17th Sunday after Pentecost; Luke 15:1-10

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Every once in a while I see an Amber Alert go out on the news or make its way through the social media.  A lost child is one of the scariest things a parent can go through.  The child is no longer in the safe confines of their home, no longer under the watchful eye of his mom and dad but has wandered off, or worse, been abducted.  When a child is “lost” it doesn’t just mean that the child simply can’t be found, like a set of keys, but that the child is in imminent danger.  An Amber Alert means that this lost child, who’s in danger, is number one priority.  All other things are dropped and the lost child is searched for until he’s found. 

            Such is it for us lost sinners.  Jesus seeks us, chases after us, lights a lamp and searches diligently for us, whose eternal lives are in imminent danger.  He finds us in His Word, picks us up and desperately wills to bring us home.  He lavishes upon wayward sinners exorbitant grace and bubbles over with joy over one sinner who was lost but is found - over the sinner who repents and believes. 

            In our text there are two groups of people.  One repentant, the other unrepentant.  Both are sinners.  Both have need to repent.  In accordance with the Law, they both fall short; but one group knows this of themselves, the other doesn’t.  One group is comprised of the hearers of the Word.  The other is comprised of the grumblers.  One group consists of the outcasts of society, the “untouchables” the ones you can’t be seen with, let alone be caught breaking bread with.  The other has a high standing in society the nobles, the patriarchs, the honored.  One group seeks salvation from that which is outside of themselves, realizing that nothing good lies within them.  The other seeks salvation within themselves, believing they’re good enough for God to accept on their own merits.  One group is humble but is exalted by Jesus.  The other exalts themselves but are cast down by Jesus.  One group is repentant of their sins.  The other is believes they have no need to repent.  One group returns to their homes justified.  The other returns to their homes condemned.  One group is comprised of the sheep that have been found and are laid on the Shepherd’s shoulders and are brought home.  The other are the sheep that bite and kick and wiggle out of the shepherd’s loving embrace to go their own way. 

            Our text tells us, “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus.”  The sinners, the text says, but not just sinners, the really bad sinners.  The traitor tax collectors, the slanders, the prostitutes, the adulterers, the thieves, the cheaters, the lazy, the scum of the earth all gathered around Jesus for one reason.  Not to revel in their sin, not to waste any time denying their sins, not to make all sorts of excuses, but to hear His Word; to place themselves under the Word of Jesus, repent and hold fast to the forgiveness the our Lord gives… And the angels in heaven sing for joy over their repentance and forgiveness.

            They’re the lost sheep who are helpless in finding their way back home. Lost sheep whose lives are in peril, who are unable to save themselves.  Lost sheep who have gone their own way. So Jesus takes the initiative, leaves the 99 and searches diligently for the sheep, the one who’s in danger of losing its life.  He goes over hill and dale, valley and plain, risking His own life to save His lost sheep.  Jesus didn’t come for the righteous but for sinners.

            And when the lost sheep is found and taken out in the dangerous place that he thought to be fun and exciting, Jesus picks him up, places him on His shoulders and carries him home.  And upon finding the lost sheep, He rejoices.  He rejoices greatly over the sheep that was lost and in peril but submits to the shepherd’s Word and is carried home.

            That’s you!  That’s what Jesus has done for us, lost and condemned sinners.  We take our place with the scummy tax collectors and sinners.  We take our place at the below the nail-pierced feet of Jesus, not wasting time denying our sins, not making excuses for them.  Jesus has no interest in excusing your sin, but He rejoices greatly in forgiving them. 

            We’ve all been the sheep who have gone astray, who wanders off to taste the fruit that looks good to the eye but is poison to the body and soul.  With the tax collectors and sinners in the text, we flock to Jesus, who receives sinners like you and me and dares to even eat with us. 

            That’s why we’re here, not because we’re good and holy, not because we’re the 99 who never wander away.  If you want to find sick people you go to a hospital.  If you want to find a sinner go to a church – the hospital where the disease of sin is diagnosed and the medicine of immortality is dispensed.  We’re here, not because we’re good and righteous but because we know our sinfulness, we see it every day in our lives.  We’re here, gathered with the group of sinners who confess their sins, sending the angels into a joyful hymn.  We’re here to receive just what those tax collectors and sinners were seeking – forgiveness from our Lord.  To hear a Word of absolution from Him who delights in hearing our confession and forgiving. 

            With the sinners in the text, we gather at the feet of Jesus to hear His Word of forgiveness; to hear, again, the dark and dangerous place that He went for us wandering, sinful sheep.  Jesus, seeking to save the lost, laid down His life for you.  Took your grimy sinfulness upon Himself and claimed it as His own.  He journeyed to the cross where He paid for them with His blood; and in return for your sinfulness, He gives you His righteousness.  Oh, what a blessed exchange it is!

            The Pharisees grumbled that Jesus would be associated with sinners.  What foolishness Jesus is to the wise and noble, to those who sit in the seat of scoffers, as the Psalmist puts it.  But to us: the lame, the blind, the adulterers, the cheats, the thieves, the gossips, Jesus is our salvation, our Shepherd who brings us to the green pastures of Paradise.  Repent and believe – this is for you. 

            So, in case you missed it the first time, perk up your ears, these words are for those who have come to Jesus burdened with a mound of sin, whose consciences are burdened with guilt.  Here are gold coins of forgiveness coming your way.  Grab hold and receive it as your own; these words are for you and me, sinners that we are.  Hear, now, the voice of your Shepherd: In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

            Do you hear that?  Angels are singing.  Jesus is laughing with delight.  We’re a band of sinful misfits, but we’re a repentant, forgiven and redeemed band of misfits.  Thanks be to Jesus, who gathers us repentant sinners unto Himself to forgive and forgive completely by His blood shed on the cross for you.   Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

16th Sunday after Pentecost; Luke 14:25-35

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen

            “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”   Great text for the opening day of Sunday School, don’t you think?  

            So what’s Jesus talking about here?  I mean didn’t Jesus, just a few chapters ago, commend the lawyer who correctly said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself?”  Aren’t we supposed to love our enemies?  What does Jesus mean when He says to hate family and even our own lives?

            Well, like all things in Scripture, the context is key.  Notice who Jesus is speaking to – the crowds.  Seekers, we might call them today.  These people have seen, or at least heard of, the miracles Jesus had done: casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead.  Some of them may have been in the crowd of 5,000 who received a free meal of bread and fish.  Who wouldn’t follow this guy, wouldn’t you?  Hey, if you’re sick, Jesus will heal you.  Got an evil spirit tormenting you, He’ll take care of it.  Feeling a bit hungry, Jesus will give you a free meal.  And even if you should croak, Jesus may even raise you from the dead.  These crowds of people aren’t, necessarily, people who trust in Jesus for their salvation, believe He’s the long – promised Messiah.  These people are accompanying Him for the show, for the miracles, for the free stuff.

            But Jesus has something else in mind.  All the miracles are secondary to His main task; in chapter 9 Luke records that Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem.  Set His face toward the cross.  Set His face toward winning salvation for you.  So Jesus gives these crowds a heads up of what they’re getting into.  Following Him isn’t about the miracles, the show, the free meals.  It’s about loving and trusting in Him above all else, it’s about bearing the cross yourself.

            Does Jesus want you to hate your family?  No, of course not.  As Matthew’s Gospel puts it, the problem is loving things or people more than Jesus.  When Jesus is using the word “hate” He’s using it in a very Hebrew way.  That is, it’s not just in an emotional sense, but in a priority sense.  In Genesis, Jacob hated Leah and loved Rachel.  He didn’t have feelings of distain for Leah, but preferred Rachel over her sister.  That’s what Jesus it talking about here.  If push comes to shove, your family and even your own life take a back seat to faith in Christ.  It’s a First Commandment issue.  “You shall have no other gods.”  And, as the Confirmation students will learn or have learned, “What does this mean?”  “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” 

            When God says in Deuteronomy 6, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might and your neighbor as yourself” there’s an order, isn’t there?  Love God and love your neighbor; and the closest neighbors you have are your family.

            That’s not always easy, we’ve all put things and people above God.  I love my family.  I love my mother and father, my mother–in–law, my father-in-law.  I love my sisters and brother – laws.  I love my grandparents and my nieces.  I love my wife and my children.  I love you, my church family.  You and they are a joy in my life beyond all comprehension, the greatest temporal blessing God has given me.  But no one in my family has died to take away my sins.  No one in my family can give me eternal life.  No one in my family can give me salvation.  But He has.  He did for me and for you because He set His face toward the cross. 

            But following Jesus sometimes requires you to count the cost.  A real life example:  I had a classmate at the seminary named Harrison.  Harrison grew up in a devout Jewish family, not only were they of the Jewish religion, they were of the Jewish nationality.  His family observed all the high and holy days: Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukah.  But in college Harrison met a  Lutheran pastor who preached him the Gospel.  He heard it and the Word did what God set out for it to do: it created faith in this young Jewish man.  Harrison was catechized and baptized into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  What’s more he attended the seminary, graduated and is now a pastor in Nebraska.  Sounds like a nice story doesn’t it?  But it came at a cost.  His parents disowned him; they even had a funeral for him, as statement that he was dead to them.  For a long time, his parents wanted nothing to do with him.  But Christ and the forgiveness and salvation that He had won for Harrison was more important than even his own family.  He longed to be with His Lord in His Word, with Him under bread and wine than he cared to be even with his own family.  He desired the love of Jesus more than the love of his mother and father.

            That’s Jesus point to these crowds.  Count the cost.  “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”

            No doubt the crowds thinned that day, not everyone wanted to be a Harrison.  They did the accounting and the cost was too high.  When we take an account of ourselves we can see how far short we come, like the builder who ran out of funds we’ve not had enough to finish.  We’ve seen how we’ve rejected our crosses or failed to fear, love and trust in God above family and self.  We’ve seen how we’ve been at enmity with the Almighty King because of our sin.

But you know what?  Jesus did some cost counting of His own.  What would it cost Jesus to win salvation for the world, for you? 

            The confirmation students will learn about the Creed this year, all three articles.  Do you remember the explanation to the Second Article?  The confirmation students will most definitely learn it this year and even in Sunday School and Weekday School, they’ll be introduced to it.  Jesus “has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death…” There you have it.  There’s the cost.  Jesus hated His own life, that is, He values your lives more than His own, giving it up for you.  Jesus, our brother, was hated by His Father as He became your sin and mine.  As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Was the cost too high for Jesus to win forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation to a bunch of sinners who so often give our first love to others?  Not hardly.  He pays the cost for your sin in its fullest, shedding paying for them with His blood.

            He’s the King with 20,000 men who counts the cost to go forth into battle.  The Father sends out His Son to work out peace between us, the army of 10,000, precisely because He doesn’t want to wipe us out.  And this peace between Him and us has been signed in the blood of Jesus, for you.  This peace agreement requires nothing of us and everything of Him.  And, in our text, that’s what He’s on the way to do.

            Is Jesus calling us to hate our family?  No, but He is putting our priorities in order.  Our fear, love, and trust is for Him.  But He counted the cost, what it would take to save us lost and condemned sinners and He paid it.  Paid it in it’s fullest when His journey to Jerusalem was completed by His death on the cross and His rising again for you. 

            So, love your family.  Husbands and wives, love and honor each other.  Parents, love and serve your children.  Children, honor and obey your parents.   But most of all, love and trust Him who has taken away your sin, gained for you eternal life, and has redeemed you, body and soul.  Jesus counted the cost and found you worth the great price He paid on the cross.  And He did if for you, making us brothers and sisters through the same blood of Jesus – a holy family in Him.  Amen. 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Chris Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

15th Sunday after Pentecost; Luke 14:1-14

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Etiquette is fairly well established in our culture, as it was in ancient society.  At ever wedding reception I’ve been to, there’s a table in the very front, that everyone can see.  Sometimes there’s even names by the chairs at this table.  You know the one, it’s where the bride, groom, and wedding party get to sit.  It’s the table that is most honored, it’s served first, sometimes that table even gets Champaign when everyone else gets sparkling grape juice.  What would happen if you, simply an invited guest, set yourself in the chair marked “bride?”  Most would uncomfortably look at you, wondering what to do.  But eventually, when the bride wants to sit down, someone has to tell you to sit somewhere else.  Then it won’t matter where you sit because you’ve been shamed by taking a lower place.

            The other side of this coin is you do take a lower place.  You sit in the back, farthest away from the head table.  When the groom calls out to you, “Hey, come up here, I want to talk with you.  Celebrate this joyous day with me.”  Then you’re exalted in front of everyone as you walk up to the highest place. 

            So, what’s Jesus’ point?  Is He simply giving advice on dinner etiquette or is there something more to it?  

            Jesus had been invited by the Pharisees to a dinner banquet that has a bunch of Pharisees and lawyers, but not these lawyers never stood in front of a judge or argued a case on behalf of a criminal.  Their job was to comb through the Torah, the books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament and figure out what they were supposed to do in order to gain God’s favor.  Jesus, the invited, guest of honor to this soirée was probably thinking, “I’d rather be hanging out with those sinners and tax collectors.”  The invitation wasn’t extended because Jesus was loved by the Pharisees, quite the opposite.  He was probably invited because they wanted to catch Him in His words.  They wanted to find a reason to have Him brought up on some trumped up charge and executed.  But if they had a plan, they don’t even get the chance to put it into action.  Jesus makes the first move.

             “There was a man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”  An uninvited guest.  A man with dropsy comes into the room with his swollen dropsy body wanting to be healed… On the Sabbath. 

            Now, the Pharisees had made all kinds of rules about what kind of work you couldn’t do on the Sabbath, so Jesus question puts them to the test.  If they say it’s unlawful, then they’ll look like unreasonable jerks.  But they don’t want to agree with Jesus so they can’t say that it is lawful either.  So, they remain silent, Luke tells us. 

            Jesus answers their silence and His own question by healing the man on the Sabbath because that’s what God does.  Jesus then chides the Pharisees over their legalism, being willing to pull on ox out of a well on the Sabbath, implying that it’s ok for the Pharisees to care for animals but helping and serving the neighbor, not so much. 

            It’s like the parable Jesus told of the Good Samaritan.  The priest and the Levite who saw the man lying in the ditch could not help him.  They were bound by the Law, couldn’t touch a man who’s been beaten.  Only the Samaritan was free to be neighbor.  Only one who is free from the Law can answer Jesus’ question with a confident “yes, it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath”.  But you can say that only as you are free.  Jesus is free.  He comes to bring freedom and life.  He is the Sabbath fulfilled, and for that sick man, He is the epitome of the Sabbath.  Rest from illness, rest from sin, rest from death.  Rest that only God in the Flesh can give.  That’s why we don’t worship on the Sabbath, on Saturday, because Jesus is our Sabbath rest.  We’re free to gather together as the Church and worship on whatever day we want.

            Now Jesus has the table exactly where He wants them.  Now they’re really watching this Sabbath breaker who has the power of God to heal diseases with a word and a touch.  He points out how the guests all jockey for positions of honor at the table, to the right and the left of the host.  And He says, “When you are invited, don’t take the honored seats lest you be embarrassed.  It would be like taking the seats of honor at a wedding reception when you’re not in the wedding party and being told that your table is over in the corner next to the cake.  Take your place among the least, so that when the host comes you’ll be honored when he says, ‘Friend, come up to a better place…’  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

            Now if you think all that Jesus has in mind is the seating arrangements at the next dinner party you’re invited to, think again. He has in mind first of all His own work. Though He was the Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Father, the place of highest honor, He left that seat to take on human flesh and become a servant. He left the highest place to take up the lowest seat in the house, a cross and a grave. It doesn’t get any lower than that. He humbled Himself to death for our sakes. And from that place of humility, the Father highly exalted Him and seated Him in our humanity at His right hand. And in Him, we are seated there too.

            Recognizing that and believing that, we don’t presume the honored place at His table either. We don’t waltz in to the Lord’s Supper as though we’ve earned the right to be there and God should be honored that we bothered to show up. No, we take the lowest place with the least, the lost, the lowly, the dead. We say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” We come as chief of sinners seeking mercy, humbled by the Law that reminds us there is no good in us. And Christ says to us, “Friend, I forgive you. Come up to a higher place. Sit with me at my table.

            “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.”  Boast in your goodness, and the Law will put you in your place.  Wrap yourself with all the good you’ve done, and you will be revealed as a gate crasher at the Lord’s wedding party. Take your place with the losers of the religious world, with sinners, and you will be exalted. All you need to bring to the Lord’s table is your confession and a plea for mercy, and you will hear “Friend, come up to a higher place.”

            Then Jesus turns to His host, whose nice little Sabbath dinner party now lay in shambles at the feet of Jesus, and He notes all the dignitaries. “When you give a dinner party, don’t invite your rich friends and relatives lest they do the same and repay you. But instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, that man with dropsy who crashed your party, all those types you avoid, invite them, and you will be blessed precisely because they can’t repay you. Your reward comes in the resurrection.”

            And again, Jesus isn’t talking so much about whom to invite to your next birthday party as He is talking about the party He is throwing, the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. He isn’t inviting people who can repay Him. Not at all. He’s inviting empty-handed, broken beggars, the likes of you and me in our sinfulness. We can’t repay the Lord for what He has done for us. Nothing we can do in this life, no offering, no prayer, no dedication, no amount of purpose-driven living can repay Jesus for His service to us, His sacrifice, His saving us. We come as the poor, the lame, the blind. That’s what we are under God’s Law. Impoverished of anything remotely called righteousness before God. Crippled to the holiness God demands of us. Blind to Him.

         Yes in our brokenness and poverty, we are invited guests, welcomed to a feast of salvation that literally has no end. Why does Jesus do it? Why bother with a table full of losers? Well, if you’re looking for spiritual winners in this world, you won’t find any because there are none. Without God’s mercy in Jesus, without Jesus’ death on the cross, without the forgiveness of sins that comes in His name, there would be no one at the wedding feast of the Lamb save the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Oh, and a bunch of angels.

            Jesus’ reward, the joy that was set before Him, is the resurrection of the righteous. The joy of a resurrected humanity declared righteous by what He has done. You, standing before the Father, clothed in the righteousness of the Son, raised from death to life – that’s why Jesus suffered, died, and rose again. So that you would have a place at His table.

            So as you take that place today, as one of His baptized believers, don’t think of yourself as a winner, as one deserving to be there. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Humble yourselves, and He will lift you up.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.