Parables #1: The one you reject has the same place as you (Gospel of Luke 15); Patrice Berger

Parables #1: The one you reject has the same place as you (Gospel of Luke 15); Patrice Berger

Sermon: The one you reject has the same place as you

In the crowd listening to Jesus

Today we are going to be invited to join the people who are listening to Jesus.

Besides, it’s weird those who are next to us seem disturbed.

Oh no, they are shocked! Obviously, they blame Jesus for having eaten with a drug dealer…

But Jesus doesn’t seem to be upset. He tells them two stories.

Well, they echo what I experienced:

In effect…

Story 1 on skis

We have been given the opportunity to supervise many ski trips with pre-teens and teenagers.

And sometimes on the tracks it was “rock’n’roll”. Indeed, many came from regions where there were no mountains or snow and they learned the joys of skiing…

We even happened to supervise two, 17 young people who were beginners. Fortunately, it was on a school track, with a single buttock pull. The smarter ones went up and down, which left us more time with those who were “knitting” with their skis.

But after a day or two spent on the school slope in the village, we went to the large ski area. One of us in front to lead the way and keep the group together and the last to help those who were in trouble.

With a concern pegged to the body, that there is not one who leaves in a more or less controlled momentum and that we no longer know where he is on the slopes.

In general with beginners this did not happen. On the other hand, with those who say they are in control, it has happened that there is one who, at an intersection, takes on the other side of the group and that we do not know where he is for the whole afternoon. .

I remember that at the time I am talking about, cell phones did not exist!

I can tell you the relief it always produced when the instructors on returning from the slopes found the youngster at the chalet.

It would have been weird to come home from the week of skiing and tell the parents, everything went 99% well. There’s just one, we don’t know where he is…

So you see the kind of relief it can do when you find him back at the cabin!

Story : 2 tickets

It’s a bit the same type of emotion, as a child or a young person when we have saved banknote after banknote by working and putting aside to buy what we dreamed of and when we have the expected amount and we go to make the purchase, a ticket is missing…

We look in our secret hiding place, we see if it hasn’t fallen on the ground, we recount the tickets and finally, there was one that was stuck… and a « phew » of relief crosses the body and joy can be read on our face!

These two stories of relief and joy could have been told much better by Jesus if He had been physically with us.

Look in Luke chapter 15:

1 All the tax collectors and sinners approached Jesus to listen to him.

2 But the Pharisees and the scholars of the law murmured, saying:

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then he told them this parable:

4 « If one of you has 100 sheep and he loses one, does he not leave the other 99 in the wilderness to go in search of the lost one until he finds it? find?

5 When he found her, he joyfully put her on his shoulders 6 and when he returned home he called his friends and neighbors and said to them:

‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’

7 Likewise, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who do not need to change their attitude.

8 Or if a woman has 10 pieces of silver and loses one,

won’t she light a lamp,

sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

9 When she found her, she called her friends and neighbors and said:

‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin I lost.’

10 Likewise, I tell you,

there is joy among the angels of God for one sinner who repents.”

Meaning of the two parables

They are beautiful these two parables

They express:

Total joy on earth as in heaven,

for the one (considered the worst)

who repents

facing the gaze of those who are usually considered righteous .

Understanding a parabola is very simple but often it complicates…

A parable is an illustration, a press cartoon, a painting, to highlight a truth, not 36…

Parables are not an allegory where every detail has a meaning.

But the general idea of ​​the story is compared to a spiritual truth that Jesus wants to emphasize. To detect it, it is very simple.

Who is Jesus talking to?
Who is Jesus talking to? To a fairly mixed crowd; It is certain that there are religious notables (verses 1-2), perhaps still people excluded from the society of the time and most certainly disciples.

This is important because it helps us to understand to whom the teaching is addressed.

The triggering event
In a parable, there is always an event that will trigger the illustration by the parable.

Here it is clear:

The reproach is that « This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. » (verse 2b), and so Jesus gives the story.

The story offers a comparison
The story that Jesus tells is not just to fill the time, but it always offers a comparison between

the fictional story

and the spiritual truth He brings to light.

Here it is very simple:

(I do it in 3 times to show that we can refine)

The outstretched hand of Jesus to the outcasts of society is compared to a shepherd who goes to get the last of his sheep.

Joy for the repentance of the worst compared to the joy of the 100 th sheep found (or the piece found).

Joy in heaven for the repentance of the worst vis-à-vis 99 “righteous” compared to the joy of the village for the 100 th sheep found with regard to the 99 safe in the flock. (We have the same idea with the parts).

Tips and precision
At the end of the story, Jesus often brings an additional precision: in verse 7, Jesus underlines the need for repentance

The central truth
The truth (only one) is simple:

Total joy for those who repent.

Total joy on earth as in heaven for the one (considered the worst) who repents in the face of those who are usually considered righteous .

Hot topic in the time of Jesus
Jesus does well to point out this truth: indeed, the religious world of Jesus’ day had a strong connection with social and political life.

So, when we had a religious function, the people were notables. In doing so, spirituality was tied to social status.

Perverse effect, a kind of value scale was linked with religion, with as always

“the good” spiritually are those who are also recognized in society. Here underlined by the phrase « 99 righteous who need not change their attitude » (verse 7).

It was certainly ironic on Jesus’ part: to emphasize that religious notables felt righteous in their own eyes, in the sense of Philippians 3.6 , when Paul said of him that « in relation to the righteousness of the law I was irreproachable”.

But Jesus shows by this that the righteousness of those who enter the Kingdom of heaven must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 5. 20 : « For I tell you, if your righteousness does not exceed that of the specialists in the law and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. »

“The outcasts and the unclean” are those who are at the bottom of the social ladder, they felt unworthy of things concerning God.

Jesus Rehabilitates the Forsaken
It is for this reason that Jesus emphasized, put a spotlight on the outcasts of the system to show that all were concerned with God and with the good news that He brought about.

So when he says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 , it’s not only for the religious world, but for everyone…

Embodied message
Jesus carried the message that concerned everyone, being also with the abandoned, the poor, the rascals, the destitute.

God’s benevolence is not just for iconic people
God’s concern is not only addressed to those who, for particular reasons, will climb the social ladder, such as

Job,
Abraham,
joseph,
David,
but also, afterwards, towards those who will not know it.

God recalls, through Jesus, this concern for everyone, from the smallest to the largest.

We will find this same attention with the spotlight of Jesus with the children.

Jesus got involved, He would like to involve us
If Jesus emphasizes, gets involved, teaches it is so that

all his listeners do the same,

may all Bible readers do the same.

Jesus involves us in these parables
The pedagogy of Jesus is excellent

“If any of you” (verse 4) is like saying if any of us had 100 sheep or 10 coins, what would he do if he lost one? Well, it research, it’s normal, it’s obvious.

Example of the note in a Bible.

Gradually
Jesus is going to move from light things (a bit like us with the idea of ​​play) to serious, spiritual, present and eternal things.

If we do it, all the more so will God
Logic, if we do like that, with all the more reason, God does the same.

If we humans react with obvious logic,

obviously, we will look for the missing sheep,

obviously also, we will look for the missing part.

A fortiori, God will do the same.

With the same ability, Jesus will gradually move from situations far from his listeners to situations that are more and more precise and which reach them, while waking them up, pricking their paradigms, their systems of thought.

Losses, intense searches, personal and shared joys
Indeed, if these two parables put us in the same scenario:

something is lost,

whoever is looking for it puts all his energy into it until he finds it.

When he finds her, there is immense joy:

Great joy for the shepherd who had the responsibility of the sheep which did not all belong to him, because the flock was to be that of “all the friends and neighbors” with whom he celebrates. We understand his joy!

And for the lady, it is perhaps the family money that is at stake. If the husband, on returning, learns that a piece is missing, that would be a tragedy. We can imagine that the loss of the room was shared with the neighbors, since they are invited to rejoice!

Illustration with the profession of a shepherd
But shepherding was far from the world of those who reproached Jesus!

The profession of shepherd had two readings at the time
Obviously, we would think of the Lord as the Shepherd of Israel and His tender care and we would think for example of Psalm 23.

However, this hard job, no one really wanted to do it…

This is why the last of the family of Jesse, David, stuck to it, because the other brothers, when they were the last, had been there and no longer wanted to do it.

Being in the cold or in the middle of a dodger, in the rain, animals prowling around, etc., moreover, it was commonly accepted that shepherds were suspect…

So when Jesus said “If any of you” is like this shepherd, it stung the ears of the religious who took “a holy distance from this world”.

Worse for the time, a woman

But Jesus will still wake up his listeners, locked in their certainties, by taking a woman as the main person.

It is as if He were saying, “If any of you” is like this woman. And, at the time, society absolutely did not reserve the same place for women as we know them today in the West.

For comparison, they had the same place or the same value as in certain countries of which we have echoed and for which we are rightly shocked.

Jesus insists on the abandoned
If Jesus takes as central person a lady, it is not to shock, to make one who swims against the current but it is the purpose of these two parables, Jesus replaces the value in the eyes of God and who should be in the eyes of all, of those who are forgotten in the scale of values ​​of the society of the time.

Jesus will embody this message
He will live this message by letting his feet be washed and perfumed. When He speaks with the Samaritan woman (there moreover it was a double penalty for the time, a woman and a Samaritan woman, therefore considered a bastard), Jesus wants to show that all humans are concerned by the Kingdom of God, by the work of the Messiah: it is not only for religious, political, prominent men or heads of families, men.

Jesus in his pedagogy Jesus forces irony
That’s why there are two stories.

The irony increases, Jesus forces the line (the caricature, the press drawing).

The percentage increases
Religious were very fond of money: Luke 16.14 joins them on their favorite ground.

The loss is even greater, going from 1% (with sheep) to 10% (with coins).

Pun
What is translated by “coin”, “drachm” (Aramaic of the word zuz, zuzim in the plural) had a double meaning and also meant: “those who have moved away, those who have left”.

(This will be echoed in the parable that follows, the two sons).

In the House
But what Jesus also shows here is that the room is lost in the house. She is part of the house, inevitably, she will be found.

And even if we looked closely at the first parable, we would see that the heart of the story is the return home (center of the chiasmus). This will also be the case in the story that follows the two parables, that of the two sons.

God welcomes those who are considered the outcasts of society into His house, as if it were a homecoming, where they should always have been.

One could see that the value of the lost is underlined or even increased and that the people who have lost themselves will necessarily be sought for their repentance.

The primary meaning for us today:

God does not exclude anyone
It is to know that the outstretched hand of God, through Jesus, does not exclude anyone.

Those we consider the worst are just as expected in the eternal house.

The price of rescue is equally great for all
God, through Jesus, deploys a lot of energy to seek them out, to bring them back. The price of rescue is important, the cross, as much for them as for us, who always judge ourselves with a certain leniency and necessarily above those we consider the worst.

The condition is the same for all.

To repent, Metanoounti really, it is seen by a change, a metamorphosis of Metanoia life,

7 Likewise, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Metanoounti) than over 99 righteous ones who need not change their attitude (Metanoia).

No one is excluded
No one in our scale of worth can be excluded from God’s grace.

Principle acquired but in reality
In principle, we all agree, but we have within us, just like legal specialists, someone who is impossible in our eyes: someone from the family who has done us harm, a « Frouze » or a « Rital » who took the job of a real Swiss, someone at work, or studying, a category of population, ideological, having preferences.

A Vladimir?
One of the worst Kadhafi, who had a lot of blood on his conscience, who had systematically raped the most beautiful girls in his country. In his last days he asked an African president to speak to him about « his Jesus ». The rest, we do not know, Gaddafi was liquidated a few days later.

Let us never limit in our head, who can be affected by the grace of God.

Even us, whatever we’ve done.

The kingdom of God is for everyone.

Besides, Jesus is going to be even more explicit.

There are two parables that follow.