Our Lavishly Loving Father
“Our Lavishly Loving Father” E-100 #60, Luke 15
by Clancy Nixon
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
January 24, 2010
I love the story of the prodigal son. [RAISE HAND] How many of you here love this story? I love the story because I can see myself in so many of the characters in it. As a young man, I was the prodigal son, going off to the far country to party and leaving my father’s values behind. I also found myself in a pig sty - figuratively, not literally- and repented. I’ve had occasional turns as the older brother, self-righteous and unforgiving at times. Since I’ve been a pastor, I have had some small glimpses of what it is like for Father God when his wayward children presume upon his generosity and reject some of his values. I’ve even had a turn as the Father’s servant, preparing the feast for the celebration of the return of the prodigal son. I’ve played every role in this story - except, maybe, the fatted calf! After I preached this last night, Mark Crowley said, “Don't forget the pigs!” Yes, I’ve slopped around in the mud getting others dirty before I repented in my twenties. I try to forget that role. Jesus invites us to enter in to this family drama, and to find places in our lives where you and I have played the roles of the lost son or the self-righteous son, so we can repent of those places where we don’t model the Father’s love.
The title of my message today is “Our Lavishly Loving Father.” God’s welcome home for the sinner is over the top - with rings on fingers, angels celebrating, and the fatted calf, now become veal chops. What a great story! This great story about God’s love for sinners is perfect – well, except for one thing - the self-righteous older brother tries to rain on this parade of prodigal love.
The word “prodigal” means extravagant, lavish, or generous, without regard to any need or deserving. The lost son is prodigal in his spending on wild living; the father is also prodigal in his mercy, grace, and love for his son on his repentant return. The only major character who is not extravagant in this story is the older brother. He’s the dutiful one, the obedient one. Well, he has an outward obedience, but his heart is far from God.
Please open your Bibles to Luke chapter 15, verse 1, and beginning on page 1035 in your blue pew Bibles. Let’s read it together: “Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Luke 15:1-2. Most parables are not allegories, but this one is. Jesus told the story to Pharisees who muttered against him because he ate with sinners; they are the older brother. The merciful Father is God; the lost son is any sinner.
The questions raised here by Jesus confrontation with the Pharisees are these: how to be holy; and how the church should act toward those outside the church, or those in the church who are not good examples. At bottom, these questions usually turn on underlying disputes about the nature of God. The question behind the question is, what is God like? Here is another way of thinking about questions are in view here: 1) Does God love sinners so much that he expects us to take risks to become friends with them?; and 2) Is God really completely forgiving and merciful to outrageous sinners who repent? You see, the prodigal son was no garden variety sinner; his selfishness was outrageously over the top. Jesus’ answer to both questions is “yes,” and the Pharisees answer was “no,” because they had different understandings of the nature of God. Jesus tells us a story that shows us a God who is more loving to sinners than we have imagined.
You see, the Pharisees thought anyone who was really holy would not eat with sinners. The Pharisees had a name for people who did not strictly keep the law of Moses: these were the am-haaretz, which means people of the land, or peasants. Say that with me: “Am-haaretz.” The am-haaretz did not keep the Law of Moses strictly. A Pharisee was taught to build a holy wall between himself and the am-haaretz. A Pharisee was taught never to trust the testimony of an am-haaretz. He was not to entrust money or property to an am-haaretz. He may not accompany an am-haaretz on a journey, nor have an am-haaretz as a guest in his home, nor be a guest in the am-haaretz’s home. (William Barclay, Luke, p. 199) The Pharisees shook their heads looking down, crossed their arms, and clicked their tongues, because Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. Jesus’ welcome of sinners made him unclean to the Pharisees, and unfit to teach as a rabbi in Israel.
Later, Jesus would say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) What Jesus does, God does. Jesus hangs out with sinners, because he loves every one, and wants to give as many as possible the chance to come into relationship with him! God loves even outrageous sinners – libertines, narcissists, abortionists, thieves, even murderers. He loves us not because of what we do or refrain from doing; he loves us because of who He is! God is love, and it is his nature to love. God’s love has to be broad and wide in order to include sinners like you and me. Amen?
Let’s look at how lost the lost son really was. First, the younger son disgraced the father by asking for his share of the inheritance—which would have been 1/3 of his father's estate (Deut. 21:17)—while his father was still living. Such an audacious request was even more unheard of in those days than it is today. In those days, it was a way of proclaiming to the whole community, "Father, I wish you were dead." Amazingly, the dishonored father granted his request.
Notice how nothing in the story suggests that the father had done anything wrong in raising his sons to be godly, responsible men. Parents, if you have raised your children to be godly, and your kids stray, you may have done most things right as parents. There is no evidence in this story that the father tore his garment, beat his breast, or engaged in rounds of introspection questioning, “How did I go wrong?” His son was an adult, so he let him go his own way. He knew that he could not control his son, and to try to do so would have made it worse. If the father had sent a servant off to find him and drag him home, the son could have blamed the father for trying to control him. The father let his son go, and patiently awaited his return.
The party life in the far country was wild, fun, and fast, but with his extravagant spending, the prodigal son wasted all his money. His friends left, the girls left, and the party was over. Verse 14: then came the famine. He got so desperate that he found a job feeding pigs, which to the Jews were unclean, a sign of how far he had fallen. The job was so bad, his hunger so great, that he began to reminisce about his home. (verse 17)
One day in the pig sty, covered in mud, starving, he must have said to himself, “What am I doing here?” [raise hand] Have any of you ever been there? I have, too many times. It’s like a veil is lifted; a great illusion is finally dispelled; the hope we had has evaporated, and we admit we were wrong after all. So we start over. The prodigal son’s eyes were opened, he came to his senses, and home didn't seem so bad after all. In fact, his father's servants had it better than he did. So he thought about going home, but not as a son. Not after the disgrace he had brought on his father. He knew that he had given up any claim to be called a son. But maybe, just maybe, his father would hire him as a servant. At least he'd have enough food to keep from starving. So he began his long, arduous walk home.
Going home was a risky strategy for the prodigal son. Under the Law of Moses, his father or the townspeople had the right to have him killed for what he had done to rebel and to dishonor his father. (Deut. 21:18–21)
But you know the rest of the story. Look at verse 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.” (Luke 15:20)
I imagine that the Pharisees’ jaws must have dropped at that point. This conception of God was new with Jesus. The Jews would have agreed that if a man came crawling home with his face in the dirt, he might be restored; but they never had thought of God as One who went out and searched for sinners, who ran towards you. Jesus says that is how much God cares about you. He’s crazy about you. If God has a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be on it. You picture, and the picture of the one who sits in the cubicle near you who annoys the daylights out of you!
The father must have spent countless days gazing over the horizon, searching for any trace of his son’s return, since dad noticed him a long way off. One afternoon, he saw someone coming. Soon he noticed that distinctive walk of his lost son! He came running out of the house toward the returning prodigal. In that culture, older men did not run, for it was considered undignified. In order to run, the father would have had to hike up his robe a bit, and expose his knees, which was also considered improper. This father clearly did not care what anyone might think; he was overjoyed at his son's return. So he ran to greet him, draped his arms around him, and kissed him.
Before his son can choke out his apology, the father embraced him and kissed him. In spite of his terrible smell and the filthy rags he wore, the father held him tight. He then gave his long lost son a robe, a ring, and sandals as signs of his restored position and authority—not as a servant, but as a full-fledged son. And the returning son found at home everything he had longed to discover in the world—jewelry, clothing, food, friends, and celebration. He found acceptance and love, not from the fickle friends who deserted him when his money ran out, but from his father who had always loved him.
This forgiveness does not mean that there are no earthly consequences for past sin. If you break the law, you may wind up in jail. If you squander your inheritance, you won’t get another inheritance. The father said to the older son, “Everything I have is yours.” You will have earthly consequences for everything you do. When you repent, your heavenly consequences with God are gone forever!
Now this older brother was a good son, well, at least he looks good from the outside. He was hard-working, obedient, and loyal. He had never brought disgrace on his family. But in Luke 10:25–26, Jesus had earlier told the Pharisees that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor. The older brother shows in both his words and his deeds that he did not love his father or his brother.
What was the older brother’s response to this touching family reconciliation? Jealousy; resentment; and bitterness. Verse 28 - He refuses to go inside to the party, and calls the father outside with him from the celebration. Look at verse 30. He can't even bring himself to refer to his brother as "my brother." Pleading to his father for justice, he calls him "that son of yours." He accuses his brother of having prostitutes, but all we know from the text is that the lost son was wild and extravagant. The older brother is probably exaggerating to make his case seem more just. He is bitterly resentful of the mercy and lavish attention that his brother is receiving, with the ring, the veal chops and the party. He’s jealous and righteously indignant that his father has extended his love to a world-class sinner who had dishonored him, and rejected him and his values.
He was self-righteous. In verse 29, he says, “Look at all I’ve done for you; I’ve never disobeyed you.” RIGHT! Well, maybe most of the time. The older son rehearses his virtues, and says he’s not being treated fairly. How could you give a calf to that reprobate for a party when you never gave me so much as a goat for a party?
Any of you ever been there? Parents, when a child complains of his unfair treatment compared to a sibling, how many times have you said to them, “Life is not fair.” Friends, God is just, but even He is not fair! Justice is not necessarily fairness. Final justice will be done one day, but only in the life to come. Our God is a God of justice, but He loves mercy and grace even more. The grace by which we have been saved is a gift we have been given, and we can’t explain it any other way.
The older brother looks at his relationship with his father as a kind of business deal, not a family relationship founded on love, mercy and forgiveness. “I’ve done this, and he’s done that, so you should be blessing me, and not him.” Beloved, whenever you make deals with God, you are on shaky ground. You know what I mean- when you say, “If I do this, Lord, then you do that.” God is sovereign. If God has promised something in his Word, you can count on it, not because you have a special deal with God, but because you trust God in faith. The older brother does not care about his younger brother, he only cares about his own recognition. His heart is cold.
Like the older brother, the Pharisees thought that God owed them, that they were entitled to God’s favor and superior to others based on their obedience and scrupulous performance. They thought that God owed nothing to sinners but judgment – and they were right about that! (see Ephesians 2) But they failed to see that God loves mercy and grace even more than God loves justice. Thanks be to God that Jesus and Paul made it clear that God’s love for us is not based on our performance. Anyone who repents and believes in Jesus receives the right to be called a son of God. Amen? Ephesians 2:8 says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not through works, that no man can boast.”
Notice how tenderly the father responds to the older son, verse 31. “'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.' " (Luke 15:31-32) It’s time to celebrate again, because today, this very day, about 100,000 people across the Earth have made Christ the Lord of their lives, and that many receive Christ every day! God throws a party for every one of those people. That might take a long time to do—but there is plenty of time in Heaven for a separate party for each one. Each one gets his own party and has a banner in heaven with his or her name written on it. Can you imagine the banner in heaven that has your name written on it? Can you imagine your picture on God’s refrigerator? If you are a sinner who has repented, count on it.
Jesus shows us here that the Pharisees got God’s idea of the church wrong. They wanted a pure church only for the super-holy. We’re not to build walls of separation between us and sinners, even extravagant sinners, whether they are in the church or out of the church. We’re to take risks and befriend people who are far from God. You know, if you hang out with unbelievers who curse, you may find a curse popping out of your mouth. Jesus says take the risk. Don't curse; don't be like them; but don't abandon them. Young people and new believers particularly, hear me now: you need to make sure that these ones are not a bigger influence on you than you are on them. Every one of us needs support from a small group of believers, like in a home group. Invite lost ones in to the company of the redeemed, whether in home group or in Sunday worship.
If there is even one person here who has been a prodigal son, who has been in the far country, and sees the error of his ways, I’d like to lead you in a prayer to receive Christ. Repeat after me: “Father, I admit that I went my own way, scorning your ways, and ended up in a pit. I’m tired of the mud and fickle friends, and I want real acceptance, real friends, and real love. I’m coming home to you, Father. I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and rose again. I receive your embrace, Father, opening myself to you. I receive your Holy Spirit to live inside me and show me your ways. Thank you for saving me! Amen.”
