The text for this Sunday from the Holy Gospel of Luke 15:1-10, focuses on the Parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. A problem with parables is that our sinful flesh loves to interpret them in a law-oriented way. The flesh reads a parable and says, “What does this parable tell me I need to do?” The parables are used to lay guilt trips on those other people who are not doing enough. All the while, the flesh pats itself on the back for a job well done because it thinks it has been obedient. The parable of the lost sheep has been abused to lay guilt trips on people by telling them that they need to go out and find more lost sheep. If you are not, then you do not have a heart for the lost. This is not the purpose of these two parables, or of the parable of the Prodigal Son that follows our text. The real purpose is to show how wrong the pharisees and scribes were to grumble and complain that Jesus was receiving sinners and eating with them. In heaven, says Jesus, there is much rejoicing over every sinner who repents. Thus, we sing "Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me, Died that I might live on high, Lives that I might never die. As a branch is to the vine, I am His, and He is mine."
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 14:49:15 +0000
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