Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
“Looking Up at Hell”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
“There was a man who had two sons.”
One—the youngest—comes to his father and demands his share of the inheritance.
That may sound odd to our ears, but it’s not completely unheard of.
Sometimes, in our culture, parents will give part of their estate to their children, years before they die.
They do this so that they can avoid inheritance taxes, so health care expenses won’t eat into their assets.
But to the ears of a Middle Easterner of the first century, those would have been fighting words!!!
This ungrateful son is dealing his father the ultimate insult.
It’s as if he were basically saying, “Drop dead!”
Amazingly, though, the father goes along with it.
He divides his estate between his two sons.
And notice that the older son doesn’t object to this…
…so, he’s not much better when it comes to the parental respect thing.
Anyhow, the younger son takes his money and runs!
He heads off to a “distant country,” which, to Jewish ears would have meant that he goes off to live with the “sinful” Gentiles who are non-Jews.
He’s grinding his father’s faith into the dirt.
And what does he do with all that cash?
Well, he starts partying one day, and doesn’t stop until he’s sitting on the sidewalk, surrounded by his furniture.
Even more wacked—this youngest son takes a job feeding pigs.
Why so wacked?
To Jews, pigs are ritually unclean.
Leviticus 11:8 says, “Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean for you.”
For a Jew during the time of Jesus, to have a job feeding pigs is to no longer be a Jew!
And to top it off, when he gets hungry, he longs to eat what the pigs are eating.
To Jesus’ first listeners, this means that this faithless young guy is not only feeding pigs, but he even wishes he was a pig!
There is—quite simply—no further a first-century Jew can wander, no lower he can sink.
He’s burned every bridge behind him.
He has hit rock bottom and then some!
He’s not looking down at hell; he’s looking up from hell!!!
How many of us have found ourselves in this horrible and tragic situation at some point in our lives?
How many of us have ever felt as if we have fallen so far, that there is no way we can ever be redeemed, forgiven, restored, made clean, be happy again, whatever--ever?!!!
There was a time I hit “rock bottom,” and you know what I found?
I found Jesus right there with me.
It was only then that I was able to say, amazingly enough, “rock bottom isn’t so bad after-all…because Jesus is there!”
And this is often where people do meet Christ!
Why do you think there were so many “tax collectors” and “sinners” all “gathering around to hear him”?
Anyhow, this, once haughty young man, swallows his pride and heads home with his tail between his legs…as a matter of fact, I doubt he even had a tail any longer.
He who once had full citizenship, but cast it away, will now be happy to become an illegal alien!
“Make me one of your hired hands,” he plans to beg his father.
Yes, his transformation is now complete.
The self-absorbed and selfish guy who once demanded of his father, “Give me—give me my share of the inheritance,” is now begging him, “make me—make me one of your day laborers.”
And this is the transformation that any follower of Jesus Christ must go through, at the moment of conversion, at the moment of deciding to become a disciple.
“Give me,” our natural sinful selves demand of the world and of God.
And finally, when every earthly well of meaning has run dry, we come to the conclusion that “Give me” gets us nowhere.
“Give me all the happiness that is my due!”
But there’s a strange thing about that kind of happiness: it never satisfies.
It’s like drinking seawater to quench our thirst.
The only true and lasting joy is to say, not “Give me,” but “Make me.”
“Make me, O God, make me what You would have me to be.”
So, the younger son is walking the long and dusty road to his father’s farm; he’s fully prepared for the worst.
And he’s totally unprepared for the sight that greets him, as he starts getting close to home.
There, racing down the road in his direction as fast as he can run, is his father!!!
And this, would have been completely unusual for a first-century landowner, because these guys were never seen running!!!
They were the village elders, they were the head honchos, they were the men of dignity!
They stand and wait for others to come to them!
But the father in this story could care less about all that!
He’s overflowing with joy.
The father calls for the fatted calf to be slain.
It’s a feast—a huge shin-dig—and not only for him and his two sons, but for the entire village!!!
And here we have as vivid a picture as anywhere of Jesus’ teaching of what God’s love is like and of what Jesus Himself takes as the model for His own ministry to the outcast and the sinner!
But it’s the older son who gives us the real punch-line in this story!!!
He could only see bad and was blind to the beauty!
The older son’s behavior is Jesus’ response to His critics.
They were so focused on the “wickedness” of the tax collectors and sinners, and of Jesus Himself daring to eat with them, that they couldn’t see God’s love at work.
Here were all these people being changed, healed, having their lives transformed physically, emotionally, morally and spiritually; and the grumblers could only see litter, the “human garbage” that they despised and avoided!
“Your brother,” says the servant, “has come” home!!!
But the older son, basically says, “He’s no brother of mine,” as he stomps over to his father and angrily says, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you…”
Well, in truth, remember that the father gave both the sons the inheritance…
…so, in truth, they’ve been working as partners all these years, and the older son sees that anything spent now will come out of his own inheritance!!!
And the phrase where Jesus ties this story to the murmuring Pharisees and teachers of the law comes next, “I’ve never disobeyed a single command of yours.”
This was what the Pharisees boasted about themselves!
This story shows us the sheer self-centeredness of the grumbler.
The older brother shows that he has no more real respect for his father than his brother had had.
He lectures his father before his guests, and refuses his father’s plea to come in and join the party!
And at this point, imagine the scene.
Jesus is hanging out with sinners and tax collectors.
The grumbling Pharisees and teachers of the law are why Christ is telling this parable at all.
Jesus is trying, like the father in the tale, to generously reach out to them as well.
But if they insist on staying out of the party because this isn’t the kind of thing they like, that’s up to them, but it won’t be because God doesn’t love them too!!!
Sinners and outcastes were being welcomed by Jesus!
A party was being thrown in their honor.
In the parables that come before this one, Jesus says, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Sadly, whenever the work of God goes powerfully forward, there is always someone muttering in the background.
The story of the prodigal son, is of course, unfinished.
Don’t ‘cha want to know what happened next?
How will the younger brother behave from now on?
Will the two sons ever be able to reconcile?
Sometimes when a storyteller leaves us on the edge of our seats like this its because we are supposed to think it through…
…to ask ourselves where we fit in the story, and to learn more about ourselves and our church.
Which role in the story comes most natural for you?
How can we move even more towards becoming people through whom the Resurrection of Christ happens to others?
How can we celebrate the party of God’s love in such a way as to welcome not only the younger brothers who have come back from the dead, but also the older brothers who thought there was nothing wrong with them?
This is what Jesus’ ministry is all about!!!
And we are part of it!!!
Praise God.
Amen.
