“TRINITY 3 2024”
Saint Luke 15: 1-10
3rd Sunday after Trinity: June 16 Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Who was Jesus talking to? To the “12?” Yes. To the larger group of disciples? Yes. To all the tax-collectors and sinners who had gathered around Him? Most definitely.
Jesus by The Holy Spirit through the pen of Saint Luke is now talking to the whole Church Catholic—to each of you.
Who WAS He talking to—publicans; sinners
Who IS He talking to—publicans; sinners.
They murmured, complained, and grumbled. You, on the other hand, are disciples, and thus while your sinful nature does grumble and resist and daily trespass, you have been found. You are rescued by The Good Shepherd.
“This man, The God/Man, receiveth sinners, you, and eateth with them.”
So, to the hard-hearted unbelieving in the crowd, NOT the tax-collectors and “sinners” He tells a parable. To the self-righteous the Law is applied. And yes, it is also preached unto you—your “old Adam.”
What man has a hundred sheep? The man is The Lord and the sheep are…everyone…the world at large…but for this parable it is the enemies of Messias. It is Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Doctors of The Law, 21st century pagans, heathens, atheists, and agnostics, etc., etc.
The mistake we sometimes make, is that when the “man” leaves the ninety and nine to go after the one which is lost, we think he must be leaving all the saved, the redeemed, the flock or Church of His, safely locked and secured in His sheepfold. And then we think it must be a story of how you all now have to go into all the world doing “mission work” to find the stray; and that you are safe forever more here in Augsburg’s green grass.
Well, I do proclaim that you ARE safe and secure. You are + baptized. You hear the Word of The Lord and thus by The Comforter you repent and believe. You are forgiven and have Peace! Yes.
But hear the text: “…doth leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness!” The wilderness. No one wants to be left in the desert. It is hot. It is a “type of hell” for unbelievers. It is where the enemies of God’s Word, God’s mercy died during the 40 years of Exodus. When one rejects Moses (a “type of Christ”) one rejects Christ. To reject the Son is to reject “Our Father Who are in heaven.”
When Jesus said ‘those who are healthy have no need of a physician’ He was not saying they were healthy but that they thought they were healthy. When He said “but because you say you can ‘see’ means you are still blind.
This parable is all about God doing the searching, the work, the suffering; all to find the one He is searching for.
Yes, it is pure monergistic (one working; God working) Grace.
As the Pharisees and rejecting Jews thought they were safe because they obeyed The Law, because they were “special people” they were damning themselves. The 99 sheep in the wilderness, then and now, “never knew Him,” and will receive His final verdict at the end of time: “depart, for I never knew you.”
A lost quarter laying in the corner of a large room or under the dust of the refrigerator does not find itself. It is inert; it does not choose to be found; it does no works; and its faith is worthless—UNTIL it is located and picked up.
A lost sheep or lamb in the wilderness is likewise dead, impotent, and blind, as the hymn puts it. The shepherd, the “man” in the parable (God), is the Good Shepherd because He/Jesus gives His life for it.
Luke’s 15th chapter is, as Dr. Arthur Just says, the very heart of the 3rd Evangel—the heart indeed of the whole of Scripture. Salvation by Grace. That grace is Jesus laboring, slaving away, and doing/keeping The Word of His heavenly Father perfectly. It is The Grace and Mercy of Jesus suffering and dying on the tree—atoning with His wounded Body, His shed Blood, His dying so that the lost sheep is rescued. That lost sheep is you.
Grace. But how do you know this? How do you daily believe, teach, and confess the one true faith until life everlasting? By faith. The Holy Spirit has given you faith. Faith of itself is totally useless. But faith which like an empty bucket that receives the life-giving water poured into it (that Water is Christ) saves, energizes, and preserves. It is not just water; it is Blood from your Savior’s wounds. You are a fountain filled with blood.
So, worry not about the 99. God will do what God will do. Rejoice this morning that when you were a dead, worse than dead—and enemy; a dead coin, you were carried by The Shepherd to the Baptismal + font. Rejoice that all the times, like a disobedient, rebellious, hypocritical “know-it-all” Pharisee, that you wondered away from Life to get lost in the wilderness, He left everything and came and found you. Rejoice as the little lamb being carried on His shoulders. And yes, stop wiggling and struggling everyday in sins and pettiness. Remember, not only does The Christ STILL have the wounds in His feet, hands, and side, He has the scars on His head and His back. Do not continually scratch Him with your own will—your hoofs should not dig into His wounds. Rather, be the parched lamb that reaches down your head to lick, drink, consume the Blood that once flowed from His sacred Heart. Rejoice today with your friends and neighbors—you are home! There is joy in heaven.
In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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