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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the prodigal son, the parable that Jesus spoke to his people and to you. You may be seated.
You know, for the father, it wasn’t about all that money that the younger son had taken. It wasn’t about the amount of the money or it wasn’t about even that he could have it paid back to him. Not for the father, it wasn’t. And for the father, it wasn’t about the fact that he had to experience a great amount of shame and ridicule by his peers in the community. For you see, they did not have all of the resources to be liquidated in a moment’s notice. For the father to give that son his half in the inheritance… And the other son, his half of the inheritance, he had to sell off all of the property, all of the livestock, and everybody had to watch this crazy man do such a ridiculous thing. Wasteful, squandering money and possessions for these two sons. But it wasn’t about that that the father was upset.
It wasn’t about whether the younger son squandered it with reckless living or whether he did it according to the slanderous statement of the brother, he squandered it with prostitutes. It didn’t matter to the father. You know what did matter to the father? The thing that mattered the most to the father was the restoration of the relationship between him and his son. That’s all that mattered. That’s all that mattered.
We don’t even get to know what happened with the older son, but lest we think that the older son was somehow different than the younger son, he was just as much of a prodigal son as the younger son. The difference was, of course, he didn’t ask his father for half of the inheritance. He didn’t leave the family farm. He didn’t squander the money, but his heart did. It says, as the eldest son was to take care of all the arrangements so that the father could be the host and greet and meet everyone that came to the feast. He maligned his father there as well. And for the son, he didn’t care about his brother and his relationship with his brother. He even said, that son of yours. He didn’t want to claim him.
So who’s really the prodigal son? For the father, it’s all about a restored relationship. The biblical word for a restored relationship that we heard from Paul is another R word, reconciliation. Reconciliation. That is a restored relationship. And it was your Lord Jesus that was sacrificed to restore your relationship with the Father, to reconcile you to the Father. That is the will of the Father. Ha, ha.
Your heavenly Father is not concerned with your sins. Oh, we are, aren’t we? We have this handful of sins of which we feel so guilty for, completely ignoring all of the other sins for which we could be damned just as easily. But we have these few that we feel so guilty for. He could care less because the sacrifice has been given, has it not? For our sake, He that is the Father made Him that is Jesus Christ to be sin. These sins of which you feel so guilty of and all these other sins of which you forget and can be damned by just as well, all were laid upon him.
Why? So that, Paul says, in him, that is Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. So if the father isn’t concerned about your sins, like the father in the story of the prodigal son, he’s not concerned about the son’s sins. He’s only concerned about restoring the relationship. That’s it. Then why are you? Why are you so concerned about those sins? The ones that you remember more than the others. The ones that you fixate on more than the others. The ones with which you struggle more than the others, but are still just as damning as the others.
For Jesus was the one who became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God. This is a very important phrase, that you might become the righteousness of God. Paul did not say that you might be given the righteousness of God. Paul did not say that you might get the righteousness of God. Paul did not say that you might receive the righteousness of God. Paul did not say that you have the righteousness of God. Paul said that you might become the righteousness of God because God changes you. His message and his gifts change you, have changed you, are changing you, and will continue to change you.
Just as you saw in that story how the prodigal son, the younger, was changed. How? By forgiveness. When we first hear the prodigal son come to his senses, he says to himself, I can pay him back that way. I won’t have to humble myself all the way to the dirt. I can get in that way. That door is cracked open. That’s what the son thought before he went back. But if you compare that to what the son said when he was transformed by God’s forgiveness, because before any words come out of that son’s mouth, the father runs to him, the father hugs him, the father kisses him, the father yells for a coat to be put on him, a ring to be put on him, shoes to be put on him.
Then… the son says these words, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Period. He doesn’t add anything about working it off. He receives the reconciliation his father gives him and it changes him just like it changes you and will continue to change you.
We have been transformed today. We have been transformed and it started at our baptism when you had nothing to do with it. Samuel did not have anything to do with his baptism. He didn’t raise his hand. He didn’t stand up for Jesus. He was brought by his parents just like you were brought if you were baptized as an infant. And even if you weren’t baptized as an infant, you were still brought and drawn by God, not by yourself. Amen.
And the relationship was restored, not by you, but by your father through Christ. And that message of reconciliation, that restored relationship, was not concerned with what you’ve done or what you failed to do, because it was all laid upon him. All that was concerned was a restoration of relationships.
Did you hear what Paul said? The father does not count our sins against us. That’s the same thing that the father in the parable. If it was your father or my father, arms would have been crossed. He would not have run out to meet you. He would have stayed there on the porch because he didn’t know what you were going to do. Were you going to ask him for more money? Were you going to try to charm him? That’s a man who’s concerned about a sin and not a man who’s concerned about a restored relationship. Two different things.
But this is a daily struggle for you and me. You see, we’re tempted to count our brother’s sins against him. Like in the parable, the older brother counted the younger brother’s sins. He knew right and wrong. His brother was wrong what he did with his father’s money. I wasn’t because I stayed behind. I didn’t ask for the money. I stayed with my father. I did all the right things. Not like my little brother who squandered it with prostitutes. And he didn’t even know whether he did or not. He was in his anger slanderous. Because he was all about counting his brother’s sin against him, which wasn’t counted to him.
In his anger of judgment, in his desire to be right and not wrong, he never even came to his father. His father had to leave the feast. How embarrassing. Walk out to his son, who was pouting in the field, and try to bring him back in. He wasn’t concerned with the fact that his elder son had disobeyed and dishonored him. He wasn’t concerned that his elder son had been with him even though his heart was far away from him. He didn’t even care how badly the elder son slandered the younger son. The only thing the father was concerned with was restoring the relationship. Reconciliation. That’s what he was concerned with.
You were baptized into the reconciliation between you and the Father in Christ Jesus. You have been called by the Father’s voice, the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who brings you back and invites you to eat with, of all people, sinners. You’re invited to eat with other sinners, other prodigal sons and other prodigal daughters. You’re not invited to eat with the elder sons. You’re invited to eat with prodigal sons only who return and say, I’m no longer worthy and have been received back by the Father who isn’t concerned about your sins and isn’t concerned about what you have failed to do but is only concerned about restoring the relationship because Christ had that sin placed on him.
It’s not about who’s right and wrong. But boy, do we dig our heels in with our wives and our husbands because one of us wants to be right. And don’t we dig our heels in with our children and they with us because one of us wants to be right. And no one cares about the restored relationship. There has to be justice served. Has there not been justice served for you? Has there not been a sacrifice paid for you? He doesn’t count your sins against you. Why should you count your brother or sister’s sin against them?
It’s all about restored relationships and reconciliation. It’s not about right and wrong. This is the message of reconciliation, that the Father rejoices exceedingly over you. When the Father received back the prodigal son, he did not just say, Wow, you’re home. He partied like there was no tomorrow and joyously celebrated.
Every time you eat with other sinners, angels in heaven party like there’s no tomorrow because sinners are repenting and sinners are coming to the feast and the community of St. Paul is built up when they see sinners eating with sinners and receiving forgiveness. That’s your message of reconciliation. Your message of restored relationship. You’ve been given to proclaim and to live out.
It was Jesus himself in the very beginning of this 15th chapter of St. Luke that said, There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous who do not repent. Rejoice. You’ve been received back. Rejoice. You’ve been given forgiveness. To give. You’ve been reconciled. Your relationship has been restored with him who alone could judge and did, but only one man, Christ, not you.
In his name, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
