16 June 2024
Text: Luke 15:11-32
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
In Luke 15, our Lord tells three parables in a row. It all started with a grumbling Pharisee who was complaining about Jesus because He “receives sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus tells the same story in three ways. The first two parables are the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. They are short and to the point. A shepherd loses one of his hundred sheep, and then he finds it. He rejoices, and asks everyone to rejoice with him. A woman loses one of her ten coins, and then she finds it. She rejoices, and asks everyone to rejoice with her.
The stories of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin are set-ups to this story: the Parable of the Lost Son. We usually call him the Prodigal Son, because “prodigal” means “wasteful.”
In the first story, we went from the lost sheep being one of a hundred. In the second, we hear a story of one of ten being lost. In this story, the lost son is one of only two. This story is much more personal, and it doesn’t involve livestock or money, but rather a father’s son. Jesus also introduces a character that represents the grumbling Pharisee.
This parable teaches us about God’s grace and forgiveness, His love, the lengths He will go to in order to find us, and it also teaches us why there are those who grumble about it all. This parable teaches us about the kingdom, and about ourselves.
The Pharisees missed the point of the Messiah
coming to them. Like their ancestors in
the wilderness with Moses, they grumble and complain – even in the midst of God’s
grace, even while they are being freed from their slavery. The Old Testament Israelites complained
against Moses, and the Pharisees complained against Jesus. They complain because freedom doesn’t look
like what they expected. The Old Testament
grumblers thought freedom meant a life of leisure and full bellies. The New Testament grumblers thought freedom
meant a political kingdom with the Pharisees in charge.
But freedom from the slavery of sin is a different kind of freedom. The kingdom of heaven is a different kind of kingdom. For our King is a different kind of king. Jesus rules a kingdom of grace. We were dead, and are alive. We were lost, and are found. And we should all be rejoicing together in the kingdom, even more so than when we find a missing animal or we recover some lost money.
Our Lord’s story turns the villain into the hero. But it also turns the hero into the villain. And we really need to pay attention to all of the characters. For real life is messy. Sometimes we are the lost son, sometimes we are the found son, and sometimes we are the resentful son. But God is always the gracious and loving Father who never gives up on us, whose door is always open for our return. And the heavens always rejoice when the lost are found.
Jesus creates a perfect villain: an ungrateful and selfish son. He is a fool. His disregard for his father and his brother is shocking. He thinks more of money than he does of his own father. And he “squandered his property in reckless living.” He spends himself into poverty. He is a long way from home. And in order to survive a famine, has to take a terrible job feeding pigs. And the food that the filthy swine ate seemed like a feast to him. He was barely surviving on the poverty wages he was living on. He is far away from friends and family, and so, “no one gave him anything.”
Of course, our reaction may well be one of self-righteousness. This wicked son is getting what he deserves. We may think that we would never behave like this. We may think this ungrateful son deserves even worse. A part of us might even rejoice at the son’s downfall. We might think of this justice that he is suffering as justification of our own goodness. For that was the attitude of the Pharisees – the chief enemies of Jesus.
And now the lost son hits rock bottom. He “came to himself” and resolved to go home. He will throw himself upon the mercy of his father and hope against hope that he can get a job as one of his father’s servants. For even a slave in his father’s house lives better than what his life has become because of his own foolishness. He resolves to confess his unworthiness, as he now acknowledges his sin against his father, and indeed, against all of heaven.
But even while he is “a long way off,” the father has “compassion” and runs to greet his lost son, who has now shown up like a lost sheep or a lost coin. Instead of reproach, there are embraces. Instead of judgment, there are kisses. And in response to the son’s confession, there is a celebration: a new robe, a ring, shoes, and a feast. The father orders the servants to prepare a meal: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
But unlike Jesus’ earlier stories about the sheep and the coin, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. For not everyone is rejoicing. The older brother resents the father’s grace. The older brother “was angry” and refused to join the celebration. He is the grumbling Pharisee back in real life. He is the reason for these three stories. For in focusing on his own perceived goodness, what we really see is an ungrateful sinner, who secretly wishes ill on his brother. The older brother resents the attention that his lost brother is receiving. And now, the “good” son has become the perfect villain: an ungrateful and selfish son. He is a fool. His disregard for his father and his brother is shocking. He thinks more of money than he does of his own father.
And even then, the father shows him grace and pleads with him to join the celebration. For the family has been restored. It is like a resurrection from the dead. The lost has been found. And this is a true miracle. For a sheep or a coin cannot repent. And a son is far more valuable. But the grumbling elder brother, the self-righteous Pharisee has been exposed to be the one who is truly lost.
There is a warning in this story, dear friends. Stop complaining. You live under God’s grace. Stop being resentful of others. For you too are a prodigal son, a lost daughter, a foolish sheep who has wandered, a coin that has been misplaced. But God Himself came to find you. God the Holy Spirit went out from the sheep who were safe to seek you and save you. God the Son got on hands and knees in our filthy home to sift through the dust so that you might not fall between the cracks and be lost forever. And the Father, having compassion on you, ran to you to not only forgive your foolishness and rebellion, but to throw a feast in your honor – bidding all of heaven to rejoice because you were baptized, because you confessed your sins, because you are here right now, and because you are part of His kingdom.
All of us prodigal sons and daughters – we who were lost but are found, we who were dead in our sins, but who are given the gift of life that will never end – are here today for the feast: the best bread in the world, the finest wine ever served. We eat the flesh of the lamb that was slain for our feast. We partake of the blood of the Lamb, whose sacrifice makes us worthy to stand before the Father: fully restored and rescued from the famine of sin and death.
Even our language demonstrates this reality, dear friends. We don’t simply “attend” or “do” the Divine Service. We “celebrate” it. The pastor who leads the service is called the “celebrant.” We confess our sins to the Father, and we pray, “Lord, have mercy.” And He not only receives us into the kingdom, He joins us at the table for the feast. There is no place for grumbling in this kingdom, dear friends. We are all the lost son who was found. We were all destined to die, but now we have the promise of life. We are robed with Christ’s righteousness. We wear the ring of fellowship with God. We wear shoes so that we may walk to bring others to the feast.
And this feast has no end, dear friends. As the father in the story says, as God the Father says to us, as Jesus Himself invites us in His Father’s name, and as the Holy Spirit has gathered us together and caused us to reflect upon this Word: “Let us eat and celebrate.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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