“This Man Receiveth Sinners”
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ninety and nine and went out into the wilderness to find that which was
lost. The soul, bruised and wounded and ready to perish, He encircles
in His arms of love and joyfully bears it to the fold of safety.
It was taught by the Jews that before God’s love is extended to
the sinner, he must first repent. In their view, repentance is a work
by which men earn the favor of Heaven. And it was this thought that
led the Pharisees to exclaim in astonishment and anger. “This man
receiveth sinners.” According to their ideas He should permit none to
approach Him but those who had repented. But in the parable of the
lost sheep, Christ teaches that salvation does not come through our
seeking after God but through God’s seeking after us. “There is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all
gone out of the way.”
Romans 3:11, 12
. We do not repent in order that
God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may
repent.
When the straying sheep is at last brought home, the shepherd’s
gratitude finds expression in melodious songs of rejoicing. He calls
upon his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, “Rejoice with me;
for I have found my sheep which was lost.” So when a wanderer is
found by the great Shepherd of the sheep, heaven and earth unite in
thanksgiving and rejoicing.
“Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than
over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” You
Pharisees, said Christ, regard yourselves as the favorites of heaven.
You think yourselves secure in your own righteousness. Know, then,
that if you need no repentance, My mission is not to you. These poor
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souls who feel their poverty and sinfulness, are the very ones whom
I have come to rescue. Angels of heaven are interested in these lost
ones whom you despise. You complain and sneer when one of these
souls joins himself to Me; but know that angels rejoice, and the song
of triumph rings through the courts above.
The rabbis had a saying that there is rejoicing in heaven when one
who has sinned against God is destroyed; but Jesus taught that to God
the work of destruction is a strange work. That in which all heaven
delights is the restoration of God’s own image in the souls whom He
has made.
When one who has wandered far in sin seeks to return to God,
he will encounter criticism and distrust. There are those who will