“JESUS FOUND YOU”
Saint Luke 15: 1-10
3rd Sunday after Trinity: 3 July Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The Lord is surrounded by everyone—not just Pharisees and scribes, who are murmuring, but by publicans and sinners. He is always surrounded by men because He came to save mankind—all of it—that is The Father’s will. Sadly, most of mankind rejects The One in their midst.
Which are you this morning? Which are you most of the time? Are you a scribe? Probably not because you don’t read your Bible enough, or study it. And if you do…then quite likely you’re a Pharisee, a hypocrite. [Ps. 50. 16-17] Or are you a publican? And while not working for the I.R.S. or the State of Kansas’ Department of Revenue you do appropriate money from God’s Kingdom for a lot of personal waste and mammon munching; you do “tax” your neighbor’s patience and God’s too. One thing you all are is “sinners.” On that The Word of God and all Saints must agree.
And thus, here you all are “then drew near unto Him…for to hear Him.” Yes, your enemies murmur against you all…that Jesus receives you sinners and eats with you. And that’s from non-believers who don’t even believe Jesus IS! But also, your own sinful self murmurs. Isn’t that the original sin? Yes, Pride—Satan—but Eve and her mate murmured against God. They complained; they felt resentment; they were itchy and uncomfortable and strait-jacketed by God’s Grace and they wanted to be free. They wanted to be “ME!” They wanted autonomy. They did not want to belong to God. They wanted to be their own god.
Before you became a living stone, a vibrant green branch, a living member of a body, you were a dead, inert, piece of earth—dust. Actually, worse than a clod of rock fit only to pave the floor in hell, you were an active enemy of God.
But The Lord has a “woman” who in His stead and by his command came looking for you. This “woman” is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. This Church, which is simply Jesus active through His “means of Grace,” His preaching/teaching and His washing+feeding, has existed from Genesis to Revelation; from Alpha to Omega.
It is both the original making and creating as well as the buying back, i.e., the finding the lost and liberating it from its deadly prison—restoring that which was The Lord’s.
God knows His own. His possessions are His dear children and His friends. But in their sinful state they can indeed be likened to pieces of silver. His full complement, the total number of the Saved, The Elect, can be likened to the number “10.” For Ten is a number of “completion” and “totality.” This significance is seen in the number of commands in Torah!
When a piece of silver, when a pre-1964 dime or quarter, is dropped, knocked off its place of security, or falls to the ground…it usually bounces into the most obscure and least accessible hidey-hole; it falls into a crack between the floor planks—or whatnot.
No cursory sweep of the eyes will locate a lost coin. It takes searching, action, an agency of intent and desire to locate it. Or, “she light[s] a candle, and sweep[s] the house, and seek[s] diligently till she find[s] it!”
This, first of all, is Salvation—pure and simple. It’s why some, IT’S WHY YOU, belong to Jesus; why you are a Christian; why and HOW you were saved. Jesus through the “woman,” Jesus through The Church, and again, by that I mean, Jesus through His Word and Sacrament searched for you when you were an enemy piece of dirt and found you. You were lost to sin, death, and the power of Satan. Jesus was not lost. The piece of silver did not cooperate in its being found. You before you picked up and cleaned up did absolutely NOTHING. The Church is where you were Baptized. You did not Baptize yourself out in the wilderness or in the palatial mansion of your works. And when Christ cleansed you in that crimson + flood, lo and behold you were no longer a hunk of earth, but a shining bright “piece of silver” belonging to his treasure house of heaven.
And you are not a lone solo solitary piece, or coin, but rather one of a myriad of coins and pearls of great price, filling His mint of Mercy.
So, rejoice with The Lady this fine, forgiveness-filled, morning. Rejoice with The Lady’s representative, Christ’s called and ordained under-shepherd. All neighbors, angels and archangels, have been called together in joy to have a Feast. You “were” lost but Jesus has found you. You have sinned, but Jesus has produced your repentance by His Word given by The Spirit. Jesus has forgiven you. There is so much Peace and Joy!
Parables are all Jesus. Similes, metaphors, figures-of-speech, analogies, and types in the Bible is all Jesus. The Word of God is Jesus: His Person/Identity and His Work—Active Obedience and Passive Obedience.
In the end, its not about us being pieces of silver but rather about Our Lord’s precious and innocent Blood and His Holy, Pure, and sinless Flesh.
The devil’s abortions, foundlings, orphans, unwanted, wandering lambs, prodigals, or lost coins? No, no more. You are the found and forgiven by Christ Jesus!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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