What?! HE Eats with Sinners!

What if you or I lost a full day of salary?

Just lost it…let’s say you had the equivalent of 1 day’s pay in an envelope. One whole day’s worth of pay-in cash…in the envelope. The next day you go to the counter or drawer where you thought you had left it-but it’s not there. The envelope is just gone. You were planning to use the money for groceries…maybe put gas on the car…or you had a bill to pay. But, you come to the place you thought you’d left it and it’s not there.

What would you do?

You would search for that envelope until you found it! Now, imagine the joy you would feel when you had all that money back in hand.

The second parable Jesus told those scribes and pharisees is just like this.

““Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

Luke 15:8-10

Why did Jesus tell this parable? For the answer, let’s go back to what the religious leaders grumbled about:

“And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.””

Luke 15:2

In response to their grumbling, Jesus told them three parables. This is the second.

Now we know the shepherd finds the sheep and the woman her coin. We know both searched diligently. Jesus wanted the religious leaders to know a greater truth. Why did Jesus eat with sinners?

Because that’s what all of us are! Jesus came to earth to save sinners like us.

And sin is real. There is unspeakable evil in the world-it’s because of human sin.

Jesus ate with sinners-like us. And what does Jesus do when 1 of us strays like a sheep or is lost like that coin? He searches for us! But unlike the shepherd or the woman-He knows where we are. He comes to us in our lost place. He comes to “eat” with us-so He can talk with us about our sins. He calls us to renounce our sins. And for everyone who repents He carries home…to safe “pasture.”

This is the best news in world history…honest.

One more thing-we know it must be important-Jesus said it at the end of both parables:

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

Luke 15:10

What is joy in heaven like?

What brings “more joy” in heaven?

Answer: “One sinner who repents.”

It is why Jesus eats with sinners like us.