Rejoice with This Man Who Receives Sinners

"The two stories we have before us today are often thought of and used as 'evangelism' texts. And that they are, if we understand evangelism correctly. Evangelism is not just for those people out there--the pagan tribes of New Guinea, the un-churched folk of our communities, the drug addicts of inner city ghettos. Evangelism is for every sinner, every man, woman, and child alike until our Lord comes again on the Last Day. Evangelism is the proclamation of the good news that 'This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them.'"

To hear the entire sermon preached for the Third Sunday after Trinity at Trinity, Layton, "Rejoice with This Man Who Receives Sinners"--beginning with the Old Testament Reading and concluding with the Prayer of the Church, click on the following MP3 audio link. "Rejoice with This Man Who Receives Sinners"

If you would rather just read the sermon, or read along as you listen, the preaching outline/manuscript follows below. However, please understand some transitions are filled in and bullet points fleshed out from the pulpit that are not included in the ms.

TEXT: ¹Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

 

³So he told them this parable: ⁴“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 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 coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently 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 before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” -- Luke 15:1–10

Dear sinners,

 

“There is [indeed] joy before the angels of God” this morning—and even now. And you know why, don’t you?

Because each you is that one sinner; you are that silver coin, or wooden nickel, or copper penny; you are that one sheep: each of you is one who was lost from the time you were born until the time when God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—received you into His forgiven family and forever kingdom of heaven in the world-changing, life-giving splash of Holy Baptism. By this living water with which the Word and very name of the one true, merciful, gracious, mighty, and faithful God was poured all over your sinful flesh--and even into your ears and your very hearts of stone—that once was enslaved by the power and lies of the evil one, you were taken out of the his kingdom of darkness and into the marvelous light that is Christ Jesus the very Son and Sun of God.

Furthermore, as you got lost back out there in the temptations and evil of a fallen world and sinful race still enamored with and under the power of that Prince of Darkness, the Holy Ghost has swept you back up and out of its mouldy cracks and dusty corners and into the bright rays of the Son/Sun of God here in His holy Christian Church where that holy splash of life-giving water continues to pour forth in the absolution you receive as the Word of God is proclaimed, and sung, and prayed, and fed to you to forgive you all the sins that you have done and all the good you have left undone in your daily work-a-day world—even those sins and omissions of which you are unaware or most fearfully ashamed.

Yes, “there is [indeed] joy before the angels of God,” and I have great news for you this morning, because this Man, Jesus—the very Son of God His Father in heaven-- receives you, And, while He Himself does not eat with us until that day that [He will eat and] drink it new in the kingdom of God^” [Mark 14:25]; He does have you eat and drink with Him at the Sacrament of the Altar that He sets before us. This is what and why the pastor sings to you that greatest of good news in the Proper Preface:
“With angels and arch angels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying… “

All of which, of course, means that you have been received into His Father’s heavenly home to eat with Him at His banquet table, since this Man, Jesus, Who receives sinners and eats with them, at the same time is seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven.

So those words hurled by the Pharisees and scribes to condemn Jesus are the sweetest words you could ever hear and truer, more beautiful have never been spoken regardless of the venom with which they were uttered according to Luke’s Gospel we have set before us to feast upon today.

"This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them." 

Can there be any greater news?

And yet the religious leaders grumbled.

Funny, that! Religious leaders still grumble about such words today.

So Jesus tells those religious leaders of days gone by—as well as the days in which we live, and the days yet to come—He tells all religious leaders a story--a trilogy really—the two parables of our Gospel today, along with the parable of the Prodigal Son and His loving Father that concludes the 15^th chapter of Luke.

The two stories we have before us today are often thought of and used as “evangelism” texts. And that they are, if we understand evangelism correctly. Evangelism is not just for those people out there--the pagan tribes of New Guinea, the un-churched folk of our communities, the drug addicts of inner city ghettos. Evangelism is for every sinner, every man, woman, and child alike until our Lord comes again on the Last Day. Evangelism is the proclamation of the good news that "This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them."  

So, what about you? Are you a sinner? Of course you are. Of course I am. With Paul each of us is chief of all sinners. In other words, nobody else’s sin hurts you or separates you from God and keeps you out of the kingdom of heaven. It is YOUR sin that is your worst nightmare, not Osama bin Laden’s terrorism; not those crooked, self-serving politicians in Washington of either major national party; not your cheap, task master boss or teacher or disrespectful slacker employee or student; not that nosy, gossipy neighbor; not your ungrateful husband, wife, son, or daughter; not your mean old dad or mom. Oh, they are sinners to be sure, but they are not your problem you and your sin are your problem.

And Jesus came to save you from YOUR sin. "This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them."

Does this mean that Jesus tolerates your sin, even joins you in your sin? Certainly not!

This is how the Pharisees and scribes saw it, and why they grumbled, very much like Jonah grumbled because God chose to look with favor upon the wicked and violent people of Ninevah who were nothing but trouble for God’s chosen people descended from Abraham—like the Pharisees and scribes.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

He calls sinners to repentance, strips each sinner of his own self-righteousness and brings them in repentance to dine with Him at His Table alongside other repentant, sinners at a most heavenly feast of His body and blood for forgiveness, life and salvation.

So there’s no need to grumble! There is always room at the table for one more sinner. God the Father is always ready to welcome one more stubborn Pharisee who has finally admitted to being among the lost..

Today is Father’s Day. All across America today, thousands of dads are going to be opening up little boxes, about this big [hold hands apart about six inches]. You know what they are going to find? GPS units. Moms from coast to coast have picked up Tom Toms and Magellans and Garmins for the kids to wrap and give to Daddy on his special day—because as everybody knows, men just hate to ask for directions.

The Pharisees were no different. But you know what? Everyone since Adam and Eve has the same problem when it comes to heaven. We all would rather get there ourselves, traveling our own chosen roads, figuring we know exactly where we are and we’ll get where we want to go eventually.

Such is the highway to hell. And there are many travelers making it seem as though one is not lost at all.

Dear sinners, don’t ever forget that apart from Holy Baptism, apart from hearing the Word of God that forgives you, apart from the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, you too are among the lost. Each and every one of us is in the same predicament as the Pharisees if we insist we don’t need the things that are only for those sinners. 

There is no alternate route to heaven. It really is just that simple."This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them." –and only sinners, for if He didn’t eat with sinners our Lord would be dining alone.

Oh yes, you and I are the worst of all sinners. But as Jesus is telling the Pharisees and scribes so that they too might see themselves as the worst instead of the best--so that they too might desire to be received by this man and eat with Him in the kingdom of heaven--Jesus wants you and all people to know and believe and rejoice that He, the very Son of God, came for the worst to receive you and eat with you.

What is more, even became the worst—for you! [Take them to the Cross.]

Now that’s evangelism. That’s the good news, the great news, the best news you can ever hear. "This Man Receives Sinners and Eats with Them." 

And that is what is going on here today. The “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents,” the “ joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” the feast of the fatted calve prepared by the Prodigal’s loving Father, that is what the Divine Service is all about. You and I, along with every member of Christ’s Church on earth and the hosts of heaven, rejoice now and forever with This Man Who Receives Sinners --in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen