Trinity 3 June 12, 2016
Trinity 3
Luke 15:1-32
June 12, 2016
“Jesus has found me! (And He will find others too.)”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’ll cut to the chase this morning. What I hope will resonate with all of you when we’re done this morning is joy. Joy, joy, joy. As Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep—there’s joy. The parable of the lost coin—joy again. The parable of the lost sons—joy again. Paul writing in 1 Timothy—joy again. Micah writing in chapter 7—joy again. There’s joy all over the place. Why? Well, that’s our task. To figure out—why is there so much joy? And why should I be full of joy?
Now to figure out why there’s so much joy today, we’ve first gotta look at where there’s not joy. And that’s right at the beginning of the Gospel reading. The Pharisees and the scribes were not joyful. They were mad and grumbling. They were frustrated. They were offended. Because they couldn’t stand how Jesus kept hanging out and eating with sinners. Ugh, it disgusted them. Jesus would eat with the worst of people. And instead of the Pharisees and scribes just being joyful that Jesus had come for them too, they were mad and tried to keep Jesus away from other folks. So Jesus tells three stories.
Now to recap. The Pharisees are mad and grumbly. Jesus is joyful. And He tells them three stories with a lot of joy in them.
The first is the story of the lost sheep. Now what you see here is that, normally with us, there wouldn’t be joy. If we’re watching a hundred sheep and one of them goes off on his own and gets lost—we’d be mad and grumbly like the Pharisees. When we finally find that lost sheep, we’re going to give it a talking to, say a few choice words about how long we’ve been searching, and mumble under our breath all kinds of mean things while we carry that dumb sheep back to the rest of the flock.
But not this Shepherd that Jesus tells us about. Not this Guy. He’s joyful. Jesus says, “And when He has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Picture the shepherd when he walks up to that sheep, who is cowering on the ground in fear because it has no clue where it’s at and is scared to death…picture the shepherd with a big smile on his face and arms open wide and can’t wait to gather you up and throw you on His shoulders to carry you home.
Do you see the joy here? The joy of our Shepherd when He finds us? Jesus has found you! Jesus has found me! And the joy of that can hardly be put into words. We are lost in this world of evil and death. We have no power against all the ills of the world. We have no way to fend off disease and disaster and death. Are you going to save yourself from cancer? Or from war? Or save yourself from your own self and your own sins? We’re lost. We’re scared. I’m often scared in this world. I’m sure you are, too. But the joy of my Shepherd is contagious. To see the joy that He has to pick us up on His shoulders and carry us through this world. That’s something to rejoice in.
You are Jesus’ little lamb. He loves you. And He doesn’t want to see you lost in this world of evil and death. So He came to find you. He came down from heaven and became just like you—a baby—so that He could find you. He picked you up on His shoulders and carried all your heavy load to the cross. He carried your sins, your guilt, your shame, all your mean words, all your hateful thoughts, all your failures, all your sins—and He did it with a smile. He went to the cross to die for all of it.
Jesus has found me! Who are we that Jesus would come and find us? Who am I that Jesus would search me out and give me faith? Who am I that Jesus would baptize me and give me the Holy Spirit? Who am I that Jesus would wash my sins away and open heaven to me? Who are we? Jesus has found you!
The Pharisees and scribes didn’t see that joy. They were too busy getting angry about Jesus giving it to other people. They didn’t see the joy that Jesus had actually come for them too. Even to find Pharisees and scribes too.
Then Jesus tells the parable of the lost coin. And again there’s joy. He shows how valuable you are. Look at how she lights a lamp and sweeps in all the dark, dusty, dirty corners to find you. She won’t rest until she’s got her valuable coin back. And when she finds it, she throws a party.
That’s what the angels do every time Jesus finds you in the dark, dusty, dirty corners and restores you to repentance and faith. The angels rejoice over you when Jesus finds you. Every time. The angels rejoice every time you come up here to the altar for the Lord’s Supper and get down on your knees and say, “Jesus, you’ve found me!”
What do you think that coin looked like when the woman found it? We’re like that dark, crusty penny that you find when you’re vacuuming out the car. You find it like way back tucked under one of the seats. Under a French fry. And it’s like several different colors and has gunk all over it that you’re scared to even touch. How many of you have taken a penny that looked like that and you’ve just thrown it in the trash? I have.
How would that penny have felt if you would’ve rejoiced over it and cleaned it up and treated it like your prized possession? Well, it would’ve felt like us when Jesus finds us in the dark, dirty corners of our sin and He rejoices over us, and cleans us up with His cleansing forgiveness and makes us shine like the sun. That’s joy. Jesus has found you.
And then there’s the parable of the lost sons. Now tell me what’s a better picture of joy than this Dad running to hug his lost son? This is the son that told his dad to just die already and give him the inheritance. How would you feel if you had a son that said to you, “Dad, I just wish you were dead already. I just want my money.” Doesn’t give you the nice, warm fuzzies, right?
That’s what happened. This younger son shamed his dad and shamed the entire community by demanding his share and then skating off to another country. That was all well and good until he wasted all the money away and was then faced with a famine. So no money. No food. He was in a pretty bad place.
Then he has an idea. I’ll go back to dad and at least be one of his servants so that I’ll have something to eat. Now keep in mind that at this point this son still didn’t get it. He wasn’t totally sorry for everything. He just thought that being a servant for his dad would be better than the pig feeding job he had at the moment.
So he goes home to see if dad will give him a job. Now when a son had been as lousy as this one had, there would usually be a scene when he came home. The whole town would usually come out to meet him and ridicule him and there sometimes were even ceremonies of shame that would take place before the son could even get home. So this prodigal son is probably preparing himself for a really embarrassing walk of shame through the town. And then preparing his speech for his dad to beg to be one of his hired servants.
But all of that changes. Because instead of a walk of shame, the dad runs for joy. The dad runs all the way out to his son before anyone can even have a chance to shame him or taunt him. And that is a picture of joy. Dad running, probably in his long robes which was a thing you never, ever did—running to hug and kiss his son that treated him as dead and ran away with all his money to never see him again. Dad calling for the best robe and calling for a ring and shoes and calling for the fattened calf and calling for a party.
Dad’s joy is contagious. The younger son all of a sudden forgets all this stuff about being a servant and is just overcome with joy that his dad loves him and forgives him. He can’t believe it—Dad has found me!
Dad has found all of us! Jesus has run to us with open arms to lead us home to the party. We are God’s long lost children. And no matter how long we’ve been gone, He welcomes us home. He washes our sins away. He wraps us in the righteousness of Christ. He feeds us with His own body and blood.
Joy, joy, joy. Jesus has found me! Paul writes about his own joy in the Epistle today. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I’m the worst of ‘em,” he says. “You should’ve seen me before,” he says, “But I thank God that He’s found me. The grace of God has overflowed for me and I love it.”
And in the Old Testament today, Micah says, “Who is a God like you?” Who loves like this? Pardoning our iniquity and passing over our transgressions and having compassion on us and steadfast love? Who is like the Lord our God? No one. And He has found us.
And one more thing you should remember about this joy—it’s not just for us. The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling that Jesus would eat with other disgusting sinners. Sometimes we forget just how disgusting of sinners we all are. This joy is for everyone. There’s no sinner anywhere who is too lost to be found.
Jesus can and will find any lost sheep. We want others to have this same joy that we have. That Jesus has found us. We want others to see the joy that Jesus has and the joy that the angels have every time we come home to him. And we want everyone to be at that huge homecoming party that Jesus is throwing in heaven. Jesus has found us! There’s no better joy. Amen.