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Brief message for Trinity 3
Micah 7:18-20 + 1 Peter 5:6-11 + Luke 15:1-10
Dear Christian family,
Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I thank God for all of you, that, even in my absence, you have come together this morning to pray, to support one another in bearing the cross, and to encourage one another in the Christian faith and in leading the holy life of love to which God has called us.
On the back of your service folder you have printed the three Scripture readings for today, the Third Sunday after Trinity. I encourage you to read them at home with your families. You’ll hear the prophet Micah express awe at the great mercy and compassion of the God whose outstanding character it is to forgive sins. You’ll hear the Apostle Peter’s encouragement to humble yourselves before this God, because He exalts the humble. He also warns you to watch out for the devil, who is seeking to devour you—to lead you astray from the humble, penitent faith that mourns over sins and trusts in Christ for forgiveness—forgiveness which He alone purchased with His blood shed on the cross for you.
I’ll read today’s Gospel to you from Luke 15 and just make a couple of brief comments on it:
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Notice that the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus. Why? Because He condoned their sins or told them it was OK to sin against God? Not at all! They drew near to Him because they acknowledged their sins. They knew that their sins had earned God’s wrath and punishment for them. But Jesus was revealing to them the same God who revealed Himself in the Old Testament as a God who, as Micah had said, “pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of His people, who does not retain His anger forever, who delights in mercy.” Only now, God was not revealing Himself through a mere prophet. God was revealing Himself in Person—in Jesus, who is God in the flesh.
The tax collectors and sinners found in Jesus a God who doesn’t excuse or permit sin; He condemns it. But at the same time, He Himself volunteered to suffer for it and to be condemned for it in the sinner’s place. That’s how He can welcome sinners who come to Him for mercy. Where Christ is, there God is merciful. And everyone who comes to Him for mercy and healing will receive it. The two short parables Jesus told of the lost sheep and the lost coin picture for us, not only God’s willingness to forgive sinners, but His joy in doing so.
The devil, that prowling lion, will tempt you in two directions here. He’ll tempt you, either to despair of God’s mercy, because your sins are so great, or he’ll tempt you to despise God’s mercy, as the Pharisees did in the Gospel, because you think your sins aren’t so bad after all—while the sins of other people are so bad that they just might be unforgiveable.
Watch out for the devil, on both sides. The last thing he wants is for sinners to acknowledge their transgressions and to draw near to Jesus for mercy. But that’s exactly what God wants: for sinners to repent and draw near to Jesus to be forgiven. In fact, this very Gospel is what brings sinners to do just that.
Remember your Baptism, where Jesus first received and forgave you, the sinner. Remember your Baptism, which still “works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this.” Remember your Baptism, which “indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Peace be with you.
