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You hear a lot in the Gospels about the Pharisees.
In the Gospels, the Pharisees usually come across as being in opposition to Jesus, but Jesus actually spent a lot of time with them. The fact that Jesus spent a lot of time hanging out with "tax collectors and sinners" gets a lot of notice in the Gospels, mostly because the Pharisees complained about it a lot. Read carefully, though, and you find out that Jesus spent a lot of time hanging out with Pharisees too. Nobody complained about that. It was socially acceptable to visit the homes of Pharisees and share meals with them.
In many ways, the Pharisees were the "good church folk" of Jesus' day. It was generally understood that if anybody in town was right with God, it was the Pharisees.
In both the Gospel passages today, Jesus is talking with Pharisees. When you listen, I invite you-just for today-to substitute the phrase "good church folk" in your mind every time you hear the word "Pharisees."
Read Luke 14:1-14 and Luke 15:1-7.
Listen closely to the first two and a half verses of Luke 15: Now the tax collectors and 'sinners' were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees [the good church folk] and the teachers of the law [the pastors maybe?] muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable. (Luke 15:1-3a)
"Jesus told them this parable." Who are "them"? "Them" probably includes the tax collectors and 'sinners' who were gathering all around Jesus. "Them" definitely includes the Pharisees and the teachers of the law-the good church folk and the pastors-who were muttering.
I wasn't planning to preach on Luke 15 again this week.
Thursday evening I was praying with some of Calvary's faithful prayer warriors for the Lighthouse Outreach Prayer Ministry. Someone else was praying out loud, and I was focusing on joining my sister in her prayer-really, I was! Suddenly my imagination went a little wild, and I got a mental picture of the Luke 15 parable about the sheep. In my imagination, I saw the ninety-nine sheep who had been left behind. They were just grazing away, completely oblivious to the fact that the shepherd was gone. Finally one of them looks up and nudges the sheep next to him. "Hey! Where's the shepherd?" "Huh? I don't know. Do you know? I don't know." "I don't know either. Where did he go?" "I don't know. Do you know? I don't know."
The text wasn't ready to let me go, so I'm preaching on it again.
The "tax collectors and sinners" in the crowd that day knew they were not right with God. They knew they were in need of something miraculous to happen in their lives to make them right with God, because there was no way they could make it happen themselves. They knew they desperately needed forgiveness, and they knew without a doubt that they did not deserve forgiveness.
The "tax collectors and sinners" in the crowd that day knew what the parable was saying to them. They identified immediately with the lost sheep. They heard Jesus tell them that they were not forgotten by God, that they were not despised by God, that they were not rejected by God. They heard Jesus tell them that God himself was on the lookout for them. They heard Jesus tell them that God desired with great passion, and with great compassion, to bring them into his embrace and to call them his sons and daughters. They heard Jesus tell them that the more lost they were, the more passionately God was searching for them.
What about the Pharisees? They had no reason to identify with the lost sheep in the parable. They had worked hard their whole lives to be right before God. They did not consider themselves lost. If they heard themselves in this parable at all, they heard themselves as the ninety-nine.
Last week it was on my heart that there was somebody here who identified with the lost sheep. I didn't know who it was, but I figured if they were there they knew who they were and the Holy Spirit knew who they were. I don't always get to hear how the Holy Spirit is working on people while I'm preaching, but last week by the grace of God I got to hear a little bit about it. When that happens, it's very, very cool. It turns out they knew who they were, and the Holy Spirit knew who they were, and they heard the good news for lost sheep.
The reality, though, is that most of us here don't readily identify with the lost sheep in that parable. Most of us, honestly, more readily identify with the ninety-nine.
I am convinced that this parable is full of good news for the ninety-nine. But this parable also has some challenging news for the ninety-nine. We have to hear the challenging news before we can be ready to hear the good news.
Throughout the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus encounters "tax collectors and sinners" he shares with them the good news of God's grace. The good news of God's grace is no different for Pharisees. But when Jesus is with Pharisees, he usually shares with them some challenging news of who they really are, along with the good news of God's grace.
In Luke 18, Jesus tells the challenging news in a very direct way:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance, he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)
The challenging news of the parable of the lost sheep for the ninety-nine is this: get over yourselves. Or, to state it personally, the challenging news of this parable for me is this: Chris, get over yourself.
The ninety-nine face at least two terrible temptations. One is that the ninety-nine are invariably going to be tempted, at some point or another, to conclude that they are especially beloved of the Shepherd. Another is that the ninety-nine are invariably going to be tempted, at some point or another, to think that they deserve to be one of the ninety-nine, that they have done or are doing the right things to belong in the pasture.
Now, the ninety-nine may or may not fall hook, line, and sinker for these temptations, but the temptations are going to be there. The ninety-nine may not even realize when the temptations start to win them over. They may keep saying the right things to others and to themselves, even as these ideas begin to take root in their hearts, subtly and, at first, invisibly. The ninety-nine may learn to be on guard against these temptations, but the temptations are going to be there.
The challenging news of the parable of the lost sheep for the ninety-nine is that you are not more special to the Shepherd than the one who is lost. So you're in the pasture. That's good. That's wonderful. But the Shepherd's heart is breaking over the one who is lost. The Shepherd is not confined to the bounds of the pasture; he is out searching passionately and compassionately for the one who is lost.
The challenging news of the parable of the lost sheep for the ninety-nine is that you are not in the pasture because you did the right things and you are not staying in the pasture because you are doing the right things. You are in the pasture for one reason and one reason only. At some point or another, the Shepherd found you in the wilderness, picked you up and put you on his shoulders, and carried you to the pasture.
Some of us know that truth deep down in the center of our gut and will never ever forget it. Because when the Shepherd found us, the wilderness we were in was dark and cold and scary and lonely and awful.
Some of us need to keep hearing that reminder. Because we were so young when the Shepherd brought us into the pasture, or because the wilderness we were in at the time was actually kind of pretty. Some of us need to be reminded that we are only in the pasture because we have been rescued from the wilderness.
Sinners are like rodents. The Bible talks a lot about sheep, but for right now I want you to think about rodents. (By the way, I didn't think this up myself. I'm borrowing this imagery from another pastor.)
Sinners are like rodents. Some are rats, and some are squirrels. (My apologies to those of you who know something about cute, cuddly, clean pet rats. The rats I'm talking about here are not pet rats; they're the other kind.)
Sinners are like rodents. Some sinners are rats-they are just plain ugly; they have long skinny tails and beady little eyes; and they live in the sewers. Some sinners are like squirrels-they're cute; they have big bushy tails and cheeks stuffed with nuts.
The rats couldn't name the Ten Commandments if they tried, but they've broken most of them already and it's just a matter of time for the others. The rats are generally not welcome in polite society.
The squirrels are polite society. They aren't perfect, but they try hard to keep the big Ten. There might have been a few slip-ups here and there, but those can mostly be attributed to youthful indiscretion. Squirrels are sinners too, but they are a whole lot better looking than rats.
I have a question for each of you. I don't want you to answer out loud, but I want you to answer to yourself as truthfully as you can. Some of you know the "right" answer to this question. You've already looked in the back of the book, and you know what the Bible says is the answer. Don't give the "right" answer. Give the honest answer, as best you can.
Do you feel like a rat or a squirrel? Don't think about that question for anybody else, just for you. Do you feel like a rat or a squirrel?
One of the vocational hazards of being a pastor is that it can be increasingly tempting to see yourself as a squirrel. Encouraging words from parishioners are one of the things that give me energy to keep on going. I love hearing encouraging words. But the danger of all those encouraging words-great sermon, pastor; the Spirit really touched me through your words, pastor; thanks for being here, pastor-is that I might start believing them. I'm tempted to begin to think I might be just a little bit special to God. I'm tempted to begin to think I'm in the pasture because I do a few things right now and then. I'm tempted to begin to see myself as a squirrel-not perfect, exactly, but more of a cute sinner than an ugly sinner.
Maybe I'm the only one here who ever faces those temptations. Maybe not.
Here's the truth of scripture. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) In the eyes of God, there are no squirrels; there are only rats.
This is not bad news. It's not the good news either, but it is the prelude to the good news. Because until you realize that you are a rat, you are not quite ready to hear the astounding good news that God is not an exterminator!
Listen to the whole sentence from Romans: This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)
God is not in the business of rejecting rats. God is in the business of redeeming rats. God is in the business of searching for those who are lost and making them found.
What is the only significant difference between the ninety-nine and one? The ninety-nine are not in the pasture because they are more righteous. They are not in the pasture because they are more special to God. They have not earned their way into the pasture. The only significant difference between the ninety-nine and the one is that the ninety-nine are found and the one is still lost.
God is in the business of finding, picking up, transforming, and carrying into the community of the pasture. God is in the business of rescuing those in need of rescue. That's the good news of God's grace.
Those who know they are desperately in need of God's grace and who know they don't remotely deserve it-those who know they are rats-need to hear the good news and be invited to receive it with joy.
Those who are tempted to think they are squirrels-those who do not feel desperately in need of God's grace, those who sometimes forget that they don't remotely deserve it-you know, we good church folk-sometimes need to be reminded of the challenging news first so that then we can receive the good news with unrestrained joy.
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