Luke 15

V 1-10

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

When I first left school I went to work in the local tax office, HM Inland Revenue, involved in Pay As You Earn taxation. That year HM Inland Revenue was voted the most unpopular job. That year we even beat the traffic wardens, much to the upset of a couple of elderly tax officers who were definitely “Old School” and believed “we are here to collect her Majesty’s taxes”. But even in that year we were not in the same league as the tax gatherers of Jesus’ day.

 

Israel was an occupied land, occupied by Rome and ruled by roman soldiers. Taxes had to be collected and sent to Rome. But the Romans didn’t collect them! Rome set the amount, and then Jewish tax collectors collected the tax on their behalf. They also added a “reasonable amount” to pay their own expenses, which were often huge. People hated the tax collector.

 

This section starts with the tax collectors gathering around Jesus to hear him. Remember last week, it ended with the phrase “He who has ears, let him hear”. The tax gatherers are doing just that. But not just them, sinners are with them. These were all the people who did jobs that were deemed “Ungodly” by the Pharisees. All listening to Jesus and he, of course is talking to them. But he shouldn’t! Pharisees have decided these people are ungodly, and therefore will defile you if you talk to them. Jesus doesn’t care, instead he tells them two well known parables.

 

The first asks the question of what you do if you have 100 sheep and lose one? Answer look for it, and when you find it call everyone together and celebrate. That seems very straightforward and reasonable.

 

The second concerns a women who has ten coins and loses one. We don’t know whether it was part of her savings, a silver coin being one days wages; or whether it was part of a set on a headpiece or necklace, either way it was an important loss.  So she stops everything and starts searching the house. How often do we do the same when we lose something? We know we had it recently, and put it somewhere safe, so we search “Hi and Low” until it’s found. We probably don’t rejoice with all our friends, so the coin and the sheep must have been really important.

 

OK, a nice easy reading, this week. Tax officers are nasty, sinners are nasty, but Jesus talks to them. Also if you lose something, don’t just say it doesn’t matter, start searching. Or is it?

Jesus is talking to sinners and tax gatherers, people he shouldn’t be talking to according to the most religious of people. They are grumbling about Jesus, so is there more to these two parables than it first appears? The answer is yes.

 

The coin and the sheep were lost, and in the eyes of the church of the day the crowd around Jesus was lost. The owners of the coin and sheep then went looking for the lost items. When they were found, great rejoicing. But the question is, how do you find these ungodly people and bring them to God if you don’t go looking. Jesus tells the Pharisees that heaven rejoices when a single sinner repents and turns to God, much more so than all the others that are OK all of the time. The church should talk to everyone, even those who are ungodly, because they need god a lot more than all the others

 

The key to this reading, for us is that we are the owners of God’s salvation, around us are the lost, the sinners, the tax collectors of today. It is our duty to go looking and find them; and then tell them the good news of the Gospel. It is our duty to make the angels rejoice!