Sermon by Pastor Steve Estep to go with last week’s Bible Study -- Luke 15:1-10 Title: “Lost and found”
(Printed with permission)
I saw it in the lobby of the elementary school. It usually takes a few months for it to appear but by the end of the year it’s always full. It was mounded up with jackets, hats, gloves, and mittens without mates, sweatshirts and even some shoes. They’d been left somewhere in the school or on the bus by an absent minded kid who had a whole lot on their mind besides keeping track of their stuff. They weren’t old or worn out or worthless by any means. They were just forgotten, and there were a lot of kids who weren’t going to take the time to sort through everything to find what they had lost. So the clothes were piled up into a mound in a container that looked like a cage…Discarded. Forgotten. Lost but not found. Near the end of the year last year, Mr. Erholtz asked me if we could use it and I said the Thrift Store would take it, to let me know if he needed anyone to take it down there. As far as I know that’s where it all ended up. Lost. Thrown into a cage. Taken away.
The table where Jesus sat in Luke 15 must have looked like a cage of forgotten people. They’d been discarded, left alone, and to use language that is both literal and spiritual, they were lost. Lost souls without a home and as far as they knew, no one was looking for them. That is, until Jesus showed up. He was a lot different than any other religious person they’d ever been around. He was fun. He didn’t ignore them. He didn’t put on any masks or take on any new tones whether he was talking to them or talking to God. There was something refreshing about him. Something that made them want to be where He was. He wasn’t repulsed by them and they sensed that. In fact Jesus didn’t just tolerate being around them, he made it a point to be with them, on purpose. He invited them to be where He was.
Around Jesus’ table sat an assortment of sinners, the equivalent of a Baskin Robbins of broken humanity that was as flavorful as it was colorful. Yet all of them were drawn to Jesus. They were interested in what He had to say. When He spoke it was if he could read not just their minds, but their hearts. He connected with them. He cared about them. When they were with Jesus, they felt like they really mattered. Who wouldn’t be drawn to someone like that? Every person I know wants that too – to know that they really matter, that they’re worth something, that they are worth finding.
It was an interesting bunch sitting around Jesus’ table. Tax collectors, prostitutes, con men. One of them was probably Levi, or Matthew. He had been a tax collector too. I think it’s not too far fetched to imagine that he knew some of those who were at the table that day, and even more than that, that he had invited a couple of them to be there. Matthew had a great story. His life had been a mess. He made a living cheating people. He was a traitor who sided with Roman government to make a buck. He alienated himself from folks by taking advantage of them. While he didn’t have a lot of friends, he did have a lot of cash. But it wasn’t enough, and it wasn’t going to be enough no matter how much He got. And He knew it. Possessions can only take a person so far, satisfy so much. In the end there’s really no substitute for really living, no matter how much money a person has. Matthew knew the emptiness this cage of humanity that surrounded him was feeling because he had felt it too.
He knew what it was like to do life in the cage of the lost, wanting more but not knowing where to get it. Hungry for God and not knowing it. Wanting to be found but not knowing how. It all changed for him when Jesus showed up one day right where he was. Jesus is like that. He tends to show up right where people are, right where people need Him, and right when we are ready to respond to Him. Whether it’s a tax booth, toll booth, house, office, car, restaurant, grocery store, construction site, chapel or church, He always seems to show up where people need Him.
Jesus had invited Matthew too. Not just to dinner, but to life, and it was an invitation Matthew had accepted. He left the old way of life behind – totally. He walked toward Jesus and when he did he walked away from sin. In one day his life totally changed directions and what was old was made new, what was dead came alive. It really is possible for that to happen, you know. Life can change in one day, in one encounter. One invitation from Jesus to walk with Him can make all the difference in the world. It did for Matthew, and if he was going to have anything to say or do about it, some of his friends were going to experience it too. It is that way when you get found. When a person goes from being lost to being found, that’s not the kind of thing you keep to yourself.
Matthew might have been at the table, but the Pharisees would have been looking at the table, keeping their distance, not getting too close. They had their own ideas about what should be done with the riff-raff around Jesus’ table. They needed to be lost. Thrown into a cage. Taken away. They were unclean and needed to be avoided. You can’t stay clean running around with filth. Purity has to be protected. Sinners are to be avoided.
But Jesus didn’t avoid or ignore the sinners to maintain His purity. Apparently He didn’t think their sin was a threat to His holiness and He jumped into the cage with them, which was something the Pharisees totally didn’t get. I can see where they were coming from. Who of us hasn’t said to our kids, “Be careful who you hang around with because birds of a feather flock together.” The truth is, while we may find it easy to see the faults of the Pharisees, there’s probably a little Pharisee in all of us. Some sizes and shapes of lost are better left in the cage. The folks who were at the party but not part of it, the religious people, they murmured. They grumbled under their breath. They complained about Jesus sitting at a table with sinners, and in response to their high-brow belittling, Jesus said, “Let me tell you a story” this is where we find Luke 15: 1-10.
I think I can see Matthew nudging his lost friend about right here. “That’s what I’ve been telling you. I was a lost sheep and He came looking for me. It’s a great life, this being found. In fact it’s why He came. He’s still looking. He doesn’t walk by the cage of lost humanity and keep going, He jumps right into it. Jesus doesn’t see any of us, not one of us as worthless. He wants us all to be found, even the Pharisees. The way He goes about it is a lot different than anything we’ve ever seen before, but it sure makes you want to be found doesn’t it?”
While the Pharisees are grumbling and Matthew is praying for his friend, and His friend is contemplating the biggest move of his entire life, Jesus is on to another story just to make sure that if they didn’t get it the first time they get it now.
God is the kind of God who goes looking for lost people, because He values them – He values us. God is the Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, the woman who tears up the house looking for her lost coin, the Father who welcomes a lost son with open arms. He’s the Creator who jumps into the cage of the lost and joins us where we are so that we might be able to join Him where He is. And He’s the kind of God who sees to it that when lost folks like us get found, there’s always a party.
That’s what it’s like in the Kingdom. It’s a party. It’s a celebration every time a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son or daughter gets found. The Father says “strike up the band, get the food on the table, tell the angels to start dancing because there’s going to be a party!” There was a party when Matthew who was lost, got found. There was a party when … who was lost got found. There was a party when… who was lost got found. And maybe, just maybe today heaven itself is waiting to spread the table, start the music, and get it started again for someone right here who came in lost, but is going to go out having been found.
When the story we’ve just heard starts, it starts with Jesus at a table with a bunch of sinners. One of the things that got him on the bad side of the religious people was that he ate with, fellowshipped with, entered into relationships with sinful people. According to their way of thinking, eating with these folks was the same as condoning what they did. I can see that I guess. But there was more going on than eating at this table. Jesus was sending everyone there a message. It wasn’t a message that said He was OK with sin, but it was a message that said He wasn’t going to wait for the sinners to get all cleaned up before He was willing to sit down and talk with them. I guess in some ways the Table (Pastor walks to the church’s communion table) here is supposed to look like the table there. If all we have is the already found around the table, then we’ve been guilty of walking past the cage that Jesus jumped into. I think pretty much every time we get together there ought to be sinners pulling up to the table. Lost sheep invited by found sheep who are interested in what this Jesus has to say, this pure and holy Jesus who welcomes sinners and forgives sins. The Jesus in our story from Luke is the same Jesus who is here right now. I think He’s interested in having people like us in places like this pull up a chair at His table and enjoy His company. We may even find ourselves sitting right beside someone who is the cause of a party in heaven this very day. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Amen.
