"The Father and His Sons"
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
A loving father
has two sons; two sons who are sinners.
The younger son is rebellious. He
goes to his father and demands his inheritance; he cares more for the money
than he does for the father. He demands that his father’s last will be put into
effect. “Father, give me the share of property that is
coming to me.” In other words, “Father, hurry up and die, I want the money.” The father, then, does the foolish thing and
divides the property.
The son goes out, sows his wild
oats. He lives the highlife, he’s the
life of the party. He gets all his sinful heart could desire. He goes to a far away country, with his
inheritance, to live the debauched life that he never could at home.
But, at last, the money ran
out. The party ended, and the
morning-after suffering begins. He hires
himself out so that he could serve the pigs by bringing them their food. And for a Jew, this was the worst job they
possibly could have had. Those pigs that
he’s feeding are unclean. But he became
so hungry that he became jealous of the pigs that he served. He longed to lower himself down into the pen
and eat what they were eating.
Finally, when he realized that he
had hit rock bottom, he came to himself.
He rehearses his speech. “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.”
When he was a long way off, the
father sees him in the distance. What
does the father do? He hikes up his
robes, bares his knees, and runs. Dear
people of God, land owners don’t run, noblemen don’t run, men of dignity don’t
run. But this father sprints to his lost
son. The son, who no doubt rehearsed his
speech several times, begins to say to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” The father’s silence confirms his agreement
of this statement. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Again the father’s silence gives his
approval to this statement as well. But
before the son can get out the words, “Treat
me as one of your hired servants,” the father interrupts, cuts him off, the
son will settle to be the father’s servant, but the father won’t have it. The father, not the son, calls the shots when
it comes to reconciliation. He will not
allow him to call himself a servant.
There is no condition to the father’s, love, compassion, and
forgiveness.
“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.”
But there was one who refused to
celebrate. The older son wants his
brother to work his way back into the family.
He wants punishment. He wants his
brother to be cast into the servant’s quarters.
His father’s grace and love is a vile stench in his nose, he rejects it,
he refuses to celebrate in the joy of the father’s love being poured over his
younger brother.
“He was angry and
refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 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!’”
The older brother doesn’t understand his father’s love. He thinks he has to work for it. Look at his words! He’s saying, “I never disobeyed your
commands, yet you never threw me a party for me and my friends. If we’re keeping score, I’m way ahead of my
brother but you never celebrated my working for you, you never slaughtered a fattened
calf for my obedience. ” He expects
punishment for his brother; after all, isn’t that what disobedience
deserves?
He doesn’t get it. The father’s
love isn’t conditional on his works of righteousness. The father isn’t pleased when his son whips
out the scorecard and compares himself to his brother. He isn’t pleased when he demands a party for
his loyalty. The father’s love is
unconditional.
Look at how the father responds to the older brother. He says to him, “Son,” (that one word is a big deal!). “Son,
you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for
your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
Which son are you? Are you the
lost sinner, who lives as if the Father is dead? Or are you the son who’s Mr. Scorekeeper, who
begrudges the Father’s undeserved love, who expects some sort of reward for
your own works of obedience?
We know this parable as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but, though
we identify with the prodigal son, the star of the parable isn’t the son won
wishes his father was dead and later repents.
The star of the parable is the father.
Who lavishes his undeserved grace and kindness upon both his prodigal
son and his stubborn son.
That’s the point of the
parable: Despite your sin, despite your rebellion, the Father says to you,
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” Through the death
of the obedient Son, our brother Jesus Christ, who does the Father’s will and
leaves His inheritance, dwells with us unclean sinners, and wallows in shame
and death on the cross, all that belongs to God is ours. We have a heavenly,
eternal inheritance! Through Christ, the
Father shows foolish, reckless love to you and to me, calling us back from
prodigal living, calling us back from self-righteousness and forgiving all our
sin! Who refuses to call us servants,
but sprints to us, bowling us over in His love.
And God
says that He’s always with us; He is ‘God with us,’ who dwells among us in
grace, who celebrates when we repent. That’s where we receive this inheritance,
this is where we dwell with God: at the celebration, the marriage feast of the
Lamb in His Kingdom. “It was fitting to
celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was
lost, and is found.” It is fitting, necessary that God would celebrate the
finding of the lost, the making alive of the dead, for nothing else gives Him
as much joy as making Prodigal Sons and Stubborn brothers His beloved children,
to rejoice with Him forever. Aman.
The peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.
