Luke 15:1-10
So many times we take these parables about lost and found as relating to our own lost and found. Once we were lost and then Jesus found us. Isn't that comforting, that Jesus will look for us no matter where we go, what we do, or how lost we become. We miss the first part of this story though when we do that. It is the comment of the Pharisees and the scribes, "This fellow welcomes sinners and tax collectors and eats with them." Jesus is sinful, distance yourself from this example and we have by making this all about us and less about us and how we are now that we have been found.
The comment by the Pharisees and scribes is meant to distance themselves from Jesus. This fellow, like they haven't been in an active debate with Jesus for chapter upon chapter in Luke's gospel. They have, they know who he is, but they won't name him because they want people to distance themselves from him. Also they distance themselves by saying he's being intimate with people they shouldn't want to be intimate with. You don't eat with the enemy, tax collectors were with the enemy. They were in the pocket of the Roman Empire, those who were forcing their ways, their culture, their way of life onto the Jewish people. They were not friendly and nice conquerors. They maintained control by fierce and swift punishment and Jesus eats with their spies.
Next Jesus eats with the sinners, the unclean, those you want to keep away from or else you will be impure. Purity laws, being set apart from others, was part of the Jewish way and Jesus takes this and asks them to change the way they look at that. Probably because they were trying to become so pure and clean they were no earthly good. They kept themselves from those who also knew pain and suffering and what it meant to be left out, but they didn't care to bridge this gap. There are many places in the Old Testament where God goes to the sinners to accomplish his work. Moses killed a man, Jacob stole his brothers birthright and yet God works through these people to further God's kingdom and salvation to all. This displays God's extravagant mercy and yet we loose sight of it again and again. Jesus is just reminding them of all this.
Now we come to the parables. Jesus uses these examples for the Pharisees and the scribes to show them what they should be like instead of the ultimate law keepers. When someone is lost leave the rest of the flock and go find them. This wouldn't make sense business-wise, but people wise it makes sense. We aren't supposed to look at the flock we have and guard it with all sorts of do's and don'ts. Instead we are to look for those, who like us have been lost. We are to not just sit around and wait for them to walk through our door. Because of the way the church had people pushing through its doors this is the model we still tend to think of. Stay and create programs and the lost will come to us, but that is not the example of this parable. We are to go and find the lost. Go to them. Not expect them to find their way and come to us.
We have to get over this create it and they will come approach to church. The churches that are making a difference, the churches which are thriving are the ones who have spilled out beyond their doors. Creating partnerships in the neighborhood, going out and making a day in which church is at the local laundromat so that homeless people can do their laundry. The ones which meet in art galleries and share a communion which doesn't have a book or a typed up liturgy, so the lost can feel welcome and a part of the community.
These are all important starts for the community. Ways in which we can see ourselves searching for the lost instead of expecting the lost to burst through our doors. We must seek out and serve those just as Jesus did and not build ourselves in with rules and laws or dreams of the church gone past. It is hard to see the focus on the end result, but isn't it worth it for just that one lost sheep.
So many times we take these parables about lost and found as relating to our own lost and found. Once we were lost and then Jesus found us. Isn't that comforting, that Jesus will look for us no matter where we go, what we do, or how lost we become. We miss the first part of this story though when we do that. It is the comment of the Pharisees and the scribes, "This fellow welcomes sinners and tax collectors and eats with them." Jesus is sinful, distance yourself from this example and we have by making this all about us and less about us and how we are now that we have been found.
The comment by the Pharisees and scribes is meant to distance themselves from Jesus. This fellow, like they haven't been in an active debate with Jesus for chapter upon chapter in Luke's gospel. They have, they know who he is, but they won't name him because they want people to distance themselves from him. Also they distance themselves by saying he's being intimate with people they shouldn't want to be intimate with. You don't eat with the enemy, tax collectors were with the enemy. They were in the pocket of the Roman Empire, those who were forcing their ways, their culture, their way of life onto the Jewish people. They were not friendly and nice conquerors. They maintained control by fierce and swift punishment and Jesus eats with their spies.
Next Jesus eats with the sinners, the unclean, those you want to keep away from or else you will be impure. Purity laws, being set apart from others, was part of the Jewish way and Jesus takes this and asks them to change the way they look at that. Probably because they were trying to become so pure and clean they were no earthly good. They kept themselves from those who also knew pain and suffering and what it meant to be left out, but they didn't care to bridge this gap. There are many places in the Old Testament where God goes to the sinners to accomplish his work. Moses killed a man, Jacob stole his brothers birthright and yet God works through these people to further God's kingdom and salvation to all. This displays God's extravagant mercy and yet we loose sight of it again and again. Jesus is just reminding them of all this.
Now we come to the parables. Jesus uses these examples for the Pharisees and the scribes to show them what they should be like instead of the ultimate law keepers. When someone is lost leave the rest of the flock and go find them. This wouldn't make sense business-wise, but people wise it makes sense. We aren't supposed to look at the flock we have and guard it with all sorts of do's and don'ts. Instead we are to look for those, who like us have been lost. We are to not just sit around and wait for them to walk through our door. Because of the way the church had people pushing through its doors this is the model we still tend to think of. Stay and create programs and the lost will come to us, but that is not the example of this parable. We are to go and find the lost. Go to them. Not expect them to find their way and come to us.
We have to get over this create it and they will come approach to church. The churches that are making a difference, the churches which are thriving are the ones who have spilled out beyond their doors. Creating partnerships in the neighborhood, going out and making a day in which church is at the local laundromat so that homeless people can do their laundry. The ones which meet in art galleries and share a communion which doesn't have a book or a typed up liturgy, so the lost can feel welcome and a part of the community.
These are all important starts for the community. Ways in which we can see ourselves searching for the lost instead of expecting the lost to burst through our doors. We must seek out and serve those just as Jesus did and not build ourselves in with rules and laws or dreams of the church gone past. It is hard to see the focus on the end result, but isn't it worth it for just that one lost sheep.
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