You've surely heard the saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” You know, if you put in a little bit of effort, then God will supply the rest and make everything work out. That's the kind of God most people have. The kind of God who will do his part but expects you to do yours. The kind of God who will only really bless you if you try hard to be godly and do the right thing. Many people out in the world figure that while there might be a God out there, it's really up to us in the end to make things work out. But let's see whether that's how things really work. Is that how God really is? How did that work out for the lost sheep? Did the lost sheep try to help himself and only then did the shepherd go find it? What about the coin? Did the coin just roll a bit closer to the old lady so she could see it and then pick it up? Of course those ideas are silly. The fact is, unless the shepherd went after that sheep, unless that woman tore apart her house, that sheep and that coin were gone for good! No, brothers and sisters in Christ, God doesn't help those who help themselves. He helps those who can't help themselves. Who can't fix themselves. Who can't find their way back. Who have no way of being rescued except that He comes to find them.
And how does that shepherd go about it? How is the coin found? Here Christ is speaking of His work in coming to save sinners. Sinners are lost sheep, caught up in the brambles and just a few minutes away from the devil, that roaring lion, making a snack out of them! That coin is no longer shiny but is rolled up in some ball of dust under a piece of furniture, in the corner of the room. Born sinful, we can't fear and love and trust in God. All we do is wander away from Him. In our sins, we flee from God and turn away from our neighbor. We are lost. Finished. We are food for that roaring lion Satan. Until the shepherd comes. Until the old woman sweeps the house. Until the Savior appears. Jesus, the Son of God, comes down and becomes man to go after the sheep. He places Himself between the sheep and that lion, the devil and drives off that lion with His own suffering and death by which you escape and are rescued! His death and resurrection sweep away sin, death, the power of the devil and the judgment of God that was against us. In Jesus we have the God whom Micah says pardons iniquity and passes over transgressions. This isn't something we figured out and asked for. This is God's mercy in His Son Jesus Christ by which we are rescued from sin and death. And then the shepherd throws the lamb over his shoulders and brings it to his house. Just so Christ has taken hold of you in Holy Baptism, and brings you to His house, His church, in which a feast is laid in celebration of your salvation! What joy!
But not joy for the Pharisees. They weren't glad. They grumbled about Jesus, “This man eats with tax collectors and sinners!” He hangs out with people who aren't holy because they have kept the Law well. He hangs out with people who aren't like the Pharisees, proud of how much religion they've got. You see, for the Pharisees, religion was about what they did to prove to God they were worthy. They kept the Law, lived according to all of its commands and rules. When you saw a Pharisee you would have no doubt, “There's a holy guy! There's a guy with some religion!” We know the same thing. Someone says, “She's really a good Christian.” What they mean by that is “She doesn't drink and cuss and do all that other stuff.” Perhaps. But what most bothered the Pharisees was that Jesus didn't eat and drink with THEM. If He were a true Rabbi, and truly from God, then He should know that THEY were the holy ones who did everything right. Not sinners and tax collectors. But Jesus didn't do that. He didn't pat those Pharisees on the back and tell them how great they were. He taught them that if they were going to be truly godly, they had to be lost sinners who needed Him as their Savior. Such teaching they didn't want. Didn't believe.
But what does Jesus say? He says that the angels rejoice over one repentant sinner not over ninety-nine who need no repentance! Now understand something. These stories aren't about people who stop coming to church while the rest of the congregation still faithfully comes every Sunday. It's much bigger. It's those who are saved and those who need no salvation. Where are you in this parable? If you are a Christian, then you are the lost sheep and the lost coin, the one who has been found and rescued and brought back by Christ when you couldn't save yourself. But it's easy to switch over to “Pharisee Mode” when we see others being brought into Christ's church that we don't think belong there. And why don't they belong there? Not because God isn't merciful but because those people aren't as good as us! People like to ask, “Pastor what about Adolf Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer” or any other kind of mass murderer, serial killer, really evil person. Can they be saved? Did Jesus die for them? Of course He did! His suffering and death are for the sins of the whole world. But those are just examples we like to throw out to convince ourselves that we're better than those types. What if someone you really hated and despised came into the church? Your ex? Your father or mother whom you haven't spoken to in years? Your estranged son or daughter? That person who did you such a terrible wrong long ago. What if they were brought into the church? What if, by the preaching of Christ's Law and Gospel, they were converted and became a Christian? What would you think then? Would you welcome them or think, “There's no way they deserve to be here after what they've done!” Easy to switch to Pharisee Mode and think that we are more deserving than others. Repent, dear Christians, of thinking that you or anyone else is more or less worthy of Christ's salvation. He died for all. No strings attached. To seek and to save the lost. To seek and to save, yes, even you!
And this then leads us to the question of what true repentance is. Are you repentant? Are you truly sorry? Can you even measure such a thing? How do we know—better yet, how does the Lord know if we're sorry enough? Is it when we turn our lives around? Fix everything? “Get right” with God? No, listen carefully. Jesus says a shepherd finds a lost sheep and likewise the angels rejoice over a repenting sinner. Jesus says a woman finds her coin and heaven rejoices over a repenting sinner. Pay close attention: What did the sheep do other than wander off? What did the coin do other than roll into a corner? The repentance of the sheep and coin are not that they went back to the flock or rolled back into the light but that they were found by the shepherd and the old woman. True repentance is not that WE do something but that we are found and rescued and saved by Jesus. True repentance is your baptism in which you are drowned and die and rise to new life with Christ. True repentance is the confession of your sins and the proclamation of Holy Absolution by which you are reminded that you have been found. True repentance is the feast of salvation celebrating that the Jesus who has given His body and blood for you now gives them to you to eat and drink for forgiveness, life and salvation. Or to put it another way, true repentance is the SPIRIT'S work in you through the Word. The difference between sinners and tax collectors and Pharisees isn't that some are more or less sinful than others. The difference is that the Pharisees think they have done enough to make God happy with them and therefore have no need of a Savior. And if they have no need of a Savior, then they have no Savior. The tax collectors and sinners, and YOU on the other hand, have been taught by God's Word that you can't save yourself. But you have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who has given Himself into death for your sins and will raise you up to eternal life on the Last Day.
“God helps those who help themselves?” I don't think so! God helps those who cannot help themselves, who can't do anything but get lost, roll into corners, and fall into sin. Your enemy, the devil, is prowling about like a roaring lion. But your Shepherd won't let you be eaten up! He has gone high and low, from heaven to hell and back to save you and bring you into His house where you shall feast and rejoice in His salvation all the days of your life and of the life to come! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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