Luke 15:1-3,11-32
Trinity 3
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Jesus wasn’t acting the way a respectable rabbi should. Here He was, consorting with tax collectors and “sinners” and people of bad reputation. They were drawn by Jesus’ words–His stern message of repentance and His comforting message of forgiveness. Many were brought to saving faith through Jesus’ words. He even shared meals with these people, a sign of closeness and fellowship and joy.
But the Pharisees and scribes complained, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” If Jesus were really sent from above, they reasoned, He would understand what sort of folks these are and wouldn’t dirty Himself with their company. And so they slandered Jesus saying, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34)
In their slander, of course, there was a grain of truth. Jesus is the truest and best friend of sinners. But in this sense: He came not to ignore sin or condone sin but to take away sin and save sinners. And in order to do that He was willing to dirty Himself with our uncleanness that we might be cleansed from the muck and the mire of our fallen condition and be restored to the family of God.
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The Pharisees had no clue what Jesus was doing, no understanding of His Father’s mercy. And so He tells a parable: A certain man had two sons. The younger son wanted to have his inheritance right away–basically wishing that his father were dead! And since it didn’t seem that was going to happen any time soon, and the son wanted to get on with his life, he demands his share of the inheritance now.
The boy’s father is unusually gracious. He had every right to punish his son for this rebellion and this insult. But instead he grants his wish. It must have broken the father’s heart to do that, just as it breaks God’s heart when we turn away from Him and act like we wish He were dead and out of the picture so we can do what we want–when we neglect his Word, when we don’t take our place at His table. But sons are not slaves. They are free to go, free even to reject their father and family.
So the younger son left on an adventure in a far-away country. And like many folks with too much money and time and not enough responsibility, he wasted all of it on prodigal, excessive living. He was having a good time, living it up. But then the money ran out, and so did his friends.
Penniless and alone, the young man found himself in the middle of a famine. And so he hired on with a citizen of that country, a surrogate father of sorts, who put him to work slopping the hogs. That’s where sin always leaves us. It promises fun and power and pleasure. But after a short time it leaves us far worse off than when we started–broken and empty-hearted down with the swine.
When the pig feed began to look appetizing, the young man finally came to his senses. He repented. He realized what he had lost by leaving his father. Even his father’s servants were doing better than him. He was sorry for what he did.
He prepares his confession: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And then, just in case, he works out a little deal: “Treat me like a servant, a hired hand.” It seemed like a perfect plan. His father could save face and he would at least have some bread in his belly.
But things didn’t go exactly according to His plan. For the Father had been watching for him every day. And when the Father saw him, he didn’t wait for the son to come to him. In great compassion, He ran down the road to his son, embraced him and kissed him. It must have been some sight, seeing this honorable man scurrying to welcome his son back, even before the son could say a word.
Finally, the son manages to break free of his father’s embrace long enough to say his little speech. But the father is already ordering his servants to get a fine robe and a ring and sandals for his boy. Kill the fatted calf, pour the wine, let the party begin. The son didn’t even get to bring up his deal about being a hired hand.
Which serves to make an important point: God doesn’t receive us back and forgive us based on our apology and how sorry we are. The father embraced his son before the son could say or do anything! It’s all about God’s love toward us in Christ. It’s all based on His undeserved grace and kindness toward us. God rejoices over the sinner who returns home and desires forgiveness. And so do the angels, the Father’s servants. God’s passion is to save us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Through Christ He continues to seek and to save the lost.
The truth is that, when it comes right down to it, Jesus is the real prodigal son in this parable. It says here that the father gave to the younger son of his livelihood. Literally, it says he gave to him of his “substance.” Don’t we confess in the Creed that Jesus is of one substance with the Father? Then the Son of the Father goes to a far country. Which is to say, for us and for our salvation the Son descends to earth and becomes man. Here He blows His wealth and His substance consorting with tax collectors and sinners and the likes of us. He is prodigal and wonderfully excessive in the way He dishes out His mercy toward us. He loses it all for you, dying in your place as if He were the rebellious son, the whore, the self-righteous Pharisee, the glutton and the drunkard, to win your forgiveness. Then Jesus arises and returns to His Father, who exalts Him to His right hand, and gives Him the name that is above every name, rejoicing that He who was dead is alive again, that He who was lost for a time to the grave has been found triumphant over sin, death, and the devil.
Once you were dead and lost in sin and rebellion. But God raised you to life in His Son Jesus. He gives you the robe of Jesus’ righteousness at the font and puts His family ring on your finger. He sets the banquet table of His supper to celebrate the return of his rebel children. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 supposedly righteous ones who don’t see a need for repentance.
The older brother thought he was righteous. He was out in the field, dutifully doing his work. He heard the music and the dancing. A servant brought him the news. “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound.” But the older brother was angry, and refused to go in to the party.
So his father came out to him, just as he had come out to meet his younger son on the road. This too is the grace of God. He always comes out to meet his children. He pleads with the older son. “Come and celebrate. Your brother has come home. He was lost, but now is found.”
But the older son won’t rejoice. And before you think him to be inconceivably rude, consider a real life prodigal in the early church, the Apostle Paul. He had people thrown into prison for being Christian and was involved with and approved the murder of Stephen. If Paul had been involved in the imprisonment or the death of a member of your family, would you rejoice to have him join you at the communion rail? What the Pharisees couldn’t see was that Jesus wasn’t about the approval of sin but the life-changing forgiveness of sin.
The older son’s legalism robbed him of his joy. He is the obedient son, the perfect son, always doing what his father wanted, not out of love, but out of responsibility. “Look, all these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.” He’s been working so hard all these years trying to earn his father’s love and secure a place in the family. And when he realizes that his father deals in grace instead of works, he comes unglued. “All that I've done for you, and you never threw a party for me and my friends. But when this son of yours came, who wasted your living with prostitutes, you throw a big party. And now you expect me to come?” The older son was as lost as the younger one, despising both his father and his brother.
The father remains gracious as ever, just as God is still gracious with us. “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was fitting to make merry and be glad; for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost; and is found.”
A man had two sons. Both were lost sinners. One broke the law by disobeying its commands. The other broke the law by obeying its commands for the wrong reasons. Both break their father’s heart. Both receive the same fatherly kindness, acceptance, and love. Both were in need of repentance, a change of heart and mind, to confess their sin against their father, to receive his mercy.
One son repented. He confessed his sin against God and his father, and received his father’s undeserved kindness. And the other? Well, Jesus deliberately leaves the parable open-ended. Will the older son repent? Will he rejoice in the repentance of his brother? The former Pharisee, the Apostle Paul did. Will we? Very often we are more like the older brother than the younger, aren’t we?
If we try to define our relationship with God by our good living, we will be like the older brother. We will become resentful and legalistic. If we try to earn our way into God’s favor, as if God would somehow owe us, we will wind up hating God and resenting His mercy. We will despise our brother and miss out on the party.
Only as we repent can we rejoice in the repentance of another. Only as we see ourselves as lost sinners can we rejoice that Jesus welcomes penitent sinners to His table. Only as we experience the Father’s embrace in our own lives, can we rejoice in His mercy to those around us.
“Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me,” and for you, and for all people, without exception. It’s all a gift, unearned, undeserved, given out of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters of Christ, turn away from your sin; turn back to the Father. It doesn’t matter whether you are the prodigal son or the obedient son, the prostitute or the Pharisee. We all are in need of repentance. Trust in God’s mercy alone. Know that because of Christ’s sacrifice, the Father will receive you with open arms. Though you were lost and dead, you are now found and alive in Christ the risen one. You are sons and daughters of the Father, heirs with Jesus of His forgiveness and life. Come in to the party of the penitent. Rejoice that what the Pharisees said of Jesus is still true, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to William Cwirla)