A Pharisee’s Prayer

Luke 15:1-10

Luke 15:1–10 NRSV

1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and 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 of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 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 in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray…..

I. Introduction

Allow me to share with you a prayer commonly prayed by the Pharisees during the first century. As I say this prayer I want you pay close attention. Reflect upon the words. Think about what the person is praying for.

I thank you Lord, my God, that you have set my portion with those who sit in the sanctuary, and not with those who sit on street corners. I rise early and they rise early: I rise to attend to the word of Torah, and they to attend to futile things. I exert myself and they exert themselves: I exert myself and receive a reward, and they exert themselves and receive no reward. I run and they run: I run to life in the world to come, and they run to the pit of destruction. Amen

What do you hear in this prayer?

Does this prayer rub you the wrong way?

As I was reading New Testament scholar, James Edwards’ commentary on Luke, I saw this prayer and as I was reading this prayer, I couldn’t help but to pay attention to the pronouns used in this prayer.

“I”, “my”, “myself”, those who”, “they”, “themselves”.

This prayer from the Pharisee tradition is one that reeks of selfishness, self-centeredness, and division.

This prayer, doesn’t seem like a prayer at all.

It feels like a person praising themselves for their own spiritual piety while putting others down.

This prayers points us to someone who cares nothing about others.

It points us to someone who seems more in love with themselves than the God they pray to.

I mean, what kind of prayer is this?

If we could summarize this prayer, we would say something like this….

“I thank you Lord, that i am better than those heathens who don’t know you. Look at me God, I pray, I read scripture, I give a lot of money to the temple, and I am the first in worship. I am certainly headed to heaven and they are headed to hell. After all, they are heathens and I am not.”

Do we see the selfishness of this prayer?

Now, I would like to pose a question to each of you.

For this question, I want you to do some quiet self-reflection.

Does the prayer from the Pharisee tradition resemble some of our own prayers?

Is the theology associated with this prayer similar to some of our own theology or ideologies?

In other words, do we say to God sometimes, “Lord, I give you thanks that I am not like those on the left.”…..or “Lord, I give you thanks that I am not like those on the right.”

“Lord, they are evil but I, I am good”

“Lord, they are destined for hell and eternal damnation, while I am destined for eternal life with you.”

“Lord, I do all of these good things and they do not. Surely, I am better than them.”

In reflecting upon this prayer, it should come as no surprise to us that Jesus is having to correct this line of thinking by telling a parable.

Before we get into the parable, let’s take a look at what prompts Jesus to tell this parable.

Luke tells us that the Pharisees and religious leaders were grumbling among themselves saying, “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Now on the surface, we can say to ourselves, “what is the big deal?

“So what if Jesus is eating with sinners.”

But to the religious leaders this was a major deal.

Jewish religious leaders taught that the righteous should not commune with the unrighteous.

The religious leaders would go out of their way to avoid associating with those considered unrighteous:

That is, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, those who were lame, those who were blind.

They even barred those known to be “sinners” from entering the temple.

Jesus, goes against practice and Luke even tells us that Jesus welcomed and ate with this people.

Now something that I want you to pay attention to is the verb, “eat.” The English doesn’t do what Jesus is doing with those considered sinners justice.

If we look at this word and what Luke is trying convey by employing this word, it is better translated as, “communing with.”

I love it how James Edwards puts it. Edwards tells us by receiving and eating with sinners, Jesus has bound himself in community with them.

Think about that for a moment and think about what that tells us about Jesus and his mission.

Jesus is doing more than eating with these so-called sinners, he is building relationships with them.

Jesus is giving a group of people who have been shunned by society, more attention than they’ve probably ever experienced.

And it is rubbing the religious leaders the wrong way.

Luke tells that the religious leaders begin to complain.

In fact, the word that Luke uses in the Greek can be translated as, “murmur.”

This word only appears twice in Luke’s gospel and it is the same word used in Exodus when the Israelites murmured against God.

Imagine that.

Jesus as he always does, gives a strong rebuke to these religious leaders by telling a series of three parables.

The first parable is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One of those sheep wanders off and the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the sheep who has wandered away from the flock.

The shepherd finds the sheep, places the sheep on his shoulders, and takes it back to the comfort and security of the flock.

When he returns, he rejoices with his friends because he has found his sheep.

Yes, he has 99 others but there was something about this one sheep that meant the world to the shepherd.

Jesus follows that parable up by telling another parable.

He tells about a woman who has ten coins. She realizes she only has nine coins and frantically begins looking for the lost coin.

She looks all over her house. She sweeps the floor hoping to find this one lost coin.

She finds it and shares this news with the entire village.

She tells everyone that she has found her lost coin.

They throw a feast because the woman has found her lost coin.

Both of these parables are beautiful and familiar to us.

Notice the progression in these parables.

Notice how the value of each item that is lost increase from one parable to the next.

The shepherd celebrated when he found one percent of his lost flock.

The woman celebrated when she found a tenth of what she had.

They both celebrated as though they found something of great value despite having more of the thing that they were looking back home.

When I think about these two parables, I think reflect back to one morning a couple of weeks ago.

Most mornings, I take GiGi to daycare.

And when I take her to daycare, Gianna expects her dad to stop and get her either a donut from Shipleys or hash browns from Chick-fi-la.

On this particular day, we stopped at Chick-fi-la and I bought her some hash browns.

Now she eats those hash browns on the way to school.

When we arrived at the school, I parked and got GiGi out of her carseat.

She was still holding the box of hash browns.

Well as I was getting her out of her seat, she accidentally dropped her box. I caught the box but one hash brown escaped and fell down to the floor.

GiGi saw that one of her hash browns fell on the ground and immediately wanted to pick it up.

Of course, I didn’t let her and she threw a fit.

Gianna screamed and cried as though she lost her best friend.

I mean the tears were just rolling down her cheek and she’s screaming at the top of lungs.

People were stopping by the truck as if she was alright.

The whole time, I am thinking to myself, Lord, someone is going to think that I did something to my child.

So, I try to talk to Gianna and calm her down.

Y’all, it wasn’t working. She got louder and louder.

I don’t know why but I am sitting here in this parking lot trying to reason with a three year-old about why it’s no big deal that one of her hash browns fell to the ground.

Gianna was having none of it.

Here it is, I am telling her, Gianna you have…and I count the hash browns in the box and I counted ten.

I tell her, you have ten hash browns left. It’s ok.

Gianna wasn’t trying to ere that because in her mind that one lost hash brown was more valuable than the ten she had left.

Gianna wanted all of her hash browns.

Friends, forgive me for comparing God to a three-year old throwing a tantrum but does this not describe God in these parables?

Notice, how both the shepherd and the woman become distraught when they lose their items.

Those listening to Jesus likely are thinking that the shepherd’s and the woman’s losses are not important or don’t matter.

But to both the shepherd and the woman, the things that they lost seemingly means the world to them.

Just as that lost hash brown meant the world to Gianna, just as that one sheep out of 100 meant the world to the shepherd, and just as the one coin out ten meant to the woman…

The lost and sinner means that much to God.

God’s desire is that every would be found.

Everyone has value to God.

And this concept is one that conflicts with the Pharisee line of thinking.

You see, everyone didn’t have value to the religious leaders.

If you weren’t normal or fit into their perception of normal, then they felt you were unworthy to them and even God.

Jesus is pushing back against this thought.

All have worth because all are created in my image.

Not only do these people I am bounding myself to matter and have worth to me but I am pursuing them.

Look at what the shepherd and village woman do when they realize the sheep and coin are lost.

They go find it. They seek the lost items.

Jesus in this text is presenting to the religious leaders and those listening to him a different viewpoint of who God is.

Jesus is describing a God who doesn’t sit back and wait for the lost to come to him.

This God goes out and pursues the lost.

Jesus communing with the sinners points to God (because remember, Jesus is the incarnation of God) pursuing the lost.

Each and every one of us here have been one those people that Jesus is communing with.

And for each of us, God through the Holy Spirit pursued us.

God said this is my son, this is my daughter, I want to be in relationship with them.

I want to bound myself in community with them.

I want them to know me.

And God keeps pursuing and he keeps pursuing, and he keeps pursuing until we are found.

He then throws us on his shoulders and carries us back to the flock.

He then throws a feast because that which was lost has been found!

Friends these are parables of grace.

This grace is a result of God’s love for you and for me.

I don’t know about any of you but these parables are Good News.

It is good news that we serve a God who loves us so much that he seeks us.

God avails himself to us so that we may enter into relationship with him.

God is not like the Pharisees, he doesn’t throw us away because of the mistakes we make.

He mends our wounds and repairs our brokenness.

The Pharisees were tossing people aside leaving no room for grace.

Aren’t we like that sometimes?

We cast people aside and even pray prayers like the one I shared earlier in this sermon, that is, “thank God I am not like them.”

There are sisters and brothers living on the street, abandoned in mental health facilities, alone and hopeless in prison, alone drowning in depression and anxiety because someone tossed them aside and said, because of this, “you have no worth.”

Jesus in these parables is reminding us that they indeed have worth.

They matter to God.

No matter what mistakes you’ve made in the past. You have worth.

No matter how messed up you consider yourself to be, you matter to God.

No matter if you’re living in a nice home in a gated community or in a box on the streets or under and overpass; you have worth to God.

It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor; you have worth.

It doesn’t matter if you are incarcerated for murder, guess what? you have worth.

Everyone born matters to God.

We all have worth to God and as the church we are supposed to be the example of God’s amazing grace by showing all no matter their situation that they matter to God.

If they see that they matter to the church, then they will come to realize through our grace and love that they matter to God.

God is calling us to recall the time when we were lost. He wants to reflect upon the goodness and love he showed us when we strayed from the safety and security of the flock.

God is calling us to remember that unbelievable moment when we received that grace.

Charles Wesley spoke of this unbelievable grace in one of my favorite hymns and one we just sang together to begin this service.

The title of this song is, “And Can it Be.” Allow me read the lyrics……

1 And can it be that I should gain An int'rest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!

2 'Tis mystery all! Th'Immortal dies! Who can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine! 'Tis mercy all! let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more.

Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!

3 He left His Father's throne above, So free, so infinite His grace; Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam's helpless race; 'Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O my God, it found out me.

Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!

4 Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!

5 No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th'eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!

Isn’t that beautiful?

Isn’t that Good News?

God gives us not only amazing grace but an amazing love that neither Charles nor John could comprehend.

An amazing love that you nor I could ever comprehend if we tried.

And it’s nothing we did because we know that we could not save ourselves. It was through the love of the Good Shepherd that you and I were lost but now are found.

We were blind but now we see.

How can it be???

What amazing love!

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