Trinity 3
Dear friends in Christ. There is hardly any other Gospel in the Church Year more comforting than today’s Gospel. It begins with the great and notorious sinners coming to Jesus. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. Not only that, but Jesus doesn’t chase them away. Instead He welcomes them and so much so that it attracts the attention and ire of the religious leaders of the Jews: And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” What is the greatest and most comforting is that what these religious leaders are saying is true; and what they intend as the greatest insult against Jesus is for us the greatest comfort when we very much feel our sins: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” We have that glorious faith-worked certainty that our sins do not drive Jesus away from us because He wants nothing to do with us sinners but that, instead, Jesus receives/ welcomes us sinners.
When you very much feel your sins and your conscience is accusing you and condemning you—and rightly so—and you are sorry for your sins, don’t let shame drive you away from Jesus and into despair. That’s the devil’s trick. Instead, like the tax collectors and sinners go to Jesus. Yes, it is true we are sinners and our sin is great; and it is true that Jesus is the holy God. But it doesn’t follow that we stay away from Him. Instead, we go to Jesus like the tax collectors and sinners did. And why? Just like they did: to hear him; to hear His holy word of forgiveness, to hear Him pronounce the absolution on us no matter how great our sin is because His grace and His work for our forgiveness is greater than our sin. We go to Jesus because He receives sinners and eats with them—not only at a meal like He did that day with the tax collectors and sinners, but at the meal, the Holy Supper/ the Blessed Sacrament in which He gives us His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Precisely when we feel our faith weak and very much feel our sins oppressing us and giving us unrest, precisely when we feel ourselves most “unworthy” precisely then we tax collectors and sinners go to Jesus to hear him pronounce the absolution over us; He will receive us sinners and eat with us, giving us His very body and blood.
In today’s Gospel, we hear in the parables that Jesus compares Himself to the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep and that He compares Himself to that woman diligently seeking out the lost coin. Such is His love for us sinners!
But as we examine our text today from St. Isaiah, we will see the opposite side of the same coin as today’s Gospel. The parables Jesus tells are of Him seeking us; what we hear from St. Isaiah is that we are seeking God. That God in Christ seeks us out—that is the true picture; that we seek out the Lord, that the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him, that’s what it looks like from our perspective! What we will see in our text is that from our angle/ perspective we Christians are the ones who are seeking out the Lord. For us, the good news is that God wants to be found!
1. Our text: Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. Speaking by the Holy Spirit, St. Isaiah here calls on the Israelites and on all people down through the ages to seek out the Lord, to look for Him. This invitation the Lord gives here through the prophet is a great grace: Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. And why is it a grace? Because there’s a promise here! The promise is that God can be found and He wants to be found. God is not hiding from us, not wanting us to find Him. It’s not like He moved and left no forwarding address or changed His phone number. That He invites us to look for Him and to call upon Him means that He is gracious to us and wants to be gracious to us sinners. Again, think back to today’s Gospel. Jesus wanted to be there with those tax collectors and sinners; that’s why they could draw near to Him to hear Him. They were seeking the Lord by listening to Jesus’ word.
Precisely by listening to the word—the holy word of the prophets and apostles—we are seeking the Lord while he may be found. By ourselves, left to our own devices we would never seek the Lord while/ where He can be found. To be sure, all people have a notion of God, that there is a God. But because of our corrupt sinful nature with which we are born, we don’t know who the true God is. St. Paul puts it this way [Ac 17.27]: [people] seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us. People grope and perhaps get bits and pieces of who/ what the true God is like: righteous, powerful, just, etc. But they do not get the “full picture;” left to ourselves people can never come to the true and right knowledge of God. That’s why we seek the LORD while he may be found—and where He may be found—in the Holy Scriptures and in Jesus, who is God in the flesh and who lived and walked on this earth.
What a great grace of God that is! Dear Christian, we have the word of God. The Lord is calling on us to seek Him—to seek Him in that word. There we will find all that we need to know about God and who He truly is: not only is He just, righteous, and absolute holiness but also that He is gracious and merciful. There we find Jesus; that He is our Savior from sin, death and hell. There we will find that He is our righteousness and salvation. O dear Christian, how gracious is our Lord. Not only does He reveal Himself in His word but He had that word come to us! Let us be like the tax collectors and sinners and gather around Jesus, gather around His word to hear Him. There, in Jesus and in the Word God is found.
Now, gathered around that word, is the time of grace for us! Now is the day of salvation. The Lord is found—in His holy word: Seek the LORD while he may be found. Let us open our eyes and direct our hearts and minds to what God says to us about Himself in His word. Let us open our eyes and see that the great mighty God, whom the whole universe cannot contain, is here with us today as we gather here around His word; and in His holy word He is giving us the fullness of His riches and blessings. Let us open our eyes and see the great mighty God, whom the whole universe cannot hold but who took on human flesh and blood and lived among us to be our Savior, that He is coming to us in a wonderful and special way giving us His very body and blood with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, the holy, almighty God does not hide Himself from us sinners, making Himself inaccessible to us. But instead, is found under the most common and insignificant appearance of word, water bread and wine because He wants to be found so that He can give us all of His heavenly and spiritual blessings. And so He tells us through St. Isaiah: Seek the LORD while he may be found.
2. But since because of the sin we are born in and with and so do not and cannot know the true God rightly, can we even seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near? Isn’t it impossible for us even to want to seek the LORD and call upon him? Again, left to ourselves, yes! But the Lord God does not leave us to ourselves. Precisely by the word and sacrament through which the Lord comes near to us, He draws us to Himself and creates in us faith that believes the word that tells us who He is and faith that receives the gifts He gives. According to our text, what does God reveal about Himself and promise us sinners? That He [has] compassion on [us], and [that He] will abundantly pardon [us]. This is how God draws us to Himself so that we seek Him and call upon Him. This is the divinely persuasive power of the Gospel. First God, in His word, assures us sinners of His compassion; and then He assures us that His grace is eternal. Return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
God can be and is compassionate and His grace is eternal because of Jesus and His saving work. By His holy life for us and by His suffering and death on the cross for our sins in place of us, God’s wrath over our sin has been stilled. Our sins stand forgiven. That’s what Jesus’ resurrection shows us. Now, because of Jesus, God can and does abundantly pardon us our sins. It is precisely this forgiveness and compassion that God uses to draw us sinners to Him, that He uses to lead us to seek Him where He may be found—in His word and sacrament—and to call upon Him in repentance and faith.
Our compassionate and gracious Lord wants to be found, so not only is He near but He Himself draws us to Himself so that we seek Him—just like a piece of metal looks like it is going to the magnet, it is actually the magnet that is drawing it to itself. Jesus said [Jn 12.32; 6.44]: And I, if I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross of crucifixion], I will draw all peoples to Myself; and No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him. The wonderful and gracious work of the Holy Triune God calling us sinners to Himself so that we seek the LORD while he may be found; [and] call upon him while he is near. Thinking back to today’s Gospel: why were the tax collectors and sinners…all drawing near to hear [Jesus]? Why were they seeking the Lord? Because He Himself was drawing them to Himself. The Lord wants us to seek Him and for us to find Him. Since we cannot/ would not do it on our own, He draws us through His holy Word.
That’s what He did with the tax collectors and sinners [who] were all drawing near to hear him. By His Holy Spirit at work in the word, He convinced them of their sin; they very much felt their sin and wanted relief/ forgiveness for that sin and that’s why they went to Jesus to hear His word of forgiveness. But the thing is, it is not enough to seek the Lord; instead, once we find Him in His word we cannot be the same; we cannot continue on as we were. The tax collectors and sinners who drew near to hear Jesus did not hear Him tell them it is OK to continue on in a life of sin. But they were changed. The Holy Spirit changed their hearts so that they desired now to do the will of God, to live a life in accord with His holy will.
The Lord did the same with you. In your baptism you died with Christ. Baptism has become an actual and real death to sin, a being freed from it. Now, strengthened and led by the Holy Spirit, you strive and want to live a life in accord with the will of God who loves you and saved you. Yes, we will still sin because of the weakness of our old sinful nature but when we recognize our sin, we turn from it, confess it, seek absolution and seek the Lord’s help and strength to keep from doing it again.
Our repentance as the Lord draws us to seek Him is not a sham repentance. We don’t come to God on our terms but instead in the Spirit-created, new life we abandon the old way of life of sin, as St. Isaiah says in our text: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Our outward life is different let the wicked forsake his way; as well as inwardly, [let] the unrighteous man [forsake] his thoughts.
Notice this in yourself and be comforted, dear Christian: the godly always feel their own sin and imperfection, they will always feel the law accusing them, and they will always long for God’s grace. That’s why our lives as Christians are ones of constantly seeking the Lord in His word and sacrament. As we return to Him we will once again discover and rejoice in His mercy. We live lives of seeking the Lord much and calling on Him much because we sin much and need much forgiveness and He richly and abundantly forgives us. INJ Amen