Thursday in the 31st Week of Ordinary Time, November 7, 2024

Luke 15, 1-10

The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus addressed this parable to them. “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

“The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus.”  We should remember that most Jews, including the Pharisees, expected the Messiah to gather an army together to expel the Romans from Jerusalem and the whole region of Israel.  However, tax collectors and those known as public sinners — Jews leading dissolute lives — would not be fit for such an army, which must be of the most righteous in the land.  We see this ideal in 2 Maccabees 12, 39-40 when the Jewish soldiers who had been killed in battle against the Greeks were found to have hidden on them items belonging to the worship of foreign gods.  All those who worshipped the true God survived the battle, but those who worshipped other gods did not.  And so the Pharisees object to the tax collectors (who worked for Rome) and sinners drawing near to Jesus.

“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”  The Lord does not address the concern of the Pharisees but the concern of Almighty God.  We should notice that a man signifies God here, and sheep signify his followers.  A man is high above a sheep in terms of intelligence and in other ways.  But even more so is God above us.  Further, a shepherd is under obligation to care for his sheep.  No obligation compels God to care for us, and yet he cares intensely.  And so we read that the Lord is pasturing his people.  One of them goes astray, whether willfully or through negligence.  “And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors.”  He sets it on his shoulders because it is exhausted and cannot make it home by its own power.  That is, the Lord does the hard work of forgiveness.  All we need do is to humbly receive it.  The “friends and neighbors” are the saints and angels.  They rejoice over the Lord’s infinite love and for the returned sinner.

“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it?”  The Greek text tells us that the “coin” was a drachma, a Greek coin.  This may reflect that St. Luke was writing for a Greek audience and changed the name of the currency to something Greeks would be familiar with.  The drachma is conjectured to be worth between five and seven dollars today, a large amount of money for a typical household of the time and place.  The woman who has lost the drachma searches diligently until she finds it, sparing no effort.  Just so, the Lord spares no effort to draw the sinner to grace.  He continually offers him opportunities to convert, shows him signs that he must convert, makes it hard for him not to convert.  Even so, many do not.  But great joy rings through heaven when one does.  It is the victory of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.