Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for our meditation is our Gospel reading recorded in Luke 15: Verses 1 – 3 & 11b –
32:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing
near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes
grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”3 So
he told them this parable:
The Parable of the Prodigal
Son
11 And he said, “There was a
man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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. 14 And
when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he
began to be in need. 15 So
he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent
him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs
ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as
one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 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. 21 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.’3 22 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. 23 And bring
the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was
lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and
as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And
he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 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.’ 28 But 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. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened
calf for him!’ 31 And
he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 It was fitting to
celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was
lost, and is found.’ ”
Kellogg’s'
Cornflakes for a time, ran an ad with the slogan, "Taste them again for
the first time." It was aimed at people to whom the cereal was ‘boring’.
Kellogg’s wanted people to taste their cereal all over again as if they had
never had it before. I want you to do a similar thing with the parable of the
Prodigal Son. You've heard it many times. It's so familiar, we don't listen to
it. Be honest. How many of you tuned out when it was read? You knew how it
would end. You knew the wayward son would come home. You knew the father would
accept him. You know the parable's point....or do you? I ask, adjust your brain
and let’s hear it again for the first time.
Human
nature dictates that with whom you eat says something about who you are.
The religious types and theologians took note of Jesus’ dinner company - tax
collectors and “sinners” of all sorts. Not the kind of company a
respectable rabbi would keep, much less a decent messiah. Against the
background of religious grumbling, Jesus tells them a parable, actually a
trilogy of parables, the third of which is the subject of this meditation.
There was a man
with two sons. The older son, by law, stood to inherit the farm when his
father died. The younger son got cash and a bus ticket. You know,
many immigrants to Australia, America and Canada in the 19th century were 2nd
and 3rd sons with no land to inherit. Ordinarily, an inheritance changes
hands when the father dies; but the younger son is in a bit of a hurry, so he
goes to his father and demands his share of the inheritance up front.
It’s the equivalent of telling his father to drop dead - and the old man does,
right on the spot! He drops dead to his entire life, all that he owns,
and gives BOTH sons their share - the older son gets the farm, the younger son
gets the cash. In Jesus' society it was unheard of for a son to ask for his
inheritance while his dad was still living. In all of Middle Eastern
literature, from ancient to modern times, there is no case of any son, young or
old, asking for his inheritance from a father still in good health. It was like
saying, "I wish you were dead." Jesus' hearers would've expected the
father to blow up at the request. The father does not. He divides the property
between his two sons, according to the law.
Then the youngest
son does the unthinkable. Not many days later, takes his portion of the family
estate and moves away to make a name for himself. The Middle Eastern people to
whom Jesus told this parable must have been shocked by this. Unfortunately, the
name he makes is "prodigal." Prodigal means "recklessly
extravagant" or "wasteful." Our biblical translation is
squandered." He squandered all his wealth in what the literal Greek says
"unsaved living." There is nothing specific here, “Unsaved
living" means he held nothing back for tomorrow. He may have ate, drank,
partied like there was no tomorrow, or he may have wasted his wealth on get
rich quick schemes. In any event, it disappeared.
When he's stony
broke a severe famine hits, but he doesn't get a job with local citizen as our
translation implies. No, he literally "glued" himself to one. The
citizen of that far country didn't really want him around. He conveyed this to
the prodigal son by the job he gave him: Pig feeder. Here is the son of a noble
Jewish family out in the fields feeding pigs! This puts him in the perpetual
state of being religiously unclean. Moreover, he is so hungry that he tries to
fill his stomach with the carob pods he's feeding the pigs. But that didn't
work because the bitter tasting fruit had no nutritional value. So he is always
hungry.
At last he comes to
his senses, but don't think this means he came to repentance. What he came to
was the very earthly realisation that he was at the bottom; even his father's
hired men are better off than he is. He sees all the stupid things he has done.
He is determined to go back home and make it up to his father. He is going to
pay his father back. He wouldn't dare go back into his father's house, but he
would become one of his hired hands, so he could earn his wages. He would
return and tell, not ask but tell, his father how he had decided to make things
right between them.
Surely, you've felt
that way before, I have, so we can see that when the prodigal heads back home
it's not to be forgiven but to earn forgiveness. Hear again for the first time
what the father did about the returning prodigal. The father is looking for his
son. He sees him way off in the distance, and the text says that his inward
parts were moved with compassion. You know that feeling when your heart goes
out to your child.
Then in the
presence of the servants, whom the text says were there, the father does a
humiliating thing. He runs to his son. He whom his son wanted dead, he whose
livelihood has been wasted by his son, he who had been disgraced by a
disobedient, unloving, money grubbing son, runs in compassion to that son.
Noble men did not run in Jesus' society. Aristotle, who lived long before this
time, said, "Great men never run in public." Even though our culture
sees nothing dishonourable about men running, we know that really the son
should be running toward the father.
When he reaches his
son, the father throws his arms around him and kisses him repeatedly. A dirt
poor person in the midst of a famine, having just come from feeding pigs,
wouldn't have smelled too good. But the father does not care. He loves this son
just as he is, without one plea. Such love changes people. Such love changes
this prodigal son. He can't bring himself to say, "I will become a hired
man working outside of your house and I will repay you everything." The
prodigal can see that his dad is welcoming back a son not a hired servant. He
realises that the real issue was not the money he had lost but the fact that he
had broken the relationship between himself and his dad. Repaying the money
wouldn't repair the relationship. The only thing that could, was forgiveness
from his dad. He saw he had this.
This parable
reminds us that we always come to the open embrace of a father who’s ready to
forgive, who’s forgiven us already, even before we confess your sins, who never
disowns his children. We make our little confession in the embrace of a
Father’s forgiveness, while He’s putting the robe of righteousness on our
shoulders, and slipping the ring of sonship on our finger. Amidst this we
realise that there is no deal to cut with a God who dropped dead to our sin in
the death of His Son Jesus, who reconciled all things in the one Death that
embraces all in their death. All there is; the father’s embrace; the
kiss; the robe; the ring; the sandals; the fatted calf and a party to end all
parties; for no other reason than we’re home again.
Do you get the point you prodigal sons and daughters? We've wasted God's good gifts and sinned against Him. Like Job, we’ve always seen ourselves as ‘hard done by’. By putting ourselves first, we broken the relationship between us and the Father: How can you make things up to God? How can we mend the relationship that we’ve broken?
We can't; God can. The heavenly Father sent to
earth His only beloved Son. This Son kept the holy Law perfectly and took our
sins against the Law on Himself. For Jesus' sake, the Father runs to us
sinners, filthy from wallowing in sins, and hugs and kisses us. He accepts us
just as we are. He doesn't clean us off first. He doesn't wipe away the stench
or dirt of our sins first. In Christ, the Father doesn't see the dirt, only
sons and daughters. Just like in the parable, the Father is the One who
restores the relationship.
Having restored the
relationship, the father in the parable spares no expense in showing that all
is forgiven, all is restored. He has the best robe, probably his own, put on
the son. The father places the family signet ring; the seal of authority on his
finger. The father commands the servants to put sandals on the son. This showed
that once more the servants were under the son's authority. Finally, the father
orders the prized fattened calf killed because he is rejoicing with a
reception, professional musicians and dancers to show everyone, including his
son, that the prodigal is all the way back in His house.
What
of the self righteous older brother, well to him this is outrageous, prodigal
grace that knows no bounds is offensive; people should have to earn their way
back into favour. He is furious, and stalks off in a
rage; The father runs out to meet his
other son and begs “Won’t you come to the party?”; but the older brother offers
up a rant of accusations against the father because he has favoured his
brother. He amplifies his brother’s sins with accusations of prostitutes to
make himself look good. How often we’ve built the cathedrals of our religion
out of the specks from our brother’s eye? God’s grace in Jesus is so
prodigal, so outrageous; it riles the religious bookkeepers of this world.
Friends in Christ, in the same way, our Father deals with us. In our Baptism, the Father has put on us the robe of Christ's holiness. Though we are stained with sin and filth, the Father receives us as His child by covering our sins in Baptism. He has restored our authority in His house; we have access to all of our Father's possessions, and His trust as if we had never left. He has made His servants, the angels, our servants, to minister to us day and night. Finally, the Father has prepared a feast for us to celebrate and testify that we are His dear child. The Father does not kill a calf for us. No, He has killed His only beloved Son, and made a meal for us out of His body and blood. If a slain calf guaranteed acceptance to the prodigal son, how much more does a slain Son guarantee acceptance to us!
Dear friends, hear what
the elder son would not; that the Father's love in Christ is boundless for all
his dear children. Hear of it again for the first time regardless of how far
you have strayed, how much you have sinned, how badly you have broken your
Father's heart. In grace He welcomes us back for the sake of what His Son did
on the cross. Amen
The grace and love
of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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