God's Lost and Found
Most people go to great lengths to maintain their life and not lose it – healthy foods, vitamins, meds, doctor visits, surgeries. But what if a soul seems lost? What if it's yours? What if it's your friend's? Jesus has something to say about that in the gospel for this day from Luke chapter fifteen in which he directs our thoughts to God's Lost and Found. October 3, 2010.
If a penny slipped from your pocket or purse and rolled down the grocery store aisle under the pasta shelves, would you crawl on your knees to retrieve it? How about a nickel? What about a dime? If a quarter slips out of your fingers and slides down between the car seat and the center console, do you immediately pull over, get out of the car, shove the seat back and forth, stick your hand as far under there as far as you can from the front and then the back, and fish for it, or do you chalk it up as eaten by car gnomes. What if you cashed a check at a bank downtown, stopped at a hotdog cart, but when you pulled out a five for the dog and beverage, a hundred dollar bill that was stuck behind the five got pulled by a gust of wind out of your fingers and whipped down the street? Would you run after it?
What if you were in danger of losing your life? What price tag would you put on that? What about your soul? Losing that amounts to losing an eternity with God. An old German legend tells of a man named Faust who made a deal with the devil, selling his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure. In the end the devil dragged him to hell. Most people go to great lengths to maintain their life and not lose it – healthy foods, vitamins, meds, doctor visits, surgeries. But what if a soul seems lost? What if it’s yours? What if it’s your friend’s? Jesus has something to say about that in the gospel for this day from Luke chapter fifteen in which he directs our thoughts to God’s Lost and Found.
Realize your situation
The story of the lost sheep captures the imagination. But we don’t want to pass too quickly over the original audience. Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear [Jesus]. This is not breaking news for Bible readers, but I want to make sure all who are here know that tax collectors in those days were moneyed people whom everyone considered scum because they were traitors and bilked their fellow Israelites out of all kinds of dough. They did that by prying tax dollars out of people’s pockets on behalf of the Roman government and by lining their pockets with collectors’ fees. They had no conscience, lived on Easy Street, and generally made their fellow Israelites gag. But the tax collectors who were gathering around Jesus on this occasion were not doing that because they wanted to gang up on him for his quarterly estimated payment. No! The tax collectors who gathered around him did so because they knew they were lost, rudderless on the sea of life, drifting toward the reef of eternal wreckage, sensing that their ship was going to go down past Davy Jones’ locker room and into the devil’s boiler room.
“Sinners” were also gathering around Jesus. They aren’t named, but we can well imagine who was in that crowd – prostitutes and petty thieves, forgers and freeloaders, winos and weirdos, society’s cast-offs and criminals. But the “sinners” who were gathering around Jesus on this occasion were not doing that for free food or hand-outs. No! These “sinners” who were gathering around him were doing that because they knew they were lost and needed more than a Messiah-quest map to get directions for their life. They needed rescue from having done the Faust-thing. They needed deliverance from the pounding they deserved because of their sin. So, the initial group of people who gathered around Jesus were not all poverty stricken pan-handlers or weaklings or emotional cripples. They came from all levels of society and from all kinds of backgrounds. The one thing they had in common is that they knew they were lost and came to hear him.
But the tax collectors and “sinners” were not the primary targets when Jesus took aim with this story of the shepherd seeking a lost sheep. He set the sights of his barrel and put the crosshairs of this story on the Pharisees and the teachers of the law [who] muttered, “This man welcome sinners and eats with them”. This is not breaking news for Bible readers, but I want to make sure all who are here know that the Pharisees were supposed to be religious leaders but were leading people away God. Instead of proclaiming, “Look what God has done for you,” they were saying, “Look at us, and try to do what we do if you want God to like you.” But what they were doing wasn’t God-approved. Jesus later told them, “You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are”(Matthew 23:15). Jesus knew they were wandering from the truth and getting lost in their own self-centered notions on how to be right with God.
Then there were the teachers of the law who were basically in the same boat as the Pharisees – not rudderless or adrift but tacking on purpose into an ocean of details regarding the rules God had given the Israelite nation, not to realize that God’s demands are so high and their efforts so low but to find reasons to say, “Look how much we have done and how much better we are than others!” They too were wandering from the truth and lost in their own notions. So, when we look at all the people who had gathered around Jesus and heard him tell the story of the shepherd seeking a lost sheep, certainly they were a mixed bag but sure-as-shootin’ proved that there are only two kinds of people in the world – those who are lost and know it and those who are lost and don’t want to admit it.
What kind of sheep are you? What kind of sheep am I? I’m not going to hang out all my dirty wool right now. You wouldn’t have time to listen to the laundry list. But I will say that you and I are very likely the same. Some days we’re tax collectors. Other days we’re Pharisees. Some days were “sinners.” Other days we’re teachers of the law. Some days we get ready for bed and are struck with embarrassment when we think of the stinging words that came out of our mouths or the indecent thoughts that traced through our minds. Other days we’re oblivious to the hurt we caused. Some days we ache from the dumb stuff we’ve done and realize we’re only hurting ourselves. Other days we get obsessed with blaming everyone else for what’s wrong in our lives and in our world. Some days we have been lost sheep and know it. Other days we have been lost sheep and don’t want to admit it. And some days we’re both on the same day! In order to appreciate being found by the Good Shepherd we need to realize our situation because you can’t appreciate being found unless you realize you are lost.
Recognize your Shepherd
Some days this, and other days that, but every day – here comes the Shepherd! If you look closely, he’s not wielding a stick, waving it overhead, ready to whip it down on the sheep’s back as soon as he finds it, “You dumb sheep! If I told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, don’t wander off!” No! The sheep can hear the shepherd’s voice, calling out, yet calm. Concern in his tone but also care, “It’s OK! It’s OK! I know you’re lost. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m here. I’ll help.” Then he spies the sheep tangled in brambles, exhausted from the struggle to free itself. On hearing the shepherd approach, the sheep gives one last half-frantic, half-embarrassed kick, only ripping more flesh on the thorns. The shepherd leans in, “I’m here. Shhh! Don’t worry.” Oh, what a shepherd! What courage as he grabs those bramble branches and rips them all away, no concern for the cuts he himself sustains. What tenderness as he gently brushes the sheep on the head, carefully plucking out each thorn! What care as he applies clean cotton gauze to each wound, skillfully binding up the leg that’s hurting. His muscles strain. Sweat is pouring from his brow, but he lifts the sheep – ever try to lift a one hundred pound bag of dry cement? – without treating it like a bale of hay or sack of flour but as his dearly loved, most precious prize. From up on his shoulders the sheep can hear the shepherd singing a happy tune. He’s laughing. He’s rejoicing. And when he returns home, he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep”.
Are you so afraid, so embarrassed at your predicament, so lost that your bleating and bleeding are blocking out the bleeding which the Shepherd offered to rescue you? Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is not wielding a stick, waiting to whip it onto your back, “You dumb sinner! If I told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, don’t wander off!” He calls to you from the pages of Holy Scripture, a gentle whisper, “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m here. I’ll help.” What courage when he ripped at the bramble branches of Satan’s trickery! What tenderness as he carefully plucks out each thorn of guilt! What care as he applies the gauze of his forgiving love and binds up our hurting hearts! What power as he hoists us onto his shoulders, and sings, “You are mine!” Can you hear his voice? Do you know that this very moment he is embracing you and laughing on the way home to heaven, calling for the angels and saints of all time past, present, and future to join him in joyful song? Fellow lambs and sheep, recognize your Shepherd!
Repeat the cycle
The Pharisees and teachers of the law heard the story of the shepherd and had to know. They just had to make the connection. They were among what Jesus called the ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent, and that was not a compliment. They had to know that Jesus was using a classic cross-over with that statement, a classic play on words. They thought they were righteous, but from God’s perspective of holiness there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:3). So, they weren’t really sheep roaming in the open countrybut lost sheep. They didn’t think they needed to repent, but the Bible says that God wants everyone to come to repentance(2 Peter 3:9). There’s that techno-Bible term we hear so often, “Repent!” It simply means to realize your situation and recognize your Shepherd! Believe you’re lost, and trust that the Good Shepherd has found you. Did the Pharisees and teachers of the law actually do that after hearing this story of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep? We’re not told. But God is not asking us to look first at others today. Look at yourself. Realize your situation, recognize your Shepherd, and repeat that cycle every day. Then you’ll be ready to repeat the cycle to help other lost sheep do the same. Wait! Can we do that?
It’s always fascinating to find ourselves in Jesus’ stories. In this one we learned that there are times when we can identify with the one lost sheep, and there are times when we need to admit that we are in the middle of the ninety-nine Pharisee-sheep in the open country. But here’s one we don’t expect. We can also identify with the shepherd. OK! We’re not the Good Shepherd. There’s only one of those – Jesus. But the Savior has identified with us so intensely and aligned himself with us so closely, that he’s actually taken our place as the object of God’s wrath so that God considers his life to be our life, his death our death, and his resurrection our resurrection. Now, as rescued sheep, we get to take on the new identity he has given us, serve as under-shepherds, and join him in the search and rescue of other lost sheep. You know them. They’re at work. They’re at school. They’re in your extended family. One or two may be in your house. They’re on your Facebook page and email address book. Some are caught in the brambles of guilt and sin. Some are in the open country oblivious to their situation and need for a Shepherd. But you are there to repeat the cycle so that they realize their situation and recognize their Shepherd. This is not brain surgery or nuclear physics. This is simply being who you are, a rescued sheep, whispering the Shepherd’s call, “I know you’re lost. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m here. I’ll help.”
Do you know how to make angels giggle? That might seem undignified, but it’s true. “I tell you that … there is … rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents”. You know about God’s lost and found. You know what the lost are worth, the blood of the Shepherd. Go ahead and make the angels laugh! Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on October 3, 2010
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