4th Sunday of Lent

Pastor Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Luke 15:1-3; 11-32

THE FATHER’S LAVISH LOVE FINDS WHAT WAS LOST AND MAKES ALIVE WHAT WAS DEAD

“O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith.” Dear hearers of the Word:

Gender neutral Bibles are not spiritually neutral. The God who created you in your mother’s womb; the God who redeemed you through Him born from the virgin’s womb; the God who gave you new life from the womb of death is God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this age of political correctness and feminization of the church; in a culture in which the true responsibilities of fatherhood are often evaded, take courage and comfort from God the Father’s lavish love for you.

This Sunday’s Gospel parable is usually called “The Prodigal Son or Sons.” The word “prodigal” comes from the Latin word for “lavish.” Dictionaries often give two definitions; first that of reckless spending and wastefulness and second that of extravagant generosity. Today consider this text by focusing on that second meaning as applied to the Father. That is, the Prodigal Father who is so extravagantly generous in lavishing His love upon you.

Lack of understanding His love was the root cause of the grumbling of the Pharisees and the scribes. They were saying of Jesus “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” We have become accustomed to that expression and that general thought. We even sing “Jesus sinners doth receive”. It doesn’t seem surprising or shocking.

But there was nothing conventional about it in the life of Jesus. There He was, eating with prostitutes and with those serving in the disloyal and often dishonest office of tax-gatherer, and with an array of other sinners. It was shocking! If we think about it concretely, it is a bit hard to take at first. Instead of “Jesus receives sinners” consider “Jesus receives whores or rapists or slave traders or child pornographers”. Jesus sits down to eat with Islamic terrorists or dirty politicians or crooked lawyers. Perhaps the temptation to grumble is understandable.

So Jesus told a parable. The younger son demanded his inheritance thereby telling the Father he wished he was dead. He was tired of waiting for the old man to kick the bucket. The Father knows the pain and problems that will result from this impatient grab for gusto. He also knows that He cannot force love and honor from his son. He therefore takes the hurt and divides the property as his son requested.

Free at last, said the younger son by his actions. He quickly put some distance between himself and the Father. With delight he pursued the wild life. He partied and played and chased his own happiness until he was totally unhappy, until he was empty. Short term pleasure was replaced with long term pain - a common story line in our fallen world. It is an understatement to say that he had made some bad choices. It was only when pig food started to look good that he realized just how bad his choices were. Having wasted it all, he considers heading home. Remembering His Father’s love and care, he prepared this confession; “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” The Prodigal (wasteful) son humbly returned to His Prodigal (generous) Father. But he didn’t get quite what he expected.

He expected to be treated as a slave. His best hope was for a second rate place in the household. What a sizable underestimation of the Father’s lavish forgiving love! The Prodigal (generous) Father had never written him off. The Father’s heart was longing for his return, scanning the horizon. O happy day, it happened! While he was still along way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. There is no half-way restoration with this Father. The Father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” The family ring carried the full authority of the family. Servants were barefoot, but not an honored son. And what’s more, the Prodigal Father threw a party to celebrate that His son who was “dead” is alive again.

Dear Christian this is a picture of your heavenly Father’s compassionate love for you. He rejoices over the sinner who repents, and so do the angels who behold His face. He doesn’t love you conditionally but rather with love that is lavish and extravagant and searching and forgiving. His great desire and joy is to have you home with Him forever. God is your Father – your loving Father.

That’s why the Prodigal (generous) Father sent His own Son to be the Prodigal (wild and wasteful) Son. As the Father in the parable gave to the younger son of His livelihood, or literally his “substance”, so we confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is of one substance with the Father. As the Prodigal son in the parable went to a far country, even so the Son of God left His heavenly home to go afar. He went so far as to descend into the mess of our dying world in the flesh.

Here He blew His wealth and His substance consorting with tax collectors and sinners and the likes of us. He is prodigal, that is wonderfully excessive and extravagant, in the way He dishes out God’s grace and mercy towards us. He divides the inheritance with us fully and freely and without complaint.

Beloved, He lost it all because of the Father’s lavish love for you. “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” The Son lost it all for you, dying as your substitute. He was punished as if He were the rebellious son, the self-righteous Pharisee, the prostitute, the glutton, the drunkard, the materialist, the proud one, the greedy one, to win your forgiveness. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” When He bowed His head in bloody death on Calvary, He had nothing left to give.

But on Easter morning He did! As the Father in the parable, said, “this my son was dead and is alive again”, so Jesus arose and returned to His Father. Ascended on high He is exalted to God’s right hand and given the name that is above every name. He who was lost for a time to the grave has been found triumphant over sin and death and the devil. He was welcomed back home with honor and glory and the celebration in heaven continues for ever to which you are invited.

In fact you have the place of a royal son of the Father right now. Once you were lost, but now you are found. Once you were dead, but God raised you to life in the washing of rebirth. He clothed you in the robe of Jesus’ righteousness for as Scripture says; “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). He put His family ring on your finger. Even today He sets the banquet table of His supper to celebrate the return of His repentant, rebel children. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous, religious folks who see no need for repentance.

And that brings us to the older son. When the older son heard about his brother’s return He refused to join in the celebration. He had stayed around home and performed his assigned tasks. But as it turns out, he had been working for himself. He had been working with his heart fixed on his own service and good works. Such statistical sainthood and comparative Christianity is a deadly evil. Sadly, he thought that his place in the Father’s household was earned. He thought that He deserved it and His self-righteous perspective robbed him of joy at the return and restoration of his brother. As the parable ends his self-righteous view has him outside the feast of His father’s love and forgiveness. The Prodigal (generous) Father is begging him to repent and come in.

Fellow-Redeemed, the bible is clear that we are not to participate in the sin of another. We are not to pretend that someone living openly unrepentantly in sin is also receiving grace in God’s household. There is tragedy and pain involved when God’s will is spurned as did the younger son. We are not to act as if this is fine and confirm someone in and ungodly life. But we are to pray for their return. We are to speak of God’s, searching, lavish (yes – prodigal) love. And when someone returns from chasing false freedom we are to rejoice in their full standing in our midst. When someone who has strayed away from God’s will returns in repentance, we are to welcome and rejoice with that one as a brother. For you see, the household of God runs solely on the extravagant love of the Father for us sinners in Christ. We don’t merit our standing in His gracious care.

Jesus does receive sinners – sinners like me - sinners like you – and He eats with them! He knows that you have not viewed every minute and every possession as His gift to you. Good heavens look what happens to our hearts even when His Word speaks to us about returning a first-fruit percentage gift to Him. He knows that you don’t trust His lavish love and care for you perfectly. Good heavens look at the worry and coveting that easily infiltrates our hearts. He knows that fears about health and death trouble you. Good heavens are there not times when we don’t perfectly believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The truth is, God the Father knows that your thoughts and words and deeds are soiled with sin, just like mine. He knows that everyday sin clings to you just like it does to me despite your struggle against it. And with all that knowledge, His lavish love nonetheless embraces you and kisses you as His dear holy son. With all that knowledge, He keeps you covered with the splendid beauty of the robe of Christ. You haven’t earned a stitch and yet everything in the Father’s household is yours.

That is a wonderful position from which to welcome back and rejoice with any repentant sinner? That is a splendid standing from which to see every one of our brothers and sisters in Christ as our equal. It’s all a gift! The robe, the ring, the sandals, the very household of God into which we have been adopted, it’s all a gift. It’s a gift God would have us invite all those we know to return and receive. As we sang, “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples…”

Perhaps as you look back at your life you see yourself more like the younger son or perhaps more like the older son. Perhaps we see how both sons have messed with us and still tempt us. What Jesus longs for us to see in this parable is the lavish, searching, forgiving love of God the Father. Through His son, the invitation of our Prodigal (extravagantly generous) Father is still the same, “Let us eat and celebrate.” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.