Luke 15:1-10 (Pentecost 13C)                        
St. John, Galveston 9/14/2025
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus tells two parables that prepares His hearers for the parable of the Prodigal Son, which follows today’s reading.  The parable of the Prodigal offers a vivid image of the celebration that takes place as a repentant sinner returns to the House of God, which is the point of the two parable before us this morning.  

A man had a hundred sheep, and he lost one of them. Would he not leave the ninety-nine behind and go and search for the one he lost? Likewise, a woman had ten silver coins, and she lost one of them. Would she not light a lamp and sweep the house and search feverishly for the coin that she lost? Both the shepherd who recovered his lost lamb and the woman who recovered her lost coin would rejoice and celebrate when they found them. And so, Jesus summarized the point of the two parables, when He said, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

    As you might expect, there were different groups of people in the audience when Jesus told these two parables. One group was the tax collectors and the sinners. We’re told that they were drawing near to Jesus, which was, of course, a good thing. Perhaps there is even a bit of liturgical imagery in the description of this group, evidenced by the way we started our service this morning. “Beloved in the Lord! Let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father.”

    The second group in the crowd was unlike the first. While the first group was drawing near to Jesus, the second group was grumbling. They were indignant because Jesus had the audacity to dine with tax collectors and sinners. In the minds of these folks, they were the righteous, they were the ones who didn’t need to repent! And so, as the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus, the Scribes and Pharisees pulled away from Him.

    As we delve into the parables a little deeper, there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs. An uninvolved bystander might question the shepherd’s wisdom to leave his flock behind in order to search for the one lost sheep. Likewise, the woman who lost one of her ten coins, might better rejoice that she still had nine, rather than fret over the one she lost. Parables often become confusing when they are subjected to a relentless onslaught of reason and logic.

    The two parables intend to direct our attention, not to the lost sheep and the lost coin, but to the shepherd and to the woman who lost her coin. Jesus, of course, is the One who seeks to save that which is lost. As such, it is His obsession with that which is His that is the significant point of the two parables. Simply put, His obsession is with YOU and with YOUR value in His eyes. In that sense, these two parables relate well to the parable that Jesus told elsewhere about the Pearl of Great Price. In that parable, a merchant found a pearl of great value. After finding it, He went and sold all that He had in order to possess it. While some think the pearl of great value in the parable is the Gospel itself and that you and I are the merchant, the Scriptures themselves would help us see the parable in a different light. Jesus is, in fact, the merchant. And the pearl of great value is YOU. When He found YOU, our Lord was willing to give up everything He had for YOU to be His own. YOUR great value, however, is not intrinsic to YOU, rather, it is in the eyes of the merchant, such that He was willing to give up all that He had in order for YOU to be His. Indeed, “Jesus was rich, yet for YOUR sake He became poor, that YOU through His poverty might be made rich.”

    As we contemplate God’s love for His creation, there are two ways to think of it. You can think of God’s love for His creation it in a broad, or, a global sense. There are several passages in the scriptures that describe His love in that way. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” writes the Apostle John. He continues, saying, “for God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” St. Paul too, in 2 Corinthians, says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”
   
    The fact that God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world is, in itself, a source of great comfort for you and me. No one is excluded from the forgiving grace of God in Christ. No one is excluded because of the vastness and the universal nature of God’s love for the world. In that regard, there is a quotation attributed to Luther that may be apocryphal, but is, nonetheless, appropriate. In reflecting on John’ words from chapter 3 of his Gospel, where He says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” Luther said that he was eternally grateful that the passage was not more personal, that it didn’t say, for instance, “For God so loved Martin, that He gave His only begotten Son.” He reasoned that a more personal statement would leave him always wondering if he, that is Martin Luther, was, in fact, the Martin for whom Christ died.

    And so, the universal nature of God’s love in Christ Jesus gives us great comfort. However, the thought of Jesus dying for the sins of the whole world can also be difficult for us to process. Years ago, I worked in an office building in San Antonio that looked out over Interstate 10. I recall, from time to time, watching the cars go by, hundreds, thousands of them, and I remember wondering how God could love all those people. The sheer number of people made God’s universal grace in Christ seem almost impossible, if not unimaginable. And, if it was possible, it all seemed so impersonal.

    These parables before us this morning show us another aspect of God’s love, His obsessive love for each and every person, every lost sheep and every lost coin. When one of His own goes astray, He doesn’t tire in looking for him or her. And when He finds the one that was lost, He places His dear lamb on shoulders in order to bring him home. So, it is absolutely true that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, but it’s also true that He died for YOU, a person, a man, or a woman, a child who was in such need of His grace and forgiveness!

    How are we to comprehend such a love of God for each and every one of us? “God without flesh is useless (says Luther). Upon the flesh of Christ, upon that Infant clinging to the bosom of the Virgin, you are to set your eyes and simply, with steadfast heart, say, "I have neither in heaven nor earth a God, nor do I know one outside this flesh which is gently enfolded in the bosom of the Virgin Mary." By every other way God is incomprehensible; only in the flesh of Christ is He comprehensible.”

    The love of God for YOU is clearly proclaimed every time you come forward and receive Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. These, that is, His body and blood, are given and shed FOR YOU!  “It is one thing for God to be there (says Luther) (that is, in the Lord’s Supper) and quite another thing for Him to be there for you. He is there for you when He sets His word there and binds Himself to that place saying, "Here you are to find me."

    When you repent of your sin, when God’s Spirit moves you to own up to it, to confess it before God, it is a time for heaven and earth to rejoice and to be glad. Indeed, it is a time to celebrate! Why, even the angels in heaven celebrate and sing for joy! As I said earlier, these parables are preparatory to the Parable of the Prodigal son, perhaps one of the greatest repentance parables in all of Scripture. Indeed, says the Father at your repentance, “bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’”

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

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +