Separating Sin from Sinners :: Luke 15:1-10

Luke writes: Now when all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to [Jesus] to hear him, both the Pharisees and the scribes continued to murmur, saying, This one receives sinners and eats with them (vv 1-2). 

[Introduction]

I’m sure y’all have heard it said, “hate the sin but love the sinner.” I don’t know where that expression comes from. Some attribute it to Gandhi, who suggested in his autobiography that failing to follow that idea is why there is so much hatred in the world. 

But is it true ... that we are supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner? Does God hate the sin but love the sinner? Can we separate the sin from the sinner, or the sinner from the sin? What happens when we ignore the Law and neglect the Gospel?

Our Gospel reading from Luke 15 addresses these questions.

5. Let’s speak to this truth first: Yes, God hates sin.

It doesn’t matter what sin we are talking about. Name yours ... idolatry, blasphemy, ignoring what Jesus said ... dishonor, hate, sexual immorality ... theft, lies, lust for more. As Luther teaches us in the close of the commandments, God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them. 

And his threats are not idle. The wages of sin is death (Rm 6:23) ... that is, separation from God and one another. As Jesus says, Woe to the world because of this scandal (Mt 18:7a). Woe to those who say sin can be “innocent.” As Proverbs 6:20 says, He hates false witness.

White lies fall into that category. White lies are soft words that we speak while trying to be polite to one another. We think of white lies as being harmless or trivial, especially when we’re trying to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. But white lies are not innocent or harmless. They lead to mutilation in transgenderism. They lead to a lack of trust. You will not bear false witness against your neighbor, God says. As Luther teaches us, we should instead fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

4. Now that we have established that God hates sin ... let’s ask, does he hate the sinner?

Again, yes! Psalm 5:5 says [God] hates all evildoers. Sin is evil, and those who sin are evildoers. Psalm 11:5 says, His very being hates those who are cruel. Sin is cruel, and those who sin are cruel. Even more pointedly, Jesus told John in Revelation 21:8 that the cowardly and faithless, abhorrent, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars will all end up in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. 

3. So then, can we not just separate the sin from the sinner?

People create all kinds of religious schemes in an effort to separate sinners from their sin, to turn sinners into saints. Notably, in our Gospel reading today, we are reintroduced to two groups of people who were masters at this scheme ... the scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes and the Pharisees certainly meant well. They memorized everything Moses wrote ... you know ... Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. But alongside the Torah ... through what they called special revelation that had not been written ... they also devised a system of interpretation and application for the 613 commandments they found in God’s Law. This system was designed to keep them on the straight and narrow. Through their systematic approach to religion, they taught that anyone who adhered to their system would stop breaking commandments and therefore would never need repentance. They actually thought they could stop being sinners who sin.

I once had a friend who said to me that he submitted to baptism for the fourth time. Then he said, “I hope this one sticks.” It’s terribly sad to hear people speak like this. If only they would hear the Gospel. In my friend’s religious system, he was trying to separate the sin from the sinner and the sinner from the sin. 

This is the popular idea of what repentance is. Repentance, most people say, is about what we do. Repentance, they say, is changing your life in a dramatic and compelling way. But that’s NOT what repentance is. 

Repentance is God’s work ... It is his Word seeking and saving the lost ... just like lost sheep and coins. Repentance begins with the Gospel. When we hear the Gospel, we are drawn to Jesus, by Jesus. Repentance enables us to mourn our sin and to rest in faith. We mourn our sin when we hear what Jesus did for us ... we mourn our loss of fellowship with God and one another because of the sin that we keep doing ... just like Paul says in Romans 7. But just as importantly, we find rest, knowing that God’s grace through faith ... saves us. His grace received through faith is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9) of how we are saved.

2. By Luke’s reckoning, Jesus has been separating sin from the sinner for some time. 

Our Lord set his face toward the cross in Luke 9[:51]. We are in chapter 15. Along the way he’s been preaching, teaching, and healing sinners ... associating with sinners ... receiving sinners ... eating with sinners ... separating sin from sinners by the Gospel. By the time we get to Luke 14, Jesus has been doing this on the Sabbath, no less ... for a woman bound by Satan for 18 years and for a man plagued with edema on the Sabbath. That’s when he told us the Parable of the Wedding Feast and the Parable of the Great Banquet ... parables about sinners who have been set free from sin, invited to eat with the Lord, and given a place of honor with him. The Gospel.

Then Luke writes ... Now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to [Jesus] to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes continued to murmur ... saying to each other, did you hear ... This One receives sinners and eats with them (vv 1-2). 

Make no mistake, what the Pharisees said about Jesus is true. Jesus receives sinners and he eats with them, and he does it on purpose ... with purpose. He’s taking sin from sinners and giving them forgiveness ... separating sin from sinners. And this upset the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees didn’t think they needed Jesus to do this, so they continued grumbling about it ... lying about Jesus. They ignored the Law, and they neglected the Gospel. They refused to defend Jesus, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way. They refused God’s grace.

So now what are we to do? We can start by listening to what John the Baptizer told the Pharisees in Matthew 3[:8-10] by [bearing] fruit in keeping with repentance. ... And don’t think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father’ ... which is to say, don’t think to say to yourselves that your faith will save you all by itself ... for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to raise children in [the family of] Abraham. 

Though you and I both were like Paul in his epistle to Timothy ... formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and insolent ... that is, sinners who sin ... [we] have received mercy. ... The Word is faithful and worthy of all acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tm 1:13, 15). 

1. Now we can ask like Micah: Who is a God like our God, who separates sin from sinners, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression? 

He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love (Micah 7:18)

God loved us in this way: He sent Jesus to be born without sin and to live without sin (Jn 3:16; 2 Cor 5:21). Our Sinless God in the Flesh, Jesus, became the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Jesus separated our sin from us ... the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind (Lk 14:13) ... and he carried it to the cross ... where he tread our iniquities under foot and cast our sin into the depths of the sea ... to die with Jesus (Micah 7:19). 

That’s what Jesus is telling us in the parable.

Jesus is the man who leaves behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go find that one sinner who was lost in sin, unable to separate himself from sin while wandering toward destruction. And when Jesus finds us, he is the one who sets our sin upon his shoulders and carries it to the cross, where he ensured that it would be crucified with him (vv 4-5). The punishment that brought us peace was upon him (Isa 53:5). Jesus shed his blood for us, blood that atones for our sin. Jesus died for us. And he was raised for us. And we have seen him ... and can now rejoice with our friends and neighbors that Hallelujah! He is risen!

This is the Gospel that all too often we lose sight of ... just as Jesus explained in the second part of the parable. The church is the woman who, when she realized she had neglected at least one part of the Gospel, swept the house until she rediscovered it. And just like Luther some 500 years ago, once it’s been found, she calls together [her] friends and neighbors, saying Rejoice with me because I found [the treasure] I lost ... the Gospel of Christ. In this way, I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one repenting sinner (vv 8-10).

[Conclusion]

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus has called you, and found you, and received you. Jesus has forgiven you, and washed you, and declared you forgiven and free. And he even eats with you. So let us rejoice with all the company of heaven and be glad in this Good News that ... 

OUR LORD SEPARATES US FROM OUR SIN AND CALLS US SAINTS

... in Jesus’ name.