Luke 15:1-32, 03.23.35

Our passage for today begins with this intriguing word ‘NOW’. It is up there with the words ‘Therefore’ and ‘Nevertheless’, and with the phrase ‘Once Again.’ All of these are introductions to a new moment which is built on a previous moment, or moments. The word ‘Now’ is not really a reference to an event but instead it is more of a travel monologue. ‘Yesterday we did so and so and now, today, we are doing something else.’

Our ‘Now’ in today’s passage is referring to this journey of Jesus, and growing number of followers, on their way to Jerusalem, and for Jesus, on the way to the cross. Remember that this is a growing number of followers and today we see the addition of an entirely new group of followers.

NOW…all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 15:1-2

[Title Slide] The complaint the religious leaders had with Jesus was that he saw/noticed people, all people, in a loving manner and did not exclude anyone from God’s compassion and mercy. This inclusive love was not new to Jesus, it was commanded in the OT. It was/is a love for God that is all encompassing, a love for God that then calls us to love what God loves and who God loves.  This outraged the religious leaders when Jesus did not reject and shun the ‘sinners’ and the tax collectors – (‘Sinners’ being a subjective term such as ‘your sins are worse than my sins so YOU are a ‘sinner’ and I am not.) 

Understand this, the people that the Jewish leaders condemned were their fellow Jews, they were not gentiles…they were the people of the promise, the children of God just as the religious leaders were.

It makes you wonder – Did the leaders expect  God to abandon these individuals like they had done? Or, worse, did they find their condemnation of these individuals to be a holy and righteous act? Did they find comfort in their own hearts and minds nurturing this ugly dark and unholy judgement, condemnation, and hatred? Did these religious leaders see these people as enemies even though these were their own people culturally and spiritually?

Ill: Wayne Scoggins in Deacon Training

Sadly, this type of prejudice still exists in the Christian church in America and around the world. It is actually the history of the Christian church for almost 1,750 years ago. Then, and now, religious communities were/are rejecting those who worshipped the same God.

This is the scene our story for today begins with. Jesus, as he is on the way to Jerusalem and the cross, is engaging with those who are considered unacceptable by their own religious leaders.

Our passage today takes place before Christianity was a word that identified Jesus followers, it is before Jewish Jesus Followers thought of themselves as anything other than Jewish. This was a time, much like our present time, when religious institutions and religious individuals were judgemental of others not only because of sinful actions but even more so because of things beyond their control, factors such as skin color, cultural background, religious practices, religious interpretations, as well as education, economic status, politics and many more. Basically no one was above being judged – even those with who they shared the same faith.

Emmanuel Katongole tells the story of the 1990’s when the most successfully evangelized country in world, Rwanda, fell into an inner genocide. Tribal ties became points of loyalty and allegiance over any other factors. Church services on Sunday mornings were frequently interrupted by brutal physical fighting between different tribes who had before always been able to joyfully worship together in the same room. But as their focus subtly moved away from Jesus, the fighting intentionally ended with many fellow believers dead. 

Stories of Rewandan genocide such as bulldozing a church building while people were inside worshiping just because the worshippers in side were of a different tribe than those driving the bull dozer. Katongole warns that this is happening in more subtle ways in churches around our world, and, in our own nation. Allegiances like political parties, religious agendas, rejection of different practices of religion, as well as differing religious interpretations of truth – interpretations that were often more dependent on tribal leaders than time spent searching for truth.

Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith After Genocide in Rwanda, Emmanuel Katongole 

So, Jesus told three parables in response to the judgemental religious leaders’ contempt toward Jesus.

As I share these with you, remember that these parables were how Jesus answered the religious leaders’ contempt toward him because he spent time, and sat at the table, with these Jews who were considered unacceptable and undesirable by the leader and others.

I will be asking your thoughts…

1. [Slide] So Jesus told them this parable: “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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 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.” (15:3-7)

2. [Slide] Or, another parable, “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? And 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.’ I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (15:8-10)

3. Recap of Prodigal Son Story 

[Slide] The youngest of 2 would not wait for his father’s death to receive his share of the inheritance. Disappointed and surely feeling somewhat rejected, the father grants his son’s request and gives him his share of the inheritance… 

Feeling worthless and hopeless, the young man returned home hoping to be accepted as a slave but instead the father came running to him accepting him back as a son. A treasured son who had been lost but now had found his way back – now to be found.

[Title Slide] 

Interaction: With an understanding that Jesus told these parables in response to the religious leaders’ contempt toward Jesus because he was sitting at the table with the sinners – what was Jesus’ intent?

{Responses}

{Question:}

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the lamb?

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the coin?

Who, or what, was to blame for the lostness of the younger son?

{Responses}

{Bounce off the responses to bring to the story of the older son…}

“The Older son was in the field when the younger son arrived, and as the older son came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then the older son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 

[Slide] He answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ The father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

Note: The older son had been living on the father’s estate, the older son was now the sole heir to the father’s estate. But, living there he had forgotten this. He was jealous of the fathers’ love for the younger son because he had failed to realize his own favored status. The younger son was one of the family, that did not change when he left and that did not remove the love of the father.  

We do not have an ending to this story, we do not know what the older brother did with his discussion with his father. We do not know if he ever realized the truth of his existence. These parables bring us 3 separate yet dependent categories of truths to hold for us to recognize.

First – [Slide for each of this category]

God’s love has no judgement or regard for our worthiness/worthless. 

God’s love has no regard for anything about us except that we carry the breath of God.

God’s love is the constant and consistent of life for all people.

God’s love empowers God to never give up on us.

Second – [One Slide]

God’s love is often missed most by those who are in the middle of it.

God’s love is often forgotten when we reside in the midst of it.

God’s love can often blind us to God’s presence when it is our daily reality.

Third – [Slide for each of this category]

We must not allow ourself to let the judgement of this world, including the religious parts of this world, keep us from recognizing that we are living in the midst of God’s Love, that we are loved sons and daughters of God.

God loves us all. God loves all. God goes after what is lost regardless of the reason for the lostness. We have been found, we will be found. All that matters is what/who God finds important enough to go after and that is all those who have been created by God.