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“This man receives sinners and eats with them!”
᛭ INI ᛭
Jesus was always getting into trouble with the religious leaders. There were a few reasons why. First, He kept claiming to be the God of Israel. That got Him condemned by the Jewish religious court and delivered over to the Romans. As God He kept healing on the Sabbath, that also got Him in trouble, and He also got in trouble by “welcoming sinners and eating with them!”
He welcomed sinners. He forgave their sins. He shared His table with them. In fact, He partied with them! He had a party at Matthew’s house after He called that Tax Collector as one of His Twelve Apostles. (Lk 5) Jesus invited Himself over to Zacchaeus’ house for a party! (Lk 19) His parties, as all proper parties do, involved eating and drinking! In fact, Jesus sharing suppers with sinners is a big theme in Luke. Jesus’ table fellowship is on display in our text this morning. Jesus doesn’t just “welcome sinners and eat with them!” He also preaches about it, too! Through Jesus’ words and His actions we’re confronted with this truth:
THE LORD’S TABLE IS A PARTY OF FORGIVENESS.
(I. That’s what’s going on in our text.)
Last week the Lord Jesus preached about a banquet where the only people who’d come were the “the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.” This week we’ve got the meaning of that parable: Jesus eating and drinking with “tax collectors and sinners.” He’s welcomed them to His table. They show up not only to eat and drink but “to hear Him,” to hear His preaching.
Jesus preaches about rescuing the wandering sheep, finding the lost coin, and welcoming back the wayward son while also imploring the dutiful son to also come! And there’s a party in all three parables! The shepherd “calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’” The woman does the same for her lost coin. The father of the lost sons commands, “Bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.” A party for a wayward makes sense. A party for a lost sheep less so. A party for a lost coin is just, well, silly!
But the Lord throws a party of forgiveness. The angels and archangels rejoice when the Lord saves sinners, when He lays down His life for a lost sheep, a lost sinner, when He pays the ransom price of His own life and blood for a traitorous, lost tax collector. He is the agent of His Father’s Compassion, as He embraces the wayward and calls to table even the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees. He announces His redemption for one and all, for sinners great and small. He proclaims the great compassion of God, that He “came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim 1) He came to seek and to save that which was lost. (Lk 19) For “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Lk 5)
(Transition.)
The LORD Jesus “prepares a table before [us] in the presence of [our] enemies.” (Ps 23) In our text, He “received sinners,” as well as tax collectors, “and ate with them” in the presence of the “Pharisees and Scribes.” The shepherd of the lost but now found sheep celebrated with his friends and neighbors. So did the woman for her coin! (Who’d throw a party that costs more than the lost coin?) Sort of a silly thing the Lord Jesus would do! And the father hosted a banquet with His servants and messengers for the lost but now found, the dead but now alive son. He even begged His older son to come. Jesus by eating and drinking with sinners in the presence of the Pharisees and Scribes was pleading with them to come and eat, too! After all,
THE LORD’S TABLE IS A PARTY OF FORGIVENESS,
for one and all, for “tax collectors and sinners,” which should include the Scribes and Pharisees, for are there really ever people “who need NO repentance”? What the Lord was doing then, the Lord continues today. For THE LORD’S TABLE IS still A PARTY OF FORGIVENESS.
(II. That’s what’s going on in day.)
The Lord Jesus still preps a table. It’s still a party of forgiveness! But Jesus welcoming sinners to His table is not a celebration of sinners and tax collectors. He wasn’t being inclusive, tolerant, and accepting. He forgave their sin. They were no longer dead in trespasses (Eph 2). They were no longer slaves to sin. They were alive in forgiveness! They were given freedom to be sons in His Father’s kingdom!
So it is with you and me. Such is the power and benefit of Holy Baptism. Through it God the Father “delivered us out of the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1). As Paul says, “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6) As Israel was passing through the Red Sea, now you, passing through Baptism, are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Pet 1)
Some want to stay in their sin, or masquerade like Judas. Some “love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (Jn 3) Some want to be self-reliant, self-righteous, to only need the Lord a little bit. As if He, His forgiveness, and His table are only the cherry on top rather than the whole sundae!
This is then the power of Communion, too. The power of Jesus’ blood and body, as we heard last week. That this table is a party of forgiveness. It is “for the forgiveness of sins.” There is “joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents!” One sinner saved by Christ! One sinner who trusts in Christ! Even one sinner who is at Christ’s table! Thus we gather around the table to hear what Jesus says, to eat what He gives, and do so surrounded by the “angels and archangels” rejoicing at such a gathering and feast and party!
(Conclusion.)
THE LORD’S TABLE IS A PARTY OF FORGIVENESS.
The Table in Luke 15, this Table today, and the eternal Table, where we’ll eternally party and feast in joy and thanksgiving that “Christ the Lamb was slain” and His “blood set us free to be people of God.” That blood here, for forgiveness. “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
“To remember Christ is to remember His benefits. It means to realize that they are truly offered to us. It is not enough only to remember history. (The Jewish people and the ungodly also remember [history].) Therefore, the [Divine Service] is to be used for administering the Sacrament to those that need consolation. Ambrose says, ‘Because I always sin, I always need to take the medicine.’ (AC XXIV 31–33)
But “those who are [depraved] and morally loose must be told to stay away [1 Corinthians 5:9–13]. They are not prepared to receive forgiveness of sin, since they do not desire it and do not wish to be godly. But the others, who are not such callous and wicked people, and who desire to be godly, must not absent themselves. This is true even though otherwise they are feeble and full of infirmities. For St. Hilary also has said, ‘If anyone has not committed sin for which he can rightly be put out of the congregation and be considered no Christian, he ought not stay away from the Sacrament, lest he should deprive himself of life.’ No one will live so well that he will not have many daily weaknesses in flesh and blood. (LC IV 58–60)” Your love, your life, your faith, your holiness all supported by Communion and forgiveness, as I said last week.
“This man receives sinners and eats with them!”—Himself both host and meal, today! His body and blood for you. THE LORD’S TABLE IS A PARTY OF FORGIVENESS. Even the angels are celebrating with us!
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