Sinners on the other hand could mean a lot of things. It is likely referring to women who earn their living through occupations like prostitution, but it could also refer to those who were ethnically Jewish, but didn’t abide by Old Testament laws, such as eating kosher. Within Jewish communities, such disrespect for God’s laws would gain you the label of being a sinner.

According to the story, these types of people are becoming more common in the crowds that are gathering to listen to Jesus and a group of Jews, known as the Pharisees, take notice. The Pharisees were very devout Jews. What set the Pharisees apart from everyone else was how they approached the laws of the Old Testament. The Pharisees were very concerned with making sure that they didn’t break any of these laws.

For instance, the Old Testament says that people are supposed to rest on the Sabbath (which is Saturday). The Pharisees created rules, known as gezerahs, that said, “You are allowed to take 40 steps to go to your well to draw water on the Sabbath, but more than 40 steps is considered to be work.” The gezerah is like a fence that has been placed around the law. By observing the gezerah and staying behind the fence, then you know that you are not going to break God’s law.

I think it’s important to note that the Pharisees were not bad people. In fact, in their day and time, the Pharisees were revered. The Pharisees were considered holy like Mother Theresa. So it would have been an honor for Jesus to have Pharisees in the crowd listening to him. But what’s interesting about this story is that the Pharisees pass judgment on some of the people sitting in the crowd—the tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees are a bit offended that Jesus would spend his time with these people.

We’re not given any reason as to why they were offended, but it likely has to do with their mentality and you see this type of mentality a lot in Christian churches. People who are extremely religious often have very specific ideas of how a person should live their lives. It’s very black and white. There’s a right way and wrong way. If you’re living according to their values and beliefs, you’re good. If you’re living in opposition to those values and beliefs, then you’re bad.

Now, I can certainly commiserate with this way of thinking. Although you wouldn’t know it today, when I was younger, my view of the world was very black and white. I was easily one of the most judgmental people I knew. Particularly when I was in high school and college, I had a very low opinion of anyone who didn’t conform to my very strict morality. You didn’t drink alcohol or caffeine, you didn’t use drugs, you didn’t engage in sexual activity, your body and mind was temple that you didn’t abuse. As you might imagine, I was the life of the party. People loved having me around.

But I do have to put this in context. I grew up in Virginia and Virginia has a pretty intense drinking culture. To give you an example of just how intense, when my wife and I first got engaged, some of our neighbors in my home town threw a celebration in our honor. I had friends from Oxford come and visit. More than one of them came up to me and said, “I’ve never seen so much alcohol in my life and I partied hard in college.”

The crazy thing was, that celebration wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It was just an average weekend. So you have to realize that I was reacting to a culture where the concept of moderation didn’t even exist. Because the drinking culture was so extreme in one direction, I felt pushed to the opposite extreme. And when you’re operating from an extreme position, wherever it is, then you will likely become judgmental. When you totally disagree with how someone chooses to live their life, it creates a disconnect because you can’t understand them at all, which brings me back to the Pharisees.

From the perspective of the Pharisees, tax collectors and sinners are not living according to the right values and beliefs. It’s not right for a woman to sell her body for profit, it’s not right for a Jew to ignore kosher laws and it’s not right for a tax collector to steal money to support himself. If this is the way you choose to live your life, then the Pharisees, who are operating out of an extreme position, are going to feel you are living life the wrong way.

It is this judgment that prompts Jesus to tell these two parables. The first is known as the parable of the lost sheep and begins like this, “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?” Now, first of all, the premise of this parable is absurd. If you’re a shepherd and you have 100 sheep and you lose one of them, no shepherd in their right mind would leave behind the other 99 sheep in the wilderness just to find the lost one.

It’s important to note that Jesus doesn’t say, “Who of you, if you lose one sheep will find another shepherd to tend your flock, while you go in search of the one you lost?” In the parable, the shepherd just leaves the majority of his flock in the wilderness unattended, which means predators are going to have a field day. Imagine if a pack of wolves caught sight of those sheep? By the time you got back with that one sheep, I can tell you, you wouldn’t have 99 anymore.

But of course, that’s not the point of the parable. The sheep and the shepherd are metaphors. The shepherd, as always, represents God. The sheep represent us, the people who are being tended and nurtured by God. In this parable, the 99 sheep are the people who are living according to God’s expectations. This is a nod to the Pharisees in the crowd. Whereas, the one sheep who is lost refers to the undesirables in the crowd, the tax collectors and sinners.

So the parable continues: “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” What Jesus is trying to convey through the parable is that God rejoices more over one sinner who changes their ways, than over the 99 who do everything in accordance with God’s expectations, which, when you sit back to think about it, is kind of stunning.

You would think God would rejoice more over the person who lives their entire life according to the rules than the person who constantly screwed up and then finally got their act together. But the opposite is true: Jesus is telling us that God is more focused on the sinner than the person who is doing everything right.

The same basic message is in the parable of the lost coin. A woman loses one of her ten silver coins. Again, the coins represent us and the woman represents God. She sweeps her house until she finds it. And when she does, she’s so relieved that she invites her neighbors over to celebrate. This is when Jesus says, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

In essence, Jesus is sending a not-so-subtle message to the Pharisees in his presence—God is more focused on finding the sinners who are doing the wrong things than praising you for doing the right things. The question we are left to answer is why? To begin exploring this, I want you to consider a very interesting problem, one that has vexed humans for centuries.

What is the most important factor that determines our path in life? What is the most important factor that determines the type of person we will become and the actions we will take in our adult lives? To put this in terms of what we’re talking about today—what is the most important factor in determining whether a person ends up as a Pharisee or as a sinner?

Now, there are a lot of possible answers to that question, but generally speaking, the answer that is agreed upon by most experts is the environment in which you are raised. If you are born into a healthy, nurturing and loving environment, then you will likely grow up to become a healthy, nurturing and loving adult. Whereas if you are born into a dysfunctional, toxic and harsh environment, then you will likely grow up to become a dysfunctional, toxic and harsh adult.

Of course, this is not true 100% of the time. Some people grow up in fantastic environments. Life has handed them a golden ticket and they are just horrible people. Likewise, there are people who grow up in the most challenging of circumstances and they are remarkable people. You scratch your head and wonder, “How could you possibly be so amazing when you had so little going for you?” But those are the exceptions, not the rule and the rule is that humans are shaped by their environments.

So how does a Pharisee become a Pharisee? How does someone become a good person who takes their religion very seriously? Well, it is likely that behavior was modeled for them when they were growing up. They watched their father study the Torah. They were praised by their parents for learning all of the rules. They drew a connection between dedicating their life to God and experiencing positive outcomes.

Now let’s examine the other side of this equation. How does a sinner become a sinner? How does a tax collector become a tax collector? Well, very similar to the Pharisee, being a tax collector is a family business. If your father was a tax collector, then you would have the political connections to become one as well. And your father would be the one to teach you the ropes. You would go with him from door to door collecting the tax bill. And when you very astutely observe that your father is asking for more money than they owe, you ask him why and he says, “It’s just the cost of doing business.” You assume that’s normal. You never question the ethics. Your environment teaches you stealing is normal.

But let’s push this even further: how does a prostitute become a prostitute? Well, usually it’s a last resort. You have no other means to put food on the table, so you sell your body. What this means is you don’t have resources. You don’t have a husband to support you or a family to take care of you. You’re living in poverty. You watched as other women, perhaps even your own mother, did the same thing to survive. You’re environment has taught you that you must do whatever is necessary to get by.

We all walk down roads that have been laid before us. We are all set on paths based on the circumstances into which we are born. If you’re one of the lost sheep, it is likely you were set on that path long ago. The person who you are today is the result of the environment in which you were raised and the choices that environment taught you to make. To change that path requires a completely different way of looking at the world.

So how do you change the trajectory of a person who has gone down a bad path? How do you get them to see the errors of their ways? Is it by judging them for what they’ve done and telling them that they are wrong? Is it by making them feel bad for who they are and what they’ve become? No, the way you help someone to change their life is by showing them love.

In the parable, the shepherd loves the lost sheep so much that he refuses to give up on it. He goes searching through the wilderness doing whatever he has to do to bring it back. So even though no shepherd in their right mind would leave 99 sheep behind to go searching for one lost sheep, this is no ordinary shepherd. This shepherd is driven by love and will do anything to get that lost sheep back.

You see, what this parable illustrates is that our God will never abandon us. Our God will always seek after us because God loves us unconditionally and will do anything get us back on the right path. So for those Pharisees who passed judgment on the sinners in their midst, Jesus understands those sinners didn’t simply choose their path. They were made that way, forged by their environments. Jesus also understands that if you want them to change and be different, if you want them to choose a better path, the only way to make that happen is to pursue them with love.

And I want to end this morning by returning to my earlier example about my own path of being judgmental of my peers for their choices. After I left home and had spent significant time away from Virginia, I realized that what I had experienced growing up was unique. There were plenty of people in the world who could drink alcohol in moderation and, as I met those people, my attitude towards alcohol began to change.

I eventually realized that many of my peers from Virginia, who I deemed to be sinners, were simply taking the path that had been laid before them. Their environment taught them that drinking excessively was normal, so that’s exactly what they did. And sadly, I watched as many of them succumbed to addiction. After reflecting on my own behavior, I eventually realized that judging them solved nothing. If I wanted to help them change their path, then I would need to show them love.

And that’s what I did. I started pursuing my old friends like lost sheep. As we reconnected, if they were struggling with addiction, I would just say, “Tell me what that’s like,” and they would tell me. Then I would say, “Is there anything I can do for you?” They would say, “Just pray for me please,” and I would. I would pray and call and pray and call and for more than a few of my friends, they eventually sought help and got sober. There are lost sheep everywhere. We simply have to have the courage to be like the shepherd who loves his sheep so much, that he never gives up. Amen.