LK 15:1-3; 11-32 A LOST SON AND A SEEKING FATHER It has been called “The greatest short story ever written.” The author is the Lord Jesus Himself and he wants you and me to learn something before we leave for home today. I’d like you to think back to your English Class. Though it may not have been your favorite class, the Lord Jesus uses the tools of literature that you learned about back then. So let’s think together about A LOST SON AND A SEEKING FATHER. Notice first, the CONFLICT. Conflict refers to a strong difference of opinion, rebellion, tension between characters. There was all of that and more between Jesus and his enemies. These Pharisees-these pillars of the religious community-didn’t think it was right that Jesus spent time with people they considered to be undesirable. Their complaint? “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable-an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, about some conflict between a younger son and his father. Jesus sets the stage for us: 11 There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them. That sounds strange to our ears. Get your inheritance before your Father dies? What’s going on here? But don’t transfer our customs back to theirs. It was normal for the older son to get 2/3 of the property and work the “home place.” The younger son got the other 1/3 and then set up his own homestead. At least, that’s what he was supposed to do. But not this younger said. Jesus tells us: 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. Now there’s some conflict for you. The “generation gap” is nothing new. Now that he had his chance to live life his way, he wasn’t going to miss a minute of it. Jesus paints a picture here of our sinful human nature. You might never have blown all the money Dad gave you, but that doesn’t mean your heart has always been right with God. In fact, the Bible tells us what we’re really like deep down inside. Paul writes in Rom. 7: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. It seems like fun for awhile, until the bottom falls out. And that’s exactly what happened. Look back at the text: 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. This is what they call ALIENATION-separation from his father’s love and IDOLATRY-worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. We are to honor God with all that we are and have, with our very lives. He threw his money away in partying. Here he sits-his money bag empty-his fair weather friends long gone, wondering where it all went. God’s commands are intended for our good. The Lord let him learn the truth the hard way. God punishes sin with sin. He says in effect, “alright, go ahead! If you want to wallow with the pigs, then live with them. See how you like it.” It led to degradation, about as low as a Jew could go when he had to take a job tending pigs. He was hungry enough to eat with them, but no one offered him anything. He had spiritually starved himself; now his belly is as empty as his spirit. The writers ask us to identify with the characters-to feel their emotions-It ‘s called PATHOS (SPELL). This young man was separated from his father’s love and he now felt it keenly. Just so were we separated by sin from our Heavenly Father’s love. The depth of his degradation made him think of His Father’s love and he left for home. He had what the writers call THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION, and he started composing a speech he would give when he saw his father. We call this REPENTANCE. Look back at the text with me now: 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. That takes us to the RESOLUTION of the story. The bible shows us how God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. That’s exactly what took place here in Jesus’ story: 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Please remember why Jesus told this story. The Pharisees were objecting to his keeping company with the low-life types, with the tax collectors and others they looked down upon. God doesn’t operate that way. In fact, God delights in showing mercy and forgiving love, then restoring the sinner to the family. That’s the kind of God we have. Every good story ends with POTENTIAL. The writer doesn’t tie up all the loose ends. When you close the book, you’re left to wonder what happened after that. A good story helps you to see yourself in it and the fact that you’re writing a story of your own. Each good story has POTENTIAL. You’re still writing your story. What will you do when you sin? Will you stay away from God’s forgiving love? Or will you go home where you belong? How will you react when someone else sins? Will you forgive as the Father did? Or will you be angry at the Father’s grace, as was the elder son in the story. Look at the text with me one more time. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” The Older Brother was like the Pharisees-and some of us-he’s more concerned with keeping score than he is with forgiveness and new life.

Robert Capon explains in Christianity Today Magazine: You’re worried about permissiveness–about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. … While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue–that music, dancing, and a fattened calf are, in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: “Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.” Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 7.

Let the celebration go on every time we gather for worship, every time another sinner repents, every time we ourselves experience the grace of a loving father. INJ, Amen.

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