Series: Lost
Message: The Prodigal Father!
Texts: Luke 15:11-24
Date: July 31
Pastor: Dave McBeath
This morning I want to begin with a confession. One of my greatest struggles is self-sufficiency and this self-sufficiency usually results in my being tired, worn out, or spent!
Sometimes my self-sufficiency is related to over-confidence in myself and sometimes my self-sufficiency related to my lack of confidence in myself. However, I can always be sure of this my struggle with self-sufficiency is always related to my pride.
Here are a few examples. Let me start with one from my over-confidence. In college I realized God had given me a heart for ministry and was calling me to make this my vocation. So, I made plans to go to seminary.
Here is the self-sufficient part. Looking back, I had a good chance to go to seminary and get it paid for by the church I was attending. Even more than that, after I attended this seminary for a semester or two I could have got a job with the same church….AND gotten paid for ministry while in seminary. Money in the pocket and seminary paid for! Win…Win!.
The catch—I needed to go to seminary that I had some very minor differences with—like what will happen when God returns! The differences really amounted to a hill’s worth of beans. They were nothing. As a matter of fact, today, I would probably agree with many of little disagreements I had with the school back then. Anyway, I thought it would be better to be self-sufficient than to entertain any different ways of interpreting a minor passage or two in the Bible! I wanted to make it on my own!
So I went to a seminary that I had to pay for myself, where I didn’t have an opportunity to work in ministry right away. I had to have two or three jobs at one point to pay for school. I spent my time, my energy, my money, I didn’t make as much room for Paula and our new marriage as a result. I was spent all because I was overconfident. I pridefully and self-sufficiently wouldn’t entertain another person’s point of view! I knew what was right and I paid for it as a result!
Other times my self-sufficiency is driven not by my confidence but my lack of confidence. I have to prove to myself—I can do it by myself! I have to build my self-worth by doing it myself. A quick example: I am not that handy! But I want to be! I have to prove I can fix, let say the toilet—and I do! But what should have taken 30 minutes took me 6 hours. I feel good about myself. But my family doesn’t. I’m spent by the time I’m done. I could have spent the day with the family if I would have asked someone how to do it, or even asked them to do it for me. But I wouldn’t have “built” my self-worth.
Don’t we do this with God too? Don’t we choose self-sufficiency over God? Maybe you’re in a relationship or even a marriage, its going bad. But you have to be self-sufficient. You have to fix it on your own. You don’t go to a counselor for help, or God for help. And you spend yourself trying to fix that relationship ‘till you have nothing left to give.
Don’t we go thru life and we want to do it ourselves. We pridefully think we have all the answers and we end up in trouble. God’s old school, we think. So we get into a relationship we know is wrong and it turns toxic. We’ve spent all of our energy pursing this relationship and we have nothing left… but hurt.
We take a job even though we know some of the things the boss wants us to do border on not being ethical. We work and we work for the company, we spend less and less time with God. We spend ourselves, all of who we are, and we end up with no job, noting to show for our effort because of the lawsuit that shuts the place down or the IRS lien that makes the company have to lay-off employees.
I don’t know about you, but when I choose self-sufficiency over God, I sometimes don’t want to go back to God. Sometimes I wonder if he wants me back after I’ve left him like I did! After the mistakes I’ve made!! Have you ever felt that way? If you have this message is for you.
Today we are going to look at the parable of the prodigal son once again. This time we are going to focus on the Father. Instead of calling this message “The Prodigal Son—I am calling it “The Prodigal Father.” I will explain why later!
THE SINFUL DEMAND
Last week we learned that the crowd listening to Jesus tell this parable is made up of sinners and religious people who would have been shocked and outraged at what the younger son demanded. What did he say? Give ME!! Give me my share of the estate!
He demanded his share of the Dad’s property which in Christ’s day was tantamount to saying—I want you dead because I want your stuff! Nobody would make such a request of the Father, and if they did they would be beaten to a bloody pulp and disowned.
As we looked at the sin of the younger son we, also, learned that his demand was an act of rebellion against his father. It meant he was ungrateful for everything his Dad provided—and his Dad provided a lot. He was wealthy and the family well respected in the community. The young son’s demand showed he wanted the privilege of the family without the responsibility and didn’t care how he hurt the family in the process of getting what he wanted. He was purposefully destroying his relationship with his Dad, his family, and his community, because he wanted to be self-sufficient and make his own way in the world.
The younger son represents what sinners do to God and God’s family. When we get down to it—all sinners want God’s stuff, but don’t want God! They want God’s world-but wish God was dead so they can do as they want with it! Sinners like the prodigal break the Father’s heart, God’s heart, with their selfish, prideful self-sufficiency that causes them to leave God their Father!
As we also learned, the Father’s is humiliated by his young son’s request—but he doesn’t beat him up. He doesn’t disown him. The father gives him the property he didn’t deserve and the freedom to leave. When his son leaves, it breaks his heart, but he is willing to endure this pain in hopes that one day their relationship will be restored! Similarly God the Father is willing to endure the pain of our leaving him, breaking our relationship with him because of our stupid, sinful self-sufficiency so one day we may return. Letting the young son leave is part of the father’s plan.
THE VILLAGE
But the young son’s prideful self-sufficiency doesn’t just destroy his relationship with Dad and the family, it destroys his relationship with the community as well. His tightknit village would never put up with such disrespectful, hurtful behavior. In Christ’s day to dishonor the family was to dishonor the whole community. When the younger son leaves, the community does not want him back! In fact, the community wants him gone as soon as possible. Verse 13 says: “Not long after that [not long after he got the property from his Dad] the younger son got all he had together and set out for a distant country.” He didn’t take property with him. Like we learned last week, he had to sell and sell cheap because he did it in a hurry. He sell’s in a hurry ‘cause he knows the crap is about to hit the fan! The villagers don’t want him around.
THE DISTANT COUNTRY
The prodigal goes to a distant country for the same reasons we walk away from God. He doesn’t want to follow his father’s rule and be responsible for building his father’s house. Likewise, we don’t want to follow God or build his church.
The prodigal wants to make a name for himself without the Father. We want to make a name for ourselves without God the Father. Being the younger son, the prodigal knows that his brother will receive 2/3 of their Dad’s estate when their Dad dies, compared with his measly 1/3. The young son wants to go off and build his fortune, his estate by himself, without his dad’s rules. He thinks he can do it! He is either prideful and thinks he knows it all and his Dad knows nothing or he is painfully lacking in self-confidence and self-worth or strangely it could be both. He may feel he has to go build a name for himself, to be something because in his village he will always be second fiddle to his brother and live in his Dad’s shadow!
Again my self-sufficiency draws me away from God. This self-sufficiency that woos me away from God my Father as I shared earlier is, at times, rooted in my over-confidence an high view of myself and at other times is rooted in my lack of confidence and lack of self-worth. The young son leaves for a distant land to separate himself to get as far away from his family as he can so he can make a name for himself, prove his self-worth without the help of family, friends, and community. He wants to be worthy! He wants self-worth! Don’t we all!!!!!
Let’s look again at verse 13, this time the second half. This verse says that he, “…set off for a distant country and squandered his wealth in wild living.” There are two things here I want you to notice. First, notice the word squandered. The Greek word is diaskorpizo. It means scattered. He scattered his wealth in a distant country. What does this mean? It means he lost his wealth, his property, his inheritance to the Gentiles. This is a very important concept. Jesus’s listeners would have picked up on it immediately and they would have been outraged! This was a huge no…no! I will come back to this in just a minute.
The second thing I want you to notice is the word wild. The actual Greek word is ἀóþôùò. This word does not mean wild. It means expensive! The young son lost or scattered his wealth to the Gentiles with expensive living!
Here’s the question. Does this young man lose his wealth with wild living that is expensive or ordinary living that is expensive? If you fast forward to the next scene in this story, his Older Brother accuses him of wild living and wasting his money with prostitutes. But Jesus doesn’t specify if does this or not! Why? That’s not the point of Jesus’ story. The younger son’s sin isn’t wild living—if he is even living a wild life! The younger son’s sin is breaking his relationship with his Father. His sin is leaving his Dad. Living an ordinary life apart from a relationship with God the Father is just as much a sinful life as living a wild-life of drunken orgies. Both are a waste of life! Both are a waste of our lives!! Do you get that! Both leave us without the sense self-worth we seek when we leave God for prideful self-sufficiency. Both are expensive in terms of our self-worth!
FAILURE
The younger son failed in his endeavor to make something of his life apart from his Dad. He wanted to become a big shot. I am sure his original plan was to return to his village someday, but return with money—to pay back his Dad. He wanted to come back with gifts to make restitution for the way he hurt his Dad, His Family, and his Village. But it didn’t work out that way. He spent everything he had, scattering it across the land. He wasted his time, energy, money, talents and resources trying to make a name for himself apart from his Dad. He was a spendthrift and he ended up spent! He spent everything he had trying to accomplish this plan and it didn’t work. Verse 14 tells us: “After he spent everything, there was a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in need.”
Don’t we do the same thing? We leave God to make a name for ourselves, to be popular. We leave God to make a name for ourselves, to make people like us. We leave God and spend all of our inheritance, all of our time, money, talents, etcetera so we can prove to us and others we have value in an of ourselves without God the Father. It doesn’t work though. We are left spent, drained of our resources, in want and need! Our self-worth ends up in the toilet or in famine apart from God!
GO HOME?
You would think after all of this the young son would go home! Wouldn’t you? But he doesn’t, does he? Have you ever wondered why? I think there are two reasons: 1. He doesn’t think he can; and, 2. He doesn’t want to admit he is nothing without his Father.
Why doesn’t he think he can go home? Here’s why. Remember I said that the young song squandered or as the Greek text says he scattered his wealth in a distant country. In other words he lost his inheritance to the Gentiles! You didn’t do that in Jesus’ day! This young boy would never go home because he would be scared of the town’s people. In fact the townspeople would never think of allowing him to return home unless he earned back what he lost. Here is what would happen if a Jewish young man lost his wealth to a Gentile like this young man did.
KEZAZAH
The villagers would conduct a Kezazah Ceremony. Kazazah means cut off. It was a cutting off ceremony. It symbolized that the man who lost his fortune to the Gentiles would be cut off from his people. If the young son decided to return, the villagers would find out very quickly what had happened. Before he even reached the village, the townspeople would take a clay pot and fill it with the ashes of burnt corn and nuts, a pot like this one, only bigger!
The villagers would take the pot and meet the man that lost his fortune to the Gentiles outside the village. He couldn’t come back! They would push him, prod him, make fun of him, maybe beat him up a little bit. Then they would start chanting so and so is cut off; so and so is cut off; so and so is cut off…over and over and over again.
Finally they would take the clay pot filled with ashes and throw it to the ground. It would smash to pieces spilling ash everywhere symbolizing that the one who lost his fortune to the Gentiles was broken, cut off, and dead to the people of the village. He would have to go somewhere else. He was not welcome there until he had earned enough to cover what he lost—which never happened, because the young man would be cut off from his family, his friends, and any resources he could use to gain what he lost!
Quick question, if you were the young son would you go back to this? I wouldn’t! If you were a sinner, do you think might be afraid of the Christian community, the Christian “Village?” What would make you afraid? Would it be condemnation—yeah there is no Kezazah ceremony, but sometime there can be certain aspects or segments of the Christian community that seem just as condemning. It’s like they expect prodigals to earn their way back—not show up until they have proven they are sorry and repaid their debts. Is it any wander we don’t see a lot of younger sons coming back to God and the church in the US?
THE PRODIGAL’S PLAN B
The prodigal’s plan A failed and since the prodigal doesn’t think he can come back unless he earns his way back by repaying the debt he owes his Dad and by bribing the community with expensive gifts to show he is penitent and a changed man, he devises a plan B. Look at verse 15. It says, “So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country. Again the NIV translation doesn’t quite pick of the nuance of the Greek. The word translated as hired, really means to connect or glue. The younger son glues himself to a citizen of the country.
He’s desperate. He has no money. He is in need. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So he glues himself to a guy with herds, which means he has food and money! What does it mean to glue himself to this citizen? Have you ever gone to Mexico and as soon as you crossed the border 10 children glue themselves to your hip and want you to buy their Chicklet gum? That is what he is doing. Or have you ever driven into a big city and you are in the poor part of town. You stop at a stoplight and someone starts to wash your window expecting you to give them money. You don’t want the windows washed and you don’t need them washed—but they’ve glued themselves to you and your car at this stoplight. This is what this young man is doing.
Now look at the last half of verse 15. It says that the citizen, “sent him out to feed pigs.” You know what this citizen is doing don’t you? He’s trying to get rid of this guy! The citizen is a Gentile and he knows that the young man is Jew. He knows Jews would never do this job. Jews would never stoop to this level. But the young man is desperate. He takes the job. The crowd listening to Jesus’ story is horrified. This man truly is a sinner in their minds.
His plan B fails and it gets bad! Look at verse 16. It says, “He longed to fill his stomach with pods that the pigs were eating,…but no one gave him anything. The citizen didn’t pay him. He was never going to. He was just trying to get rid of him. The young son begged the passerby’s for money and food as he tended the pigs, but no one gave him anything.
THE PRODIGAL’S PLAN C
What happens next? Let me read verses 17-20:
"“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 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.’ So he got up and went to his father.
Verse 17 says the young man came to his senses. Does he realize what he has done? And what he needs to do? Is he now willing to endure the scorn of the Kezazah ceremony and come back to Dad who freely let him go so he would return home? Well, let’s see what his plan C is.
The last half of verse 17 says that he recognizes that he is starving to death but his father has the resources to feed his family and his laborers while paying them all. So, he recognizes what he really had with his Dad! That good—right?
Verse 18 says that he confesses his sin and repents. He’s going to go back home. Repent means to turn around or return. So he’s repentant! That’s good! Right?
Verse 18 also says that he is going to confess that he has sinned against his Dad and heaven. And in verse 19 he admits that he is not worthy to be called his son. So he confesses his sin!! That’s good! Right?
Verse 19 continues by saying that he asks to be made one of his Father’s hired men! He wants to work for his Dad to make restitution for the wrong and the insult he’s caused the family and the village! So he wants to make restitution to show that he is really repentant and that he has truly confessed his sin. This is good! Isn’t it?
NOPE—Its not! His plan C is the wrong plan!! His plan C shows he is no different now than when he demanded his share of the estate and left his Dad. He is still the prideful, self-sufficient prodigal he has always been. Let me explain.
The last half of verse 17 says that he is starving to death. He just wants to go home so he can eat. He doesn’t want his Dad. He only wants his father’s stuff for his personal benefit. Don’t believe me? Look at the last half of verse 18 again. Jesus, says that the prodigal makes a plan to tell his Dad that he has sinned against heaven and against his Dad. That sound’s good to us, but Jesus’ listeners would have known that this is a quote from Pharaoh in Exodus 10:16. Jesus’ listeners knew that Pharaoh was working Moses or manipulating him to get what he wanted. Pharaoh said the right thing to get the plagues to stop. But he didn’t mean what he said.
That is exactly what the prodigal is doing. He is rehearsing a plan to get his Dad to take him back as a laborer so he can earn enough money to replace what he lost. He knew that the village would never let him return, unless he could convince His Dad to do this. He will save himself by keeping the law of the village, working to recover what he lost. Grace is unnecessary. He can manage alone! Thank you very much. He is still self-sufficient. He is still trying to earn his worth and acceptance in the world. He is still trying to prove to himself that he can do it and thus prove to himself his value! He is still trying to get his self-worth apart from his Father. Listen to what New Testament scholar and missionary to the Middle East Ken Bailey says about this passage:
The prodigal’s self-confessed motive and goal are finding a way to eat. If he were a servant standing before a master, his plan would be disappointing and deeply flawed, yet somehow acceptable. But a son dealing with is compassionate and loving father, his projected solution is grossly inadequate. The prodigal thinks the problem is lost money. His anticipated solution trivializes the [true] problem, which is not merely a matter of broken law abut is about a broken relationship.
Like the prodigal, we think the problem is no doing what God wants—sin. The real sin has to do with relationship—walking away from God our Father in prideful self-sufficiency.
THE PRODIGAL FATHER’S PLAN
Now understand this—The father has always known his Son would fail! And he has been devising a plan for his return. The younger son begins to walk home. He is preparing himself for what is about to happen—the Kezazah ceremony. He knows it will be bad. He rehearses his plan, what he will say to his Dad. He rehearses it over and over again. His plan rides on his Dad—taking him back as a hired hand. If the plan doesn’t work, things will get ugly. The clay pot will come out!
But the Father has also prepared a plan for their meeting. His plan—keep watch and meet his boy before he reaches the village. His plan is to protect his son from the wrath of the community. Look at the last half of verse 20. It says: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.” Compassion for a son that broke his heart and wanted him dead!
What does the father do! [Put on Robe and Run] Verse 20, “ he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” What happens when he this Father runs? He humiliates himself in front of the whole village. He runs—A well respected member of the village would never run! Especially not after a pig herding boy that disrespected him and his family. It doesn’t happen! The father pulls up his long robes and exposes his legs! Again, this would never happen! The patriarch of a distinguished, wealthy, landowning family would never lower himself in such a way. The father has taken the form of a servant to reconcile with his son!
The father runs knowing in so doing he will deflect the attention of the community away from his ragged son to himself! He is keeping the Kezazah Ceremony the cutting off ceremony from happening. This is costly love. This is costly reckless grace! The Father in this story is the true prodigal! Prodigal means reckless. In this story the Father is prodigal or reckless in his demonstration of love and grace! The father humiliates himself so his son will not be humiliated!
The young son never saw this coming! This wasn’t part of his plan. He’s dumbfounded as his Dad falls on him showering him—him—with kisses. How can his Dad humiliate himself in such a way to save him from the wrath of the community especially after he’s wished him dead!
The young boy begins to cry! He is overcome with emotion! He doesn’t deserve what his father has done for him! Look at what the boy says in verse 21. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son!”
Notice he says the first half of what he has rehearsed. He doesn’t say the second half. He doesn’t ask his Dad to let him be a hired hand! Why? He wants to be his son again! He is through with trying to make it thru life on his own! He sees his self-sufficiency has gotten him nowhere! He’s a changed man! He surrenders his plan to save himself and let’s his father find him! He accepts being found! His Father’s costly prodigal love and grace has finally changed him! Their relationship is restored!!
Isn’t this what God has done for us? God made a spectacle out of himself. He humiliated himself. He ran to us and found us in the form of Jesus Christ! He became a man and emptied himself to the point of death on the cross for us, so he could absorb the consequences or running away from him, he absorbed the way we broke and continue to break our relationship with him with our prideful, self-sufficiency that really wants him dead!
God ran to us! To you! He desires to shower you with kisses and return you to your rightful place as his son or his daughter. Will you let him?
Listen to what Ken Bailey says about this drama Jesus told:
Jesus has written two definitions of repentance into this story. The first is repentance as understood by his audience. That is the sinner must confess, make compensation and demonstrate sincerity. [In other words, they have to work for it.] The purpose of this work of repentance is to restore the sinner to God’s favor. The second is the new definition of repentance that Jesus presents here with its unforgettable drama and life-changing power.
What’s Jesus’ new definition of repentance? Accept being found! Accept the father’s reckless love and grace shown thru Jesus Christ. Just accept being his son or daughter. You don’t have to do a thing! Isn’t this good news! If you have been walking away from God with your prideful self-sufficiency, will you let him run to you and find you! Will you accept being his son or daughter? This is where your true value and worth is found. Don’t let the wrath of the village keep you from coming home!
Christians, if God will humiliate himself in such a way, just to absorb the condemnation of the village, why do we still condemn sinners? Why do we mutter and complain when other Christians accept sinners just the way they are? My challenge to Christians is this—let’s find ways to humiliate ourselves personally and corporately (as a church) not sinners. Let’s run to sinners with reckless abandon. Let’s find ways to shower them with kisses or good things, not condemnation! Why? So they will not be scared to return to God! So they will accept being found by God’s prodigal, reckless grace demonstrated thru Jesus Christ. I don’t want the community of faith, the church, to keep sinners from returning to God like the village people in this drama! Let’s follow the example of the Father in this parable, not the townspeople!
