Seek and Save

Introduction

Luke 15:1–10 ESV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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.’ 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. “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? 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.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus comes to seek and to save the lost. When the lost are saved, the Church joins Jesus and the angels in their rejoicing.

The problem is, who are the lost? The Pharisees thought it was Jesus who was lost. Here was a man who “received sinners and eats with them.” You would never eat with someone whom you disagreed with or who was lesser than you. Eating, you see, is a very intimate action— the most physical action you can do with another person outside of the physical intimacy of marriage. That Jesus ate with tax collectors— Jews who sold their souls to the Romans and were guilty of graft when it came to collecting taxes. One for you, four for me. And women who were sinners. Those whose favors could be purchased for a price. Not to mention the fact that just by being women, no self-respecting Jewish man would speak with any woman not his wife. And Jesus wasn’t married. And other sinners— those who broke the sabbath laws, like the disciples, those who challenged rabbinical tradition, and those who were simply undesirables. He ate with them. That tells me all that I need to know. And so they judged Him as one condemned and unclean himself.

The Pharisees, however, were so blinded by their self-righteousness, their own goodness, their stoked and stroked egos, that they had no idea that they were the ones who were lost. They kept the Laws of Moses and the Levitical laws perfectly in their mind. If they didn’t they would have been called out on it by their fellow brothers. Jesus was teaching things that went against their laws, broke their laws, and now his eating and drinking with Pharisees confirmed their deepest hatred and suspicion. The sad thing is, they were so convinced that they were right, that they could never see their own depravity which would ultimately bar them from the Kingdom of God. Their hatred was so deep it led where hatred always leads— to murder. And they would pull it off and put this rabble-rousing Jesus out of their misery.

There is a danger here for us, we who follow Jesus. The unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh can easily convince us that since we are already saved that we don’t need to guard our lips and our lives. We just confess anything we have done wrong and it’s all better again. That Jesus had to shed a few more drops of blood for some of those other sinners out there than he did for us. And soon, very soon after we have convinced ourselves of our own righteousness, we have become the lost. And it is of our own making.

But...

Sheep

Our text is filled with Gospel. Jesus knows that these Pharisees are lost. He could have blasted them about their rejection of God’s salvation, their lack of knowledge that they were really the hell-bound. BUT He does not. He talks about all of the rejoicing that goes on when the lost sheep is spotted and found, or the lost coin is uncovered in the dirt floor of the house.

Simple illustrations, yet profoundly deep. Sheep were raised for sacrifice in Israel. They were raised individually even though they were a part of the flock. They each had names. They were loved by the shepherd. They were cared for by the shepherd. All so that they could grow up and be the sacrifice that the Lord demanded for His people. They were not looked upon as simply animals, but precious gifts of God who would offer their own lives so that God’s people could be forgiven and live. When one wandered away the Shepherd chased it down out of love. It may be harmed by animals. It may die of starvation. It may be prevented from offering itself for the Lord and His people. When a Shepherd finds the lost sheep— when 99 are safe in the pen and one wanders, he rejoices. His heart is at peace. He experiences the greatest human emotion: Relief. He showers that lost sheep with love.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is talking about you. You are His sheep. When you wander into the pathway of sin, you are wandering into the jaws of the devil, away from the sustenance given you in Jesus’ shed body and blood. All that awaits straying sheep from this Good Shepherd is death and hell. That’s your future, you wandering sheep. But the shepherd spots you. Calls you. Pulls you to Himself, showering you with love, calling you by name, and rejoicing that a sinner has been saved.

The Shepherd makes this happen because He is also a Lamb. The Lamb of God. His purpose was that of the sheep. To come, to live, to bear witness of that love, and then to die as a sacrifice even as that was the purpose for the Sheep of Israel. That is also your purpose. The Lord has called you to be a sacrifice for Him now. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him. That may even mean into literal death as you bear witness to Jesus being the only way to the Father. The world becomes more hostile to that message with each passing minute.

But when this happens, the angels rejoice. They rejoice that you are repentant. They rejoice that you have been reclaimed into the fold. They rejoice that another sinner is redeemed.

Coin

And then there is the parable of the lost coin. No big deal, you may think. I know I lose my keys, my wallet, my change often. It’s not lost for good— usually I have to remember which pants I wore the day before, or if I left it on my desk in my Church office at the parsonage. It is a relief to find them and then go about my daily routine.

But with this woman it is a different story. That coin is all that she had to survive on for that period of time. Lose the coin, lose your food. Lose your rent. Lose those things you need to live. She would be destitute for that month and, if she survived it, she would be very weak. The floors of homes were made of dirt. No wood floors, no tile, no linoleum. Just dirt. And if you dropped something on the ground and you accidently shuffled by it, that coin would be covered by the dirt. You may have to dig up your entire floor to find it if you remembered that is where you dropped it. This coin was everything to that woman. It’s not like she lost extraneous cash.

Our life in Christ is worth everything. If we lose it we lose everything. And there is no more coin coming. It can get covered with the dirt of our sin that we cling to without repentance. But Jesus uncovers the dirt and grants us back eternal life which is everything that can only come from Him.

What’s the dust on your coin? What separates you from Jesus? Our egos have a lot of dirt on them. Our power when exercised trumps Jesus’ power. It’s time to put these things to death in life and let Jesus claim you as his own again.

Rejoice

Jesus tells us that when the sheep is reclaimed, when the coin is found, the angels rejoice in heaven. Too bad they can’t rejoice over the other 99. When the lost coin is uncovered, the angels rejoice, for that means you have been saved by Jesus alone, through Grace alone, in Christ alone.

We now join our voices with the angels and archangels that we have been found. We have been uncovered. And in that rejoicing we continue to take the Gospel into the darkness each moment of our lives. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.