Seeking the Lost

Luke 15:1-10

The sermon contrasts the Pharisees’ fixation on righteousness with Jesus’ mission to seek and restore the lost. The Pharisees equated righteousness with strict obedience to the law, which excluded tax collectors and sinners from fellowship. Jesus, however, welcomed these outcasts, showing that God’s concern is not with labels of righteous or sinner, but with finding what is lost and rejoicing in its restoration.

Father Mark highlights the radical nature of Jesus’ table fellowship. To eat with sinners and tax collectors was to declare their full acceptance, undermining cultural and religious boundaries that defined community identity. In Acts, Peter faced criticism not for preaching to Gentiles but for eating with them. Likewise, Jesus redefined belonging by embracing the excluded, making joy in restoration the heart of the gospel.

The sermon closes with the question: can someone be righteous and still lost? Father Mark explains that people may appear morally upright yet be consumed by ambition, ideology, or perfectionism, leaving them spiritually adrift. God’s focus is not on tallying righteousness but on seeking the lost—whether sinner or seemingly righteous—and restoring them to relationship. The church becomes the place where all who feel lost can be found, celebrated, and enveloped in God’s mercy and love.

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.