Sermon Text: Luke 15:1-10
Date: September 14, 2025
Event: Proper 19, Year C
Luke 15:1-10 (EHV)
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3He told them this parable: 4“Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls together his friends and his neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.
8“Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, would not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Found!
What is your value? Where do you look to understand your value? In school growing up, there was a whole lot of talk for us about self-esteem. You have value! You are special! You are unique and that’s wonderful! Today’s messaging isn’t so different, though usually in the context of social-emotional learning that also tends to include empathy and care for others in a way I don’t remember being emphasized a lot when I was growing up, but I think it’s a change for the good.
Because all of those things are true, aren’t they? We should care about other people. We should see our own, innate value that comes from inside of us as a unique human being. We don’t have value just because someone ascribes it to us; we have value because we are.
But what about when that doesn’t feel true? What about when you feel worthless? Perhaps you messed up that thing at work, or let that family responsibility slide to everyone’s detriment, or you bombed that test in school, or you got caught doing that thing you knew you shouldn’t be doing. What does that do to your self-esteem, to your self-worth, to your self-confidence? It’s like a bomb, isn’t it? Or it can be. Some of us struggle with this more than others (and perhaps you’re learning too much about your pastor here this morning…), but there’s a struggle inside each of us to have an appropriate self-image.
And what is that self-image that we should have? Well, there are ditches on either side of this road. On the one hand, we can have a degraded self-image that views me as worthless. On the other hand, we have an insanely inflated self-image that results in pride and a superiority complex over everyone else.
These two extremes are, on some level, at the heart of Jesus’ conversation during his teaching in our Gospel for this morning. We meet up with him teaching the crowds, but it’s not just Jesus’ followers or those who were curious about his message that were there; Jesus’ enemies were also there, and they were incredibly irritated with what they saw. The Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The word translated here, “complaining,” is more literally “muttering to themselves.” In other words, this is not an accusation that these men are leveling at Jesus directly or even talking to others in the crowd about him. No, this is an under-the-breath complaint about this man that they view at best as their competition and at worst as a threat to their way of living and even their very lives because of his popularity. But in hushed tones, they clearly have no actual respect for him.
In a glimmer of Jesus’ omniscience, he addresses the complaint they didn’t even clearly vocalize. And he does so with a couple of parables—a shepherd seeking out a lost sheep and a woman searching for a lost coin. But to really understand the full weight of these brief parables and the point Jesus is stressing here in love, even to those who were against them, we need to clearly understand how the Pharisees and their ilk thought of themselves and others.
What is their complaint about Jesus? He’s spending time with the undesirables of society: the tax-collecting traitors to their people, the immoral prostitutes, the thieves, the lazy, the poor dregs. There was no chance for upward momentum in spending time with these people. There was only the chance to drag your reputation down. If this Jesus was really serious about being a notable rabbi in their community, this was not the way to do it. And for the religious leaders, it just confirmed one thing: Because he spent so much time with people they knew were beneath them, they also knew that Jesus himself was beneath them as well.
But who, in this scene, really had the problem? Was it the sinners who were coming to Jesus to hear him, to have him restore them, forgive them? Or was it the people who didn’t think they needed him?
Jesus’ parables make the point plain. The sheep wanders off, but does it know it’s in trouble? Maybe, but probably not. If the sheep could identify that this course of action was wrong or dangerous, it probably wouldn’t have done it. But off it goes, seeking out its own desires, ignorant of what it means for its well-being. And what is the shepherd’s reaction? Such concern grips him that he leaves the ninety-nine still in the flock and seeks the lost one.
The lost in this parable could be seen as the “sinners” coming to Jesus. If that is the case, then Jesus’ point is that religious leaders should be concerned about all people, even (and especially) those misled by prominent sin in their lives. However, I think that Jesus’ point is more fundamental to the leaders’ problems and rooted in their misunderstandings about themselves.
If the Pharisees were looking to identify themselves in Jesus’ parables, I assume they would think of themselves as the ninety-nine still in God’s flock or the nine coins still in the purse. The reality was that they were the lost sheep out on their own and the coin hidden among the dust, but they didn’t even realize it. They thought they were fine, but their self-confidence ignored the fact that they, too, were sinners in just as desperate need of God’s forgiveness as the rabble that came to see Jesus.
How easy it is for us to hold this same, distorted view of self. After all, here we are, in church on a Sunday morning. Are we not among God’s flock? Are we not the coins carefully contained, whose location is known? Unfortunately, our sin makes that thought and confidence a mirage. We are the lost and the rebellious. We are the cheating tax collector and the self-righteous Pharisee. Our sin makes us lost, alone, and doomed to eternal death in hell.
But here is where we see God’s nature shine through so clearly. God is represented in the parables by the shepherd looking for that lost sheep and the woman tearing the house apart looking for that coin. In those moments, what is lost is of the highest priority. So, too, is it for God. We are lost in sin on our own; thus, we are his highest priority.
God saved us not by putting us on his shoulders or sweeping the flood but by offering his life in exchange for ours. Our sin created a situation far more dire—infinitely so!—than the lost sheep or coin. No, the only thing that could save us from the eternal punishment for sin was the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.
Jesus’ search and rescue consists of reaching out to us with his Word, having us see ourselves as we really are (that is, see our sin in all its gruesome reality), and then showing us his saving love. His death rescued us, and the faith he works through his Word brings us back to himself. His Word brings us face to face with the reality of our situation and leads us to repentance. To repent is to have a change of heart about sin, to not want to do it anymore, while simultaneously trusting God’s complete forgiveness. You and I are among those people who have been found wandering the hillside and are rescued. You and I are the ones whose God-worked repentance causes great joy among the hosts of heaven.
Why does that happen? Because that’s just how much you mean to God, how precious you are to him. I won’t ever say that self-value and self-esteem are unimportant; that’s a foolish statement. But the best measure of our value doesn’t come from within ourselves; it comes from the value God places on us. You were worth the life and death of the perfect Son of God. You were worth his agonizing suffering of hell while nailed to the cross. You were worth it all, and if he needed to, he’d do it again, because he loves you so dearly.
That love continues to reach out to us. Because the truth is, this is not a one-time lost-and-found mission. No, we are continually wandering away from the shepherd and needing to be sought out, called back to him. And that calling isn’t always pleasant; that reunion isn’t always what our heart desires. Sometimes it looks very much like the scene in our Gospel! Because even in his interaction with the Pharisees—even in the preaching of the law!—there is Jesus’ love clear as day. Why is he confronting them with their misunderstandings and sin? Because those things were very dangerous, and Jesus had love, even for them. He called them to repentance, and each day he calls you and me to that same repentance, assuring us of his forgiving love where we find our true value.
Despite how much we may want to deny it or at least ignore it, there’s a lot of opportunity in us for the same misguided self-views that the Pharisees had to blossom. You don’t have to dig too far in mainstream Christianity in the United States today to sense the “us vs. them” mentality; it is often a core part of the message coming from these groups. And, I daresay, you don’t have to look too far in the Lutheran church to find these ideas, and perhaps, if we’re being really honest and open this morning, we can even see this in our own hearts. Do I, in some way, think of myself as better than the unbeliever? Better than the “worst” sinners because, even if I’m not perfect, at least I don’t do… that!
My brothers and sisters, let’s not complain and mumble to ourselves and to each other about how much better we are than other people who commit what the world calls horrible atrocities or who engage in activities that the world praises while God detests. Let us see ourselves as we are: sheep in need of rescue and coins hidden in the dark corners of the room. Let us see our value in the seeking, searching, and rescuing work our God has done and continues to do to find us. Let us find our value in our status with God, no longer lost, but now found!
Thanks be to God! Amen.
