Third Sunday after Trinity (2024)

Trinity 3…Today we are going to look at events in Jesus' life that are somewhat expected for us as we are living 2000 years after the cross. But in its day the the behavior of Jesus was revolutionary.

When the radical way of Jesus becomes our expectation, we forget that it is radical.

And yet, we so often fall into the opposite tropes of Jesus. We are going to see that Jesus is not playing to the high-minded but instead is embracing those on the margins, moving toward them, bringing them the Grace of the Gospel. We expect it, knowing the texts of the Gospels and yet often fail to follow.

It's easy when you bible study regularly for your job, or you know that your congregation reads a lot of the bible…it is easy to assume that everyone kinda gets the low-hanging fruit of the text, and you go on a mining expedition for the really deep and nuanced stuff. I know that this small gathering of Christians is not biblically illiterate, and yet it is probably the best practice to first get those bits that might feel obvious and then spend less time on the more nuanced things.

Today’s reading points to God’s heart for those who are far off, and reminds us of our duty to share the Gospel.

So let's look at the text explicitly.

[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.”

So the three major character categories, Jesus…the meeting between heaven and earth in the flesh, the revelation of God and his Character…number two, the baddies (Sinners and tax collectors). Last Category, Pharisees and scribes.

But the text tells us it is not the Godly ones that draw near to God for mercy. It is actually the baddies. Those who are on the moral out that draw near. The sting of rejection belongs to the Religious leaders who claim to know God and his word.

[2] And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So a couple of things. The baddies are drawing near, and the goodies are grumbling. The baddies think Jesus is making a theological and moral mistake because…

My favorite pastor of the last 20 years, Timothy Keller, the recently deceased Presbyterian church planter reminds us that many in the Bible, but especially Jesus, will often use a parable, not to directly shut a person down but to make it obvious through story how those folks are in the wrong. Jesus especially uses this tactic, and his parables are legendary and many. They are worthy of our special attention.

[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?

First thing we are in a Shephard's parable. Shepherds are regular parts of Jewish society. A person who owned a flock might do well in the market place but the work was hard and required long seasons in the wilderness taking your seep to places where there was forage. Often they might hire help, often migrant workers without other options. Not high society. And on top of all this, the OT often compares the covenant people of God, in this case, the Jews as a flock of vulnerable sheep, and God as their shepherd.

In our parable we are focusing in on a flock of 100 and one goes missing. And we see a shepherd who must have been an owner because of the fierceness of his pursuit. He leaves the others, leaves them vulnerable, to go after the one. No sense of giving up, he goes till 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.

And now Jesus is going to put the moral lesson to it. Finding it does not come with condensation but compassion and care. He carries the sheep on his shoulder. He gathers his people to rejoice.

This is the posture in heaven over those who repent, who turn from sin and are brought back to the fold.

Jesus is saying to the religious leaders, you may hate this but that tax collectors and sinners are drawing near to God in the flesh means there is rejoicing in Heaven. An image-bearing creature is turning to come back to his creator. Pout all you would like, there is no pouting in heaven.

[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?

There are three parables in Luke 15 and our lectionary focuses this week on the first 2. So we dive into this second one. A woman loses a coin after having 10. A coin is about a day's labor for a day's worth of living. 10 is probably all this woman has to get through lean times. Where it is lost in her house, is not specific. If Jesus was telling this parable about my house with three kids in it, I could easily visualize it. In Jesus' day it was easy to lose things in the cracks between the stones that made up the floor, in my house it is more like on the countertop hidden among the dishes… And before anyone gives Heather the side eye…dishes are my thing at Casa del Costa, so all judgment comes here.

So this woman sweeps the house getting out ash from cooking fires, and debris from life in dusty Israel. And she finds her coin.

[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.”

Again the moral of the story, like this woman pursues and finds this thing of immense value, God is in pursuit of infinitely valuable human beings. Sinful humans versus obedient humans it is not the means by which God evaluates if someone is valuable. People are valuable because they are valuable. Money is not valuable based on its character… it's valuable because it’s valuable.

Jesus is saying that these sinners are of immense value to God, because they are valuable. They do not earn worth through virtue…you do not earn worth through virtue.

Today’s reading points to God’s heart for those who are far off, and reminds us of our duty to share the Gospel.

So a few applications.

First off, we need to be a little self-evaluative and figure out if we are in spaces with forgotten and marginalized people, or at the very least are we quick to be near popular folks and church and quick to scoot away from the unpopular.

The New Testament regularly admonishes this behavior. Friends, we have to be mindful of our instinct to want to be well-liked by the well-liked.

Second, we need to see people as valuable and not disposable.

In neither parable does the main character decide that the 99 were enough and fail to seek the one, that 9 was enough and refuse to seek out the 1. People are not disposable for the higher good.

The arguments around human life hinge on this point. Whether we are trying to make it easy to destroy life in the womb or at the end of life, what we are arguing is this…is the convenience of society enough of a reason to terminate a human? Spoil alert, it is not. Humans are not disposable commodities stored in warehouses to be removed when something else needs that space. God does not allow us to think so.

Third: you are not the Religious leaders in this story. You are the sinner. If you are going to put yourself in the biblical narrative, put yourself in the right spot. You are not the Pharisees, you are the sinners. Saint Agustine reminds us that the Gospel is one beggar telling another about the presence of free bread. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It's easy to want to put ourselves as the ones searching for the sheep, or the ones invented for the party…we are the sheep…

Humility has fallen on hard times in our era. Victories are to be proclaimed on social media, opposition silenced, and many people are in massive debt in order to live in places and drive in vehicles they cannot afford to let the world know they are not sheep, but they are the better category. Then comes the king of the universe. Not into fine palaces but into poverty, not associating with the important, but the lowly. Not hanging with the religious but the sinner. He goes to the cross, in order to give away his righteous work to those with none, and becomes the object of their wrath. If we want to follow Jesus on the Calvary road it is not just having a heart for those who are forgot it is suffering for them, trading your benefits so that they may benefit. Today this group of sinners will be invited to the table to be God’s special guests, not just this Sunday but every Sunday. Let us never forget that. This is not the reward of the righteous but a gift to the lowly. Amen