Luke 15:3-7 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

The open sinners were gathering around Jesus to hear his word. The Pharisees and teachers of the law, who lived outwardly moral lives, had only criticism for him. Which group contained candidates to become part of Heaven’s Greatest Joy?

I like it when people do things right the first time. I am satisfied if the waiter brings me the wrong order but quickly corrects it after we discover the mistake. I probably give a bigger tip and may even put in a good review of the place if everything is right from the start. I am satisfied when my mechanic owns up to the mistake he made repairing my vehicle and fixes it at no extra charge. I compliment his work, recommend him to others, and keep bringing my car back if he is consistently getting the diagnosis and repair right on the first try. I was satisfied when my children apologized for their bad behavior. It gave me a sense of pride when they chose to do the right thing all along.

We may tend to focus on things like behavior, results, success. Our Lord likes good behavior, too. But he is focused more on the people themselves. It gives him joy simply to have them, to have them back with him safe and sound.

Maybe that’s not so hard to understand. I took great pride in my children when they made the honor roll, or walked the stage at their graduations, or were commended for their work as lifeguards in a special ceremony. But that was nothing like the joy I felt on the day we learned my wife was expecting, or the day they were born. Then, before this little person could do anything, when all he or she did was exist, there was joy just to have them, joy that they had made it into our world and into our family safe.

Our repentance is like our spiritual birthday, one that happens over and over again. It is the day that we die to sin and live to God. It is the day that doubt and fear, resistance and contradiction, give way to faith and trust and love. It is the day Jesus’ love wins us for his side, however shaky and weak that new allegiance may be at first. Then he can say, “This one belongs to me now, and if the devil wants him back he will have to fight me for him.”

Repentance is the change of mind and heart that make us belong to God, a new birth into a new life. With every sin confessed and promise of grace grasped, that new birth keeps producing new life. When he finds us, our Lord claims all of us for himself all at once. But at the same time his love and forgiveness keep winning more and more of ourselves for him. His ownership grows with each new conquest.

Having us, owning us, making us his very own–that’s what gives our Lord his greatest joy. That’s not something that happens with the spiritually self-satisfied who think that they have made it on their own. They still belong to themselves. They always will. That’s something God does only with sinners: not too proud to admit their sins, ready to let Jesus carry them home. That’s the circumstance no one would have expected if Jesus did not reveal it as heaven’s greatest joy.

May we never be too good, or too proud, to be the sinners Jesus seeks, Jesus finds, and Jesus rejoices to call his own.