Third Sunday after Trinity

At that time: All the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Lk 15:1–2)

If you ask a Christian, “What is the mission of the church?”, he will probably answer with something to the effect of, “To tell people about Jesus” or “to reach the lost with the Gospel”, and these answers are good answers. But if we were to put together a mission statement for our church, we would probably do best to use that words of Jesus, who commanded that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Would you like to see this happen? Would you like to see this church grow? I’m fairly certain that everyone here would say “yes.” Ask this question in any parish across the country, and you’ll probably get the same answer. We want more people to come and hear about Jesus. We want young families in the pews. We want baptisms and confirmations and weddings. We want to go back to the glory days of the parish when there was standing room only on Christmas Eve and Easter.

And yet, if God were to begin to grant this in our midst, it is certain that grumbling would also arise in our midst. This is no surprise. It’s a manifestation of sinful, human nature. “Why is this new family sitting in our pew? Why is that baby fussing during the service? Why don’t these new members know how things have always been done in our church?”

But the most offensive thing about new members is that they are sinners. That is what irked the Pharisee and scribes. They could not believe that Jesus would receive sinners and eat with them! Yes, they believed that God wanted to forgive sinners in the abstract, but as soon as real sinners with actual sins showed up to be with Jesus and receive forgiveness, the Pharisees were offended. “Who let those sinners into our church?”

In response, Jesus tells three parables about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and, if you keep reading beyond the text in our bulletin, a lost son. In each case, when that which was lost is found, there is a celebration. “Rejoice with me, for I have found my son, my coin, my sheep which was lost!”

But not everybody is willing to rejoice. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the older brother is angry at the celebration for his younger brother’s return. The Pharisees and scribes complain that tax collectors and sinners are coming to Jesus. And would you believe that there could be grumbling in our midst about the fact that God is adding to the number of this congregation?

Jesus says that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. That last part is a curious phrase. I have often wondered what a congregation made of ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance would be like. When I first started my studies at the seminary, I requested in advance to be sent to that congregation. I told the man in charge of assignments that I would like to be sent to a church with no sinners. But instead, I was sent here. I’ve been looking for the ninety-nine righteous ever since, and you know what, I have yet to find even one—including myself, of course.

Ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Are you part of this near mythical group? I think you have been catechized well enough to say confess that, no, you are a sinner. And this is a good confession. But do you actually believe it? It’s one thing to say, “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.” It’s quite another to actually believe that you are a sinner.

As an example, just wait until the next argument with your spouse or parents or siblings and see how desperately you strive to prove that you are not, in this instance, a sinner in need of repentance! “He started it! My actions were justified. I am not the one in the wrong!” Ah yes, there can be no doubt that you are a righteous person who has no need of repentance.

And what happens when a marriage is made of two righteous people who need no repentance, two people who are each fully convinced that the other is in the wrong? What happens in a family full of righteous persons? What happens in a congregation full of righteous persons?

Even though we would all confess in the abstract, “I am a sinner,” as we did together this morning, what happens in practice in our homes, at work, in our relationships is often a confession of the opposite, “I am not a sinner. I am not in the wrong. I am not the one who needs to repent!” In other words, “I am not a lost sheep that has been found by Christ.”

The church is intended to be a place of rejoicing. If there is great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, how much rejoicing might there be when 50 or 100 of those sinners are gathered together in one place? But if each of those sinners is convinced in his own heart that he is in fact one of the ninety-nine that needs no repentance, then that gathering becomes a church of Pharisees—and I have yet to meet the Pharisee who was the cause of any rejoicing, whether in heaven or on earth.

The Bible says that there is none righteous, no not one. In truth, there is no such thing as ninety-nine other sheep who don’t need to repent, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There are only sinners who admit it, and sinners who lie.  The sheepfold of Christ, the church on earth, is not a collection of the healthy. It is not a gathering of the righteous. The church is a hospital for sinners, and you are one of these.

If we did not know that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them, then it would be necessary to continue pretending that we are part of the ninety-nine. What a miserable congregation that would make. But it is no longer necessary to pretend, because Jesus does receive sinners and eat with them. These words are offensive to Pharisees who think that need no repentance. “Jesus receives sinners? Well there goes the neighborhood. There goes the congregation.” But to man who knows himself to be a sinner, these are the most beautiful and comforting worlds every spoken. “Jesus receives sinners? This means that Jesus receives me. Jesus eats with sinners? This means that Jesus eats with me!”

And this is true. Jesus does indeed eat with sinners. In fact, He invites sinners to eat His flesh and drink His blood for the forgiveness of sins. And where sinners gather around the forgiveness of Christ, there is much joy among the angels of God, for Jesus eats with sinners and welcomes them into His kingdom. Amen.