In the movie Mean Girls, a new girl comes into town from South Africa, Cady Heron, who enters into the fierce and hierarchical social environment of an American high school. At the top of the social structure, are a group of popular girls, the Plastics, led by Regina George. They are the elite of the elite, and they do not associate with people of lower social status. And in the cafeteria, they certainly don’t eat with them.
In Luke 15, we see Jesus entering in to a similarly rigid social structure.
The tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus, while on the other hand, the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, complaining about Jesus welcoming sinners and eating with them.
So the people who were scorned by society, the people who were on the outside, were the ones drawing near to Jesus, while the people who were powerful, the religious elite, of the time, were on the side, grumbling about Jesus.
The tax collectors were a particularly despised group of people in Biblical times. They were collecting taxes from their neighbors to send to the Romans, the imperial power governing them. For that alone, they are seen as traitors, holding up this imperial regime. But additionally, they were widely viewed as extortionists—collecting higher amounts than what Rome requested in order to line their own pockets with the difference.
We don’t know as much about who the Pharisees are calling “the sinners”, but to be labelled and known as sinners by the other people in their community, these are folks who “publicly immoral” in some way, outside the bounds of society.
These are the people who are drawn to Jesus’ teaching. The people who are on the outside. The people who have done wrong. Who have committed crimes. That is who is coming to Jesus, and who Jesus welcomes.
The Pharisees and Scribes, on the other hand, are the crème de la crème of Jewish society. They don’t just follow the law. They really, extra follow the law. Their resumes, so to speak, are loaded. Top honors in righteousness.
So when they see Jesus, who calls himself the Messiah crossing boundaries to eat with the sinners, the people who they see as “less than,” they grumble. Jesus does not let that complaining stand. He responds with not 1, not 2, but 3 parables in a row to answer to the grumbling of the Pharisees. To show the immense and immeasurable value of the people the pharisees have labelled “sinners.” The first two of those parables are in our reading today: the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. The third parable in the sequence wasn’t read today, but is the parable of the prodigal son.
Three parables where someone has something of value, loses it, searches for it, and finds it. And in the finding, there is much rejoicing.
Let’s start with the parable of the lost sheep. There is a shepherd with 100 sheep, a decent sized flock at the time, neither particularly large nor small. And one of the sheep wanders off. Presumably, most shepherds at the time would not expend too much energy searching out the one lost sheep. After all, a 99% success rate in any business venture even today, is a really strong metric. Additionally, attempting to find the lost sheep would be exhausting, possibly dangerous, and it would be unlikely to be successful. The prudent business decision is to stay with the 99 sheep. But this shepherd goes after the lost sheep, not giving up until he finds it.
Similarly, there is a woman who has ten silver coins and loses one. Now the stakes have been raised. Already, she is in a poorer position than the shepherd in terms of her wealth, and has lost 10%. She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. Calling her neighbors together to rejoice with her at finding the coin that was lost. And it is not just God who rejoices at the one sinner who repents, but the angels of God, the whole host of heaven, also rejoice.
The message of these stories is one of transgressive inclusivity. The one sinner is worth everything. Jesus does not abide by the divisions that we continually create amongst ourselves, in this case of the sinners and the righteous, and he continually challenges them. We, like the Pharisees, continue to create and reinforce divisions about who is worthy and who is unworthy. But Jesus says no. Jesus welcomes the “unworthy” every single time.
Be wary of anything that divides people in this way. Be wary of policies that say you are only worthy to rent an apartment if you have never committed a crime. Be wary of laws that say you are only worthy to receive food or healthcare if you are working. Be wary of rhetoric that says you are only worthy to receive due process if you are a citizen. Jesus condemns these distinctions.
In God’s economy, there is not a single person who is unworthy. There is not a single person who can be written off. Every person uniquely reflects God’s glory, and God is not satisfied for a single person to be lost. 99% success is not enough for God because God doesn’t weigh one person versus ninety-nine in the way the world would. God sees that every person is infinitely valuable.
And the irony in the end, is that there are no ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Every single one of us is the lost sheep who Jesus drops everything to find, but not everyone knows that they are lost. The tragedy of the Pharisees and the Scribes is that they do not see themselves as needing salvation, needing Jesus. They believe themselves to already be righteous. Their overconfidence in themselves is the source of their judgment on others.
There is a reason we include confession in our liturgy every Sunday. Everyone needs to repent. It is an important reminder to have when it is so easy to find ourselves in the position of the Pharisees, casting judgment on others, when Jesus says time and time again “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37).
Circling back to Mean Girls, the top prize they are seeking was not salvation, but the Prom Crown. In an iconic scene at the end of the movie, Cady is chosen by her peers as Prom Queen. However instead of accepting the crown and further reinforcing the social hierarchy that excludes and demeans, she breaks the crown into many pieces, giving a piece to everyone who had been seen as other, on the outside. She says “everyone looks like royalty tonight.” So too Jesus did, breaking the social hierarchy in favor of those seen as the lowest. Giving them the crown of salvation and welcoming them into his eternal kingdom.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, Help us to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but rather to think of ourselves with sober judgment and repentance for the ways in which we fall short and continue to divide ourselves from others. Thank you, Lord Jesus that even though we fall short, you never leave or forsake us. You stop at nothing to find us and bring us back to the safety of your care. Amen.