A Sermon for Trinity 3 - The Scandalous Grace of God

Psalm 32

Ezekiel 34:20-24

Luke 15:1-10

Two weeks ago, Our Rector briefly mentioned the episode in our second lesson. Tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear Jesus.  “And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

Whereupon Jesus began to tell a series of parables.  But before we get to those, let’s not rush past Jesus receiving sinners and the Pharisees’ negative response to that.  For these verses reveal a lot about God’s grace and how we sometimes respond to that grace.

The Pharisees grumbled not only because Jesus allowed sinners to hear him, but that he received them and even ate with them.  And dining with someone was a sign of genuine acceptance in that culture. It was not taken lightly.  A good Jew was selective in whom he dined with.  Eating with Gentiles was right out, for example.

So when Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors, the Pharisees were scandalized.

In the Gospel of Luke, we have other episodes in which Jesus scandalized religious leaders and others by his grace toward sinners.  One of these from chapter 19 is a bit fun.  Remember Zacchaeus? He was the undersized tax collector with the oversized bank account who got up into a tree so he could see Jesus when he passed by in Jericho.

When Jesus came by, he looked up and said, probably with a smile, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

Well, not just the Pharisees but just about everyone who heard of this were scandalized. For Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho and therefore probably not very popular.  As the scripture says, “When they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’”

Jesus apparently had no problem scandalizing people with his grace.

Now before we proceed further, it’s important to correct a habit of mind that many have – I know I am this way – when reading these passages from the Gospels.  We tend to point fingers and think, “Oh those Pharisees.” And we might miss that it wasn’t only the Pharisees that were scandalized by the grace of Jesus.  In fact, in preparing this sermon, I noticed that I had forgotten that pretty much the whole crowd was offended when Jesus became the guest of Zacchaeus.

Really we should take the negative responses of the Pharisees and others as a picture, a mirror, of how all of us tend to respond to the grace of God in its fullness. We are scandalized by it.  

Oh we think the grace of God towards us is wonderful and maybe toward loved ones, too.  Some might even think they at least partly deserve the grace of God. Of course, that’s a misnomer. Grace is unmerited favor; it is God loving us when we don’t deserve it.  And -- guess what? – we don’t deserve it!  None of us deserve the grace of God. 

Yet it is easy to fall into thinking that others are even more undeserving of God’s grace than we are.  I can think of some others . . . especially while driving.

And to honest if I were in Jericho that day when Jesus became the guest of Zacchaeus, I would have been taken aback, too: “Jesus invited himself into the home of the chief IRS agent in town?  What?!? All the people Jesus could have stayed with, and he chose the IRS agent.” That’s probably what I would have thought.  (By the way, if any IRS agents read or hear this later, I apologize, I love ya, and I do pay my taxes.)

Even the most kind-hearted of us can consider some people as surely beyond the grace of God. We have an example of that in Acts 9.  God told Ananias to go lay hands on Saul so he may receive the Holy Spirit, and Ananias’ first response was to say, “Okay, I’m going! How wonderful is your grace, oh Lord!” . . .

No, that was not his first response. Instead he informed the Lord that Saul was a notorious persecutor of Christians.  Now he didn’t tell the Lord that He was wrong, but he did raise some issues that he had with God’s grace here.  

The Lord understood just how strange his instruction must have seemed, so he was gracious again and told Ananias to go anyway and that he would take care of Saul, whom we know as St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

God’s grace is so much bigger than we can imagine . . . and sometimes we can find that annoying! And, by the way, there is a whole book in the Old Testament on that, the Book of Jonah.

Back to Luke 15, how did Jesus respond to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes? He told them some parables.  The first one went like this:

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

Jesus is doubling down here.  He is saying, “Not only will I receive lost sinners, but I seekthem.” And he said that even more clearly on the day when he became the guest of Zacchaeus, when he said, “…the Son of Man came to seekand to save the lost.” Jesus seeks sinners. Jesus seeks to save sinners. Continuing with the parable:

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Now when we hear this, it sounds wonderful – and it is wonderful.  But I wonder if the Pharisees and company caught the full impact of what he was saying.  He said not only does God seek sinners, but when they repent and turn to the Lord, he rejoices over them far more than over ninety-nine supposedly righteous people who think they don’t need to repent.  

And we know who were self-righteous and thought they didn’t need to repent – the Pharisees.

In case they didn’t get the message the first time, Jesus then told a similar parable of the woman who diligently seeks a lost coin then rejoices when finding it.  Then comes the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

And we hear that familiar parable so many times that we may miss some important details.  For one thing, the Prodigal Son was not a very sympathetic figure.  First, he in effect tells his father, “Hey Dad, I don’t want to wait around for you to die; will you give me my inheritance now?” Lovely.  Then he goes far from the father “into a far country.”  There he spends all the inheritance on “reckless living” – the scripture doesn’t give us details of that “reckless living,” and that’s probably a good thing.  Then when he figures out he needs to actually work, he ends up working with pigs.  And, by the way, that makes him that much more offensive to Jesus’ Jewish listeners.

But note how the father welcomes the wayward son.  He doesn’t reject him.  And he doesn’t just say [in a deadpan voice], “Oh.  You’re back. Oh, joy. You smell like pigs, by the way.” No, first, he sees the son coming from a long ways off.

I bet for the first few weeks after the son left, that father would glance longingly down the road to see if his son might be coming back.  And that may have become a habit.  That may seem far-fetched but I know there are people I’ve prayed for, not just for years, but for decades.  It became a habit that I didn’t have the heart to break.  I think that father was seeking the return of his son.

So one day, as he once again looks down that road, he sees the son a long ways off, and he runs for him and welcomes him lavishly. And he even has a feast.

And the other son is scandalized. The other son won’t even go into the feast.

The grace of God is scandalous.  That God seeks and welcomes even the worst of sinners can really offend us.  But he seeks sinners; he seeks us anyway.  Thank God!

Now it’s important to remember that it is a dangerous thing to presume on the grace of God.  Scripture gives no assurance to those who persist in a sinful lifestyle, who refuse to repent and return, who stubbornly remain in a far country far away from the Father. Remember the Prodigal Son did repent and he did return.  And he approached the father not based on his own merit.  Instead he confessed his sin and his unworthiness saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And he relied only on the mercy and kindness of his father. 

Nor are we to presume on the grace of God by being passive, thinking that God’s grace calls for no response from us.  The Prodigal Son did not just stay in the pig sty.

Instead, we are to seek God.  As Jesus exhorted in the Sermon on the Mount, “Seek and ye shall find.”

But there’s a funny thing about seeking God.  Seek God and keep on seeking him, and you might just find out that he has been seeking you.

Like the Prodigal Son, we may run far, far from God; we may get stupid – and the Prodigal Son was rather stupid – we may get stupid and live recklessly and sinfully.  But if we come to our senses and repent and seek God, we find out that he’s been seeking us all along.

So let’s be very hesitant to ever consider anyone beyond the grace of God.  God’s grace can reach into hearts and places we cannot imagine . . . and don’t want to imagine sometimes.  The grace of God really can be scandalous in its reach.

The grace of God can even reach into Death Row.  Now if there is a portal to Hell on Earth, it’s Death Row.  Yet at the recent ACNA Provincial Assembly, a speaker told of visiting a Death Row and hearing a strong ringing voice begin singing, “Amazing grace . . .”  And he visited the cell of the man who was singing.  And this condemned man – no telling what awful crime he had committed – this condemned man had found Jesus.  Or, to be more accurate, Jesus had sought and found him. And the inmate’s hobby was making crosses.  And the speaker carries one as a treasured possession to this day.

Is there anyone living who is beyond the grace of God?  If the grace of God can turn Saul, the murderous persecutor of Christians, into Paul the Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles, if the grace of God can turn a criminal on Death Row into a joyous Christian, then I doubt anyone is beyond the grace of God.

And that includes . . . you and me.  We all have times when we feel distant from God.  It may be because we are going through depression or other emotionally difficult times.  Or it may be because we became stupid and sinful like the Prodigal Son.

If and when that happens, if we then repent and return, trusting not on our own merits but on the merits and grace of Jesus – if we seek God, I am confident that we shall find out that all along, He has been seeking us.  

And instead of being scandalized by the grace of God, we will find the grace of God, the grace of Jesus who seeks us, to be amazing grace indeed.

Let us pray.

Father, we have sinned against heaven and before you. We are not worthy to be called your sons and daughters.  Yet your love and your grace towards us is great. Help us to repent and return and to seek you. And may we indeed find out that you have been seeking us all along. Thank you for seeking us.  Thank you for your grace towards us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.