This Man Receives Sinners
Luke 15:1-10
Dear Fellow Sinners,
I have great news for you this morning! Jesus receives you in the kingdom of heaven at His table and eats with you. Otherwise we wouldn’t be right here, right now—would we?
Much to their dismay–and judgment–the Pharisees and scribes never spoke truer words than the words they grumbled according to Luke’s Gospel we have set before us to feast upon today. “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Here we see that the Jews were not only experts at the Law, they were experts in the Gospel—though they were too blind in their self-righteous pride to see it.
Our Gospel today is really just that simple. “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Can there be any greater news? And yet the religious leaders grumbled
So Jesus tells them a story–a trilogy really—the two “Lost” parables of our Gospel today, along with the parable of the Prodigal Son and His loving Father that concludes the 15th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.
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 unchurched 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 the sin of some Islamist terrorist or communist dictator; not the sin those crooked, self-serving politicians in Washington of either major national party; not the sin of your cheap, task master boss or teacher, or disrespectful slacker employee or student; not the sin of that nosy, gossipy neighbor; not the sin of your ungrateful husband or wife, son or daughter, brother or sister; or 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 neither reason nor 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.
Here we are really no different than the Pharisees, are we? Especially as free and independent people of the Untied States of America, we like to think we are able to choose our own destiny and pursue our way to happiness.
God has indeed given us a great gift in this nation where we are still free to assemble to hear the Word of God, receive His good gifts of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We especially give thanks to Him at this time of year for the sacrifices of our founding fathers and all those who staked their lives and their fortunes for the sake of generations to come. And we ask that God would make us to be such people too, and to raise up another generation that will live to fight together for each other’s benefit rather than fight each other to get our own share and assert our own supposed rights
However, our destiny is firmly and only in the hands of our Father in heaven. And our happiness can only be found in being found by Him ourselves.
During this week of the Fourth of July marking the Independence of our United States of America as a sovereign nation, the roads are packed with vacationers travelling to celebrate with family and friends as they exercise their freedom to travel and pursue happiness. Many will be guided by GPS apps with disembodied voices that give us directions. And some of those will be misguided and even led into dangerous situations. Why? Because we don’t like to admit–even and especially to the people closest to us, who know us the best and could give us directions–that we don’t know where we are going and need help.
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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 how to get where we want to go eventually. We are works oriented, works righteous people to the core.
Such is the highway to hell. And there are many travelers on that road making it seem as though one is not lost at all.
Dear fellow sinners, don’t ever forget that apart from Holy Baptism, apart from hearing the Word of God, apart from the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ—those gracious means (far better than any app) by which God delivers forgiveness, life and salvation–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.
Our Lutheran Confession of The Faith once delivered to us speaks both of our need and our treatment for being sinners.
Smalcald Part III
Article III: Of Confesson
37] . . . he who confesses that all in him is nothing but sin comprehends all sins, excludes none, forgets none. 38] Neither can the satisfaction be uncertain, because it is not our uncertain, sinful work, but it is the suffering and blood of the [spotless and] innocent Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
39] Of this repentance John preaches, and afterwards Christ in the Gospel, and we also. By this [preaching of] repentance we dash to the ground . . . everything that is built upon our good works. . . .
40] And in Christians this repentance continues until death, because, through the entire life it contends with sin remaining in the flesh, as Paul, Rom. 7:14-25, [shows] testifies that he wars with the law in his members, etc.; and that, not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Ghost that follows the remission of sins. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins, and works so as to render man truly pure and holy.
LARGE CATECHISM
PART 2: APOSTLES’ CREED ARTICLE III
54] We further believe that in this Christian Church we have forgiveness of sin, which is wrought through the holy Sacraments and Absolution, moreover, through all manner of consolatory promises of the entire Gospel. Therefore, whatever is to be preached concerning the Sacraments belongs here, and, in short, the whole Gospel and all the offices of Christianity, which also must be preached and taught without ceasing. For although the grace of God is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy Ghost through the Word of God in the unity of the Christian Church, yet on account of our flesh which we bear about with us we are never without sin.
55] Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other. . . .
59] Behold, all this is to be the office and work of the Holy Ghost, that He begin and daily increase holiness upon earth by means of these two things, the Christian Church and the forgiveness of sin. But in our dissolution He will accomplish it altogether in an instant, and will forever preserve us therein by the last two parts.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This is how and where God the Son “receives sinners and eats with them”—He pours out God the Holy Spirit in the ministry of His holy Christian Church to forgive them, and make them holy.
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, He even became the worst—for you! Once again, in this regard, a Jewish religious leader unwittingly speaks the truth of the Gospel in all its glorious, and ironic, simplicity. Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, John 11:49-50
Now that’s evangelism. That’s the good news, the great news, the best news you can or will ever hear. Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, took your place on Calvary before the judgment seat of His Father in heaven and died for you, so that even now you can “live under Him in His [nation].” [Small Catechism, 2nd Article of the Creed] because “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Yes, 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 calf prepared by the Prodigal Son’s loving Father, that is what the Divine Service is all about. “With angels and arch angels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify” [Sanctus from the liturgy of the Divine Service] the glorious name of God who is “This man [who] receives sinners and eats with them”—even now in His one holy Christian and apostolic Church, to give you life forever –in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
