Parables: The Prodigal Son

Let's read. Luke 15.

Luke chapter 15.

Verses 11 to 32.

now the tax let let me read the first couple of verses and then we'll skip to verse 11 chapter 15 verse 1 now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him but the pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered this man welcomes sinners and even eats with them now go to verse 11 jesus continued there was a man who had two sons the younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth and wild living. After he'd spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near, he heard the music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry, refused to go in.

But he answered his father,

and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Let's pray.

Lord, let the familiar words not just escape our minds, but help them to penetrate our minds. Let not the familiarity of this story cause us not to hear it afresh. But today, help us to hear. Help us to understand who you are,

be and how in you there is life and joy and peace and fulfillment and happiness. May we find it in you. For it's in Christ's name we pray and for his sake, amen. I was riding back home last night from Charleston. Louise and I were at a banking convention for the last couple of days.

On my day and a half of legal work, I do work with the bank, so I occasionally have to go and learn about new laws and new regulations that are being issued. But I was driving back late last night. It was 1 in the morning. We got home about 2 a.m. this morning.

I said, how do you teach this story in a way that captures this class? We've heard it so many times. It is probably the most familiar of all of Jesus' parables. We call it the parable of the prodigal son. records this parable, but we're all familiar with it. But how do we yet again hear it and let it capture our hearts and minds? I don't know for sure, but help me as we try to understand this parable today by thinking with me as we go through it. One thing I learned at the convention, we had a psychologist who had been a Baptist minister and a stand-up comedian spoke to the Convention of Bankers.

He was an interesting speaker. But one thing he told us in his talk was that in our country, 17% of the people in this country will move every year. About 43 million Americans every year will move their homes and go to a different place to live. And that happens almost year in, year out over the last number of years. We are a moving culture.

In the U.S., we move more than in Europe. 17% a year. And what is happening is that families are moving farther apart, becoming more disconnected.

And when you couple that with the breakdown in traditional two-parent homes, we have an interesting result in our country, according to this Baptist psychologist comedian. And here's what has happened. four Americans, according to him, has a psychotic disorder. A diagnosable psychotic disorder. A disorder that is one of those disorders that psychologists give a name. And he traces it back to our disconnectedness with one another, our distances from our family, and not having that support structure that is so important, particularly as we're growing up as his children.

The result is that for our children, with all this moving, with the dysfunction within families, life can be very, very difficult. And we sometimes see people who have not found love, fulfillment, joy, happiness at home looking for love in all the wrong places. Well, today, Jesus Christ says, come home. Come home. No matter where you've been, no matter where you move to, no matter what your life has been like, He says, come home.

Well, here's the story. Let's remember the story, and then we'll go to our lessons for life. There are two groups in this story. It's always important to know who Jesus is talking to and He's talking to two different groups of people, really. He's talking to the sinners on the one hand and the tax collectors were always viewed as sinners by the Jews because they were working for the Roman government, taking money from the Jews to give to the Romans.

So the tax collectors and sinners were all one group. and then you've got your religious group, the good group, you know, the holy group, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. And the teachers of the law are grumbling and the Pharisees are grumbling because this man named Jesus takes those who are on the outskirts of the society, the sinners, and he makes them feel welcome and makes them feel at home.

and the teachers of the law don't like it. So Jesus begins to tell them a series of stories and there are actually three parables back to back in this Luke chapter 15. We're going to concentrate on the last one. But all of them, all of them, all of them ultimately have the message that Jesus Christ and the Father love sinners and love to see them come home. Well, here's the story.

You know the story. It's a familiar story. The younger son seeks his share of the father's estate. the younger son, there's an older brother. Under Jewish law, the older brother always inherited a double portion of the father's estate. It's a good law. We should reinstitute this law in this country. All of us who are older brothers recognize that the older brothers have had to raise all those children. It's been a difficult time. We deserve to inherit more. And in the Jewish system, the elder brothers would inherit double. So in this case, we've got an older brother and younger brother.

What would happen is the younger brother would be entitled to a one third share of the father's estate. Now under Jewish law, it was rare, but the father could go ahead and give a son his share of the estate. And that's what the younger son says to the father. Give me my share. I want it now.

Now typically when the father gave a son a share before the father's death, the father was entitled to receive the income that would come from the items he had given to the son from the land. He was entitled to continue to use those items during the lifetime of the son. But he could go ahead and make the gift during his lifetime. Now secondly, we find out why the son wants his share. He's been planning.

wanting to get out from home. We know people who've been there, right? They think things are better somewhere else. They want to get out from under the umbrella of the home. Well, that's this younger son. And we know that he takes off and he leaves for a distant country. And the implication is he goes to a place, now not a Jewish territory. He's now in Gentile territory. And his leaving is an act of disloyalty first to the father. It's disloyal because he takes all that the father has given him and takes it with him. And instead of staying and letting the father get the benefit, the income off of those assets, as was typical in Jewish life, even when the father already made the gift, the son takes all the stuff, leaves the father behind, and takes what the father has given him to use for his own benefit. He lives a life of debauchery. The NIV says he lived, had, he went into wild living without specifying what that is. The words in the Greek text mean it was an immoral lifestyle, a loose lifestyle, whatever you want to say. Basically, he did everything and anything that was permissible with the money that the father had given him.

could buy, he probably bought it, whether it was good for him or not. The implication is at the end of the story that maybe he even used the money, squandered it on prostitutes. But then disaster strikes. As he's squandering his money, a famine hits the land. And when a famine hits the land and his money runs out for the first time in his life, for the first time in his life, the younger son finds himself in need.

He's never been in need before. While he stayed with the father he was not in need but for the first time in his life he finds himself in need. And he experiences the ultimate degradation for a Jewish young man. He's employed by Gentiles and he's given the job of feeding the pigs. A very unclean animal from a Jewish perspective.

And his status is even below the status of the pigs because if you read the text, the pigs had plenty to eat. But this young man who has squandered the father's wealth and lived in debauchery does not even have enough to eat. The text says he wanted to eat the food of the pigs, but no one would give him any of the food of the pigs to eat. So he is not even as well off now as the pigs living in the pigsty. he's hit rock bottom.

But then he comes to his senses. Reality hits him. He recognizes his condition. He understands how low he has hit. And sometimes, is it not true, we've got to hit bottom before we recognize what we have left behind?

He hits rock bottom, and he repents. He recognizes in his heart that he has first sinned against heaven, the text says. Sin is ultimately against God, but then he's also sinned against his father that he has left. And so what does he decide? He says, I'm going to go home.

I'm going to go home. Let me stop right here and say, this is not the parable of the prodigal son, folks. That's what we call it. But the parable is really about the father. and how the father responds when the prodigal comes home.

It's the parable of the loving father. What does the father do? The father is ready. The text says that when the son was a long way off and the father sees him, the father has compassion on him. And the sense seems to be that this father whose son has been gone, this father has day in, day out, gone outside the home and he's looked down the road hoping that his son would come home, watching for him day in and day out.

And you have to sort of personalize this to get the sense of a father. What if it were Caleb?

Or Ryan? Or a daughter?

Daniel, Amanda, Laura, Jonathan.

And you knew they had left. You knew they were gone. You didn't know how they were doing. You didn't know how they were living. But you knew things weren't right.

How would you feel as a parent? Well, this father's ready. He's watching. And when he sees him, he has compassion. And the text says that the father, while the son was a long way off, the father began to run toward the son.

Now we have to step back here. Jewish fathers were to be dignified people, particularly with their sons. You know, men, fathers, you know how you are with your sons sometimes. Sometimes we don't express things maybe as well as we should. We keep a little distance.

men. We don't hug and kiss and all that sort of stuff. Well, Jewish fathers would always be dignified around their sons in typical situations. You wouldn't see a Jewish father, if his son were approaching, take off running. That wouldn't be dignified. He would be like Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. There's a great scene in the movie Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence has been lost in the desert, and then he shows up, and Omar Sharif, who is the tribal chieftain, to meet Lawrence of Arabia, he strides out very proud, tall, to meet Lawrence.

That's the way a typical Jewish father would have gone to meet the son. But the text says that this father began to run. And the word for run there is a running that is an all-out, all-you-worth kind of running. It's the kind of word used when you were in a foot race trying to outrun somebody next to you. this father was not only ready for the son, he ran to him for all he was worth to get to his son as he saw him coming emaciated, dirty, ragged clothes down the road.

And when he gets to his son, he throws his arms around him. He hugs him to his chest. He kisses him and begins to rejoice that his son is there. the son begins to to apologize to the father and the father it's interesting will not even let him finish but the father immediately restores this son who has returned home to his original condition he gives him a robe and the robe was a sign of honor clothing in that day was often signifying one's position sort of like when kings and queens are are coronated. They wear these robes. It's a sign of their position. Well, the robe here being given to the son is a sign of restoring him to his position of honor. He's given a ring. The ring was the signet ring that the father could use to seal official documents. It was a sign of authority.

And the father immediately gives this son the signet ring. He gives him authority again, and he gives him shoes. In this day, slaves didn't have shoes. They went barefoot. This son wasn't treated like a slave.

He immediately got shoes. And then the father throws a party. He says, let's celebrate. And it says they had a feast with meat. And people of this day didn't eat a lot of meat because it was expensive.

But they bring out the meat and then they begin to celebrate after they've eaten with music and dancing. Now I want to say something about the father right here. Some of us, if we had had a child who had gone off and squandered wealth and lived a very immoral lifestyle and the child came home, we would probably be happy the child came home. But how many of us would throw a party and invite the neighbors and say, Come on over. Let's celebrate. The child is at home.

We're glad you're home, but let's just kind of be quiet about it. No, not this father. This father says, my child was lost. My child is at home. We're going to throw a party.

We're going to celebrate. It's a whole different view about welcoming sinners than sometimes we have, is it not? How much do we celebrate when that which was lost is found? Well, you know the story of the older brother. He's a self-centered, resentful, ungrateful brother, prideful.

In the story, the older brother represents those Pharisees and teachers of the law who were upset that Jesus welcomed sinners. And the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were hearing this parable knew exactly who the older brother was like. He was just like them.

resentful that he had not been had a party thrown for him ungrateful really for all the father has always provided to him and the father makes it clear to the older brother you've always had all that i have you've always been treated with great respect and great dignity but instead of being self-centered and angry because we're celebrating for your brother you should be joyous that that found. That that which was dead has come to life. And Jesus was telling to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, quit looking at all these people just as ugly sinners. Look at them as people who have been restored to life. And celebrate.

Celebrate. Okay. That's the story. Here are the lessons for life. Lesson number one. The grass is not greener away from the Father.

That's lesson number one. It is the lie of our culture that living under the umbrella of God's authority is somehow repressive, oppressive, not fulfilling, not joyful. The only way you find joy and fulfillment in life is to get out from under this repressive moral authority and get outside of it and do whatever you want to do.

I don't know how many people I've had in my legal career who said, oh, I'm going to leave this spouse and go to another spouse because this is going to be such a much better situation when I leave my spouse and go to this other person. And you know what they find out? The grass was not greener. It was not greener. It is never greener outside the moral authority of the Father.

like a good parent does for a child. This father puts boundaries around us, but boundaries that are there for our help, that lift us up, that help us to be better fulfilled as people. We are looking for love in all the wrong places

by thinking the grass is greener somewhere else. The best place to find the love, the joy and the fulfillment is with the father. be a slave in his house than a king in any other place. Better to be a slave in God's house than a king anywhere else. As a slave in his house, you're going to get riches beyond compare. That's where you want to be. Lesson number two, be careful. God usually lets us do whatever we wish to do.

You want to rebel against God? You want to go just do whatever you want to do? This God, like the Father in the parable,

that's what you want to do. I'm not going to stop you. Typically, God says, okay. You make your bed, we'll let you lie in it. You want to do a little sowing?

We'll let you do a little reaping. Let's not blame God. When we choose to go our own way and things don't work out as we wished. We just did what we wanted to do. Be careful. Be careful.

Thirdly, painful circumstances are often God's megaphone to get our attention. Are we listening?

We can hit bottom in all sorts of ways in our lives. And God sometimes lets us hit bottom so that we can see where we really are. That's what happened to the prodigal son. He had to get so far down before he could go back up. And in our own lives, that sometimes comes through job loss, comes through maybe death or difficulty, sickness, illness, but sometimes those painful circumstances God permits to come into our lives are designed to wake us up to where we are.

We need to listen. Are you going through difficult circumstances? the case that that is God's way of waking us up to our sin. Some of us experience difficulties in our lives that have nothing to do with our sinfulness, but sometimes it is because of our sinfulness that God brings difficult circumstances into our lives to wake us up. We need to pay attention if we're going through those difficult circumstances. Fourthly, the gospel is for sinners, not for saints.

And I want to say something to us well-dressed, prettied up, good-looking mostly group here.

It's hard for sinners to get saved at Greer First Baptist.

Because the reality is we don't treat them like the Father treated the prodigal son. We don't throw our arms wide open and say, even though you're ragged and emaciated and dirty, even though you've been living like among the pigs, we don't treat them like the father treated the prodigal son. But the gospel is not for saints. The gospel is not for those who are pretty. The gospel is for those who have a lot of ugliness in their lives.

But that's the beauty of it. The gospel says we don't care where you've been. We don't care what you've done. We don't care how bad it's been. Come home.

You got a father that loves you. And we need to love them too. I went with Shelton and Dan Johnson over to a homeless shelter in Spartanburg a few weeks ago. and folks when you go in a homeless shelter and you get around some people who've been in some difficult circumstances they often don't smell good they don't look good and they don't look all that lovable

but it is Jesus Christ that is the hope for those people and we need to be like the father to them we need to love those folks welcome even right here at first baptist church fifthly let's celebrate when sinners are saved when people come from light to darkness from life to death from being lost to being found we need to celebrate i like it when we clap in our church services when somebody professes faith in jesus christ i like that i think we ought to do more of that i think we probably ought to have some real celebrations when people come to faith in Christ. Let's have a party. Let's have a party. And really celebrate those things. You know, when people celebrate when you do something, it makes the person who has come forward feel good.

And it's a way, I think, of encouraging others to turn their life to Christ. When we really celebrate. Let's celebrate. the father's love is deeper than we can understand and this is where i want to say just a couple of extra words on this lesson for life the father's love is deeper than we can understand or imagine i don't know how to help us grasp completely god's love the psalmist says your love oh lord reaches to the heavens your faithfulness to the skies he's trying to help us understand how great Thomas says in other places, his love endures forever. It never ends.

The Apostle Paul would pray for the Ephesian church. I pray that you will have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. One quote I read said, The love of God is like the Amazon River flowing down to water one daisy. That's how God's love is toward us.

The Amazon River flowing down to water one daisy. But when I began to think about God's love, I thought of two stories that helped me capture it. One was there was a battle going on between Israelis and Palestinians. cameras were there. And in the middle of that battle between the opposing forces, there was a young man, a young boy, looked like he was about seven or eight years old. And he was in the middle of this gunfight. Israelis shooting one way, Palestinians the other way. This young boy right there in the middle. And on TV, they captured what his father did. The father ran, grabbed his son, put his son against the wall of a house, and his father threw his body around him as the bullets were flying. The father loved his son more than he loved his own life.

Unfortunately, they were both killed.

But God's love is that big kind of love that will give all for us. Another way I thought of God's love was by son Caleb.

Who, as you know, has recently gotten married. And as a married man, he's worried about, you know, providing for the family. being sure they've got all they need and thinking about those things, as a good husband should, right? But you know what? I don't think he's fully grasped yet, though I think he knows his dad loves him.

If he has not one penny, he's okay. Because this father would give everything he has to take care of him. We would sell our home. We would sell our cars. We would empty our bank account.

he's safe he doesn't need to worry about having enough to make ends meet because he's got a father and a mother who loves him we are so scared sometimes in this life folks we worry about so many things but you know what we've got a father in heaven who says quit worry I've got all the resources you need and I will richly pour them out on you. I guess one other picture of God's love is when somebody asks how much does Jesus love you?

Jesus says this much.

Enough to give his life for you on the cross.

This love is deep. Last lesson. There's no place like home. You want safety, you want security, you want love. Come home.

Come home. The father is waiting. I write letters to my children at strategic points in their lives. I'm going to read the end of the letter I wrote to Kate on her 18th birthday.

never forget that no matter what life may bring and then in capital letters God loves you Mama and I love you Caleb loves you all of your relatives love you and that's a heap of loving and you can always, always, always come home.

We need to send the message out, folks, that no matter what, this Father that we serve is always ready to embrace those who come home. Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord, for your love, are indeed grateful.

I want to pray particularly for those who may not feel loved right now. Who for whatever reason may be hurting. Who for whatever reason may feel

that they are less. Who for whatever reason don't feel like they measure up. I pray Lord that by your spirit will help them to understand the depth and magnitude of the love that you have for them. May you bring peace and comfort and joy into their lives because of your love.

And it is my prayer that as a community of faith, we will be people who mirror the love of the Father as we interact with other people. May they see your love in us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.