Reflection on Luke 15:1-10

"All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"

My grandma once taught me, “You are known by who you hang out with.”  The implication of this was, of course, if you ate your school lunch with good and proper people, you also will be known as good and proper.  Then there are the people with whom she would not have me eat lunch: the sinners. 

Yes, of course, we are all sinners and need the forgiveness of God, but this was not the classification of sin that she was talking about.  She was talking about cheats and turncoats and drug users.  You do not sit at the lunch table with them, because if you do, you are considered one of them.

Jesus appears to be making the simple lunchroom error that every Jr. High student of any worth inherently knows to avoid: sitting with the wrong crowd.  “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  You can almost hear the accusations dripping from their lips.  It is as if Jesus were a criminal himself.  It is as if Jesus himself were to come to no good.  It is as if Jesus might be hauled away by the authorities and executed.  If only the Pharisees and the scribes knew the end of the story.  But, they do not know the end of the story.  They only know that Jesus eats with bad people…with sinners; “tisk, tisk.”  Yes, my grandmother actually said, “tisk, tisk.”

The Pharisees and scribes see the world as good and bad.  They see the world as black and white.  They see the world just as my grandma had taught: good people…sit with them; bad people…do not sit with them.  My grandma also taught that you can marry a rich woman as easily as a poor one.  I did not listen to that gem of advice, but I think that the former lesson sank in a little deeper than I would like to admit.  I think that sometimes I do look out on the world and throw people into the categories of good and bad.

For example, once at a church picnic, I saw a young couple drive up in an old pickup truck with their four young children.  Did you catch what I said?  A couple was driving all of their children around, stuffed into the front seat of an old pickup truck.  Those children wore no seatbelts, and certainly did not sit in age appropriate (required by law) car seats.  I shook my head in disbelief as they got out of the truck to go play in the park, and continued eating my turkey and mustard sandwich with all of the other good people of the church. 

A little later I looked up to see that the parents had gone off on their own to play basketball while their children were…well…they did not even know where their children were, they were not watching!  Terrible people.  I settled into conversation with those who knew better and promptly forgot about those sinners until in the middle of the night when my mind wandered to them once again causing me to jump awake and realized with horror one simple truth: Jesus invites sinners to eat.

I am a pastor!  How could I be so stupid?  I am a Christian!  How could I be so dumb and inconsiderate?  How could it be that I did not invite this sinful family over to eat with us?  The answer is easy really: it is because I saw them simply as that: sinful, hopeless people.  Jesus, on the other hand, did not categorize people this way.  Jesus simply asked, “Are these people lost?”

"Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who [is found and turns his life around] than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 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.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who is found and [turns her life around.]"

The question I ask when I see people is: are they good or bad? 

The question Jesus asks when he sees people is: “Are they lost?”  And, if they are, then they need to be found.

I should have gone and found those children.  I should have gone and found those parents.  I should have invited them to eat with us.  Maybe I did not because I, like the Pharisees and scribes, also am lost. 

Being lost can do that.  It can cause you to forget that everyone is precious to God. It can cause us to forget that Christ somehow does not feel complete unless Christ finds everyone who is lost.  

Just like a shepherd is no shepherd at all if he loses his master’s sheep.  Christ is not who he promises to be if he fails to search for the lost.

Just like the woman frantically searches the house to find her lost coin; the piece of dowry that fell away from her headscarf or hip scarf that shows her worth in the ancient world; Christ frantically searches for us, the lost.

Shepherds are not complete without all of their sheep.  Women of the ancient world were not complete without their entire dowry. Parents are not complete without all of their children. Siblings are not complete without their brother or sister. God is not complete as long as God’s children are lost.

God definitely recognizes when a child is missing from the dinner table. Just as our own parents would be devastated if we did not show up at the table when we were young, God too is devastated when we fail to show up.

In fact, God is so passionate about finding us that God sent God’s only son to the earth, to risk his life to find us; to save us from the darkness; and to bring us out of the blackness of sin into the light of resurrection.

So, I guess that means that we are a once lost but now found people.  We are the people who once wandered away from God. But, that is not the important part of our story.  The important part of the story is the part where we are found.  The important part of the whole story is that Christ came to find us, grab us by the hand, and raise us up.  We are a found people who are loved by God.  That makes us a finding people who have the heart of Christ.  We are a once lost but finding people who search and search and search until all are found.