The Savior of Sinners

Jesu Juva

1 Timothy 1:12-17                                                       

September 11, 2022

Proper 19C                                        

Dear saints of our Savior~

          The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  That sentence from First Timothy is one of those solid gold, two hundred proof, gospel-in-a-nutshell passages.  It’s hard to imagine being a pastor—caring for the souls of sinners—without having this verse on stand-by, ready to be applied to the hearts of the repentant.  You just can’t convey the gospel more concisely than this:  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

          This verse is good news for everybody; but it’s especially put out there for pastors.  After all, it comes from First Timothy—the very first of what we call the “pastoral epistles.”  These words were originally written down by the Apostle Paul in a letter to “Pastor” Timothy.  Pastors are sinners too.  Pastors are high-value targets for Satan’s temptations.  One veteran pastor once told me, “We pastors are the devil’s candy.”  Pastors can be easily crushed by the weight of their own sin. A pastor’s sin takes a terrible toll—making him feel weak, worthless and unworthy of the office he holds.  But, oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives:  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, including pastors.

          When it comes to sinners, the Lord never gives up.  Sinners are what Jesus does best.  Sinners are His stock in trade, His specialty.  Sinners are His cup of tea.  He came into the world to save sinners.  Not to save His friends, but His enemies.  Not to save saints, but sinners.  St. Paul describes all of this as “mercy” and “grace,” undeserved, unmerited kindness.

          The Apostle Paul’s very life bears witness to the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  By his own admission, Paul “was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent” of Christ and the gospel.  He terrorized the first followers of Christ.  He was dead set on silencing the gospel, making sure the name of Jesus would be forgotten and erased from history.  And he thought he was doing the will of God!  He thought his cause was righteous.  But he was wrong!  He was lost.  But by the mercies of God, the persecutor would become the apostle.  The one who tried to silence the gospel would end up preaching the gospel across the entire Roman world.

          It sounds so simple and trite, but it is a profound truth:  Jesus is the Savior of sinners!  The Christ kept company with sinners.  That’s what got Jesus into trouble with the Scribes and Pharisees in today’s holy Gospel.  They grumbled about the company He kept:  This man welcomes sinners and eats with them! they harrumphed.  He broke bread with terrible tax collectors.  But the religious elite didn’t see themselves in the same boat as those sinners.  They looked down on those other down-and-dirty sinners.  They were better than them—closer to God—holier than thou for sure.

          Now, Jesus hung out with the Pharisees too.  He also ate with them; but they couldn’t conceive of the fact that Jesus ate with them because they too were sinners!  There isn’t a sinner around whom Jesus will not receive and welcome to His table.  Jesus sinners doth receive.  No sin is too great for the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus stops at nothing.  He gives everything.  He does it all for you and for the whole world.  Every sinner is atoned for by His death; every sin is answered for by the blood He spilled.  Behold the Lamb.  He doesn’t let sin stand in the way of saving you.  Instead, He forgives it.  Pays for it.  Washes it away with water and blood.  He Himself seeks out the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost sinner.

          The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  Notice that the Apostle Paul wrote that last phrase in the present tense:  sinners of whom I AM the foremost, not sinners of whom I WAS the foremost.  This isn’t some aw’ shucks humility—Paul putting himself down just to be self-deprecating.  Nor is it an exaggeration.  Paul saw Himself—not as the chief of Apostles—but as the chief of sinners. 

          Can you see yourself in the same way?  Can you classify yourself as the foremost—the chief—of sinners?  The only person whose sins you fully and completely know are your own.  And if you know your own sins—every dark thought, word, and deed—everything you should have done but didn’t—everything you shouldn’t have done but did.  If you know and acknowledge all that, then you don’t know a single sinner worse than you.  You, like Paul, are chief, foremost, numero uno.  Of course, the silver lining of being “chief of sinners” is that you can’t go any lower.  You have nowhere to go but up—from being dead to being raised up, from being lost to being found.

          We are each that lost sheep, that lost coin, that lost, prodigal son.  We must all take our place with Paul as the foremost among sinners.  Before God, we must claim that spot as the chief of sinners.  We need to own it—to stop denying it—to stop making excuses and justifying ourselves, saying, “Chief of sinners though I be, you-know-who is worse than me.” We’re in a mess of our own making.  We’re responsible.  At least Paul could claim ignorance, but that was no excuse.  He was still a stubborn, insolent opponent of Jesus Christ.  But the Lord didn’t give up on him.

          In fact, Paul’s life became a sort of object lesson on God’s undeserved kindness to sinners:  But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.  The Lord never gave up on Paul; but sought him and found him and baptized him and used him in ways Paul could never have imagined.  The chief persecutor of the church became its chief apostle.

          Let this be a lesson for you, my dear, fellow sinners.  Jesus Christ never stops seeking and saving lost sinners.  He never gives up.  There is no sheep so lost—no coin so misplaced—no son or daughter so prodigal that Jesus doesn’t seek to embrace them.  You may think you don’t deserve a place at His table—that you are unworthy and unwelcome.  The devil, the world, and your old Adam would all seek to convince you that you are too great a sinner—that you don’t belong here.  And that’s just flat wrong.  What the religious superstars said as criticism turns out to be the sweetest of good news for you and me:  Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.  He invites us to leave behind our rebellious ways, and take our place at His holy supper—His feast for the least—His meal of forgiveness for the foremost sinners.

          The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost . . . [Now] to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.