RECEIVING AND REJECTING.
3rd Sunday after Trinity.
S. Luke, xv. 2.
"This Man receiveth sinners."
INTRODUCTION.—In to-day's Gospel our Lord represents Himself as a Good
Shepherd seeking His lost sheep, going out into the wilderness after
them, to bring them back into the fold.
The fold is that place where He keeps His flock shut behind the hurdles
of the Ten Commandments. Every now and then a sheep leaps one of these
hurdles, or pushes his way between them, and runs away into forbidden
pastures. Then the Good Shepherd goes after the erring sheep, and
brings it back. "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his
friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have
found my sheep which was lost."
SUBJECT.—Christ is not always to be regarded as the Saviour receiving
sinners. The time will come when He will be the Judge, rejecting them. He is a shepherd now, bringing back the straying sheep, and replacing them in the fold, but one day He will do just the contrary, He will go to His fold, and pick out the incorrigibly bad sheep, and cast them out.
I. We will consider Him now as the Good Shepherd. What is His purpose
in bringing back the straying sheep? That they may remain within
bounds for the future. Christ has come to save sinners, that is to
say, He brings them to repentance, and pardons their transgressions, in
order that, for the future, they may walk in newness of life, and not
commit the sins of which they were guilty before. Thus if He brings
back one who has been a liar, it is to truth that he returns, and
Christ expects him to speak the truth ever after. If He brings back a
drunkard, it is to temperance, and He expects him to be sober for the
future. If He brings back one who has sinned through impurity, it is
to chastity and modesty. This is what S. Paul means when he says, "Put
off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbour. Let him that stole steal no more, let no corrupt
conversation proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the
use of edifying. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And
be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another."
II. We will consider Christ as the Judge. The time will come when He
will separate the bad from the good, when He will go over His fold, and
pick out all those diseased sheep which are good for nothing, and which
taint and infect the others, and will cast them outside.
That is to say, the time will come, when Christ will no more call
sinners to Him, and bring them to His Church, but will examine those
who are in His Church, and unless they have mended their ways, unless
they have become better for being there, He will throw them out, and
have nothing further to do with them.
When Joshua was leading the people of God into the Promised Land, God
said to Joshua, "Up! Sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves
against to-morrow."
In what did this sanctification consist? "Joshua rose early in the
morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was
taken: and he brought the family of Judah; and took the family of the
Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and
Zabdi was taken: and he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi was taken." Then Joshua learned how this man had sinned and incurred the anger of God, and he and all Israel carried him and his family outside the camp unto the valley of Achor, "and all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones." That was the sanctification of Israel,—the putting away the black sheep out of the flock.
When Jesus sat with His Twelve in the supper chamber, at the Last
Supper, Judas rose and went out, and when he was gone forth, Jesus
said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." A little while before, while Judas was in the room, we are told, "Jesus was troubled in spirit." But the moment the evil one among the Apostles was cast forth, the glorification of the Son of Man began.
So it is now, and so will it be hereafter.