Who Deserves Mercy?

 

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Focus: mercy

Function: to help people see how everyone deserves a chance at mercy

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³So he told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷Just 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.

⁸“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹And 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.’ ¹⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

When I was in Bible College, every year they choose a “year verse” for us to focus on. The verse for my Junior year was Micah 6:8: “He has shown you O man, what is good and what the Lord desires of you: Do justice, Love Mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

It is three simple commands, Two of them are of the heart and conscience and the third is the action verb, to do.

By “of the heart and conscience” I mean that it is a decision, or perhaps a fruit of the Holy Spirit, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.

Loving mercy is what we are going to talk about this morning.

I Wish the bible had a better description of what it mean when the text says that Jesus received the sinners and tax collectors. Tax collectors we understand. They were people who 1, collaborated with the occupying forces and 2, profited off of that collaboration to the extent that it drove the population into abject poverty.

It was perceived by many that they were the reason for the problem and people hated them because they were part of the system that exploited them.

And Jesus welcomed people who exploit others into His presence.

The other group was sinners. And that is what I mean by I wish the Bible explained it better. What, exactly, is a sinner? It is the opposite of a righteous person, and a righteous person is a just person.

When I was raised, it was simple, but wrong. It was anyone who smoked, cussed, danced or drank alcohol. I suppose they had to make it simple for my mind, but the lasting impression was the wrong one. I understand the alcohol part since my mother’s family were all alcoholics. It represented an evil in our family that was a real source of bondage. Two of my uncles died from alcohol poisoning.

But the scripture is clear, the Holy Spirit gives us self control and Jesus turned the water into wine for His first miracle. Religion forbade us the use of alcohol, but it was an overreaching of interpretation of scripture that caused it and it wasn’t true to God’s word.

It goes to show how religion gets in the way of doing the right thing. The religious people were offended by Jesus’ association with sinners and tax collectors.

I still didn’t answer the question as to what a sinner is. I believe it is a person who commits acts of evil by commission or omission that harms another human being. It can include violence against others, stealing, cheating, robbing, lying, jealousy, covetousness, and other similar acts.

They are, according to that verse that means so much to me, acts whereby we do not do justice to others. Doing Just things is the proof of our righteousness.

I am afraid that we came up with a short list, a false list of things that we called sin, like smokin, drinkin and cussin in order to obfuscate from the important issues.

For example, God wants us to deal with our own racist biases and I find it important for me to constantly examine my own prejudices.

I bought a car off the internet last week. I hope it shows up tomorrow. I bought it from a guy with a foreign name, Asif Nas, is his name and his accent is heavily middle eastern.

At one point, I accused him of lying to me, and I realize that I might not have given him the benefit of the doubt because of all the negative stereotyping of Middle Eastern men in our own TV programming. Racism is a way to motivate others ant it is a powerful and seductive tool if we let it. But as believers, we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and weed it out.

Sin is not marrying the person that you love. I gave you a definition of what a sinner is which came from my limited experience and opinions. My definition of sin is as follows. Anything that keeps us from loving God our our neighbor as ourselves is sin to us. Sin is missing the mark of God’s loving standard for the world.

So, it has nothing to do with whom you marry. After all the emphasis of this passage is Jesus’ mercy toward people who were considered outcasts by the culture because of their sins.

Jesus showed mercy.

Did they change?

Well, He goes on the illustrate the importance of caring for people that otherwise are cast out of society by giving the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin.

And at the end He says that there is much more rejoicing in heaven for the repentance of the one than of the 99 who were already practicing love for their neighbor.

We love God by loving our neighbor.

You remember the story of Zaccheus. We sang the song when I was a kid (SING PORTION).

It was fun, and sadly the song didn’t emphasize exactly what was going on. Again, they rejected Jesus for showing mercy toward sinners. But it was the showing of mercy that caused him to repent.

Zaccheus was short of stature, so he climbed the tree to see Jesus when Jesus was passing by. And Jesus stopped, noticed him, and invited Himself to dinner at Zaccheus’ house.

And Zaccheus was so overwhelmed that he gave half his money to the poor and paid back everyone he had defrauded.

The text doesn’t actually say that he was so overwhelmed by Jesus’ mercy that he changed his life, but that is what we surmise from this passage.

Be merciful toward others who are outcast, considered to be sinners and who seem to be less than what is acceptable by society.

Jesus loves them and our mercy toward them just might be the catalyst for them believing enough in the goodness of God that they too will give up their harmful practices, if they have them and follow the way of the Lord, the love for others as your own self.

I am not saying the poor and dispossessed are sinners. Most of them are hard working honest and decent folks who have had a series of bad luck that has brought them to this place.

The Bible commands us to care for them and tells us they are our responsibility.

According to Ezekiel 16:48-49, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was lack of concern for the poor.

I believe that when the Bible condemns Sodomites, it is a reference to those who don’t obey the Lord by caring for the least of these.

I read these verses and see the mercy of Jesus and I realize that practicing the same mercy will reconcile others back to God.