Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.…”
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Today in our gospel reading, we read a familiar story, the parable of the prodigal son, the son who goes off wastes his father's property and returns and is forgiven. The story most Christians know really well, because it's pretty dramatic, isn't it? It's got all the kind of drama that we would like to see. It would make actually a really good movie or TV show, wouldn't it? The kind of thing that I know I'd turn up and flip the TV on to watch.
It's a well known story, but a story that still teaches a good lesson about God and the church that we need to hear over and over again. And so I'd like to take a look at this story and talk about the forgiveness that God gives each and every one of us and what he offers to the world. The first thing that we see when we look at this is the opening introductory sentences, which are really important to understand this parable.
It says now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. We might think, well, that's weird. Why are they upset that Jesus is talking to sinners? Isn't that what Jesus is supposed to do, go out into the world and bring forgiveness to sinners.
We miss a concept from Judaism and the ancient world called Table fellowship. We don't have this concept in American culture, if we go out to lunch with someone, it doesn't express any kind of unity. And sometimes we'll even go out with strangers, right just to meet somebody. That's not what is going on in the ancient world.
When you are invited to eat with someone, you are expressing a kind of unity and approval that is something we don't quite understand. In fact, it is so serious that when Peter goes to meet with Gentiles Cornelius in the book of Acts, it's a really big deal because he is being fellowship with someone who is unclean, which would then make him unclean. And so the Pharisees are saying, this is a huge scandal, Jesus, unclean people are coming to you and you are just accepting them. They are supposed to become clean first, and then you can eat with them. Then you can be united with them.
And so Jesus tells three parables. There's the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost sheep. And finally, the prodigal son. And the story opens with the son who goes to his father and says, divide up all your property and give me my inheritance, which is pretty brave, isn't it. Can you imagine going to your parents and say, give me my inheritance. Now, what that's not that's not how this works. But the father is weird. He says, okay, divides up his property, sells a portion of it, so that the son can have it all in cash, and the son heads out into the world and spends it on what the Bible says is reckless living.
We don't know what that means. Maybe he just likes to spend money and racked up the credit card debt. Who knows? After all, the money is gone. After every party is had, there's a famine, which means no food for anyone. Likely that if the son bought property in the foreign land, his crops didn't grow either. So he is hungry, and because of his hunger, he goes and he makes himself unclear. Mean by feeding the pigs, we think pigs are fine. In fact, I really kind of like some bacon, and I bet you do too. But for them, even feeding this unclean animal would have made him unclean, just like those sinners and tax collectors, someone who should be rejected by any good and holy Jew, he longs to eat the waste that the pigs are being fed.
Can you imagine being that hungry, so that when you look at the scraps, the pea pods, the leftovers, the waste that is only fit for these animals, and you wish you could eat it, but you have nothing. I what I love about what Jesus says is the transition happens in verse 17, when he goes but when he came to himself. What an interesting way of phrasing, that when he came to himself as if he was living in a delusion, as if he he had this, this wild idea about who he was, and all of a sudden, he just snaps out of it. His insanity is gone, his wild ideas, and he just goes, Wait a second, this is dumb. Who knows why?
Who knows why it took so long? Maybe he was proud. I can do it on my own. I made it out this far, and I can forge my own path. Maybe it was fear. There is no way my father would accept me after what I have done. Maybe it was shame. How can I face all of the people back in my hometown? I went off all proud. I had my bags on my back, my money in my pocket, and now nothing, all of those things that kept him from repenting, from turning away, the shame, the pride, the fear, or whatever it was, at last, he comes to himself, snaps out of it and remembers his father is a loving father with a good nature who simply wants his son maybe, maybe though it was too much, he would come back, not as a son, But as a servant, at least there, if I was second class, like all the other servants, I could have some food.
This is the son who starts heading back with a plan. He's going to tell his father, I'm not a son anymore. Just hire me. Make me like one of your servants. Then there's the Father. Can you imagine his broken heart when the son comes to him and says, kind of wish you were dead. And then leaves the father who sold off some of his inheritance in the Promised Land, the gift of God that had been passed down from Joshua all the way to now, if he had been doing it right. What a broken heart. He watches his son leave excited, whistling, happy, while a tear goes down his eye. He looks at the chair, the empty table every day when he and the older son get together and eat, be easy for the pain to turn to anger, the hurt to turn to rage, but that's not what the father does. You does. He simply misses his son. So when he sees the son coming back, walking down the road, he doesn't even wait for the son to come to him and. He runs.
Now, we run all the time, and I think that's because we wear pants. They didn't wear pants in the ancient world. They wore robes. And if you ever thought about running in a long flowy skirt, a heavy, long flowy skirt, you wouldn't make it very far. You'd probably end up face down on the ground, which means that the Father I'm going to step out behind here had to run like this.
See my legs. Can you imagine how awkward and weird it would be to see the old man running down the road, knees out. He doesn't care. He's not thinking about dignity, what the neighbors will think. He's not thinking about anybody. He just wants his son back. He's so excited to see the son coming back. He doesn't care what he's done, he doesn't care what he's going to say. He doesn't care what's happened. The son is coming back, and he loves him, and he welcomes him.
Then the son, he's got his script. How many times do you think the son practiced it on the way from the far away city? 100 times, 1000 times, over and over in his head, I'm going to be so nervous when I get there. I gotta have it down right, or else I won't get it out and my father might reject me. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. He got it out, and the father ignores him, doesn't respond to what he said. He just welcomes him back. Quick, get the best robe ring on his finger. Welcome him back, kill the fatted calf. It is time for a party. My son is back, as he says, For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. He
it What a joy. The son is forgiven. The Father ignores his feelings of shame or sadness or fear or whatever it is, and simply restores him. And if you think about all of this unclean stuff that we don't have in our culture, coming up and hugging his son makes the father unclean too. He's just so excited to bring the son back, and here is the beauty and the joy of the forgiveness that our Heavenly Father has for us. Because every person, every human being, is a bit like the Son rejected by God because of our sin, we needed a Savior who would die for us, who would come to us, who didn't show his humiliation by hiking up his robe and running down the street, but by being naked and nailed to a cross so you could be welcomed back into the family, so you could be a child of the father again and have eternal life that is the heart of our heavenly Father, who welcomes each and every one of us back into his family by the forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ.
and it's a welcome that our Heavenly Father has for a world who has not yet come to itself, because we live in a world that is filled with people Who are a whole lot like that prodigal son who have taken the life that they have and said, I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to run off and be crazy, wild and reckless living I'm. God and the Father simply waits for them to come to themselves. And I think there are lots of people who want to be welcomed back, who are feeling the weight of their their life and their choices and their reckless living, who feel the guilt of living in a world where there are no good answers, and everything that they're told to do feels wrong.
But I also think many of them are scared, because they think the same things the sun did, if I go back, will I be rejected if I go back? Will they look at me and make too big a deal? Will I be embarrassed or afraid, or whatever it is, somewhere along the line, the church was seen as a place for holy people to do their holy thing. And you want to know why I know that this is the case because I have talked to a whole bunch of my friends and said you should probably you should check out church sometime. And you know what they always say, I will light on fire the moment I cross those doors.
You Jesus, because they see the church not as a place of healing for sinners, a Hospital for Sick souls, but a place of judgment and fear. That is not the Father's heart. We want them to come and be loved. And I think perhaps the best way to say that is for us not to be act like we are holy people out in the world, but remember, we're really just like that prodigal son who is welcome back, no questions asked, placed the best robe on us, rings on our fever and fingers, and they killed the fattened calf to celebrate that God has called us together. Now there's another character we have, the elder son. And each and every one of us can see a little bit of ourselves in that elder son, right? Because every time the father looked over with a tear in his eye at the empty chair, the son felt it right in his heart, didn't he? My father is hurt because what my brother did, that jerk. Can you believe what he did to my father? And soon it would turn into resentment to the father too would Why are you wasting your tears on that worthless son of yours? I'm right here. I am with you every day. I am working hard. I am doing things right. How dare you, Father, wasting your heart and your emotion on someone who's far away. And then one day, he's out in the field, doing his work, by the way, and he hears music he wasn't even invited to the party. He
Yes, what's going on? Your brother's back and he's killed the fattened calf. What this kid who hurt my father day after day after day, and now he's just back. I
We all get resentment. We all get that kind of anger. But that's the problem with the Pharisees here. They thought they were actually the elder son they worked just like all of us. We're all the brother the son who's gone far away and sinned. They thought themselves righteous on their own and in no need of repentance. And that's not an attitude that we can have, because the moment we think we are righteous, well, then we stop being a church that follows the Father's heart. We want to make sure that we are a place that welcomes all that proclaims that we. Are not here to be holy and righteous perfect people, but a place of healing, a place of restoration, where the Father's love comes to us to fix us and offer it as a place for the world. And that's who Jesus is. He is a Savior who wants to gather together all of the people who lived in wild and reckless living just like us, into the Father's kingdom, to welcome every sinner with love and forgiveness in Jesus name amen.
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