Receiving Sinners unto Repentance: A Meditation on Luke 15, for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying,

This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

 

And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,

doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,

and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours,

saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,

more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece,

doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together,

saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence

of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

 

There’s been a modern tendency to exegete this passage from Luke 15 by focusing on the opening charge of the Pharisees against Jesus, that He receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.  Many Antinomian sermons start and end there, condemning judgmental Christians for not associating with and affirming the sinners of our own age.  The publicans and sinners referred to in verse one are likely a euphemistic umbrella for all sorts of things, including tax collectors (perceived as sell-outs to the occupying Romans, and traitors to Israel,) prostitutes, thieves, and so forth.  It is Jesus, however, that provides the focused response to the Pharisees’ charge, by highlighting heaven’s joyous response to the repentance of even one sinner.  Those like the Pharisees who think themselves righteous and without need for repentance, having no regard for Jesus as the Word of God Incarnate, give no such joy to God and His holy angels.  Jesus’ point in this passage was not that He hung out with sinners, but that God calls all people to repentance, and rejoices over every soul who receives His Word in faith.

 

So, if faith and repentance are that important to God, it would behoove us to understand what those words mean.  The Greek word used in this passage for repentance has the connotation of changing one’s mind, of turning and becoming something else.  This changing of the mind is an act of the will, something far deeper in the human consciousness than fleeting thoughts or physical reactions.  A change of the mind from a focus upon and commitment to the ways of evil, to the ways of righteousness and truth, is fundamental to a person’s existence.  A person who dwells upon evil thoughts and in their mind is committed to the implementation of their evil desires, is a person who is at enmity with God and truly lost.  Such a person cannot hear or believe the Word of God, because their mind has rejected it in exchange for another word, or idea, or commitment; they cannot love God, because their heart and mind cling to another passion that is at war with Him.  Such a fallen state of man is terrible, indeed:  lost and imprisoned in the darkness of our own minds, tossed about by our own blind depravity and the noxious goading of demons.  Apart from God we have no hope to break out of this prison, because we are the prison in which we’re trapped, with all our powers of body, mind, and spirit corrupted and chained in the darkness of our own fallen intellect.  This is the horror of Original Sin and the Fall of Man:  that the devil’s victory over us would be complete without someone greater breaking through to save us.

 

This is the context in which Jesus receives sinners.  He did not come to judge the world, because fundamentally, the world was already judged in our Fall, and we were already sitting in the shadow of death just waiting for the eternal fires of hell which would soon consume all people of every age, race, tribe, and tongue.  Into our darkness comes our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—our own sin—and brings us a Light which no darkness can overcome.  As Jesus sat with those prostitutes and traitors and thieves, they could hear a Word from God that they could not hear before, and that Word changed them from the inside out.  No longer prostitutes and traitors and thieves, they were given a new life from above that they could not create for themselves, that their hearts and minds might be transformed through faith in that Word.  These are the people of whom Isaiah once prophesied, who sat in darkness and yet saw a Great Light, who was Immanuel—God with Us.  Jesus came to seek and to save people lost in their sins, imprisoned in their own fallen minds, because only such love and compassion could accomplish our salvation.  Jesus ate and drank and received sinners, because it was sinners He was sent to save.

 

Of course, the same Word came to the Pharisees, whom Jesus also received, ate and drank with, too.  The difference was not the Word, but the heart and mind to which it came.  While the love of God in Christ Jesus seeks to pierce the prison of every fallen person, He will not compel anyone to love Him, nor to leave that horrible prison against their will.  It is true that apart from Him, fallen man has no hope at all, yet God will not coerce love because such would no longer be love.  Love can only be the response of a truly free heart and mind, and so the Word of God breaks into the bonds which cloud our minds and dull our hearts, so that we might by His grace trust in Him.  It is love and grace which sends His saving Word to us, that by His Word and Spirit and we might hear Him, believe Him, and live anew in Him.  It is the grace of His Word that brings to us a saving faith which transforms us from the inside out, giving us another hope and passion upon which our newly invigorated hearts and minds might focus.  This is the metamorphosis of repentance which begins and ends in the Word of God, by grace through faith in Christ alone.  The Pharisees’ prison of heart and mind was just as invaded by the Word of Jesus, and given the same opportunities of grace that the prostitutes, traitors, and thieves received.  The difference was in how the lost prisoner responded, either faith making them a new creation in Jesus Christ forgiven and free forever, or left by their own rejection to abide in a darkness they loved more than their Creator.

 

This is why we know that Faith and Repentance always go together, just as do the Word and Spirit of God.  There is no more sense in trying to work on repentance apart from faith, than there is trying to call down the Spirit of God apart from His Word, or cleaving apart the Law and Gospel which compose His Word.  Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day by the power of the Holy Spirit, creating faith and love and light inside you that you could not generate on your own, as Jesus by virtue of His Cross offers to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins.  Feel that grace pour over you like a baptismal river, washing your heart and mind and soul, so that once again you might rise up unto newness of life in Him.  Be transformed by that Word of Grace, that you might no longer be a prisoner within your own darkened mind, but a liberated child of God, living forever in His grace, mercy, and love.  And behold, the angels of God continue to rejoice over you, and the halls of heaven resound with songs of love and triumph unto ages of ages.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.