“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7). Why is there more joy over one sinner that repents, than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance? There’s this old joke about a taxi driver and a preacher standing in line together at the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter comes by to show them where they will both be staying in Heaven. He first shows the taxi driver this beautiful, gigantic mansion and tells him that all of it is his. The preacher is astonished. He knew the taxi driver and knew that he had been a bit of a rough character, prone to gambling and swearing and working on the Lord’s day. As Saint Peter led the preacher off to his home, the preacher tried to moderate his expectations, but couldn’t help feeling a little excited. He had led a good life, obeyed all of the commandments, and talked about the Gospel every single Sunday. Saint Peter showed the preacher a rundown little shack and informed him that this was to be his heavenly abode. The preacher couldn’t hold back his disappointment. He asked Saint Peter how it was possible that the taxi driver could receive such an amazing palace and he was relegated to this insignificant little hovel. Saint Peter explained that the size and the grandeur of each heavenly home was based in part on how many souls each person was able to bring unto Christ. Seeing the preacher’s consternation continue unabated, Saint Peter explained further, “When you preached on Sundays, you put everyone to sleep with your sermons. But every time someone got into the taxi driver’s cab, they started praying immediately.” It is not the case that God loves repentant sinners more than just persons that need no repentance. It is not the case that God would prefer that we lead lives of sin so that He can get more joy out of forgiving us than He might have if we just obeyed His commandments and followed Him without rebelling. The reason that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repents is because a repentant sinner is more motivated and more capable of finding and convincing other sinners to repent. It may seem foolish, even reckless, for God to permit many of His noble and great ones to veer so widely off the strait and narrow path. What if they don’t come back? Some of them don’t. But God is playing the long game. He knows that someone who has hit rock bottom and clawed their way back out is not going to pass by on the other side when they see someone else down there. And what’s more, He knows that the former sinner will be able much more successfully help a fellow sinner to navigate their way out of the pit than a just person who never needed to repent would ever be able to manage. A just person who needs no repentance can take a horse to water, can describe how good the water tastes, how necessary it is for life, how wretched and miserable and thirsty the horse is, but the person who needs no repentance does not understand the weird mixture of pride and shame and self-loathing that the horse is feeling, how it wants to drink the water but doesn’t know how to lower its head or open its mouth. But the sinner who has repented knows all the horse's tricks, all of its rationales and justifications and self-delusions, and the repentant sinner knows the practical, realistic steps the horse must take before it is finally ready to have a drink. If we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we might believe that we are not welcome, that God couldn’t possibly have any use for us. But the truth is that we are God’s secret weapon, His mole, His inside man. We have found ourselves behind enemy lines and we know what it’s like out there, where the minefields are, and how miserable we felt while we were there. We are not going to stop until we have brought back as many of our brothers and sisters to the safe and loving embrace of our Savior Jesus Christ. Those who need no repentance bring one soul - their own - back to the fold. Those who have repented bring back not just one, not just ninety and nine, but thousands of souls. That is why there is more joy over one soul that repents - because the repentant sinner is willing and able to bring back more and more souls.
