Lent 4 C
Lost and Found Son(s)?
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
6 March 2016 – Redeemer
Two sons and they are both lost – one is lost in a distant land and the other is lost right at home. Which one are you? Your Father wants you home. The Father wants you as His son and when you hear His call to repent that is really and truly your Father in heaven’s call for you to come home.
You don’t want to miss the setting of this parable – Jesus is at Beudreus over on the East Side, with some less than decently dressed women and some unsavory men when a bunch of Lutheran pastors walk by and are disgusted that Jesus (who claimed to be God) was acting (in their opinion) in a very ungodly manner. If Jesus was going to hang around with anyone it should be the pastors not the prostitutes.
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”” (Luke 15:1–2, ESV)
And then comes the parable – two lost sons – one lost in sin, the other lost in self-righteousness. When the Lord calls you to repent He’s asking you to examine your life – which are you, lost in your sins or lost because you have no real sins to confess. Your Father wants you back, but there is only one way back – His forgiveness, dependence on His grace alone. It’s none of you and all of Jesus.
The parable begins with the younger son wishing his father dead. That’s probably the best way to describe sin – when you sin you desire God’s death. Dad, I know you promised me to look after me, but I don’t trust you and I think I know what I need so drop dead, I’m taking what I want. All sins are first commandment sin, where you put yourself over God and do what you want to do instead of what God wants to do.
Amazingly God will not stop you from sinning. He’ll drop dead for you if that’s what you want. Of course, telling God to drop dead is rather dangerous to life. The Father divides the inheritance – two thirds to the older boy (remember that for later on), and one third to the son who can’t wait for dad to die. The boy takes off with the gifts of His Father and uses them for his own pleasure. He forgets to stop at Edward Jones on his way out of town to develop a financial plan. He goes to a distant land – think sin city, where no one knows him, and there he squanders his money on reckless living. Sin is fun. It feels so good. Far from home there’s no one to tell him otherwise. What is the far country, but the world in which we live where evil is called good and sin is called fun and you are given permission to do whatever pleases you.
But sin has its end. Pleasure is not God’s purpose. The boy’s money ran out. He has lost his sonship and becomes a slave. He has lost his wealth and now is impoverished. He used to sit at the head table and now he is covered with pig poop. He used to feast and now he is so famished he’s willing to eat pig food, but he can’t even get get any of that. In the end sin, wishing God dead, leads to death itself.
But then he came to himself. Actually, he didn’t come to himself His father came to mind. He realized that apart from his father he was – well – lost, dead. He remembered his father. He remembered how kind and gracious his father was even to the servants. We call this conversion or repentance, when God works in one of his children the knowledge of sin, the lostness of our lives, and beckons us to flee sin and death in that far country and return home to truly live again under our Father.
Sometimes I wish God would let sinners land in the pig pen more often. I think it would make my job easier. I mean let’s say you chose to skip church for some reason – wouldn’t it be better if your basketball team lost every game on Sunday morning, or if your truck broke down on the way to the lake or you didn’t catch any fish on Sunday morning. Or if every impure look caused you to go blind for a day or every angry word cause a sore throat. But God, in His foolishness, simply lets his Word suffice – not only for the Law – Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Honor your Father and your mother. You shall not murder (which includes anger). You shall not commit adultery (which includes lust), but also for the Gospel – I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. All the Christian gets is God’s Word – and He says that’s enough – both for the Law and the Gospel and I’ll have to trust him on that – even if sometimes I don’t really like it. All I have for you is God’s Word.
Back to the parable – the boy returns home because he remembers His Father’s love. Some commentators speculate that the boy was actually going to strike a deal with dad. Listen dad, I really blew it. Tell you what, let me work my way back into your favor. Don’t let me back into the house yet, treat me like a servant, hire me on and let me show you how good I am.” But the Father is no deal maker. He is a Father who loves his son, who loves you, who has been camped out on the porch with an eye always down the road, hoping and praying, He would see His lost son returning home. And when He spies that son on the horizon He hikes up his robes and runs down the road. He doesn’t even let the boy finish the deal – there will be no deals. You are forgiven – Christ died for your sins. Get the robe – Christ’s righteousness covers your life. Kill the fattened calf. One of my children has come home, let the angels in heaven rejoice over this one sinner who has repented.
When you repent (and leave that far country of sin) and believe in Christ’s forgiveness – by God’s work you are brought from death to life. Did that son deserve this? No, His father is foolishly in love with him, as the Father in heaven foolishly put His only begotten Son to death for you. What do sinners deserve? Death in that far distant land. What does God give them? He sends His only begotten son into that far distant land not only to sit with sinners, but to die for sinners, to die for you.
The Father has found one lost son and joys to have him home. But his other boy is also lost, and his lostness is not that evident. For he has been home the whole time. He’s been working hard in the field when he returns home to hear the music and realize something wonderful must have happened. When he asks a servant what is going on he cannot believe it. His no good, death-wishing, waste the inheritance brother has come home and dad not only let him back on the farm, but has let him move back in the house like a full and true son.
It is likely the servant pleaded with the older son to come into the party, but he wouldn’t. Dad also comes out to invite him in and then it is revealed what is wrong – the older son is as full of himself as the younger son once was. He is full of his works – he looked on his dad as master not as father, someone to serve, not to love. Look I’ve been slaving away all these years, never went against your bidding, and you haven’t even let me and my friends have a bbq. Meanwhile your other son comes home after wishing you dead and wasting your money and somehow he’s great enough to be your son. The older boy forgot, that many years earlier, his dad had turned over the whole farm to him. His Father begs with him to come to the party – what sort of family would we be if we didn’t rejoice in a resurrection from the dead – my son, your brother was dead, but now he is alive. Come and celebrate with us.
There’s two ways to be lost to your Father in heaven – you can be lost in your sin, remaining in that distant country, squandering your fathers gifts in reckless living.. Or you can think you’re so good you’ve earned your Father’s favor. Both ways you are lost because of you – seeking your pleasure at your Father’s expense or seeking your Father’s favor because of your works. The Father wants you home, that is why He opened heaven to send His Son into the world – to take away your sins and to make you pleasing to Himself. Pastors and Prostitutes both have a place and so do you, when you return home through repentance of your sins and faith in Christ Jesus, when God raises you from the dead and give you life in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
5 March 2016 anno Domini