“Constructed for Rescue Missions”

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 11, 2022

Exodus 32: 7-14/Psalm 51: 1-11/1 Timothy 1: 12-17/Luke 15: 1-10

Bishop Ariel P. Santos

The Old Testament is a shadow of things to come. It wasn’t a full revelation and some had failed to understand Him so much so that God sent His final Word, Jesus Christ. It was the understanding before that God was very angry with the Israelites that He wanted to kill them because the people of God were obstinate, stiff-necked people.

One theologian said that Jesus did not come to change the mind of God toward men. He came to change the mind of men toward God. John said that no one has ever seen God, so no one can explain Him. The only begotten Son of the Father has explained Him and revealed His heart. If we want to know God, look at Jesus. If we want to know what man we are supposed to be, look at Jesus. Jesus is the perfect God and perfect man.

The mindset of the Pharisees is that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because He sits with sinners. They grumbled about Him being the Messiah eating with the sinners because God should have nothing to do with sin. Their teachings were influenced by the Old Testament which says to purge the evil from among the Israelites. Purge was used 18 times in the Old Testament. It was a capital punishment for the sinners. The parents with rebellious children have the right to take them to the elders to be stoned. To remove the evil from men, they are to be killed.

God does not kill. God renews, converts and restores. Converted from being rebellious to someone who loves God. To say that the wicked will be no more means not to be put to death but to be renewed and restored to a new creature. The psalmist says, “I will not die but tell of the works of the Lord.” God will not destroy the world but will come up with a new heaven and a new earth.

We think that evil people should be removed from the face of the earth. But who decides who is to be purge and removed and who is to stay? In the Old Testament, all the people of God were called obstinate. However, Jesus reveals the true heart of God. God loves us. God has forgiven us. God is not angry at us and He will never leave us nor forsake us. He doesn’t count our sins and our rebellion against us. God doesn’t condone our sins, but forgives it and takes it away. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.

St. Paul said to Timothy in a paraphrase 1Timothy1:16, “This statement is completely reliable and should be universally accepted: ‘Christ Jesus entered the world to rescue sinners.’ I realize I was the worst of them all, and that because of this very fact God was particularly merciful to me. It was a kind of demonstration of the extent of Christ’s patience towards the worst of men, to serve as an example to all who in d future should trust him for eternal life.” St. Paul killed people and persecuted the Church and he thought himself to be the worst, but God was merciful to him. St. Paul wanted to demonstrate the extent that God would go to reach out to the worst of sinners so that everyone should accept that God rescues ALL sinners. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. All of us are lost, so God reaches out to us.

In the gospel, Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ grumbling with the parables of three lost items in different levels: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. Looking at the lost coin, the Greek word used for coin is the least valuable coin. It is inanimate; very insignificant. In our own eyes, we may see ourselves as insignificant. But God, like the woman, searches thoroughly for the lost coin. It is not because of its value in the eyes of others, but of its value in His eyes. The woman throws a party after finding the lost coin. This is our value in the eyes of God. We are loved by God and this should give us security. Our security is not the amount of money that we have or the fame that we have. God loves us for who we are. We might think that we are a one centavo coin, but God would go to the farthest extent to look for us.

For the lost sheep, they will get lost without a shepherd. They are helpless and would never find their way back home by themselves. They need a savior to rescue them. The shepherd will not get angry if a sheep goes astray. Instead, he rejoices upon seeing it as he puts the sheep on his shoulders and prepares a feast to rejoice. Left alone, the sheep will never find its way home. It cannot save itself.

Jesus reveals the heart of God. God’s love is unrelenting, never giving up. We easily give up and get impatient. Our loyalty only goes only at a certain point. God makes up His mind to look for us, leaving the ninety-nine in the open field, until He finds the least, the worst. He rejoices when we are found and prepares a feast.

The feast is not a by and by. The party is right now! It is for us. We are not to boycott it not like what the older son did in the parable of the lost son. Both the older and the young son were lost. The older was lost as he did not participate in the party of his brother. The father rejoiced when his young son was found. This is our God!

Christianity is not so much about us seeking a distant, indifferent, apathetic, hard to understand God, as it is about Him looking and searching for us even when we have gone astray. His love has sought us out and found us. The Bible says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” Yes, but we only seek Him because He already sought us out. All of us are lost but we are all within reach of the saving embrace of our God.

A Daily Office Collect for Mission says, “Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.” The outstretched arms of Christ on the cross is how much He loves us.

One theologian says of a story of God in His immaculate garments. He sees a precious diamond that falls into the mud and settles at the bottom. What does God do? He gets up on His throne, and in His immaculate white garments dives into the mud and goes to the bottom and rescues the diamond. He doesn’t mind getting himself dirty. He goes through all the trouble in order to seek us out, to find us and to save us. This is our God the Father.

The woman who lost her coin was searching carefully and diligently so that she could find the lost coin. When God finds us, He rejoices and celebrates. The Pharisees did not know that they were lost. Sometimes, we, too, are lost; and we sometimes think others are lost. We judge others as lost, but we, too, are lost in a certain degree. The lost coin that was inanimate doesn’t know that it is lost. The sheep cries because it is lost, but cannot do anything without the help of the shepherd. The prodigal son, somehow, realized that he was lost and should go back. They were all lost in a certain degree and all were rescued. This is the true God that we make known.

I always say that I have the best job in the world because I proclaim the good news. Sometimes, the doctors somehow have the difficult job of breaking bad news to families for relatives who do not make it. All of us, as Christians, only proclaim the good news. The good news is that God loves us; God has forgiven us; God is not angry at us; God will never leave us nor forsake us; and He is not counting our sins against us. Thanks be to God!

Jesus came to change our minds about God. Our God is a loving Father. He is our Abba Father, and He wants us to be like Him. We don’t only proclaim Him, but we imitate Him. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Actually, we don’t only make Him known by saying the good news. It is also by imitating and emulating Him which is the best way to proclaim Him to others because this is the way it is in the kingdom of our God.