Sermon on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, for the 4th Sunday in Lent, "The Love that Overcomes"
*Please see an additional post for my hymn composition about this Parable, entitled: "The Father's Love"
In the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. If you were in Jesus’ audience on the day
when He first taught this parable, 2,000 years ago, there are certain things
you would have just known as a Jew. You would have known that when it comes to
an inheritance, the oldest son was due to get a double portion of the father’s
possessions. You would have known that for the younger son to demand an
inheritance before his father died, was deeply insulting and disgraceful, and
would have made him the shame of the family. You would certainly never expect a
good Jewish father to act in this way—conceding to the son’s request. And to
take the cake, the father running out to greet his lost son on the road, was
astonishing. The son can only anticipate being treated as he deserves—hopefully
at best to work as a hired man, so he can at least be fed. Even the son cannot
imagine being received back as a son.
If you were in that original crowd—well,
if you’re just in this crowd today—you might well have been a tax collector and
sinner, receiving the unexpected welcome and grace of the Lord Jesus. You would
have felt the surprise of the younger son, who cannot anticipate his father’s
incredible love. You long to be home again, but you might doubt or fear that
God’s love could ever be for you. Or, you might just have been a Pharisee or
scribe, who was astonished that Jesus breaks with the social conventions to eat
and mingle with sinners. You would have felt the surprise of the older brother,
that the father would act with such scandalous love and uninhibited joy to
receive back his younger brother, whom he saw as a reckless scoundrel. You’ve
never left home, but you might have felt that you deserved preferential
treatment for your good life, and resent your brother. Jesus’ parable takes aim
at both groups, and it finds us just as surprised or convicted by the father’s
love, so that we would do and show the same.
If we have wandered from God, wished
that He were dead, and preferred to just live off His generosity, while
severing our relationship to Him—then God grant that we walk the path of
repentance, home to Him. If we are still miles from God’s mercy, in a far-away
land, squandering our inheritance, God grant that we come to our senses, and
see the emptiness of a life lived without our Father or our family. If you are
that younger brother, and have despised your Father’s love, pray those
heartfelt words, “Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son (or
daughter).”
Those may be hard words to speak. We
live in an entitled age, and we don’t want to admit that we have done wrong,
and God is right. “I’m not worthy”
are not words that easily spill from our lips and our heart, unless they are
loaded with sarcasm. But all through Scripture, God makes it clear that He does
not stand for our pride or self-righteousness. If we are to come to God, it
must be humbly. The son’s prayer echoes Psalm 51, David’s confession before
God. King David confessed his deep fall from grace, and confessed that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a
broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). He
could not fix what he had broken, and humbly came to God alone to forgive his
sin, cleanse his guilt, and restore his spirit and joy. Our humbled and broken
heart, God will not despise.
The younger son doesn’t seem ready to
understand or anticipate his father’s forgiveness and restoration. Before he
starts home, this journey seems a “walk of shame” for him. He anticipates no
good outcome, only the possibility of work and food, and a place of dishonor.
How many sinners do you think live lives that they feel are so broken and
helpless, that they could never be wanted again, whole again, loved again,
forgiven and set free from the secrets, the lies, the shame, or whatever else
holds them captive? How many people long to know if there is any hope that God
could receive them? How many people would never dare come to a church because
of their fear of what some “good old brother” would think of them? But they
don’t know our Father’s love! They have no idea the welcome that God would give
them, or the joy that would spread across His face to see them home! Jesus
drives home this point to the dismay of Pharisees and the self-righteous—that
all heaven rejoices over even one
lost sinner who repents. God knows the emptiness of life away from Him, and
that’s why He pursues us with His love, to drive us back into His arms. Even
when that love comes tough, through brokenness and need driving us back to the
only One who can provide for us. But God runs arms open. Not arms folded and
grim. He rejoices to see us turn away from sin.
Can you help someone see God’s love in
this way? Can you be God’s love to them, to bring the lost and the erring back
to Jesus? Yes we can! Jesus Christ lives and moves in us, to perfect and shape
His love, so that by our good deeds, by our love and compassion, that they may
give glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). For those who God brings to
us, or for those whom we find, God would teach us that it is “fitting to celebrate and be glad,” for
those who were dead, and are alive again, for those who were lost, and are now
found. Making that turn and coming home to Jesus may be incredibly hard, but we
all need to walk that road. Whenever we have wandered, we must journey back to
our Father’s home. His home should be our dwelling place.
Older brothers, are you here? You’ve
walked with God your whole life. You’ve done well and been obedient, at least
as far as you can tell. You might be one of the many Christians who hold the
deeply mistaken notion, that “I think I’m going to heaven because I’m a good
person.” It may be that you wrongly assume that your standing is by right and
by what you have earned—forgetting that we are all our Father’s children, and
our place in the family is not by right, but by God’s inestimable love. Perhaps
we underestimate our own guilt, because our outward lives are presentable. We
might find good company in the Pharisees, whose lives were spic and span, but
Jesus exposed their proud and selfish hearts. If we are an older brother, it
may be that we have drifted so far from our Father’s love, that we would not
have the joy and excitement to see our own brother alive and home again. Could
it be that we’ve assumed our place, but forgotten God’s first love for us? To
older brothers also, Jesus calls, “repent!”
Just as surprising as the father’s
joyous sprint to his young son, is his gracious appeal to his older son. A true
father, he shows no favoritism between his sons, but longs for them both to be
close to his heart, and close to one another. So great is the father’s love,
that it overpowers and overcomes his significant material losses, the public
shame of losing his son, and even the insolence of his judgmental older son,
but rises still higher, above these painful and hurtful marks, and he shows a
true, unconditional love.
A love that we could only see more
clearly on the cross of Jesus Christ, as God’s own Son, sent to find and redeem
the lost younger brothers, and to win over the prideful older brothers. The
love that overcame and endured every shame, rejection, and dishonor, as He hung
there bleeding for us. Our sins, nailed Him to the tree, and yet His love rose
over and above the losses and shame, and He spoke forgiveness to us. We don’t
know what we do. And He paid for all that hurt and wrong, and He still appeals
to us both, calling us home, bringing us to the Father’s welcoming arms. Jesus
endured great pain and sacrifice so that we could come home into the Father’s
blessing. Sin was no light and indifferent thing for Him, but He paid that
awful price for our redemption.
And what is prepared for us? Not a
servant’s place and servant’s wages in the corner. Not a demoted son or
daughter, no longer part of the family. But a feast is prepared for us. God’s
grace poured out beyond our imagining. The Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body and
blood, shed for our forgiveness. A covenant and promise of His forgiveness, and
our new inheritance. A royal robe and ring, as we receive the baptismal garment
of Jesus’s righteousness, a white robe to cover all our sin. The baptismal seal
of the Holy Spirit, sent to our hearts to convict, to renew, and make alive. The
celebration of saints and angels, that a sinner has been restored to
repentance, forgiveness, and life!
Our Father has loved us with a Divine
Love that goes beyond our understanding. Our Father loves us younger and older
siblings. He wants us to love each other the same. Jesus, His Son, was the
shape and form of that love, sent to pursue us, to rescue us, to die for us,
and rise again for us. Jesus showed us how to walk that extra mile, to seek
reconciliation, to seek life and joy between brothers. It is love that covers a
multitude of sins. It is God’s Divine love that bears our wrongs, forgives us
so we can forgive others, and leads us in the new way of righteousness. Come
home to the Father. Welcome your brother. Rejoice, and be glad that our
Father’s home is our dwelling place! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sermon Talking
Points
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- In Luke 15:1-2, Jesus’ audience for the parable is made up of two basic groups of people, who can readily be identified as the younger and older brother of the parable. What are the two groups who are listening, and which brother do they match?
- In Deuteronomy 21:17, it states that a first born son would receive double the inheritance of the other son(s). If there were only two sons, this means the younger would get about 1/3 of his father’s property. By asking for his inheritance, what was the younger son basically wishing for? Why is it shocking that the father gives him his request?
- What does it mean to “squander” one’s possessions? How do we do this today? What gifts and possessions do we have? How do we use them wastefully? What was so humiliating for the son, about working with pigs? Deuteronomy 14:8
- Before he returns, the son plans to strike a bargain with his father (Luke 15:18-19). Why can’t we bargain with God in this way? What are we unable to do? Cf. Matthew 18:23-27
- How does the father receive him instead? Luke 15:20-24. What does this communicate to us about the love of our heavenly Father? How does heaven respond when a sinner repents (turns back to God)? Luke 15:7,10
- How do attitudes like that of the older son form? Luke 15:2. What do we fail to recognize about ourselves when we are judgmental? Romans 2:1. What would have been the right attitude for the older brother to have, when his younger came home? Luke 15:32. How should our attitude change towards those who have left God in sin, and returned to Him, finding forgiveness?
- Though Jesus does not match any of the character’s in the parable, how would He have been a fitting older brother in the story? What about the life and ministry of Jesus showed true brotherhood and true love for the lost? Luke 5:29-32; 19:10; Romans 5:6-11.
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