Time and again in his Gospel account, the evangelist Luke draws our attention to Jesus’ practice of welcoming people to dine with Him. As might be expected, His disciples regularly ate meals with their rabbi, but Jesus welcomed a much greater circle to His table. Luke reveals that the downtrodden and the outcast were often guests where Jesus dined.
The following blog post is adapted from Kristopher Whitby’s book Come and Be Filled: Feasting with Jesus in His Word.
Eating with Sinners
Some who were graciously welcomed to Jesus’ table were labeled by the Pharisees as “tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 15:1), which set up a continuing tension between Jesus and this self-proclaimed righteous group of religious leaders. We see this tension in Luke 15, but the details are set up for us in chapter 14.
There, Jesus is teaching the crowds what it means to follow Him and the cost of being His disciple. He concludes His teaching with these words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 14:35). At the start of Luke 15, we see the people who were coming to hear Jesus: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’” (vv. 1–2).
Regularly in Jesus’ ministry, He would combine the practice of hospitality through meals with the opportunity to teach His guests while reclining at the table.
And just as regularly, we catch images of Pharisees and scribes leveling this complaint. From their perspective, Jesus welcoming and eating with sinners was more than just a social faux pas. Jesus’ willingness to show such hospitality to those who were known as sinners could have contributed to the Pharisees’ understanding of why He would deserve death.
Luke 15 captures that imagery of Jesus dining with sinners and Pharisees listening in but refusing to join. As these groups who see themselves quite differently hear what Jesus says in the parables of this chapter, let’s take our place around Jesus’ proverbial table to listen to His teaching.
Bringing Home a Sheep
As Jesus begins to tell the parables in Luke 15, He is aware that He is addressing two audiences: those who are labeled as sinners and those who would do the labeling while seeing themselves as righteous. The first parable poignantly addresses both groups.
In this parable, a shepherd has a hundred sheep but has lost one of them. Jesus frames the parable by asking His two sets of listeners to consider what they would do in that situation. Would they leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until it was found? His audiences could easily picture the sacrifice this would pose: wandering around in the hot, rugged Judean countryside, seeking out the one lost sheep. Sheep are not the brightest of animals, so this seeking is vital for the life of the sheep; if the shepherd doesn’t find the sheep first, a predator eventually will. Once the sheep is found, the shepherd carries it home, rejoicing, and calls his friends and neighbors together to rejoice with him.
At this point, someone else seems to have taken on the role of the shepherd. Rather than the people gathered to listen, Jesus Himself is the Good Shepherd. He finds us lost in our sin, places us on Himself, and carries us all the way to salvation, rejoicing along the way! As He does so, He invites everyone to rejoice in the salvation we’ve received from Him. Jesus tells His listeners the heavenly application, just to make sure they get the point:
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).
Christ the Good Shepherd
What is going on before the Father’s throne in heaven? There is more joy over the one who repents than over the far greater crowd of people who consider themselves righteous and thus see no need to repent. Jesus’ audiences must now consider two things: how does the sheep repent in the parable, and what exactly does it mean to repent? The lost sheep does nothing in and of itself to repent. All the work is done by the shepherd. The shepherd seeks, the shepherd finds the lost and carries them home, and the shepherd invites the community to rejoice.
It’s a beautiful image of our Lord’s work among us, His lost sheep. He does not expect us to contribute one thing to our own salvation. He does all the work for us as our Good Shepherd, using His Word to turn our hearts away from our sin to trust His blood-bought gift of redemption. Jesus always does all the work in bringing His lost ones home. There’s more joy over the work He’s done in even one lost person’s life to bring him or her home than over ninety-nine people who refuse to believe they’re lost and in need of repentance, thinking they are righteous in God’s eyes. They’ve absented the role of the Good Shepherd from their lives. But the feast is in the home of the Good Shepherd, and it’s the lost He brings there, so if the “righteous” need no repentance, then they don’t need Jesus. They won’t be in His home, and there is nothing to feast and rejoice over.
Blog post adapted from Come and Be Filled: Feasting with Jesus in His Word © 2025 Kristopher R. Whitby, published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Scripture: ESV®.
Learn how Christ nourishes both body and soul at the meal table in Kristopher Whitby’s book Come and Be Filled.
