If you may have noticed people walking around scratching their heads lately it could be that they are church-going Catholics trying to figure out what on earth has Jesus been saying to us in the gospels these last few Sundays. Last Sunday Jesus said we cannot be his disciple unless we hate the members of our family. Two weeks ago, Jesus warned that many may not make it to heaven. Sunday before that Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” and today Jesus gives us three parables that do not make sense. If this goes on, we may have no hair left to scratch. Let’s look at these three parables Jesus is using to teach us. Now the Scribes and the Pharisees are scandalized at Jesus welcoming and eating with sinners. Pharisees would have nothing to do with these “breakers of the law of God.” So Jesus answers with these two parables. The first is about a shepherd and his sheep; “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?" Well this will leave them scratching their heads because no one would do that, risk leave their whole herd to predators and thieves over one sheep. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Again, no one would do that, they would look absolutely foolish, having a neighbourhood rejoicing over a lost loonie. Jesus has fashioned these examples to be counter intuitive to the extreme to demonstrate that when it comes to sinners God does not think like we do. Just the opposite. “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”. God wants all his created humanity to be at home with Him in heaven. That is why God sent his Son into the world to bring every last one home. Jesus illustrates this with the story of the Prodigal Son which ends today’s gospel reading. The question for us today is where do I stand on the lost? Let them go to hell if they want to, they deserve it. Or am I here today in tears over those I know who no longer have any interest in anything having to do with God? In this parable of the Prodigal Son there are three main characters. Which one do I most resemble? |
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