The Tuesday after the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 5, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 15:1-7 (NKJV)
15:1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying:
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Devotion
Pharisees murmur, grumble, backstab, and deceive; after all, such actions are the normal course of action for those who are enemies of the Truth. They use poisonous words in their attempt to keep their hearers enslaved to their false teaching, but our Lord answers with a parable which proclaims the joy which exists in heaven when a single person is brought to the faith.
Our age, weighed down by corrosive notions which would link ‘truth’ to ‘majority opinion,’ thinks that the masses are what ultimately matter. The parable in today’s lesson teaches the truth that one man or woman or child being delivered out of spiritual death is a cause for rejoicing among the angels, and therefore should be celebrated among the saints, as well. Pharisees want to measure whether they consider a particular believer to be “worthy”; the Lord beholds the hearts of those whom He calls through the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word, and the conversion of sinners is a source of joy in heaven—and on earth, in Christ’s Church.
Collect: O God, Whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: We humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
