“HE RECEIVES YOU SINNERS AND EATS WITH YOU”
Saint Luke 15: 1-10
3rd Sunday After Trinity: 12 June Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
Christ has again drawn you to His side, to hear Him, you, a publican and a sinner. If you are neither than please get up and leave now. But you are “tax-collectors” for you steal and extort from others, you thieve from God most of all. You are sinners for the wages of sin are death. The reason your enemies and adversaries hate you and are at enmity with you is that you are children of Eve, of Mary, of The Church, and the seed of He Who is The Seed, The Fruit, the victorious everlasting Vine…and they are children of their Father Satan—seed of sedition and severing death. The ones that murmur against you say openly that you are hypocrites; that you are unloving; that you are exclusionary. They are correct. Though not an official card-carrying member of Palestine’s 1st century Pharisee party you are hypocrites. Everyone is delusionally two-faced including the ones that want you dead. You are sinners which is good since you’ve acknowledged that fact with repentance, and are here to receive absolution in Word and Body; in Word and Blood.
To shine the light of truth on the sulfurous stench of the devil’s brood, The Light and The Truth speaks a parable of truth. Jesus is Himself the Shepherd who goes after the one lost sheep from a flock of 100 until He finds it. Jesus is the one Who lays it upon His shoulders and brings it home. Jesus rejoices with His family, and with His angels, over the rescue and the Redemption. It is a redemption because it came with a price. No silver or gold coins were used to buy back the lost lamb, but rather the work and effort; the sweat and exertion, the “doing what has to be done” (i.e. Keeping God’s Law inviolate) was worked by The Shepherd. It’s a buy-back because another life was on the “line” in the parable, and in fact, was “given & shed” in the reality to which the parable points. David may have battled wolves and bears when he was a shepherd; Samson may have killed a lion with his bare hands. But Jesus the Pastor, defied the host of hell and allowed the serpent to strike deep into his own sinless flesh to bring back the lost lamb. There is no “community” to rescue in the parable as there is no community that can either share your blame, share your sin, or keep you company in the rescue. It is Jesus and the sinner; Jesus and the publican; Jesus and you—He died for you! [second person singular]
The community comes after the rescue. The baby is carried to the font alone and solitary, a lamb rescued by parents and God-parents, yes, but actually and truly rescued and carried by Christ to the still waters and green pastures to be anointed with His Blood and Word in His Water and Word. Then the family of faith embraces the new born creature—the baptized + little Saint into the Church, the New Testament family and sheepfold of the Savior.
You are that lost coin which has been found by The Church, The Lord’s virgin Bride in His Word of reclamation and restoration spoken and administered by His church as she sweeps diligently (i.e. faithfully) with the Broom of preaching, teaching, catechizing, baptizing, serving Holy Communion, and Absolving!
When you were a coin, which is inanimate, you did not participate in your own “finding.” You did not find The Lord. When you were that one lost lamb of the flock of 100 (the fullness of the elect) you did not decide to believe in the Shepherd—He decided to go after you. But now, in the fold, you rejoice with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven over one sinner “that repenteth.” That one sinner is you. Under the blindingly bright light, not of Jesus’ Transfiguration, but rather of the fire of sin reigning down upon His bruised, swollen, and bloody Body, pinned to the tree; under that torch of passionate suffering and death, under the golden-glow of the “risen” Easter Bread of Life, you were diligently sought for and found. This joy is so great that just proclaiming it, joyous and peace-filled as it is, is not enough. This festive day is so Grace drenched that only a wedding feast can do it proper justice. The justice of The Shepherd slain for the lost lamb restored is at the heart of the drawn family crowd, for that Shepherd is also The Paschal Lamb upon the Holy Altar. The righteousness of He Who is the Groom of His Bride the Church, has found what lost itself, that it, that you, might never again be pried from His pierced palms. There is joy “for you” in His presence.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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