Sermon for The Third Sunday after Trinity, June 21, 2026.
A mother who has many children loves them all. Of course. And she doesn’t want any of them to suffer. But let’s say one of her little tikes gets sick. The sickness establishes a difference between the siblings. The sick child is now set apart from the others. The sickest has become the dearest. If you were to look at the mother’s care of the child, it would be unmistakable that her greatest care and concern were focused on the sick kid. This doesn’t mean she loves the others any less, but that the sick child needs her love all the more at the moment.
This is what we have in Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd had a hundred sheep, but only one was lost. That one is in trouble, and so he leaves the ninety-nine to go out and rescue lambchop from the danger it’s in.
I love the way Martin Luther describes our Lord’s heart regarding this parable. He preached, “[O]ur Lord says of Himself. Sinners are my… valuable, earned property. I purchased them through my suffering and death at a price more costly and dear than a [sheep to a man, or even a child to her mother]… It cannot but distress me and make me deeply concerned if they should lose their way and slip through my hands. I cannot permit them to become the devil’s property, because the price of their redemption is too high and has been too painful. For this reason, I cannot tolerate it if one of my sheep wanders off; and I respond as if others didn’t count, go after the lost, looking for it, lest it become prey to the wolves.” (The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 6. Eugene F. A. Klug, Baker Books, 2000. p 253)
It’s not that Jesus loves the ninety-nine any less, but that at the moment the one needs His loving attention. This, dear sainted-sinners, is a beautiful word of comfort for each and every one of us, because each and every one of us is a sinner. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t been frightened by the devil, who hasn’t found himself alone in the wilderness. There isn’t a single baptized Christian who hasn’t gone astray just like a lost sheep, sinning against God. It’s sin’s nature to make us fear because to sin is to do wrong, and when we do wrong we fear punishment, as we heard two weeks ago from 1 John 4:18 when the Holy Spirit told us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment…”
This is the point behind Jesus’ parable. He’s telling us that we have nothing to fear. That our Shepherd seeks us out, not to punish us for our sin, but to pick us up, put us on His crucified shoulders and by His cross bring us back to the fold. Luther said it better than I can. “A heart that knows itself to be guilty naturally feels fright, turns from grace, and anticipates punishment. But at this point is where power lies, that we, against our hearts, and consciences, join with Christ to say, I am a poor sinner, that I will not deny; however, I will not for that reason despair, as though God did not want me, because my Lord Jesus Christ says that a poor sinner is just like a little sheep that has lost its shepherd and gone astray. Christ will not let such an erring sheep be lost, but will look for it and carry it back to the other sheep.”
Or to cut to the chase, what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel lesson, in His parabolic explanation for why He “receives sinners and eats with them,” is that He’s not going to throw you out because you’re a sinner. No. Instead, with all perseverance, He’s determined to rescue you from your sin and restore you to Himself by His grace.
And not only does He forgive your sins, but when He does, when He absolves you of your trespasses, when He returns you to the purifying waters of Holy Baptism, when He receives you at His altar and communes with you, “there is more joy in heaven over [you, a single] sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:16) He’s not saying such people exist. The focus is on you, the repentant sinner.
Again, friends, we see that our Lord loves to party. He calls together His friends and His neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”
We’re all that sheep. I’m that lost sheep. You’re that lost sheep. Each of us is to see ourselves as that sheep, rescued by the cross of Christ, restored by His decisive love for you—His death in your place. That is where the shepherd retrieved you from the devil-wolf in the wilderness. There, Jesus says with selfless action, “Don’t be afraid.” You don’t have to fear punishment. He’s come to save you, not scold you, not punish you. He’s come to show you just how much He loves you. He’s searched you out through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments. These things He instituted to seek you out and give to you the results of His crucifixion.
Or, to quote Luther one last time, “By nature no animal is more vulnerable and defenseless than a sheep. The same is true of a sinner whom the devil has turned from God and his Word and brought into sin. He is not safe even [for] a moment, because our enemy, the devil, as Peter says, sneaks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In such jeopardy our only consolation is that we have a Shepherd, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who accepts us and seeks us out, not to punish us for our sins and throw us into hell, but rather finds us, places us on his shoulder and rejoices to carry us home to safety from the wolf, where we have pasture and where every prospect pleases. You know how such search takes place, namely, that [Jesus] permits his Word to ring out plainly, from which we learn how heinous and burdensome our sin is which would throw us into eternal damnation. But God, in his fatherly love, was compassionate toward us disobedient children and through his Son provided counsel and aid in our misery.”
Praise be to God that our Lord receives and eats with sinners like us, repentant sinners whom He sought out to save, lost sheep carried back to the fold on Christ’s crucified shoulders.
Amen!
Rev. Tyrel Bramwell 
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