Found By God

 

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Focus: restoration

Function: to help people see how God welcomes everyone.

15:¹Now 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.”

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

I was reading in my morning devotions yesterday about the importance of knowing that God loves us.

The author, in her spiritual exercise asked us to close our eyes and imagine God speaking the words over and over to us until it finally sinks in as true that God loves us. Imagine God whispering in your ears the words: “I Love You.”

When I read this passage, I do get overwhelmed with the sense of God’s purpose for us and for the church. I had a board chairman who was also a deacon in the Church one say in Sunday School these words: “The Bible has one message throughout its book and it is this: God wants everyone back.”

This passage is about the effort of God whom sends the Spirit of God inside of us to lead us into paths of love and mercy for others and bring us back.

I want to start out with the concept of mercy as it entangles itself with God’s plan to bring everyone back to God’s family. (Not that they left, they just don’t know that they are part of it.)

The reason why Jesus tells these two parables about restoration is because they religious folks didn’t like with whom Jesus was spending his time.

Jesus deliberately choose to side with the outcasts in society. It should teach us something about what mercy looks like. I don’t know why some religious folks do not like mercy when we all depend on it for God’s favor because not one of us is perfect.

Religion can be either good or bad. When our religion leads us to love and mercy, the characteristics of God, then it is good. Jesus, by choosing to hang out with those whom society had rejected, demonstrates that God’s mercy goes to all. He contradicted bad religion with mercy.

For me, that command by Jesus from Matthew 7:1 when he says: “Judge not lest you be judged” he is saying do not judge others because then you will be held to a standard of perfection that you cannot obtain. You live in God’s mercy.

Jesus did a lot of teaching with words, and he also did a lot of teaching with his presence. With his presence in the midst of people who needed healing Jesus shows us how God takes the initiative to bring us back b y eating with sinners.

I believe that the Spirit of God is calling everyone to give up selfishness and greed and to learn to share and love others. We share mercy more than anything. God freely showers us with mercy and wants us to show that Love to others.

That is why John said that we love others because Jesus first loved us.

I don’t want to break the text down to far and make a point that isn’t there, but I notice that he makes two categories of people that were shown extra mercy. The tax collectors are one category and sinners are listed as the other.

Jesus only descriptions of sin always have to do with the way we show mercy and love to others. Even when he is talking about marriage vows being broken, has angst is at the way that people refuse to give in when they are wrong, refuse to honor the others as an equal partner in love or, refuse to forgive and care for one another. So, we don’t know who is actually meant when the text says he hang out with sinners, but I get the sense that it was a category of people that others judged like we see today when we hear judgment against our lgbtq brothers and sisters in humanity.

The tendency to judge others is part of a human nature that God wants us to control by extending God’s mercy and worrying about ourselves instead of others.

I think a big part of it is that we feel better about ourselves if we have someone to put down. Remember, God loves the person we criticize and wants to restore that person to love and mercy toward others.

So, the category of sinners are people we tend to judge. The category of Tax Collectors was different. Tax collectors were agents of the oppressive government that had virtually enslaved the Jewish population. They were hated by the people because the helped the enemy make their lives miserable. Simply put, we can categorize them as: The enemy.

Jesus hung out with people whom others hated. This is the part that convicts me: Jesus hung out with people on the different side of the political divide. And the division between the two sides was often violent.

And it has to do with the power of Love to overcome evil. Love conquers a multitude of sin.

And the power of love permeated the disciples relationships with each other and conquered the bitterness of the violence.

What I mean is that Simon the Zealot was what the Romans would have described as a domestic terrorist. The zealots were known for the curved and hidden dagger in their sleeves used to murder people like Matthew the Tax collector, another one of the disciples.

And yet Matthew survived his encounters with Simon because they had found something superior to human hatred. Matthew had to forgive Simon and Simon had to forgive Matthew and they had to forgive for offenses that they were willing to kill over. Don’t we need this kind of forgiveness today?

This plan by Jesus to spend time with sinners was what transformed them into people who claimed for themselves to have come back to the family of God.

This is how much God loves us. Prejudices, rivalries, bitterness are set aside to build a family. What a picture for human society!