First Mennonite Church
March 16, 2025
He came to seek and save the Lost
Text: Luke 15:1-10
In Luke 19:10 Jesus declares: “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
The stories in Luke 15 illustrated God’s mission of going after what has been lost. Now, because these stories are so familiar to us, I invite you to consider them in light of the theme we have been considering these last weeks. I hope that our familiarity with the stories will not hinder us from learning something new. Let us look at these stories afresh and with open hearts.
This chapter in Luke is sometimes called the “Lost and Found” department in the Bible. There are three stories of things and people that get lost just to be found again. There are two elements in these stories that stand out. The first is the deliberate effort put into finding what was lost. And the second is the joy and celebration that is shared upon finding what was lost.
Today I will be dealing with the first two stories and next Sunday we will see the story of the Prodigal Son.
The context
In chapter 14, Jesus was attending a banquet offered by one of the Pharisees. Upon watching how the guests picked their places, Jesus gave a parable. However, the point Jesus wanted to make through these stories was to contrast the attitude between the Pharisees and that of eager crowds. In 14:25, says that large crowds followed Jesus. But in 15:1, Luke tells us exactly who are those wanting to draw even closer to Jesus. They are the tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors, as you have heard, were hated and looked at with contempt because they were associated with the Romans who not only were foreign oppressors but blood-suckers of the Jewish people. Sinners, on the other hand, were those considered immoral for who they were or what they had done in the past. These were people considered unredeemable. Therefore, any association with members of these groups implies being one of their kind. But surprisingly, it was people from these two groups that were coming closer to Jesus, ready and eager to listen to what he had to say.
There in Luke 14, Jesus explained the cost his disciples must be willing to pay. He said following him would cost them everything, including their lives. And even so, the tax collectors and singer were still determined to come closer to him. I would suppose they realized that although the price to follow Jesus meant giving up their lives, they felt a draw towards Jesus impossible to resist. His welcoming spirit, his reassuring words, and his generous and open hospitality, all had a powerful pull they could not overcome. They were drawn by Jesus. What could have been so powerful about Jesus that even when his demands were total yet made his pull so irresistible? Maybe these people were hoping to be touched in some way … that Jesus might heal them of all the hurt, rejection, and scorn they had endured. Maybe they were hoping to find a new direction for their lives. Or, perhaps they realized that the God of Israel was indeed being revealed through Jesus. And that his words and welcoming spirit were things completely absent in the religious institution and representatives of their days.
But there they were, tax collectors and sinners, drawing closer and feeling welcomed by Jesus. However, that close and compassionate interaction between Jesus and these people caused a stir among the Pharisees. They could not understand why a teacher of Torah would mix with these kinds of people.
The Pharisees perhaps had a lot to lose if they ever mixed with tax collectors and sinners. Perhaps their reputation would be at risk and their high status in jeopardy if they mingled with these kinds of people. But Jesus did not care what others would think of him. He came with a mission to seek and save that which was lost. And he found them in the face of those hated by society. He found them in the face of those hurt by sin…just as you and me.
And so to show the point, Jesus told these three stories in Luke 15.
These two stories illustrate the far-reaching mercy and grace of God for the lost. Through these stories, Jesus demonstrated that God is tirelessly pursuing us, wanting to reach out to us. God’s unwavering love and desire is to be reconnected with us, to establish a close relationship with us. God is actively seeking us, like a shepherd who cannot suffer seeing one of his sheep missing from the fold. Whether by stupidity or in deliberate rebellion the sheep goes its foolish way and gets lost, the shepherd cannot help but go out to look for it. He leaves the 99 under the care of fellow shepherds and goes out determined to find and bring back the strayed sheep.
In the other story, the coin gets lost. And this unanimated object knows not whether it is lost or nothing. It is just there where it landed, possibly buried in the dust within the crevice of the house floor. But this coin is so special to its owner. It is part of her special collection or a reminder of her costly dowry, thus she cannot afford to have only part of it. She needs to have the ten together. Everyone counts! She is determined to find it to the point of almost breaking the house apart to find it. She lit her lamp; swept over and over, shuffled things around, she turned the house upside down to find it and she did.
As I said at the beginning, when things were lost, the effort to find them was deliberate. In the first story, the shepherd upon noticing that a sheep is missing, he determines to go out and search for it until he finds it. He goes off into the ravines, looks under the thorn bushes, and pauses to listen for the lost sheep’s cry. When he finds it, he hastily takes it into his arms, puts it on his shoulder, and takes it back to the fold. This exemplifies the attitude of Jesus toward the tax collectors and sinners. He embraces them. His readiness to eat with them demonstrates how worthy they are to him. Not like the Pharisees who would blame their moral and spiritual conditions on their ignorance of the Torah or wrongful choices. This attitude would be as when the shepherd upon finding the lost sheep, takes his rod and starts beating the poor frightened sheep and goes on scolding the animal all the way home. Jesus, instead of condemning the tax collectors and sinners, engages them and makes himself available to them.
The joy of the shepherd and the woman illustrates heaven’s joy when a sinner comes to God. There is no doubt heaven was rejoicing as Jesus mingled, and had fellowship with those tax collectors and sinners. Contrary to that was the murmuring of the Pharisees. They mumbled against Jesus for his company.
Now, did Jesus condone the actions and lifestyle of those around him? The Gospels give witness that when Jesus forgave someone, he also said, go and sin no more. When the Pharisees were complaining about Jesus’ visit to Zacchaeus, he said “Salvation has come to the house.” Zacchaeus immediately offered to restitute those he had overcharged. But what becomes very evident is that Jesus did not impose a change before he welcomed these men and women. He did not set conditions before he could engage them. Change happens in the process or because he engages with them. And this is the model of mission for the church. The Pharisees wanted to see the sinners come to God according to their standards. They wanted them to come to the fold but only after they had cleaned their acts. But this is not the way of Jesus because “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”. Amen!
Pastor A. Romero