When God Doesn’t Want to Hear It
Luke 15:11-32
I sat at my desk staring blankly at the screen with a bit of a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know exactly where to begin, and I wasn’t even sure God wanted to hear it. I had just scrolled through the pages of a Word document where I keep my password-protected journal. Thank God for password-protected documents!
I won’t say that I journal every day, but I do try to keep a regular journal. My journal is really just a very long conversation with God, and it’s a place where I’m completely frank about my walk with Him. It’s not a place for “unspoken” prayer requests, but a place where I have some of my most intimate conversations with my Creator.
There are moments in life where we find ourselves ready to burst with joy at the realization that God has blessed us beyond measure. These are the kind of days when my fingers fly across the keyboard, fumbling across each other as I virtually shout God’s praises…days when I look into the eyes of my three little girls and feel the awesome wonder that comes from the knowledge that God Almighty has trusted me with their care…days when I am blown away by my crazy hot wife who puts up with my lunacy and odd behavior…days when I am inspired by the evidence of God’s presence in the growth of a new Christian…days when I am thankful for God’s miraculous provision when my wife and I were worried about meeting a financial obligation…days when the Seahawks look like they might be bound for a game in February. Those are great days, and it’s fun to type feverishly in my journal.
There are other moments in life when we find ourselves ready to burst for completely different reasons. Have you ever noticed that even though we are brothers and sisters in Christ that we can actually have moments with each other that you might call…oh…I don’t know…unpleasant….maybe even a little upsetting…perhaps frustrating…maddening? Let’s be honest, there are days when my fingers are flying across the keyboard as I vent my anger or frustrations with God…when I’m tempted to type those kinds of words that spell-check probably won’t recognize. Those aren’t great moments.
There are some days when my fingers are very deliberate, methodical…days when I’m very contemplative or deep in thought…when I choose each word very carefully and slowly. Maybe these are days when I simply fill the space in my journal with adjectives for God. There are days when my own words aren’t sufficient and I type the words of a song or a hymn that communicates my thoughts to God with greater clarity and poetry than my own heart can express.
There are all kinds of moments we have in life, and there are all sorts of ways we express our thoughts and feelings to the Father. This particular day, however, I just didn’t know where to begin. I’m not sure if it’s the same for everybody, but I find that I’m particularly reflective whenever we approach a New Year. I don’t always make resolutions, but I do always take some time to think about where I’ve come from and where I’m heading.
A few weeks ago, as I read through some of the entries during this past year, I became discouraged as I began to notice a pattern in my walk that I’m not comfortable with. Not only did I notice a pattern, but there were four distinct issues that I needed to deal with. I sat staring blankly at the computer screen unable to type with my fingers because they were too busy covering my face in shame and disappointment. Immediately, I began to ask myself the kinds of questions we sometimes face in the refining process: How long will God be patient with me? If I tell Him I’m sorry again, will He even believe me…will He even listen? With all that I need to change, where do I even begin?
I sat there…in silence…unsure where to begin. Have you ever been there? Have you ever found yourself at a point on your journey where you were so discouraged or so overwhelmed that you weren’t even sure where to begin…where you weren’t even sure if God was around? We begin a new year this week, and I would like us to take some time this morning to examine the path that our journey has taken us on during this past year.
One of the unfortunate patterns we see in Scripture is that the people of God continually fail Him. I’ve been working my way through the first five books of the Bible for the past few months, and it blows my mind how many times God’s people fail. While the failure of God’s people may be an unfortunate pattern, the fortunate pattern is that God doesn’t ever seem to be too surprised by that. We seem to find a God who is patient and who possesses a love we can’t possibly comprehend with our limited understanding.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful expressions of this love is found in the story of a lost son in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. (Read Luke 15:1-24)
Prompted by Love, the Father Releases. At the beginning of the chapter, we find two distinct groups in the crowd that is gathered around Jesus. There are the religious leaders, and there are the outcasts. The religious leaders were upset that Jesus would even associate with people of such low moral standing as the “sinners” and tax collectors who were present. In the NIV, “sinners” is in quotation marks because this wasn’t Luke’s designation; it was the way the religious leaders referred to them.
So Jesus begins addressing the crowd with three stories of redemption. Sheep are said to be among the dumbest animals alive. Without any pre-determined desire to be lost, the sheep simply wandered foolishly away from the fold. A woman loses a coin, again, through no fault of the coin. In both of these stories, someone goes after the sheep and the coin. In the story, of the lost son, however, Jesus reveals that God loves us enough to allow us to choose for ourselves. He expresses His love for us by letting go.
It wasn’t out of the ordinary for a father in this culture to divide his estate among his sons before he died. Many fathers who wished to retire would divide their estate to their remaining sons and then live with the eldest until his life came to and end. The oldest son would receive a double portion of the inheritance while every other son would receive a single portion. There is something especially cruel, however, in the son’s request for his portion. In essence, his son was admitting that he wished his father was dead and simply wanted what material benefit he might gain from the relationship. The father complied, and he gave the son what would amount to 1/3 of his estate. (The eldest son was due a double portion, so the ungrateful younger son made away with 1/3 of the value of his father’s estate.)
Before we chastise the son, we might take a moment to realize that while we may not wish God were dead, there may be times when we are found almost as guilty of “living off the inheritance” while neglecting the relationship. Our Creator desires an intimate relationship with us. The covenant He has made with us is to be our God and for us to be His people. Not only did God establish this covenant, He even provided our end of the bargain. Because the wages of sin is death, He provided payment for our sin through the death of His one and only son. All we have ever been asked to do is to receive the gift of salvation. When we are asked to follow God, it is not out of a mindless duty, but out of a sense of gratitude that we are enticed to follow. As Paul says in Romans 12, “I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”
Jesus tells us in the 15th chapter of John that we are to remain in him as a branch remains in a vine. He paints a very vivid picture of how our relationship with Christ is supposed to work. As we remain grafted in the vine as the branches, he promises to remain in us. He says that we will bear much fruit and fruit that will last if we will simply remain in him.
Nevertheless, with all the distractions in this world, it is too easy to find that we have been satisfied with God’s forgiveness, thankful for his free pass into the life eternal, yet neglecting our relationship with Him by trying to live life in our own strength while we leave the Word on the shelf throughout the week, choosing nearly any activity in this world—even worthwhile activities like ministry events—over time spent listening to God and having a fruitful dialogue with Him.
While we may never have wished God out of our lives, our actions just might reveal that our relationship with Him is a far lower priority to us than we care to admit. Even so, God expresses His love to us by releasing—by allowing us to choose our path. He won’t force us to come to Him.
“A shepherd sought the lost sheep. A housewife searched for the lost coin. No one went looking for the lost son—but he had to be released. The father must wait and not step in. His son willed to go and must return of his own accord. The waiting intensified the anguish. The son had broken his father’s heart. Though suffering, he clings to hope. We see a very vivid picture of the heart of God in Jesus on the cross. The greatest suffering at the cross was not physical torture, but the agony of God’s rejected love. And God our Father waits patiently still!” (Denny, 4).
We’re told that the son travels to a foreign land and quickly wastes all of his inheritance in “wild living.” All that he has is gone very quickly, and he hires himself out to a citizen of that country to tend to the pigs. Now, if we know anything at all about the Jewish audience Jesus is talking to, we know that they would never come near a pig. Even if you smothered a hot dog in chili and cheese, they wouldn’t touch it. Pigs were considered unclean to the Jew, and Jesus paints this picture of what had to be “rock bottom” to the people listening to the parable. Not only is this lost son a servant to the pigs, nobody will give him anything to eat…and he begins to covet the food that the pigs were eating. It just can’t get any more shameful or any lower.
The Scripture tells us that he came to his senses. He thinks about the hired men on his father’s estate. They weren’t family. They weren’t even servants who were loyal to the family and enjoyed job security and close bonds to the family. His father’s hired men were people who could be dismissed at a moment’s notice, but they were well fed and taken care of.
He decides that he will go home and plead with his father and beg him to at least let him become a hired man. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you owed someone a HUGE apology?
I met a man at Promise Keepers back when it was held in the Kingdome in Seattle who was a deacon and a spiritual leader in his congregation. One day while sitting in traffic, he was waiting for the light to turn green while the sun beat down directly in his line of vision. He tried squinting, shielding the sun with his hand, leaning to a different direction…by the time the light turned green, he was nearly blind. He didn’t have green arrow and knew that he had to wait for the long line of oncoming traffic to pass before he could turn left.
As he waited, the driver in the front of the line of oncoming traffic must have fallen asleep at the wheel He began to realize that if that car didn’t start moving, only about half the line of cars would pass through the light and he would have to wait through another red light before he could turn left. His frustration and impatience came to a boiling point, and he finally decided to just gun it and go.
Wouldn’t you know it…as soon has he began his turn through the intersection, the oncoming car honked at him. Without even thinking about it, his arm appeared extended from his shoulder in the direction of the oncoming driver and the middle digit on his hand was the only one waving in the air; he was now successfully letting the other driver know what he thought of his driving through sign language.
Unfortunately, as he made the turn the glare of the sun was replaced by shadows, and he was able to see that the driver who had honked was not some inattentive moron; it was his pastor politely holding traffic back so he could make the turn without waiting! He was mortified. When he got home he told his wife who thought it was hilarious. He didn’t know what to do. He literally thought about going to the doctor to have his arm put in a cast with his middle finger extended so he could claim that he was “just waving back.”
My friend had tried everything he could think of to try to fix the situation, and he finally resigned himself to the fact that he would have to just tell the truth. Even though my friend was humiliated by what he had done because of the respect he had for his pastor, I found his plight to be kind of funny. There certainly isn’t anything funny about a son who wished his father were dead and deliberately walked away from him and wasted his father’s hard-earned resources on wild living.
Have you walked that road back home before? What went through his mind on that journey home? Would he even be able to look his dad in the eye as he would muster up every bit of strength he had to get his speech out? What if is father refused to even see him? This week A Christmas Story was on TV…Ralphy waited in line to see Santa in order to ask for the one present he desired only to forget how to speak because he was intimidated. What if the son got stage fright in the presence of his father?
As he traveled that path, mile after mile, I can only assume that he rehearsed his speech over and over. He would approach his father with the stench from working in the fields and fighting for pig slop on his clothes and say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men,” over and over again, “Father, I have sinned…
Prompted by love, the Father Receives. (vv. 20-24) “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 have sinned against heaven and against you. I am 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 and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast to celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
I don’t know whether or not the Father wanted to hear it, but it’s clear he didn’t need to hear it. He interrupted his son before he could even finish his speech…he never even allowed the request to be made a hired man to be spoken…he ran to his son and embraced him.
• We know that the Father wasn’t passively waiting for his son to return. By the very mention that he saw him “a long way off” we see a broken-hearted father eagerly waiting and watching!
• Village customs said that the elder son would serve as the mediator between the rebel’s disgrace and the father’s honor. Traditions fell aside here…he ran to his son!
• Further, it was considered shameful for a man over the age of 30 to be seen running; they must maintain dignity. The father would not adhere to the customs but reveals his availability to his son.
• He repeatedly expressed his acceptance. The best Greek here doesn’t imply that the father planted a single kiss on his son; it says that he literally “kissed much.” The Eastern custom of kissing both cheeks was repeated with enthusiasm. He was not timid in his acceptance of his son. He wrapped him in arms of love.
• “The father eloquently expressed his forgiveness. His love blanketed the past with forgiveness. He had already forgiven him, but the son had to return to receive and experience his forgiveness…There is not ONE word of rebuke!
• Instead we become witnesses to an intimate reunion in which a father is able to erase any doubts the son may have had along his journey to repent.
Prompted by love, the Father restores! Forgiveness is more than wiping out past sins and failures. It is the restoration of a relationship. The son had said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v.21). Plagued by a sense of unworthiness, the young man inwardly was searching for some way to make amends. People have a deep desire to earn back favor, but the father expresses sincere grace by restoring the relationship.
There is a Buddhist story that starts out like Jesus’ story of the Prodigal son. However, for 20 years the father hides his identity and keeps checking up on the lost and penitent son. Through suffering and mournful penitence, the son finally emerges from the trial.
That is not good news…our story is better! The father that Jesus pictured demanded no quarantine. Our God, like the father, restores with unconditional love. In the church where I grew up, my pastor was known for saying, “There isn’t anything I can do to make Jesus love me less. There isn’t anything I can do to make Jesus love me more!” Why choose bondage when sonship is offered?
Restoration is demonstrated by the father’s gifts. The robe signified honor…the best robe meant literally the 1st robe in rank and quality…our Father never gives his children 2nd best. The ring signified authority. He was giving his son—the very son who selfishly squandered his portion of the estate—the power of attorney over all his riches. The gift of shoes signified freedom. Slaves were kept barefooted; free men wore shoes.
The gift of the fattened calf sealed the father’s restoration. There were only two reasons the fatted calf was usually killed…1) it could be slaughtered for the Eastern “sacred duty” of hospitality of an honored guest or 2) it could be sacrificed to the Lord.
Finally, prompted by love, the Father Rejoices! The father told his servants, all of his household, his other son…it was time for some rib-eyes and hamburgers because his son had returned home. Not only is the theme of celebration evident in this parable, but also in the two preceding stories.
As we enter this new year together, it’s an incredible time to be mindful of the recent events and growth opportunities along our journey. Perhaps some of us are still enduring the refining fire of God’s holy work in our lives. It may even be possible that some of us today find ourselves as lost as the son in this story.
Unless we find ourselves grafted in the vine that is Christ Jesus, we are made in such a way that we will be homesick until we find our home in God’s presence and joy! I had a difficult time that afternoon staring at the screen with my journal, and you may find yourself in a place today without the proper words to express your desire to return to the place where God means for you to call home. Either way, before the words find themselves in our minds or onto paper, God runs the moment He sees our heart turn toward Him.
