“Jesus, Savior of the Lost”
Luke 15:1-10
9/16/07
Years ago there was a popular phrase used by many
Christians and printed on bumper stickers. The phrase was "I
found it.” Christians often talk this way about their
faith. They say things like, "I found Jesus," or "I found the
truth." But these statements simply aren’t true. Was
Jesus the One who was lost, or was it we who were lost? Were we
looking for Him, or was He looking for us? The prophet Isaiah
writes that it is we who like sheep had gone astray. Each of us
had turned his own way. According to God’s Word we are the
ones who were lost, and the Lord came looking for us. Jesus says
that He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and the Gospel
text before us today shows us this.
How did we get lost? People don't usually
intend to get lost. It just happens. They take a wrong turn
here or there, and pretty soon they don't know where they are.
And the further they go, the more lost they become. They can't
find their way back. Someone must come to their aid.
We went astray way back in the Garden of Eden.
It seemed harmless enough to Adam and Eve to go ahead and eat the fruit
the Lord had told them not to eat. The serpent, however, had
given them wrong directions and misled them by his lies. By
disregarding the Lord's directions and listening to the devil instead,
they headed down the wrong path, the path that led to death. Once
they took this detour, there was no returning to the road that led to
life. Instead of walking in the light, they now walked in the
darkness. They were lost and we with them. The whole world
from that point on has been born in darkness, lost with no way to find
our way back to God. There are and have been many attempts to
find the way back to God. The existence of so many hundreds of
religions, cults, and sectarian groups show us mankind's attempt to get
back in touch with God. But these attempts just drive us further
and further away from Him and deeper and deeper into the darkness.
When we lose something, we can’t expect it to
find its way back to us. We must go looking for it, or it remains
lost. If you lose the keys to your house or your car, you look in
all the places where you've been with them to see if you might have
dropped them somewhere. You look under the couch cushions, under
the table, in the drawers, retracing your steps to see if maybe they're
on the floor somewhere. You don't stop until you find them.
If a child wanders away from you, you go immediately in search of him
until you find him, calling in the help of neighbors and police if
necessary.
Just as you go looking for something that's dear to
you when it's lost, so our Lord came looking for you who were lost in
your sins. He still comes looking for you today, seeking to bring
you back to Himself by way of repentance, when you head in the wrong
direction and insist on your own way. That's the way it was in
the case of these tax collectors and sinners. These people were
considered outcasts, sinners, and unclean by the religious leaders,
unworthy of Jesus' presence. They were flagrant and open sinners;
they were lost and they knew it. But Jesus sought them out.
He drew them to Himself with His Word, and with that Word He led them
to repentance. For those who would see repentance as something
you have to do for God in order to get saved, repentance in this
passage is equivalent to being found. It’s not something
you do, but something that God does to you. He finds you; He
brings you to repentance. You don’t go looking for
Him. If you want to take credit for something, take credit for
the fact that you got yourself lost. You wandered away from
God. But He came after you. The Good Shepherd uses His Word
to go after His straying sheep and bring them back to Himself by way of
repentance.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law didn't realize
it, but they, too, were lost. They had been called to be
shepherds of God's people, but they had wandered away from faith in
God’s promises, making His testament to them into a religion of
works. They failed in their responsibilities at shepherding
God’s people and misled them by their teaching. It was
because of this failure that the people wandered away from the Lord and
got lost. But the religious leaders didn’t bother to seek
them out. They were only concerned with their own
self-righteousness. Sure, they would have looked for a lost sheep
that they owned or a lost coin that they had misplaced. These
things mattered to them. When it came to the people of God under
their care, however, they left them to the wolves.
Jesus, on the other hand, is the Good
Shepherd. Unlike these religious leaders who didn’t care
about the sheep, Jesus gave His life for them. He leaves the 99
to search for the one: you and me when we wander off. When
this Shepherd finds a sheep that is lost, it’s hurt and
cut. It’s been chased by wild animals. It’s
been caught in some bush. That was how our Lord found us - beaten
up, bruised by sin, and taken advantage of by false shepherds, false
teachers, false doctrine. False shepherds, or wolves, only want
to abuse the sheep and get something from them. They care nothing
for the sheep. But the Good Shepherd does care for the sheep and
gives His life for them. He comes and pulls us out of the briars
into which we’ve fallen and rescues us. He places us upon
His own shoulders, bearing our burdens until He brings us safely back
home to His fold, where He rejoices with His friends and neighbors (the
heavenly angels and the rest of His Church) that He has found His lost
sheep.
Jesus rescues you by taking your burdens upon His
shoulders, the burdens of sin, death, and the tyranny of the
devil. These burdens He bore for you when He died on the cross
for your constant wandering away from God. Your sins as well as
the wages of those sins - death - were placed upon Him. And He
allowed the wolf of all wolves - the devil - to have Him instead of
you, in order to rescue you from his clutches and bring you back to the
fold. He brings you back home to this fold - the Church - through
the preaching of His Word. Through this Word He works repentance
in your heart, so that you confess your sins and receive His
forgiveness again by faith. The tax collectors and sinners were
being drawn back to God through the preaching of this Word. They
repented at the hearing of God's Word, and the result was that Jesus
welcomed them and ate with them. He along with the angels
rejoiced that these lost sheep of His had been found.
This rejoicing was expressed at a meal. Jesus
has table fellowship with those whom He has found and brought back to
repentance. Just as ordinary meals join us together in fellowship
with one another, the meal of all meals, the Lord's Supper, joins us in
fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ as we partake of His body and
blood together with the other found sheep who partake in this meal with
us. At table with Jesus there is acceptance, friendship,
forgiveness, and peace. It’s not only a meal at which we
celebrate now with the Shepherd who found us, but it’s also a
foretaste of the feast in heaven to come, where there will be much
rejoicing over all those have been brought back to God through the
blood of Christ, the Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep.
God’s will is that all would repent and come
back to their Shepherd as He calls out to them with His Word, so that
they may eat with Him in His kingdom, here in time and hereafter in
eternity. Every single person is important to the Lord.
There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
99 righteous persons who are not in need of repentance. God
Himself and all His angels rejoice over those who repent. But we
might ask, who is not in need of repentance? Everyone is in need
of repentance. We must all be brought to the realization that we
are lost apart from Him, that we cannot help ourselves, that our Good
Shepherd has saved us, and that by His grace we remain in His
fold. But to some, repentance has been granted by God’s
grace, while others reject it. The Pharisees and teachers of the
law had wandered away from the Good Shepherd and had gotten lost, too,
but they didn’t realize it. They refused to believe that
they were in need of repentance, and so they did not repent at the
preaching of the Word of Jesus. As a result, they remained in
their lost condition. The Lord came to rescue them, too, but they
did not want to be rescued. And that is the sad truth about the
work of our Good Shepherd, that when He comes after the lost, many
refuse to be rescued. The Shepherd comes looking for them, but
they don’t want to be found; they insist on remaining lost.
Still others who were repentant at one time wander off and get lost
again. These are also in need of repentance. The 99 sheep
who are not in need of repentance are those who by God’s grace
daily repent of their sin, trust in the forgiveness God gives them in
Jesus, and by His help lead godly lives. They are not in need of
repentance, because they are repentant as God daily works this
repentance in them through His Word and Sacraments. But when we
wander off and get lost by falling into unrepentant sin, then we are
again in need of repentance. Our Good Shepherd then comes after
us with His Word in order to bring us back to repentance, so that we
confess our sin, trust in His forgiveness, and by His help turn from
our sinful behavior and live according to His Word.
The mission of Jesus was and still is to seek and to
save that which is lost. It was His mission while He walked this
earth some 2,000 years ago, and it is the same mission today that He
carries out through His Church. Like the woman who searches for
her lost coin, so the Church lights the lamp of God's Word and sweeps
the house, which is the world, searching for those who are still lost
and in need of repentance. "No one lights a lamp and hides it in
a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so
that those who come in can see the light." Just as Jesus brought
the lost to Himself through His preaching and teaching, so through the
Church He brings the lost back to God through the preaching of His
Word. This is the light we hold out to the lost, the light of the
Gospel that our Good Shepherd laid down His life and took it up again
in order to save us. And by God’s grace, those who are
still in the dark will hear these words and see the light of Christ and
be saved.
See how much the Lord loves you. He loves you
so much that He is unwilling to lose any one of you, whom He has
purchased with His blood. He goes after you when you stray to
bring you back to Himself and rejoices over you when you repent.
Then, He invites you to dine with Him at His table, where He feeds His
sheep on His body and blood. It is only His sheep, those who have
been baptized in His Name, who repent of their sins, and who believe
and confess their Shepherd’s words, who have the right to eat
with Him now and at the feast to come in heaven. Jesus is the
Savior of the lost. Once you were lost, but now you have been
found. The Lord, His Church, and all the angels rejoice over
you. Amen.