Sunday message · The Lost Parables of Jesus series
Listen to the message
Message Summary
Pastor Phillip Santillan opens a new three-week series, The Lost Parables of Jesus, with Luke 15:1–7. His hope is that God’s Spirit, through God’s Word, will give everyone at Clarity Church a vision for their lives and their church that comes from God alone, not from the things the world says are worth living for. For anyone unsure about Jesus, he offers the series as a clear picture of why Jesus came and a fresh look at what God thinks of them.
Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus right after his teaching in Luke 14 on the cost of discipleship, and he welcomed them and even ate with them, something the Mishnah, the Jewish oral tradition, treated as an offense. The Pharisees and scribes grumbled, and Phil explains that Luke’s Greek word imitates the cooing of doves, like the muttering under one’s breath familiar to anyone in Minnesota. Jesus answers with parables, simple stories rabbis used to teach the less educated, and Phil notes the irony of Jesus using that tool on the experts.
Leaving ninety-nine sheep may sound irresponsible, but scholars note that a hundred was a normal flock and the open country was safe, so any shepherd would go after the lost one. As one scholar puts it, the only thing different about this sheep is that it is lost. It is not more important than the others; it simply needs to be connected to the shepherd. Phil sets aside a popular but untrue story about shepherds breaking a lost sheep’s legs, saying the truth is even better: Jesus seeking and receiving sinners pleases God.
Phil draws two observations. First, people who are disconnected from God are a priority for God, and what matters to God’s heart should matter to ours. That is a struggle, he admits, because we naturally treat people by how valuable they are to us. Rather than scoffing at the Pharisees, he suggests asking ourselves how many sinners and outcasts we have eaten with recently, and how many people we have judged instead of showing compassion. Quoting N.T. Wright, he says all heaven is having a party over one sinner who repents, and if we do not join in, we will be out of tune.
Second, when something is missing, you search for it to the exclusion of what is found. God loves everyone equally but does not focus on everyone equally, just as any parent who loses sight of a child for a few seconds searches frantically. Phil then speaks candidly as pastor. Clarity was started to be a church of disciples who make disciples, and he confesses that, focused on helping the church get through COVID and love one another, he has forgotten to remind them “that we exist so that the lost could be found.” This year the church will focus on seeking and saving the lost, and people can jump on board or watch from the sidelines. The work takes time, but he invites everyone to put their hands to the plow with joyful expectation.
