Undignified Grace

Lk 15:11-32

This is such a famous story, and for good reason. It’s beautiful, powerful, and full of truths and lessons. There are songs, skits, etc.

THE PRODIGAL SON (In the Key of 'F')
 
Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the farthings and flew to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless friends.
 
Fleeced by his fellows in flooy, and facing famine, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famishing, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from fodder fragments.
 
"Fooey! My father's flunkies fare finer," the frazzled fugitive forlornly fumbled, frankly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith to his family. Falling at his father's feet, he forlornly fumbled, "Father, I've flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor!"
 
The farsighted father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch a fatling from the flock and fix a feast.
 
The fugitive's fault-finding brother frowned on fickle forgiveness of former folderol. But the faithful father figured, "Filial fidelity is fine, but the fugitive is found! What forbids fervent festivity? Let flags be unfurled. Let fanfares flare"
 
And the father's forgiveness formed the foundation for the former fugitive's future faith and fortitude.

Even the “worst” is welcomed home.

The younger son: a picture of sin and rebellion; the most offensive, unworthy, condemnable son.

Relational Offense: Rejection (12)

The younger son was entitled to a portion of the inheritance. In a sense, the son didn’t do anything illegal, he didn’t break any laws. In a sense, he was asking for what was his; not that he took something that wasn’t his.

The problem wasn’t a legal problem, it was a relational problem.

The son was basically saying, “I want what you have, but I don’t want you. I don’t want to wait until you die, so can I just have my inheritance now.”

Younger brothers say, “I don’t really want God in my life.” If I can get some of the goods, some of the blessings, great. But I don’t want God. I want to live my own life, I’m going to do it my way.” It is a rejection of God.

I remember as a youth pastor, one of my high school students had a fight with her mom. Somewhere in the fight she yells, “I can’t stand living at home. I can’t wait to go to college, I can’t wait to have you out of my life!”

The problem of “prodigals” is a relational offense. They’ve rejected God. “Father, give me my life and leave me alone.”

Wild Living: Rebellion (13)

The younger son went to a distant country and squandered his wealth in wild living.

Jesus doesn’t go into detail, but we can imagine what a young kid with a lot of money and freedom, looking for a good time might do. The places he’s been, the things he’s done.

Later, the older brother somehow knows about what the younger brother has done. “He has squandered the father’s property with prostitutes.”

No one lured him into sin, he went looking for it and running toward it.

There are some people who rebel quietly, passively, cover it up. There are others who blatantly and obviously rebel, obviously breaking the rules. He’s not pretending to be righteous. He doesn’t care anymore about God or about right/wrong. He’s going to do what he wants.

Feeding Pigs: Disgrace (14-16)

He spends all his money and a famine hits the land, the economy goes bad. Things go from bad to worse really fast. The next thing we read is that he’s feeding pigs.

To a Jewish audience, that’s about as low as it gets. Pigs were considered “unclean” animals. To feed the pigs, to want to eat their food, that’s disgusting, offensive.

Perhaps it’s the girl coming from a well-to-do family, after hitting hard times, becomes desperate enough to sell her body.

He’s become a disgrace; he’s lost all self-respect. He’s where he never would have imagined himself to be. He’s become disgusting to himself. He can’t get any lower. The unthinkable has become reality.

It’s a picture of someone completely undeserving, completely worthless. He’s a rebellious son who spit at his father, squandered his wealth, lost all self-respect.

Maybe there are some of us who can relate with the younger brother.

You know you’ve rejected God. You implicit or explicitly said, God, I don’t need you in my life, I’m going to live my own life, so just leave me alone.

You’ve rebelled. You didn’t just drift away, you ran away. No one lured you into sin, you went looking for it. You chose it.

And perhaps, even to your own surprise, you’ve done things you never would have imagined. You’ve surprised even yourself. You’ve hit the bottom. You have difficulty forgiving or accepting yourself for what you’ve done.

And you feel, with all the things I’ve done, with all the things I’ve said, there’s no way God would take me. He shouldn’t. I’ve dug my own grave.

Jesus gives us a picture of someone completely undeserving.

But it is to this undeserving son that the Father runs to, throws his arms around and kisses.
The message to completely undeserving sinners is, “Please come home. Dad isn’t going to curse you out or punish you. Dad wants to embrace you.”

No matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, I fully accept you. Welcome home son!

Imagine a couple. She has her own business and is pretty successful. He’s doesn’t have much, but they were happy together. He make her feel beautiful, he makes her happy. She grows to really love this guy. And in time, they get married.

One day he says he wants a divorce. He wants to divide the property and end the marriage; he’s found another woman, and he’s made his choice.

She feels so used, betrayed, cheap, worthless, trampled on, violated

She’s devastated; she’s feels so hurt, how could he do this! How could he just throw her away like that, how could he just walk away and not care! Heartache! She thinks about how he’s taken her money and is spending it all on this other woman.

She falls into depression, she feels so hurt! Because she loves him so much only made the pain so much more wrenching!

She swears she’d never trust men again, that they’ll never let anyone do this to her again

What would it be like to be so rejected and betrayed?!

One day, this guy comes crawling back, drunk, dirty. He wants to apologize for what he’s done. He’s not going to ask for anything other than if perhaps he could get a job. He just needs to find some work.

What does she do?

What if I said she runs to receive him, hugs and kisses him. She doesn’t even let him finish apologizing, but smothers him in compassion and affection. She puts a ring on his finger, and keeps hugging his dirty, smelly body. Then she immediately hosts a huge party at the Four Seasons to celebrate his return!

Would you run to welcome an ex-husband whose dumped you for another woman?

Shouldn’t she first try to teach him a lesson? Should she at least let him humble himself and finish apologizing? Shouldn’t she be careful, this is not a trustworthy man! Shouldn’t she restrain, not be so eager, have a little self-respect!

Should she have the attitude/would you say, No matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, I fully accept you. Welcome home son!

It is a picture of someone completely undeserving.

It is a picture of someone radically gracious.

To him, it blows him away. The grace and kindness is crushing. He feels so unworthy, so ashamed, but amazingly, so unimaginably loved and accepted.

But perhaps you’re hearing this story and you’re thinking, but that’s not right! She shouldn’t take him back! Or at least let him apologize, at least let him grovel a little, make him pay, teach him a lesson.

Some are “blinded” by their righteousness and begrudge the Father’s grace

Some of the audience was a little bothered. That’s not fair! That’s not right!

It’s a little uncomfortable for us. Something doesn’t feel completely right. He’s getting off way to easy.

If you remember the context, there are tax collectors and prostitutes around Jesus (corrupt corporate executives, men who cheat on their wives, women who entice them). And the religious leaders are sneering, muttering. Why does Jesus waste his time with this kind of rift-raft? Doesn’t he know who they are?

Jesus’ basic reply (last week) is that these people may not matter much to you, but they matter to God. They’re precious to Him. The Father goes looking for them and is so happy when even one of them repents and comes home.

But the religious leaders don’t like that story. They resent it. These sinners shouldn’t get that kind of treatment. They don’t deserve it (but we do).

You see, the religious leaders resented Jesus’ story. And that’s where the older brother comes in the story.

He’s not at all happy that his worthless younger brother gets the royal treatment while he’s been serving his father faithfully all these years, and he hasn’t gotten anything.

The older son had his own problem.

If the younger son’s problem was rejection and rebellion, the older son’s problem was his “righteousness.”

Let me try to illustrate:

Suppose there this cocky guy at work. You work together on a team, but he’s just so difficult to work with. When you try to help him learn something, he acts like he already knows it. He wants to act like he’s smarter than you and everyone else.

Suppose he’s also a slacker. He’s always coming late, leaving early, making excuses, but still acting like he knows more than you.

You, on the other hand, are a hard worker. You’re honest with your work hours, you do what you’re supposed to do. In fact, from time to time you cover your teammates and help them with their work, even with this cocky, know-it-all slacker.

Well one day, this guy makes up some bogus accusation and tells your boss that you’ve been cheating the company. He sets things up so that somehow you’re at fault for something that’s not even your job. You almost lose your job because of this guy.

Then suppose one day this guy hears the gospel, about how God loves him, accepts him as he is. He knows that he hasn’t been a saint and asks for forgiveness. He’s told that he’s now that all his sins are forgiven and that he’s a child of God.

How do you feel?

Or suppose your parents have a store and one day, they were just running their store when some guys come in, attack them, rob them. They take a few thousand dollars in cash, they sabotage parts of the store and they hospitalize your Dad. The police never catch these guys. They get away with it all.

You and your family, you work hard, you earn an honest living. You treat people with respect, you believe in peace. You even take what you earn and give to the Katrina relief, to Tsunami relief. You work to give, these thugs just take and they take a lot.

Then suppose one day, they visit a church, and they hear a preacher telling them that no matter what they’ve done, no matter what kind of sins they might have committed, if they call on Jesus, they can be forgiven, white as snow. They can become a child of God and be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

How do you feel?

This guy doesn’t deserve to be forgiven! He’s scum! He should be punished, not loved!

That’s exactly how the Pharisees and religious leaders felt. They resent God’s grace and mercy on these tax collectors and sinners.

For some of us, what keeps us away from God is not our rebellion, but our “righteousness.”

gives us an illusion of entitlement, rights, that we deserve something more

We think that we’ve been working so hard, we’ve done so much, we deserve better, we’ve earned it.

makes us forget that we’re sinners too

We think God doesn’t need to forgive us, not really, at least not that much

We think we’re better than others.

We think I don’t really deserve to be punished, I’m a good person. I don’t really deserve hell. I can save myself. I don’t need Jesus to save me, I’m a good person.

And even if I’ve made some mistakes, I can just work harder, do more. I can save myself.

I’m better than others. I’m a good person, and so I deserve better.

And so when good things happen, we feel, “Well, I deserve it. I’m a good person.” When bad things happen (someone robs you), we feel, “God, how could you do this to me? I don’t deserve this.” In fact, we might say we use our “goodness,” to control God. “God, you owe me. You can’t do this to me. I’m a good person.”

And it’s that “goodness” that keeps us away from God.

The younger brother rebels against God by breaking the rules.

The older brother, in his mind, “controls” God by keeping the rules. “God, you owe me. I’m not at your mercy. No. I worked hard, I believed in myself, I’ve done a lot of good. I don’t really need you. I can take care of myself.”

For both, they are their own master. “I’m in charge of my life.”

John Gerstner, “The thing that really separates us from God is not so much our sin, but our damnable good works.”

Most pointedly, this “righteousness” makes us resentful of God’s grace on others

So when someone else gets more, we feel resentful.

That’s not fair, we deserve better. We’re the better person. How can you cheat us, I deserve more!

This is where Jesus confronts the older brother.

“This brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

You shouldn’t be resentful, you should celebrate with me. Your brother is found.

God in his lavish love forgives the sins of both sons and wants us to do likewise.

When the listeners heard this story, they were floored, they were shocked. They weren’t shocked so much about the younger son, or the older son. The twist, shock in these parables concerns the father

he agreed with his younger son’s audacious request

never stopped watching for the boy

this well-to-do, male, head-of-the-household older man, running in public (undignified)

interrupts his sons repentance speech

he brings the ring and the robe, throws a party, treating him as an honored guest

What kind of woman would take her adulterous ex-husband back?

What kind of father would take his disgraceful and rebellious son back?

And then instead of rebuking the older brother. Instead of dismissing his rude and resentful behavior, the Father goes out to the older brother as well.

The picture we have is a God who is running around the fields seeking the lost sheep, on his hands and knees looking for the lost coin, a God who shamelessly runs to, hugs, kisses his son. He is lovingly going out to bring the older son into the celebration.

God loves the younger brother, certainly not because of his behavior. It wasn’t anything about the son, it was about the Father, about His love.

God loves the older brother, but not because of his “righteousness.” It was his “righteousness” that was the problem. Again, it wasn’t about the son, it was about the Father.

That’s just the Father we have. He has an enormous heart, and infinite love.

This is a story about an amazingly loving Father.

To some of us who feel like the younger brother, behold this God.

This is a God whose love is far greater than your sins and failures.

This is a God who cares and dances and celebrates over sinners like you and me.

This is a God who is anxiously waiting for you to come home.

He’s saying, when I find the lost sheep, I call my friends to rejoice with me. Share my joy.

When I find my lost coin, I call my friends to again, share my joy.

When I find my lost son, I call my friends, share my joy.

It is a message to the older brothers out there, don’t look down on the younger brother types, instead you should share in the Father’s joy.

This is a call to share in our Father’s joy.

To some of us, when we see God’s grace and love poured out on others, we feel indignant, resentful, or maybe we feel jealous.
”My son, 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.”

But God is calling us to see how precious those other people are to Him, and to share in His joy.

Yesterday at our retreat, Elijah raised his hands in praise. I don’t think he really understood what he was doing. But I felt this incredible love and joy. Lord, make my son a worshipper, may he one day see your glory and worthy, may he explode with love and adoration.

Just the thought of seeing him love and worship Jesus filled me with such joy.

It’s as if God says, “Paul, yes, share in My joy! But it’s not just Elijah, it’s also those others. That is my joy when any of my sheep are found, any of my children come home.