Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 11, 2016
Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C, Psalm 51:1-10, Luke 15:1-32
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who waits for you to come back to him. Amen.
When you drive down streets and drive ways, you often see interesting church signs beside the road and it makes you laugh and sometimes ponder. Here are some examples.
Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C, Psalm 51:1-10, Luke 15:1-32
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who waits for you to come back to him. Amen.
When you drive down streets and drive ways, you often see interesting church signs beside the road and it makes you laugh and sometimes ponder. Here are some examples.
These remind us that we Christians tend to draw lines and divide people into our own agenda. Why do we judge and bare hatred toward people according to our own righteousness? When we read the Bible, we would find that this is not just our problems in this age but there were the same people like us and same issues in Jesus’ time.
Today’s lesson tells us that Pharisees and the teachers of the law came to Jesus to watch him eating with the sinners and tax collectors. And they grumbled and hated to see Jesus mingling with those who were so called unclean. The Jewish leaders already labeled them as sinners and they had nothing to do with them. Once they were labeled as the sinners and the unclean, there was nothing that they could do to change their title and status. As a third person who reads this story after 2000 years, we may easily criticize these Jewish religious leaders, but if we try to put ourselves in their shoes, we might have a better understanding on why they were so intolerant and judgmental. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders were famous for observing the law of God perfectly. They committed themselves to seek God diligently to keep the law that Jesus even told to the disciples, “I tell you that you must do better than the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. If you are not better than they are, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) By telling this, Jesus acknowledged the religious leaders’ passion for the law. This is one of the reasons why they might have believed that they were more righteous than others.
First, we could think about their image of God in their belief system. The image of God that they had must have been the righteous God who separates evil from good. Because they had the image of God the Judge who does not accept sinfulness and condemn the sinners, the Pharisees separated themselves and stayed away from the sinners in order to protect themselves from sin. In other words, they were trying to keep themselves holy before God because, as you know, holiness means to set apart. They believed that their faith toward God kept them separate from the sources that defiled them before God. For this reason, they didn’t allow the sinners to touch them and they didn’t even sit and talk with them.
But how did Jesus react to the Pharisees’ faith? Do you remember the church signs that we saw a while ago? Jesus was trying to teach them something similar to what we just saw from the church signs. Jesus told the people these three famous parables to correct the biased image of God that they carried.
First story is a shepherd who was looking for a lost sheep, leaving behind the ninety-nine in an open field. He rejoiced and threw a party with his friends after he had found the sheep. The second story is about a woman who was looking for a lost silver coin out of 10 coins, lighting the house and sweeping the floor until she found it. And the last story is about a lost son who asked his father to give him his share of the estate and left home to enjoy his life at a foreign country. But this time, it is quite different from the previous stories. The story doesn’t tell us that the father actively looked for his lost son like the previous two stories. Instead, the father waited and waited until his son returned to him. We can guess that the father searched for him for a long time but finally decided to wait on his son to come back.
But these three important stories are telling us about God: how God reacts to us, the lost ones. God actively takes actions to find us and have us back on track when we, each one of us, get lost in our way of our life. Just like the shepherd, God’s thoughts and concerns are facing the one lost sinner out of 99 righteous men. Just like the woman who lost the coin, God never gives up until the lost one is found. Do you know why the silver coin was so important to the woman? The ten silver coins refer to a piece of jewelry with ten silver coins on it which was worn by brides. This was equivalent to a wedding ring in modern times. Therefore, when she found it, she rejoiced and threw a party with her friends. When jewelry became complete with ten silver coins, its value was restored as jewelry. Just like this, when one lost soul is found, it completes the whole Kingdom of God. And lastly, just like the loving and forgiving father, God pitifully and endlessly awaits for God’s child to confess the sins and come back to the Father’s arms. And when the lost one has returned, God rejoices with many saints and angels in Heaven. Imagine that there will be a big celebration and party in heaven when one sinner repents and returns to God. The expectation of such joy kept Jesus associating and spending time with the sinners.
Jesus is also telling us that we as Christians, the disciples of Jesus, should go out and diligently look for the lost “sheep” and missing “coin.” But recovering a lost sinner may require diligent effort. But the effort is worth it when the lost is found. We should know that God is diligently looking for the sinners. Jesus was making his point that you, the followers of God, should also make every effort to engage in the search for sinners with God rather than judging, separating, and condemning them. Jesus was changing their image and notion about God who is the good shepherd and the loving father to the lost ones. Take a look around. We were all once the lost sheep and the missing coin. We don’t have the right to judge who is sinner or not, because we all are still sinners and commit countless sins every day. But Jesus loves us no matter what we did in the past and present and no matter who we are. So let us love and forgive one another with the mind and spirit of Jesus who rejoices and welcomes all who come to him.
Until now, we talked about God who calls and diligently searches for all sinners. Now then, let us shift the focus to us. What should we do to go back from the “lost state” to the “found state”? If God is diligently seeking for us on God’s part, then what is it that God expects us to do on our part? That is confession and repentance. The lost son’s story tells us the detailed steps of confession and how we could return to God. The steps are realization, humility, and action.
The second son wasted his resources which his father gave him and he was soon in need to survive. What is worse was that there was a famine in the country. So he ended up being barely hired to feed the pigs which was a great dishonor for a Jew. Now he was working for a Gentile and taking care of the pigs, but he still did not have anything to eat. Not even the pods for the pigs were allowed for him to eat. He was more unfortunate than the pigs were.
This describes the lost state of a sinner. The son reflected on his condition and realized that all of his father’s servants are treated far better than him. Thus, the sinner discovers where the sin has brought oneself into. So the first step in repentance is to realize that we are in a desperate state and admit how far away we are from God. The son thought in his mind that he would confess his sins before his father by saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your servants.” This is well elaborated to express the humility of the lost one. So the second step in repentance is lowering ourselves before God and acknowledging that we need God’s mercy desperately.
Then what did the son do next? He got up and walked the long way toward home. He was probably suffering from the regrets and shames that came to his mind and he might have hesitated a thousand times on his way. But he did not stop there. He persisted with his walk and he was finally starting to see his father’s house from far away. So the third step in repentance is taking action and returning to God. The most essential factor of repentance is to change. Repentance is of course confessing to God, but without any change in our lives, it is not a complete repentance. The true repentance is confessing, asking for forgiveness and not doing or at least trying our best not to do the things that we consider to be sins.
Here is a very touching moment in verse 20; it tells us, “While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.” ‘While the son was still a long way off…,’ the father recognized his son from far away. We can guess that the father came out and was waiting for his son every day and every moment fixing his eyes on the outside of the village. The son’s appearance might have been very different than when he first left home. He was probably much skinnier and dirtier wearing almost nothing for his body. But the father recognized him right away because he always longed for his son to come back and he had never forgotten his son.
‘The son was still a long way off…’ This reminds us that God the father has already forgiven us at the point where we have yet to completely repent and change. This means that God comes to us running with His bare feet, accepts us and rejoices for our return at the point of our realization and decision to return to God.
Jesus is telling us through this story that if you have ever committed sins and have gone different way, you must come back. And God promises us by saying, “You will meet me on the way coming back, since I have been following you and waiting on you wherever you went. Even when you think that it’s too late to repent, don’t be discouraged or disappointed. You must come back any time. I will be right there where you got lost, waiting for you.”
The similarity in the three stories is the joy of the owners when they found the lost one. And they didn’t just enjoy it alone but invited their neighbors and friends and shared the joy with them. And this joy was the feeling that Jesus had when he was telling these stories in front of the Pharisees and religious leaders. Then, why was Jesus so happy when he was surrounded by the sinners? It was because the broken relationship between God and the sinners had been restored through the act of repentance.
Sin disconnects all relationships. See, the sheep took to the wilderness by itself because the sheep wanted to go on its own way and ignore the lead of the shepherd. Then, it no longer becomes a shepherd-sheep relationship. Similarly, when the second son asked his father for his inheritance and went far away from his father, their father-son relationship had already been disconnected. Hence, how precious is this son to realize his sins and return to his father? Could a father be happier than having his broken relationship restored with his precious son? This is how much weight and meaning a confession and repentance have. God is more pleased with our confessing heart than our worship. And God is more pleased with our repenting heart than our offerings.
God dearly longs for us to turn ourselves to God. This is why it is so important and necessary for us to reflect on our actions and words carefully every time and always be cautious that we don’t move any further away from God.
Now let us look back to the church signs. Yes, we are doing something wrong if we look for the sins from others, and also if we focus on finding out and judging others who is sinner or not. If you have thought for a second during the sermon that this does not apply to you, remember that that itself shows pride inside us. Jesus is teaching us to turn our fingers back to ourselves and count our own sins that brought us far from God.
So let us come back to God, all of us, you, the second sons, the lost ones.
Today’s lesson tells us that Pharisees and the teachers of the law came to Jesus to watch him eating with the sinners and tax collectors. And they grumbled and hated to see Jesus mingling with those who were so called unclean. The Jewish leaders already labeled them as sinners and they had nothing to do with them. Once they were labeled as the sinners and the unclean, there was nothing that they could do to change their title and status. As a third person who reads this story after 2000 years, we may easily criticize these Jewish religious leaders, but if we try to put ourselves in their shoes, we might have a better understanding on why they were so intolerant and judgmental. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders were famous for observing the law of God perfectly. They committed themselves to seek God diligently to keep the law that Jesus even told to the disciples, “I tell you that you must do better than the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. If you are not better than they are, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) By telling this, Jesus acknowledged the religious leaders’ passion for the law. This is one of the reasons why they might have believed that they were more righteous than others.
First, we could think about their image of God in their belief system. The image of God that they had must have been the righteous God who separates evil from good. Because they had the image of God the Judge who does not accept sinfulness and condemn the sinners, the Pharisees separated themselves and stayed away from the sinners in order to protect themselves from sin. In other words, they were trying to keep themselves holy before God because, as you know, holiness means to set apart. They believed that their faith toward God kept them separate from the sources that defiled them before God. For this reason, they didn’t allow the sinners to touch them and they didn’t even sit and talk with them.
But how did Jesus react to the Pharisees’ faith? Do you remember the church signs that we saw a while ago? Jesus was trying to teach them something similar to what we just saw from the church signs. Jesus told the people these three famous parables to correct the biased image of God that they carried.
First story is a shepherd who was looking for a lost sheep, leaving behind the ninety-nine in an open field. He rejoiced and threw a party with his friends after he had found the sheep. The second story is about a woman who was looking for a lost silver coin out of 10 coins, lighting the house and sweeping the floor until she found it. And the last story is about a lost son who asked his father to give him his share of the estate and left home to enjoy his life at a foreign country. But this time, it is quite different from the previous stories. The story doesn’t tell us that the father actively looked for his lost son like the previous two stories. Instead, the father waited and waited until his son returned to him. We can guess that the father searched for him for a long time but finally decided to wait on his son to come back.
But these three important stories are telling us about God: how God reacts to us, the lost ones. God actively takes actions to find us and have us back on track when we, each one of us, get lost in our way of our life. Just like the shepherd, God’s thoughts and concerns are facing the one lost sinner out of 99 righteous men. Just like the woman who lost the coin, God never gives up until the lost one is found. Do you know why the silver coin was so important to the woman? The ten silver coins refer to a piece of jewelry with ten silver coins on it which was worn by brides. This was equivalent to a wedding ring in modern times. Therefore, when she found it, she rejoiced and threw a party with her friends. When jewelry became complete with ten silver coins, its value was restored as jewelry. Just like this, when one lost soul is found, it completes the whole Kingdom of God. And lastly, just like the loving and forgiving father, God pitifully and endlessly awaits for God’s child to confess the sins and come back to the Father’s arms. And when the lost one has returned, God rejoices with many saints and angels in Heaven. Imagine that there will be a big celebration and party in heaven when one sinner repents and returns to God. The expectation of such joy kept Jesus associating and spending time with the sinners.
Jesus is also telling us that we as Christians, the disciples of Jesus, should go out and diligently look for the lost “sheep” and missing “coin.” But recovering a lost sinner may require diligent effort. But the effort is worth it when the lost is found. We should know that God is diligently looking for the sinners. Jesus was making his point that you, the followers of God, should also make every effort to engage in the search for sinners with God rather than judging, separating, and condemning them. Jesus was changing their image and notion about God who is the good shepherd and the loving father to the lost ones. Take a look around. We were all once the lost sheep and the missing coin. We don’t have the right to judge who is sinner or not, because we all are still sinners and commit countless sins every day. But Jesus loves us no matter what we did in the past and present and no matter who we are. So let us love and forgive one another with the mind and spirit of Jesus who rejoices and welcomes all who come to him.
Until now, we talked about God who calls and diligently searches for all sinners. Now then, let us shift the focus to us. What should we do to go back from the “lost state” to the “found state”? If God is diligently seeking for us on God’s part, then what is it that God expects us to do on our part? That is confession and repentance. The lost son’s story tells us the detailed steps of confession and how we could return to God. The steps are realization, humility, and action.
The second son wasted his resources which his father gave him and he was soon in need to survive. What is worse was that there was a famine in the country. So he ended up being barely hired to feed the pigs which was a great dishonor for a Jew. Now he was working for a Gentile and taking care of the pigs, but he still did not have anything to eat. Not even the pods for the pigs were allowed for him to eat. He was more unfortunate than the pigs were.
This describes the lost state of a sinner. The son reflected on his condition and realized that all of his father’s servants are treated far better than him. Thus, the sinner discovers where the sin has brought oneself into. So the first step in repentance is to realize that we are in a desperate state and admit how far away we are from God. The son thought in his mind that he would confess his sins before his father by saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your servants.” This is well elaborated to express the humility of the lost one. So the second step in repentance is lowering ourselves before God and acknowledging that we need God’s mercy desperately.
Then what did the son do next? He got up and walked the long way toward home. He was probably suffering from the regrets and shames that came to his mind and he might have hesitated a thousand times on his way. But he did not stop there. He persisted with his walk and he was finally starting to see his father’s house from far away. So the third step in repentance is taking action and returning to God. The most essential factor of repentance is to change. Repentance is of course confessing to God, but without any change in our lives, it is not a complete repentance. The true repentance is confessing, asking for forgiveness and not doing or at least trying our best not to do the things that we consider to be sins.
Here is a very touching moment in verse 20; it tells us, “While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.” ‘While the son was still a long way off…,’ the father recognized his son from far away. We can guess that the father came out and was waiting for his son every day and every moment fixing his eyes on the outside of the village. The son’s appearance might have been very different than when he first left home. He was probably much skinnier and dirtier wearing almost nothing for his body. But the father recognized him right away because he always longed for his son to come back and he had never forgotten his son.
‘The son was still a long way off…’ This reminds us that God the father has already forgiven us at the point where we have yet to completely repent and change. This means that God comes to us running with His bare feet, accepts us and rejoices for our return at the point of our realization and decision to return to God.
Jesus is telling us through this story that if you have ever committed sins and have gone different way, you must come back. And God promises us by saying, “You will meet me on the way coming back, since I have been following you and waiting on you wherever you went. Even when you think that it’s too late to repent, don’t be discouraged or disappointed. You must come back any time. I will be right there where you got lost, waiting for you.”
The similarity in the three stories is the joy of the owners when they found the lost one. And they didn’t just enjoy it alone but invited their neighbors and friends and shared the joy with them. And this joy was the feeling that Jesus had when he was telling these stories in front of the Pharisees and religious leaders. Then, why was Jesus so happy when he was surrounded by the sinners? It was because the broken relationship between God and the sinners had been restored through the act of repentance.
Sin disconnects all relationships. See, the sheep took to the wilderness by itself because the sheep wanted to go on its own way and ignore the lead of the shepherd. Then, it no longer becomes a shepherd-sheep relationship. Similarly, when the second son asked his father for his inheritance and went far away from his father, their father-son relationship had already been disconnected. Hence, how precious is this son to realize his sins and return to his father? Could a father be happier than having his broken relationship restored with his precious son? This is how much weight and meaning a confession and repentance have. God is more pleased with our confessing heart than our worship. And God is more pleased with our repenting heart than our offerings.
God dearly longs for us to turn ourselves to God. This is why it is so important and necessary for us to reflect on our actions and words carefully every time and always be cautious that we don’t move any further away from God.
Now let us look back to the church signs. Yes, we are doing something wrong if we look for the sins from others, and also if we focus on finding out and judging others who is sinner or not. If you have thought for a second during the sermon that this does not apply to you, remember that that itself shows pride inside us. Jesus is teaching us to turn our fingers back to ourselves and count our own sins that brought us far from God.
So let us come back to God, all of us, you, the second sons, the lost ones.