The Third Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 15:1-10

In Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, who came to seek and to save the lost and bring them home rejoicing (Luk. 19:10), dear fellow redeemed:

You check your pockets or your purse… not there. That’s strange… that’s where you thought it would be. Maybe it’s on the counter… nope. Could it be in the car? The longer you go without finding something—your keys, your wallet, your phone—the more frantic you get. You search high and low, even places where your lost item wouldn’t be. You enlist the help of others to look for it. You won’t give up until every possible location has been thoroughly searched. You grow more and more concerned, a pit in your stomach.

And then… you find it! What a relief! You hold it in your hands like a treasure. You’re going to make sure it doesn’t get lost again; you’re going to keep it right where you know it will be. Your rejoicing puts a smile on everyone else’s face. They join you in your joy. A very bad day just turned into a very good one.

If we can experience such relief over finding a thing, how much more so when our Lord brings back a lost soul. That is what today’s reading is about. The beginning of the reading tells us that “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus].” These were the people whose hands were not clean. They had put their own selfish desires before the needs of their neighbors. They were guilty of violating the Law of God.

So why would they be drawn to Jesus, who was holy in every way? They were drawing near “to hear Him.” His clear and powerful teaching drew them closer. They certainly heard Him speak the Law: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mat. 5:48). But they also heard His promise of grace and forgiveness: “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (Joh. 6:37). His Word moved them to acknowledge their dirty hands—to repent of their sins—and to trust in Him for their salvation.

The hands of the Pharisees and scribes were not clean either, but they thought they were. They thought they had kept the Law of God, and they were not impressed with the company Jesus kept. They grumbled among themselves: “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” But “receiving a sinner” is not the same thing as approving what that sinner is doing. Jesus never did that. He never encouraged the people who came to Him to continue in their sin. He called them to repentance.

He was sending the same message to the Pharisees and scribes in today’s reading. Wouldn’t they go looking for a sheep or a coin if they lost one? Then why weren’t they showing any concern for lost souls? The sad answer to those questions is that losing a personal possession directly affects me (and my pocketbook); on the other hand, the loss of a soul does not directly impact me. That is selfish thinking. Jesus wants us to mindful of others. We should be more concerned about our neighbor’s immortal soul than we are about our temporary goods.

But how do we put that into practice? It means taking time for hurting and needy people like Jesus did with the tax collectors and sinners. He showed compassion and care for them. Spending time with them did not earn Him any popularity points (as we can see), but it brought lost souls into the kingdom of light. During Holy Week just days before His atoning death, Jesus told the chief priests and elders that “the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you,” because those sinners believed the Word of Jesus (Mat. 21:31-32).

We are often surprised at the ones Jesus calls into His kingdom. Perhaps there are people around you, or perhaps it is you yourself, who have a checkered past. Maybe people who knew you in your younger years would raise their eyebrows if they saw you sitting here in church. They might think you don’t belong here. They are under the delusion that church is only for the “good” people. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian Church is for sinners. These are the ones that Jesus receives and saves.

That means the mission field in our communities is wide open. We are surrounded by sinners. We understand them well because we are sinners too. We also know that Jesus lived a perfect life for every sinner and died for every sinner and rose in victory from the dead for every sinner. If Jesus did not think it beneath Him to suffer and die in everybody’s place, we should not be quick to reject our fellow sinners because of their offensive past, because of their low status in society, or because they just don’t seem like they would fit in the church. Judging people like this would make us no better than the Pharisees and scribes grumbling at the company Jesus kept.

If we believe that we are saved by God’s grace alone and not by our own works (and we do), then we can have hope for every sinner we meet that they can believe and be saved too. We want to share the message of Christ’s saving work with them. We pray for their repentance. We could even pick up copies of the Bible and give them one. God’s powerful Word is how He draws sinners to repentance and faith. That’s how He drew us. When we were wandering in the dark like that lost sheep, when we were hidden in the shadows like that lost coin, Jesus found us by the light of His Word. He spoke His forgiveness and peace to us, and faith was formed in our hearts.

But He didn’t stop with finding us. He continues to speak to us, strengthen us, and carry us through this life through His Word and Sacraments. That’s what the shepherd did. After he found the sheep, he did not rebuke it for getting lost or drive it back to the flock with a whip. He laid it on his shoulders, rejoicing. That rejoicing didn’t stop when he got home. He called together his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him—and all this for one little sheep who got itself lost!

This coming together to rejoice with Jesus is what we do each week in the Divine Service. We start with the Confession of Sin. We know there are many of them, too many to count. We confess that we are poor sinners who are by nature sinful and unclean, who have sinned by thought, word, and deed, and who deserve temporal and eternal punishment. But our primary focus in worship is not our own failures or on what we can do for God. Our primary focus is the grace of God toward us in Christ Jesus.

We rejoice in His grace all through the service. We hear His absolution, the forgiveness of all our sins, and then join the angels in their Christmas song, “Glory be to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” We hear Jesus speaking in the Holy Gospel and sing, “God be praised for His glad tidings,” “Praise be to You, O Christ!”

As we prepare for the Lord’s Supper, we sing the song of the angels around God’s throne, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” We greet Jesus with the words of the messianic Psalm, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psa. 118:25-26). Then we come to His table, taking our place at the rich banquet of His body and blood, that most intimate meal with our Lord Jesus and our fellow members of His holy body.

It’s all joy for us—the liturgy, the hymns, the sermon, our prayers. We are members of the body of Christ and heirs of His eternal kingdom. Not only did He take on flesh to save us, but He still comes to us here. He still meets us in our sorrows, our weaknesses, our doubts, our troubles. Every single soul matters to Him. He would rather die than lose you, so that’s what He did. He died for you. He knows you. You have wandered off, following your own sinful heart, but He did not write you off. He came looking for you. He brought you back.

Jesus says, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” All heaven erupts with joy when a sinner repents. And if they rejoice in heaven over repentance, then it is certainly proper for us to do the same here. We rejoice over every soul who hears the Word of God and believes it. We rejoice for all who draw near in humble repentance to receive the Sacrament of the Altar. We rejoice over every precious child of God who trusts in Him alone for salvation.

Jesus’ joy over finding the lost sheep is contagious; it spills over from His heart to ours. When He calls together His friends and neighbors—you and me—, His joy in saving sinners puts a smile on our face. What the Pharisees and scribes said is true: “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus does receive sinners. We pray that He receives many more like He received us, calling them to repentance for their sins, and also calling them to rejoice in His salvation.

That rejoicing starts here, but it doesn’t end here. Our Good Shepherd will carry us from this life to the next, where we will join all the company of heaven, all the angels and saints, in a song of perfect praise in the holy presence of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

+  +  +

(picture from “The Good Shepherd” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)