Ordinary Time Week 17

Psalm: Psalm 14 or Psalm 51:1-10

Old Testament: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

 or Exodus 32:7-14

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

Epistle: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Today in Luke we have two parables about losing things. Everyone hates to lose things, so Jesus picked a universal truth as an analogy for what he was teaching. I'm trying to think back to a time when I lost something that I couldn't just replace, like computer files, homework, my glasses, or a favorite jacket. There is always that moment of anxiety at the realization of what has occurred. I remember losing my glasses in Rome and thinking how am I going to see anything the rest of the semester! Luckily, they were right where I thought I had left them when were taking pictures.

 

Jesus' stories invite us to imagine two settings of lost things and to empathize with the characters. The first story is about a shepherd that lost 1 sheep out of a herd of 100. Sheep were this man's livelihood and each sheep was very important to him. We might just say, oh well, 99% isn't a bad day for a day of shepherding. But Jesus and his audience knew that this would not be the attitude of a shepherd. They were responsible for 100% of the lives under their watch. Every sheep was of great importance.

Jesus brings the meaning home in verse 7: “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” The context for this parable is Jesus eating with "tax collectors and sinners;" the Pharisees and scribes have a problem with this. Jesus says however that in God's Kingdom, the sinners are just the ones The Shepherd goes out and finds and brings back into the fold. And the result is great joy in heaven. The message is similar to what Jesus said in Mark 2:17 at another time when he was eating with sinners and tax collectors: "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

The second parable Jesus tells is pretty short, but concerns a woman who lost a coin and does all she can to find it. Again, Jesus compared the woman's joy at finding the coin with the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

These parables make the most sense in light of their context. Jesus was directly confronting the self-righteousness of the religious elites of his days. They did everything they could to avoid interacting with sinners and the impure. The interesting thing is that if they wanted to be with Jesus, and apparently they did, they had to put up with the sinners' presence. But they didn't do so quietly. Time after time, the Pharisees and their cohort tried to get Jesus to distance himself from them. They were convinced that their brand of salvation was the best and even the one way to God. They required rules, policies, sacrifices, behavior, and perfection, before acceptance. Jesus said "come to me all who are weary," and sick, hurt, needy, in sin, "and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28) Jesus extends the invitation to all, and then invites and allows for righteous behavior to occur in and through his Spirit.

I think where we most likely are in this story is in the place of the Pharisees. If you are like me, then you grew up in the church. You know all the Bible stories and the correct answers. You have never done anything majorly wrong or strayed too far from godly living. We have to fight the tendency to judge new Christians or even the "sinners" in our midst who haven't yet come to faith. God is at work in Christ and it is our job to love others and bring them to the feet of Jesus. And just as fully, it is our job to rejoice when even one lost person repents and comes to Christ. In the Lord's Prayer we pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." In these two short parables we get a glimpse of what heaven is like. And heaven throws a party when people come to faith in Christ! Surely, we out to take note of that that and bring that vision to the earth, here and now.

May we learn to rejoice at the things that bring God joy, and mourn over what God mourns.

Grace and Peace.