The Character of God

Third Sunday after Trinity
June 21^st, Year of Our + Lord 2026
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Based on Luke 15:1-10

Audio of the sermon is available HERE.

The one lost sheep is not innocent.

   A week or so ago I was listening to a podcast while pulling weeds, leafy spurge to be specific, out behind our house.  I came upon an interview of an author, Luke Burgis, who has written a book titled “The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion.”  I thought this might be interesting; certainly in the age of the internet and the so-called “smartphone,” social contagions have become an increasing problem. 

   A social contagion includes when people, very often people who are way too on-line, fall prey to believing fictions about themselves, including that they are victims of a condition or a disease which, prior to 2010, was either unheard of or vanishingly rare.  Bad things can result, including radical interventions that hurt people, mostly young people, for the rest of their lives.  When our kids were in High School in little Sidney, MT, there was a wave of teenagers cutting themselves.  We have all run into, or perhaps we know well, souls who are convinced that they were born the wrong sex.  Or the wrong species.  Believing such a false reality can lead to tragedy, and it seems to be a growing problem.  So, I started to listen to the podcast. 

   I was also curious about the title, and wondered if it might be referring to the lost sheep portion of our Gospel reading for this morning.  And it does. 

   The author seems to have had more than a passing contact with the Christian Church, as he began by saying he had heard the parable of the one lost sheep many times in his life, and it always troubled him.  My interest in the podcast and book was increasing.  The author said the economics of Jesus’ parable never made sense to him, another good observation.  Who would leave 99 sheep unprotected in the wilderness to go find just one?  That’s a good way to go bankrupt.  So, I was thinking, this could be great, and I began listening. 

 

   But then everything went sideways.  I don’t know where the author was hearing the parable, nor what any teacher or pastor might have offered by way of explanation.  But the author decided that the value of the parable was to allow us to consider the dichotomy between being a member of a group, a tribe, but also maintaining one’s individuality.  He wondered if the one lost sheep might have wisely wandered off intentionally, looking for his identity in the wide, wide, world.   

   Oh no, no, no, that is terrible!  This is most certainly not Jesus’ point, which two minutes of reading the surrounding context would make clear very quickly.  We see that Eve’s mistake of contemplating the Serpent’s question, “Did God really say?” (Gen 3), continues to plague humanity.  Instead of looking at the plain language and context of what Luke recorded, this author goes off in a self-chosen and unrelated direction.   I stopped the podcast. 

   I’m not saying that the author’s question is not interesting, or that navigating the tension between individual identity and belonging to a group is not challenging, and worth study and reflection.  It is.  But I simply do not have any patience for those who would take up the living and active Word of God, but ignore its plain sense, thereby dressing up their human speculations in Biblical garb.  No thanks.       

    Our parables today, about the one lost sheep and the one lost coin, are not essentially about the nature of sheep and coins, or people.  No, instead, with these parables, Jesus seeks to teach us about the character of God, that is, His own character, the character of His Father and the Holy Spirit.  With these parables, Jesus is responding to the accusing grumbles of the Pharisees and Scribes, who were offended that Jesus was associating, and even sitting down to eat with tax collectors and other sinners.  Jesus’ opponents do not believe He is God made man, but they are offended that any Jewish religious teacher would hang out with obvious sinners.  

   Finally, the question Jesus answers is foundational to saving faith: “What kind of God do we find in and through the Son of Mary, who is also the Son of God?”

   While I was irritated by the author’s approach, listening to the first few minutes of that podcast was not a waste of time, far from it.  Because, as I was deleting the podcast and looking for another, the Holy Spirit put a question to me: What other distorted perceptions do we bring, do I bring, to the parable of the lost sheep? 

   How else might I mishandle God’s Word, and so miss out on, or worse, misrepresent to you the message the LORD is communicating? 

   One way to get a sense of how Christians think about a Biblical account is to survey the artwork used to illustrate it.  The Good Shepherd rescuing the one lost sheep has always been very popular throughout Christian history, certainly in Lutheran circles.  We have a wooden carving of just this image set in a niche in the front of the pulpit over at Our Redeemer. 

   Not always, but often, the lost sheep is portrayed as a little lamb, often quite cute and cuddly.  Maybe the lamb has fallen into a ravine and become stuck.  Or, it is all by itself in a dark and threatening world, covered in mud, bleating helplessly.  And, I think all of these portrayals tend to make me think that the poor, lost sheep is innocent, a pitiful victim, without any responsibility for being lost.  Now, to be sure, one sheep by itself out in the wild is pitiful.  If it is not scared, it should be.  It is clearly in need of rescue.  But, is the lost sheep an innocent little lamb? 

   I do not think the text warrants this conclusion.  Jesus does not say the sheep is a lamb, and He does not proclaim its innocence.  He simply describes the one sheep as lost.  And the comparison for the sheep in the parable is not precious little children, but rather it is tax collectors and other sinners.  Finally, I do not think we should try to draw too many conclusions about this sheep, because the parable is not about the sheep.  Rather, it is about the man, the shepherd, who goes to search for it. 

   Remember the grumbles that led Jesus to tell this parable and that of the Lost Coin; the Pharisees were upset that Jesus ate with these unsavory people.  A self-respecting Pharisee would never do this. 

   But God would.  And God did.  And God still does.  This is the heart of the Good News, the Gospel:  Jesus came not for the righteous, but for the unrighteous.  They are why the Father sent His Son to be born of Mary, and be named Jesus, a name which means “the LORD saves.” 

   There are plenty more reasons to not think the lost sheep is innocent.  The rest of Scripture speaks of sheep with passages like, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” that is, on the Suffering Servant, (Isaiah 63:6). 

   Through the prophet Ezekiel the LORD warns the fat, strong sheep against bullying the weaker sheep and not letting them get food and water, (Ezekiel 34).  And since the sheep represent us people, there are many explicit statements in the Bible about our nature, that all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, that no one is righteous, no, not one, (Romans 3:10 and 23), that the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 6:5 and 8:21).  

   Now, just because we do not believe the sheep is innocent does not mean we should not feel bad for it.  We can still pity the sheep, pray for it, seek its good, even if every lost sheep is responsible for its own predicament.  We should pity the lost sheep, because, after all, God did.  God’s love and concern for sinners is the motivation behind the entire thrust of the Scripture story, and this should shape how we treat other sinners. 

   We should feel bad for the lost sheep.  But, for our own salvation and for the salvation of others, we must make it clear to every lost sheep that we are all accountable for the fact that we are sinners.  Because complaining that we are not responsible, even protesting with the half-truth that the Devil made me do it, only serves to make us miss the Shepherd’s rescue. 

   It is never pleasant to confess our own sinfulness.  It should never be pleasant to point out the sin of others. (To enjoy accusing others of sin either flows from self-righteousness, like the Pharisees, or it is demonic, learned from the accuser, Satan.  Lord protect us from falling into either of these categories!)  

   Returning to the parable, we should rejoice that it is not about sheep, but rather about the character of God, who seeks to save, despite how we sheep behave, which gets remarkably bad.  As we will sing in one of our communion hymns, “as wayward sheep their Shepherd kill.” 

   And, that was God’s plan!  That the Lamb of God would be slain by sinners, in order to save sinners has been God’s plan since before He created us.

   We rightly marvel at the shocking, radical, amazing nature of the Gospel, that God’s Son suffered and died, not for good people, but for sinners.  Maybe we can get numb to this stupendous fact, (Jesus died for our sins, blah, blah, blah).  But God forbid it, we should not. 

   Lord willing, we will never cease to be amazed that Holy Jesus came into this world to die, for sinners, for His enemies, for us.  Lord willing, we will daily remember that this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son as the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, for our sins. 

   And then, on the third day, He rose from the dead, revealing the new, indestructible life He will share with all His flock.  This is the character of the Good Shepherd.  This is the character of God. 

   God’s desire is to save sinners.  And, there is going to be a party.  The man carrying home the lost sheep calls his friends and neighbors to come rejoice with him.  The woman who dropped everything to sweep the house and find her lost coin then turns around and spends money to throw a party to celebrate.  The economics do not add up in either parable.  By hosting a celebration after finding your lost treasure, you could easily spend more on the party than the value of that recovered treasure.  And that is fine, because these parables are not about earthly, human economics.  No, Jesus is teaching us about the economy of God. 

   Now, I do not mean to say that God acts like an accountant or a businessman, carefully evaluating profit and loss.  But the word economy literally means “the Household Law.”  And in God’s house, the economy works this way: everything is oriented toward salvation, toward rescuing sinners, so they can live in God’s house, forever.  Despite what our sins and sinfulness deserve, the great prize that God is pursuing is you, and you, and me, all of us sinners. 

    And oh what a party it will be when we all get there.  Just as God’s economy works totally differently than our earthly economies, so also, the heavenly celebration will be better than we can imagine.  Think of the best party, the most joyful get-together you have ever experienced, but with no downside:  no upset stomach, no hangover, no regrets from letting your celebration slip into sin.  Think of the very best party.  God is going to give you more.  Heaven will be better.  The Bible speaks of streets of gold and doors of precious gems, a never-ending banquet, and fruit from the Tree of Life that brings healing to the nations.  And that is just the start.

   Pondering our future celebration in heaven can help us recognize and avoid earthly celebrations that are not worthy of Christians.  In ancient Corinth, some Christians were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper, while others had nothing.  God protect us!  Because we attend earthly parties while still being sinners, we Christians today need to be wise, and careful.  Satan tries to trip us up with earthly joys, tempting us to pursue sinful pleasures, and so turn our backs on the One who is preparing heaven for us.   God help us resist such temptation. 

    We need to be careful.  But, we should also celebrate.  Christians should not be dour and gloomy, trudging our way towards the end.  Sing for joy, you have been rescued!  You were lost, you deserved it, and you had no way of getting back to God’s House.  But Jesus has come after you, and has brought you home. 

   We will not rejoice at everything in this broken world.  There are real problems, real suffering in all our lives.  The contrast between the life we live now and the life we look forward to in heaven will at times bring us to tears.  But we can and we should also rejoice, by enjoying the wonders of God’s creation, and by digging more deeply into the treasures Jesus has given us in His Word, by singing our thanks for His mercy, and by celebrating as the family of God. 

   Such Godly rejoicing is good, right and salutary.  And it also makes us more attractive to souls outside the Body of Christ.  When men and women who are beat down by life see joy in the life of Christians, this can draw them in to hear the Good News.  God grant that the holy joy of being a rescued sheep of God shines through in our lives, and that through our joy, the Spirit will find others to rescue, until all God’s flock is gathered, and our Good Shepherd returns visibly to lead us home, forever and ever, Amen.