Luke 15:1-10
Trinity 3
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spriit ✠
There is a show that was on Discovery Channel called “Dirty Jobs.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. The guy who hosts the show joins people doing all sorts of stinky, nasty, gross jobs such as cleaning out the inside of septic tanks or pig farming or sifting through garbage. No matter what the job, the guy always tries it out. No matter how dirty or smelly or disgusting, there he is with his camera crew experiencing some “dirty job.”
In today’s OT reading, the prophet Micah asks “Who is a God like our God, who pardons iniquities and . . . tramples them underfoot?” Most gods you hear about won’t have anything to do with the nitty gritty details of this earth and its people. Most religions are all about trying to figure out how to escape the septic tank and get back to a clean and holy God. But not so with our God! Not the true God! The Lord is not afraid to come down here Himself, in the flesh, into the filth of our sins and transgressions and iniquities. Jesus doesn’t shy away from the grime of our sins but comes right into the midst of it. Far worse than cleaning a septic tank, the “dirty job” that Jesus does is to enter a world covered in the stench and slime of sin to save the very sinners who made this disgusting mess! Jesus, true God and true man, comes into this world uninvited, unasked for, to glop around and be covered in the foulness of our sin and then to wash it all away by the blood of the cross. Jesus comes to save this sinful, decomposing world by taking all the mess onto Himself and dying on the cross. There is no other God or human being who does that. Buddha didn’t do it. Mohammed didn’t do it. Moses doesn’t do it. Only the true Son of God comes in the flesh to this dirty world to save us from our sins.
Just as the shepherd goes mucking around through the undergrowth looking for that lost sheep, so Jesus comes to save sinners. But you’ll notice, He’s not here to save those who aren’t sinners. He’s only looking for sinners. After all, those who aren’t sinners don’t need a Savior, do they? Jesus comes for the lost sheep, and heaven rejoices over that one repentant sinner more than the 99 who need no repentance.
But you might be saying, “Wait a second! Aren't all people sinners? Doesn’t everyone need repentance?” Well, the Bible certainly says so. But most people actually don’t think so. Sure, most everyone will admit that they’re not perfect and could probably do a little better. But notice how usually sin gets reduced to “bad choices” or “just the way I’m wired” or “a bad habit that I’m working on.” Few think that they deserve temporal and eternal punishment, as our confession says. However, those who are sinners know that it’s true–that they don't love and trust in God as they should, or love their neighbor as themselves, that they tend to put themselves first and sometimes even despise others. Those who are sinners know that they have nothing going for them except God’s mercy in Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, those who “have no need of repentance” are those who don’t think they’re really such bad people when it comes right down to it. They’re confident they’ve got God figured out and are pretty good at doing what He says. Those who have no need of repentance are those who virtue signal and do good to impress others and are quick to condemn those who aren’t quite as good as they are. They say, “Well sure, I’ve made a few mistakes, but I try my best to live a good life.” Those who have no need of repentance are those who don't really believe that their sins are bad enough that the Son of God has to die for them. They trust in themselves and don’t seek or desire Jesus’ help. And so they’ll be on their own on the Last Day.
Those who are sinners and know it crowd around Jesus to hear Him and His Word. But those who supposedly have no need of repentance complain that Jesus receives and eats with such people. On another occasion, the Pharisees were grumbling about this same thing. And Jesus said: “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to repentance.” Jesus doesn’t tell those sick with sin to keep their distance, lest He become infected. The Great Physician came precisely to overcome that distance, to call them to repentance for the forgiveness of their sins, which He would bear in His own body. He Himself is the Cure.
And please also be sure to note this: Jesus did not come to condone sin or approve of sin. He didn’t come just to pat us on our heads and say that we’re fine just the way we are. Rather, He came to rescue us from what we are as fallen human beings. He came to get into the slimy pit that we’ve fallen into in order to lift us up and out to a new life. This is the problem with so much of what passes for tolerance and love today: people think they’re being loving by saying sinful behavior isn’t sinful. But that’s really the opposite of love. For if they deny the sin, they are also denying the need for the forgiveness of sins, right? And to deny the forgiveness of sins is to deny Jesus who purchased that forgiveness with His blood. The truly loving thing to do is to acknowledge the sin-cancer and the uncleanness for what it is so that the Great Physician can do His healing, cleansing work. Jesus doesn’t come to us saying, “It’s OK; no big deal.” Instead He says, “I still love you; I forgive you; I take your sin away.”
Jesus calls us all to repentance. Repentance means doing a one-eighty, away from the way of death to the way of life in Christ. It means that the Spirit, by the preaching of the Word, turns you away from your sins to faith and trust in Christ. Repentance is something that the Lord works in you by His Word. You can’t repent on your own. You can’t just decide to turn away from your sins. Rather, Christ Himself calls you out from your sins by His Word. Sheep wander away. Coins roll under the dresser and lay there. In both cases it takes the shepherd or the woman to find that sheep or coin. In the same way, it is the Lord who must come to us in our sins and die for them on the cross. It is the Lord who must come to us through the water and Word of the font. It is Christ who seeks us out and calls us back to Himself by the preaching of the Gospel and the speaking of holy absolution. It is Christ who draws us to His table to eat and drink His body and blood. These things are His gifts for sinners. Those who supposedly have no need of repentance have no need for any of these things. They may as well stay away. But you, if you have nothing going for you but Jesus, do like those tax collectors and sinners: come to hear Jesus. Live in your baptism, daily drowning the old Adam with all sins and evil desires, and rise as a new man to the new life which you have in Christ. To live in your baptism is simply to believe the truth that Micah preached: The Lord has trampled all your iniquities underfoot. He casts all your sins into the depths of the sea.
So this Gospel reading is not just for those who have wandered away from church, the straying sheep of our families and our friends and our members that aren’t here. It applies to us all. The danger is the same, namely that we stop thinking of ourselves as sinners desperately needing a Savior. *That is the real reason why people stop coming to church.* They think they’ve got their spiritual lives handled without Jesus’ preaching and the Sacrament. They think they’re beyond needing to be ministered to with Christ’s Word. They think their efforts at good living are better than all the churchgoing hypocrites anyway. And that is precisely the temptation we all are faced with–to think that our good living is the key rather than Jesus’ good living and dying and rising again for us. We never stop needing the holy medicine He freely gives in this hospital called the Church.
So listen carefully. If you think you have need of repentance, then repent of that! Turn away from such foolishness! Despair of your self-satisfied pride! But, if you are a sinner, then rejoice! If you are one who has nothing to persuade God of how great you are; if you are pretty sure that your life is the septic tank God should plug His nose at and avoid, then rejoice! For Christ Jesus came into the world to save such sinners as you and me. It is for such sinners that Jesus slogged through the filth and the muck and was nailed to the cross. It is for you that Jesus has given His life and rescued you by His words and sacraments.
This is the dirty job that Jesus does. He takes upon Himself the mess of our sin, so that we may take up and wear the garment of His righteousness. No other "god" would do that. But the true God does. It is no wonder when the tax collectors and sinners heard of this that they ran to Jesus and congregated around Him. He spoke pardon for their sins. He spoke peace to their hearts. And so it is also with you. Jesus has sought you out and found you and pardoned you. Jesus has scoured the earth for you by the Word of His Gospel, and He possesses you in faith. Jesus even dines with you today. Come to His table and feed on His holy body and blood in faith, knowing that there is joy in heaven over you. Draw near to Jesus knowing that He receives you with His grace and mercy. You are the lost sheep and Jesus Christ has found you. You are the lost coin and Jesus has recovered you. And so today, too, there is joy in the presence of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.
✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to the Rev. Mark Beutow)