blood of the shepherd who “receives sinners and eats with them.” In His Church we receive the promise that even death cannot separate us from His love. For the sheep who are safely gathered in His flock, death is only a door to a new and eternal life – a life lived forever with our good and loving shepherd.
An old Jewish proverb says: “There is joy before God when those who provoke Him perish from the world.” Sometimes we think of the world that way and we may even think of God that way. But that’s not the true God, the God revealed to us by His Son Jesus Christ. How different is the God whose joy was to humble himself, to come on His hands and knees, to get those hands and feet pierced for us, so that whoever believes in him should not perish – should not be lost – but be found and have eternal life.
In our Old Testament lesson, God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel said: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak… I am the Lord; I have spoken.” That is our God. That is our Savior. Today’s Gospel lesson really isn’t about things that are lost or things that are found. It’s all about the one who seeks. The one who finds. The one who has made you His precious child and will never give up on you. Who rejoices with all of heaven when a worthless sinner – someone just like you and like me – repents.
Note: I was called out of town for the birth of our grandson last week and missed much of the time that I would otherwise devote to sermon preparation. Some of the words and ideas expressed in this sermon are not my own, but have been borrowed from other Lutheran pastors. I do, however, stand behind the teachings of this sermon as fervently as if every word were my own.
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