A certain man had TWO sons. Who do you eat with? Enemies? Strangers?
Usually, you eat with family or friends - not just ANY friends, but close ones.
For the genuine Jew, this went a step farther. The table prayer before the
meal was an act of worship, and to worship with a non-Jew was profane and
wicked. It seems Jesus wasn't just eating with tax collectors (those hated
traitors who worked for the Roman government); Jesus seems to have been eating
with non-Jews. He was associated with people who not only did not KEEP the
Law: they did not even HAVE the Law of Moses! Table fellowship was a
theological statement! The Pharisees and Scribes were grumbling. So Jesus
told ONE parable, but He told it three ways. Each version was about the joy
over finding something that was lost. In the first version, there was joy over
someone's small find: one percent of a flock of sheep. The second spoke of
the joy over something more important: ten percent of a bride's promise
(earnest) money. But the third version was the application - if you think
about it carefully, it seems like an unfinished story, because Jesus intended
for the Pharisees and Scribes to finish the story with their own lives.
Jesus wants YOU to have the same joy over the lost being found. While a
PORTION of the parable is known as "The Prodigal Son", it is more important to
ponder A-L-L of this story. How should God's children react towards those who
are coming to Christ OR are growing stronger in faith? Our Lord wants YOU to
have a heart for the lost, rejoice as they come to faith, and to know:
A Father's Love for TWO Sons
Neither Son Celebrated their Father's Love. The younger squandered his
father's love in self-centeredness. He felt smothered. His very quest for
freedom made him a slave to his own passions, and he felt miserable. Finally,
he went to his father and demanded: "Dad, your life means nothing to me but
what I can enjoy. Liquidate your life's accomplishments and give me what's
coming to me."
Dads, at this point, what would YOU do? This man realized that his son
did not love him, but he loved his son. He calculated his net worth, sold off
the one-third due the younger son at his death, and gave it to the boy. Not a
shrewd financial move!
The son "took the money and ran". He didn't see the far greater treasure
of his father's love. Our Heavenly Father grants life, health, and wealth to
ungodly people even today. "The Lord rains on the just as well as the unjust".
God does not only bless people WE consider as good by our standards of
judgment. Our Father blesses by grace, not by what we truly deserve for our
failures. You can experience that idea in the "Collect of the Day".
Neither Son Celebrated their Father's Love. Listen carefully as I help
you understand verse 29. "So he answered and said to his father, 'Look, all
these many years I have been SLAVING for you; I never DISOBEYED your
commandments; and yet you never GAVE me even a young goat, so I could celebrate
with my friends. The elder ignored the father's love in self-righteousness.
Did you hear that?!? He believed he was a slave to his father. He wanted his
hard work to EARN his father's love. It just pride in himself. And did you
catch the table-fellowship? When it came time to celebrate, he wanted to be
with his like-minded friends, not with his own family. Friends, not YOU, dad.
Like-minded friends were more important than his father. He thought, "Someday,
this will all be mine by my actions. This "boy" may be YOUR son, but He is NOT
good enough to be MY brother."
Jesus was directing the parable toward God's people. During Lent, we
recall that many things entice us from God: feelings, amusements, recreation,
money, OUR kind of people, friends. These things CAN lead you away from God's
love for you and toward spiritual death. Yet others forsake God's love in
pietism: a self-goodness, only wanting "our kind of people" and excluding
other because of skin color, family trees or ancestry, income level, or some
other artificial bias. It's true that some people run away from God's love by
avoiding Him outwardly (staying home, living high-on-the-hog, or refusing to
acknowledge it is GOD who gives you all things).
But it is just as true that you can run away from God by remaining in a
pew and feeling smug about salvation: "I've got mine. I don't feel so-and-so
deserves it, so I won't share it with them or invite them here. And if they DO
happen to come, well, *I* certainly won't be happy!"
In truth, YOU are both sons. Many times you live as if you DESERVE God's
kindness without even a simple "thank-You, Jesus". You waste God's blessings
as well as any prodigal. Many times you act as if you EARN the Father's gifts
of love by living better than "lesser people", and would rather be with your
own kind than with a child of God who needs help. Do we really make the effort
to reach out to people who don't know Jesus - then work hard to make them feel
welcome as fellow children of God? But what is the authentic purpose of this
parable?
What was Jesus trying to get across to the Pharisees, Scribes, and to you
and me?
The Father's Love Toward ALL His Children is Boundless. The younger son
remembered that love. This boy had been brought so low that even
table-fellowship with PIGS seemed okay! (Can anyone get any lower than that?)
His self-reliance failed, and he was looking at his options (stay and starve;
OR go home, endure humiliation, and end hunger). He had an imperfect
motivation.
But God used that problem to move him not only toward a solution, but
toward a better understanding of his father's heart. God can and does use
problems in people's lives to move them toward Him. This is the Holy Spirit's
(alien) work. It is God working in ALL things, even situations that seem bad,
to bring people to repentance and forgiveness.
The father in the parable didn't force the boy to stay. He didn't force
the boy to return. What he did was wait. And hope. "And while the boy was a
LONG ways off" the father was hoping, looking for his return. Why? To make
him pay for trouble he caused? No! The father even interrupted confession!
The Law had done it's duty, and it was time for the Gospel. Zechariah 3:4 -
{Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, "Take away
the filthy garments from him." And to him He said, "See, I have removed your
iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes."} He was more than
forgiven, his father restored him. What love our Heavenly Father lavishes upon
us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are! (I
John 3)
Once the prodigal had been spiritually dead, now he was alive again by
God's work. The prodigal son was moved into full table-fellowship with his
earthly father. Our Lord Jesus Christ offers that same table-fellowship to His
disciples today in Holy Communion, blessing those hunger and thirst after
righteousness. (Matthew 5:6)
The father ALSO showered forgiving love on the proud son. He counseled
him, begged him, pleaded for him to change his heart. "All that I have IS
yours." He tried to direct him to God's eye view. The LORD's concern is the
restoration of the lost. That's why Jesus came: for ALL sinners! This is the
love God has for each of us: searching, calling...
I shudder to think, what if... the son died away from grace (last Sunday's
warning)? Or what if the elder brother didn't repent? But for now, Christ's
steady searching love reaches out. He's paid for wrongs +. He wants us alive,
in His heavenly home. He wants us to celebrate any time any person, of any
age, in any country believes that Jesus died for all.
We Celebrate the Father's Love. We need to be on guard about being our
both sons. We prodigals need to constantly repent of our sins: enjoy life,
yes! But put salvation above all else. We Pharisees and Scribes must also be
careful to not begrudge forgiveness. We need to welcome with open arms anyone
who turns from sin and believes in Jesus.
We need to help others and rejoice over returns! God works in and through
you to reach out to the lost: to the self-centered OR the self-righteous. He
fills you with His love so you can rejoice over anyone who returns.
Some may feel this parable is not fair to the hard-working brother: but
God does not deal with us according to our standards of fairness (Psalm 130).
God deals with us according to His mercy in the cross of Christ. This sins of
the prodigal were important - but paid for on the cross. The Father wants YOU
to welcome all sinners (missions, evangelism, etc.). Lent reminds us of the
greatness of the Father's love: He didn't spare His only Son. God grant we
reach out to all lost sinners (prodigal and proud), welcome them, and rejoice
with all heaven over repentant sinners!
March 21, 2004
Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
