“JESUS REPENTS HIS SINNER BRETHREN”
Saint Luke 15: 1-10
3rd Sunday after Trinity: 17 June Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
Pharisees who thought they knew the Torah, The Law of Moses, and did not repent, did not know Jesus. They pushed Him away. Sadducees who thought they knew the rituals, rites, and customs of the Temple, and did not repent, did not know Jesus. They pushed Him away. Those who think they know the Book of Concord, the Rule of Faith, and the Small Catechism, and who do not repent, do not know Jesus. Those who think they know the liturgy and rubrics, and who do not repent, do not know Jesus. It is not for the comfortable, affluent, well-educated, white German-American, “scholars” of the Reformation what Christ Jesus came to save—though He does desire their salvation—but for the sinner—the dirty, unclean, broken, sick, despised, and outcast—sinner that Jesus comes for. That is the one who is lost. That is the one who knows their own efforts, decisions, choices, and “so-called” good works, are useless.
And just who did The Holy Ghost draw near “for to hear Him,” the Publicans and sinners. The cheats, thieves and killers. Thus it was and thus it is.
You are received here this morning, gathered by The Spirit through the Word of Peace—The Holy Gospel—that you too might receive “this parable,” i.e. the Word preached by Christ in Sermon, and that Christ might eat with you by Gracing you to eat His own precious Body and Blood.
The 100 sheep is the complete Church. The Church militant here in the world of sin and decay. 100 is a complete number. The 10 Commandments of God squared. The Law of the Hebrew Scriptures awaiting the rescuing Shepherd and The Law of the Greek Scriptures testifying to the Presence of the rescuing Shepherd. But The Law saves no one. And one thinking that they keep God’s will, or at least do a pretty decent job at “trying” also saves no one. John the Baptist, and The Lord Himself, did not say “give it your best shot,” and keep on studying and memorizing. No. The Spirit infused message of The Word is “repent and believe.”
And this Law and Gospel dynamic, this be killed and then be given life is not something you do but something that is done to you, indeed FOR YOU, and is outside of you.
Nobody, that is, no sinful old-natured person, wants to consider themselves to be a lost sheep. It’s demeaning. It’s supposed to be. It is the bracing cut and eviscerating of The Law. “I a poor miserable sinner, in thought, word, and deed” is what it means. Repent. There’s no teamwork in your Redemption and there is no teamwork in your being a member of Christ’s Body. Jesus The Good Shepherd know you (from before eternity) finds you, picks you up dead and breathes life back into you, and then carries you on His very flesh, back to His sheepfold—The Church Catholic in time and the Heavenly mansions hereafter.
And joy upon joy it gets better. Salvation is never just you and The Lord. This is no letter of love or special phone-call of good news. This is a family reunion that is more joyful than any you’ve ever experienced or ever could. This is your family of faith, your group of Grace “friends, neighbors,” and yes, your nuclear and ancestral family that have died in the faith, died in The very Body of Jesus that you will soon have placed on your tongues. And even more so, the fiery seraphs and four-winged cherubim sing with exaltation and joyful triumph when in repentance you come forward to Be IN Jesus by having Jesus in you! The Ten pieces of silver are restored when you, the one lost coin, is found and restored. Not by silver and gold but by Christ’s precious Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins…your repented of sins.
The joy in heaven is now the joy at Augsburg’s altar. Christ receives sinners and eats with them.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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