[Machine transcription]
Now the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable.
You may be seated. Dear Stephen and Tray, dear conframands, dear baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, this parable is one of the most wonderful: the prodigal son. I think because we see ourselves in this scoundrel of a younger son who comes to the father and says, “I wish that you were dead and I had the inheritance. Why don’t you just give it to me now?” And the father, astonishingly, gives it to him.
He goes into a foreign country and wastes everything on prodigal living, doing stupid stuff, chasing after the pleasures of this world, and loses everything so that he’s there in the fields, feeding the pigs. It’s just hard to imagine a worse situation. He comes to his senses. “My father’s servants have it better than I do. So, at least I’ve got this: I’ll go home and I’ll beg Dad for a job. I don’t want to be a son anymore.” In fact, as he prepares his confession, it’s an amazing thing to see.
“I’m not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. Yes, just give me a job. I don’t even have to stay here on the farm. I’ll come every day. I’ll work until I’ve paid off the debt. And I’ll work hard. And I won’t complain like I used to. And I’ll fix things and I’ll make it right.” But with fear and trembling, he limps his way back to the father’s house. I can’t help but imagine his fear as he stands there ready to cross the threshold and approach the farm, and all the things that he must imagine might happen.
What, after all, is his father going to do? I mean, what should the father do? “You have the inheritance. I’ve already given it to you. You don’t belong to me.” Just ignore him, turn his back on him, or see him coming and be filled with righteous anger because he actually squandered everything and did all of this stupid stuff. Maybe he would find his father, and if he did look at him, maybe he’d slap him in the face, or spit on him, or tell the servants to stone him to death, or lock him in prison. Who knows? Whatever it is, he knows he deserves it.
So, with fear and trembling—this is so wonderful—he steps across the threshold and starts walking back towards the father. And the father sees him, picks up his robe, and starts to come towards him, picking up speed, faster and faster. And now the father is running! He scoops him up in his hands, and he starts to kiss him. His son is back from the dead, and the father is overjoyed at this. The son tries to do his whole, “I’m not worthy,” and the father won’t even let him.
“Bring him the best robe. Bring him the ring. Bring him the shoes. Kill the fatted calf.” My son, he says, my son, the one who doesn’t even think he’s worthy to be a son, my son is back, back from the dead. Right? It’s so beautiful because you and I say, “That’s me,” and we’re right. You do not deserve the kindness of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, the death of God, the blood of God, the eternal reign of God. You don’t deserve any of those things.
Yet the Father, he doesn’t just see you and say, “Well, all right, I guess you can come in here.” No, he picks up his robes and he runs. And he scoops you up, and he won’t, by the way, have any of this nonsense about paying him back and being a servant. “You’re my son,” he says, “you’re my child.” Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God, and such we are. This is you and me, dear saints, scooped up and rescued by the pierced hands of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He did it in the font, Trey, for you and Stephen. He’ll do it at the altar. He does it in his word. He comes and he scoops us up and he rescues us, and it’s beautiful. But there’s one who doesn’t think so. There’s one who’s not so impressed with this: it’s the older brother. And he is the reason that the Lord Jesus is telling this parable.
In fact, this parable in the text is the third of three parables. The first parable was the parable of the lost sheep that’s found by the shepherd, and he throws a party for the joy of finding the sheep. And then the second parable is the lost coin. The widow has ten silver coins, and she loses one, and she goes and she finds the lost coin, and she throws a party with her friends for the finding of the coin. And now we have this lost son, and the father finds the son, and he throws a party when he finds the son.
And it should be over at this point. I mean, just if Jesus was following the pattern, he would say, “There’s more joy in the angels over one sinner who repents than over 99 who need no repentance.” But this is not how the parable ends. Jesus says after the party has started, he says the older boy heard the noise and said to the servants, “What’s all this ruckus?” And they report, “Well, your brother’s back, and your father is having a feast for him.”
He can’t believe it; he is fuming; he’s enraged. He stands out in the field and refuses to go into the feast. Now, that older brother is the Pharisees and the scribes and all those who are fussing and grumbling at Jesus because he receives sinners and eats with them. And here’s the amazing thing: Jesus tells this parable because he loves these Pharisees. Jesus is telling this parable because he loves these scribes, and he wants them to come into the joy and delight of his mercy and kindness. He’s inviting them in.
So, the father goes out and finds the older son in the field, and he tries to compel him to come into the party, but the older boy says, “All these years I’ve served you, and I’ve done every single thing that you asked me to do, and you didn’t even give me a young goat to have a barbecue with my friends. And this son of yours who wasted all of your stuff with prostitutes is back, and you’ve killed the fatted calf for him? No, I’m not going in there. I’m not going to celebrate that. That’s ridiculous to celebrate such sin and wastefulness.”
And this is what the father says to the older son: “It is right, it’s fitting, it’s appropriate, it’s what we should do to make merry, because this your brother, my son, was lost and is found. He was dead and is alive again.” And then the parable’s over.
Now, the reason why Jesus leaves us hanging like this is because he is putting this to the Pharisees and to the scribes, and to all of us who are tempted to pride and to think that the Lord owes us something. He’s putting the question straight to us: Are you going to stand out in the field, or are you going to come into the party? Are you going to demand to have God on the terms of justice, which you set forth, or will you have him on his own terms of mercy and kindness? That’s the question.
And we don’t know what happens. It just stops. But I do; I know what happens. I mean, it’s not written down; it’s a secret. But you would think, if you just say, “Well, how should the parable go? How should the parable finish?” How we wish it would finish would be like this: The father says, “Come in,” to the older son. The father says, “Come into the joy.” And so the older son says, “Father, you’re right. It’s right that we should be happy. He was dead and is alive. He was lost and he is found. It’s right for us to rejoice in your mercy. Give me a piece of that fatted calf and come into the party.”
That’s what we hope would happen. I think we’re more likely to think that the way the parable would finish would be that the father went back into the feast and the older son stood out in the field, and the sun set, and he stood there, and the sun rose again, and he stood there, and he refused for the rest of his days to come into the feast. That’s what we probably think would happen.
But here is in fact what happens: the father goes out to the field to find the older son and compel him to come in, and he says, “No, it’s not right. It’s wrong that you’re doing this. In fact, Father, you are wrong for having this feast, and you should not be the father of the house.” And the older brother calls together his friends, and they surround the father, and they start to mock the father’s mercy and jeer the father’s mercy. And then one of them picks up a stone and throws it at the father, and then they all pick up stones, and they start to kill the father and dance around the corpse of the father who lies dead because now they are in charge of the house.
And as the father is dying, he looks at the son, the older son, and prays, “Forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” In other words, rather than coming into the joy of the Lord’s mercy, these Pharisees and scribes who hear this parable of Jesus go on their way to plot his death and to work his destruction.
But here’s the point, and we cannot miss this: The Father goes out to find the Son knowing that that is exactly what would happen. Jesus, when he comes into our flesh, when he becomes bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, when he becomes one with us and comes into this life, he knows exactly what he’s getting into. The Creator comes to the creation, and the creation rejects him because they love the darkness rather than the light. They cast him off. They reject him. They arrest him. They beat him. They spit on his face. They nail him to the cross. They mock him the whole time. This is what your merciful God endures for you, because he loves you, because he wants you to know the joy of his mercy and his grace.
There’s a theme that runs through all three of these parables, and it’s a very, very interesting thing for me to notice, because at least when I hear the parable of the prodigal son, which I love, I mean, it’s got to be— in fact, it should be every one of your favorite texts, not just mine. It is just simply the best, that it lavishes on us the Lord’s mercy and kindness and love, that it opens up the heart of God to us. It shows us how deep and how wide his mercy and forgiveness of sins is. It’s just a picture of the grace of God. It’s absolutely stunning and beautiful.
And when we think about it, we’re almost overcome with this joy that this is who God is for us, that he runs to us and scoops us up and forgives our sins and brings us into the kingdom. But what’s really interesting is that the parable is not about the joy of the sheep on being found. The parable is not about the joy of the coin on being found. In fact, I don’t think coins feel much at all. The parable is not, in fact, even about the joy of the younger son being scooped up in the arms of the Father and welcomed back home. The parable is about the joy of the shepherd and the widow and the Father.
And here’s what comes to us today as one of the most profound things that we could ever even imagine, and it is this: Not only does God save you and rescue you and forgive your sins, but that he likes doing it. We were all pretty happy, Trey and Stephen, at your baptism, but you know who was really happy about that? Your dear Lord Jesus and all the angels around him and all of heaven. Your heavenly father delights in saving you and loving you and rescuing you and bringing you into his kingdom.
So we delight today that our heavenly father is merciful, that his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is gracious, that God, the Holy Spirit, is friendly to us and welcomes us, his children, into his joy. May God grant us this confidence in the name of Jesus. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.