25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’” [Luke 15:25-32]
The Big Idea: A life of ungrace is characterized by rock-stacking and finger-pointing.
In 1927 in St. Louis, Missouri, C.L. Grigg tried his luck with limes, lemons and soda. After two years of mixing eleven different formulas, the bubbliest lemon-lime soft drink was born – Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda. It was a blend of seven natural flavors that combined to give it a savory taste, which packed a real nose-tingling wallop.
In 1967, American pop culture became synonymous with this now famous “Uncola” brand. As an icon, Uncola was featured in the 2011 final challenge on The Apprentice and has shown up in faraway places like Survivor remote location.
For decades, this soda has been used as a folksy medical remedy, instructing everyone with acid reflux to drink Uncola to soothe an upset stomach.
Have you figured out what this nose-tingling, clear Uncola is?
7UP
This bubbly soda has become the nemesis of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, with an obvious branding of UN-cola! It’s clear and made from seven natural flavors. It was also among the first sodas to offer caffeine- and sugar-free options. 1
7 (red dot) UP is on a marketing mission to evangelize Coke drinkers and bring them from the dark side to the cool, refreshing world of Uncola. It seems to be working. 7UP has become one of the top-selling brands of all time.
Un's mission? To destroy the sugary, syrupy world of Coke drinkers. Un is synonymous with revolt. With overthrow. As 7UP goes about its mission to undo Coke from its lofty perch, so ungrace goes about its business to unthrow and overthrow grace.
Ungrace is the dark side.
Ungrace is a parent shushing her child in church and announcing, "No smiling while Pastor is preaching!”
Ungrace is a puritan wondering if somebody is happy somewhere or anywhere.
Ungrace is a fallen Christian thinking the last place they would turn to for help is the church.
Christians and churches can pick up a reputation for Ungrace.
Grace is God's greatest gift to humanity. No one had a better view of grace than the apostle John. Not one of Jesus’ grace-filled encounters slipped past John's watchful eye. His former mentor, John the Baptist, liked the burning breezes of the desert. John was sure it would drive out evil and temptation.
Jesus was attracted to the cool waters and shoreline of the Galilee region. He seemed to like happiness over harshness, crowds over isolation. Jesus chooses Grace over Ungrace. John tells us that Moses brought the law (ungrace) and Jesus brought the grace.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1 – NIV)
The church cannot compete against the world in building organizations, healing the sick or caring for the poor. Innovation and wealth beat out the church every time. But when it comes to offering grace, the church wins hands down. If the church is not active and aggressive in exporting grace, the world will find a cheap substitute.
Why does a person go to church? Could it be that people are searching for grace?
Author Philip Yancey thinks so. “The Italian novelist Ignazio Silone wrote about a revolutionary hunted by the police. In order to hide him, his comrades dressed him in the garb of a priest and sent him to a remote village in the foothills of the Alps. Word got out, and soon a long line of peasants appeared at his door, full of stories of their sins and broken lives. The "priest” protested and tried to turn them away, to no avail. He had no recourse but to sit and listen to the stories of people starving for grace.” 2
All too often in the search for grace, what the unchurched and dechurched get is shame and snooty followers of Jesus. As one little English girl prayed, "O God, make the bad people good, and the good people nice." 3
Grace is God's greatest gift to humanity. So many people reject the church because it is filled with so little grace. We cannot fool anybody when we lack grace. History and God's word have pronounced us guilty of Ungrace. We don't have to travel far from the pages of God's word to find proof of this indictment: From James and John wanting to call down fire on some inhospitable Samaritans to Peter offering small-minded forgiveness, no one gets a pass when it comes to getting it right with grace. History has not let us off the hook either – the Crusades, Ireland’s conflict between Christians and Catholics, and mean-spirited Christians protesting causes in a style that makes the church look not just unloving, but sometimes downright hateful.
Ungrace runs rampant in our theological debates over music, dress, baptism, giving and even the rapture. We argue and debate all in the name of doctrinal purity. God has a bone to pick with us over our track record of grace. The reason? Too much is at stake for the lost.
In the church world of Ungrace, many people have been the object of these pronouncements:
• Your type probably won't fit in here.
• People suffer because they deserve it.
Our story is about two brothers who receive the same invitation to a father's grace. One brother is a sinner and the other brother is self-righteous. Each has an opportunity to live in grace at the father's house.
The first said no and off to the world of hedonistic pleasures he goes. He trades his passion for his father for some shallow friends and a little fun. His new mission: Pleasure. His work ethic: "What I do is my business." His view of grace: "Who, me?" His bumper sticker: "Life is short, experience it all." The younger brother indulges his pleasures, satisfies his passion and forgets about his father, family and responsibilities.
The younger brother navigates through life as if he never had a father. He may have had one in the past, but his influence is non-existent in the present or future. There may be a father who comes searching someday to claim him, but as of today, he is willing to trade castles for corn. To trade father for freedom. To trade farthings for fun.
Now let's meet the elder brother. He is the one who shows us an unglamorous picture of Ungrace. The mission of the elder brother was simple: 1. With hard work and obedience, I will gain my father's favor, 2. Why deal with my mistakes when I can focus on the mistakes of others?
The elder brother’s disdain for his younger brother’s return drips with Ungrace-like attitudes and actions. Two attitudes stand out.
1. Grace keeps us from being rock-stacking legalists.
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. [Luke 15:28-29 – NIV]
If I spend my life in hard work and careful obedience, then my father will accept me.
“‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders….’” [Luke 15:29 – NIV]
Now this is a brother to be admired. He is hard-working, driven and loyal. Who wouldn't want that type of son? Surely he is worthy of applause, accolades and affirmation.
The elder brother’s approach is to save himself by his own merits. His work ethic: Reimbursing God. His view of grace: "I am always guilty." His bumper sticker: "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go," as Max Lucado says. 4
The problem with this approach to salvation is that you may take five steps in the right direction toward God, but you have five million more to go. We stack rocks to get closer in righteousness, but we soon discover we can never make it. And the result of rock-stacking is always the same – despair or arrogance. We either give up or become stuck-up. Looking at the same stack of rocks, one hangs their head and the other beats their chest. This is Paul keeping the law. This is Peter shocked when he is told in a dream that it’s OK to not be kosher. This is the Pharisees being backed down by Jesus just before the stones fly. This is church saying, "Stay clear; your sin will contaminate our party!"
The elder son's assumption is that hard work will earn him favor and mercy. The rock-stacking son is busy building a tower of good deeds that will stand before his father. So many people are convinced that they must show God how worthy they are by rock-stacking. Then, they will ask for mercy. Elder brothers, you don't need more rocks stacked in your corner; you need more grace.
2. Grace keeps us from finger-pointing and being judgmental.
30 “‘But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’"
What is the end game of being judgmental? To sit quietly taking copious notes of his brother’s exploits? His thinking is, "I may be bad, but as long as I can find someone worse, I am OK." Looking down his spiritual nose at others, he doesn't look so bad. This is the church tattle-tale who is more than willing to play "Guess whose faults I found today?"
Why deal with my mistakes when I can focus on the mistakes of others? The elder brother’s mission is to monitor his younger brother and compare himself. Notice, he is not even his “brother,” but “this son of yours.”
30“‘But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’” [Luke 15:30 – NIV]
His work ethic: “What you do matters to me and God.” His motto: "God is watching and so am I." 5
What a duo these brothers are! The first is in the gutter, the second is in the church pew, both needing grace for different reasons. Most who look at them see nothing but differences, but God sees nothing but similarities. Both sons of the same father. Both separated from the father. Neither asking for help from the father.
The younger lives it up and the elder lives it out as he measures his righteousness and measures his brother’s unrighteousness. The operative word in his dictionary is SELF. Self-justification. Self-righteousness. Self-salvation.
Call the elder brother’s religious condition self-salvation. Paul has another word for that: "…we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everyone else.” (Rom. 3:19 – The Message)
When the father does come, it is not for a report; he comes to address the elder brother’s sins first. There are two reasons we are not in a position to judge. 6
First, we don't know enough. We do not know enough about the person to judge them. You see that limp, but you don't know they have a rock in their shoe. You condemn a person for stumbling, but you have no idea how many blows they took yesterday.
Only God, who sees every step, can be the judge. 1 Cor. 4:5 says, "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time..."
Second, we are not good enough. Not only are we unqualified, we are unworthy to judge.
Can the hungry accuse the beggar? Can the sick be impatient with the ill? Can the illiterate judge the blind? Can the sinner condemn the sinner?
Ungrace says, "He deserves what he gets." Grace says, “I deserve what I get.”
Ungrace thinks the worst; grace believes the best.
Ungrace leaks out dirty laundry; grace carries the shame with others.
Ungrace is self-righteous; grace is God-righteous.
Ungrace keeps score (I served all these years), while grace lost track of the score years ago.
Ungrace keeps a detailed record of good deeds; grace is pleased to have any good deeds.
Ungrace sees themselves as more acceptable than the prodigal, but at the end of the age, they will be shocked at the scandalous reversal of fate.
Once, President Lincoln was asked how he was going to treat the rebellious southerners when they are defeated and return to the Union of the United States. The finger-pointing legalist and rock-stacking judger expected punishment, but Lincoln announced, "I will treat them as if they had never left." 7
End Notes
1 7UP.com. Web.
2 Yancey, Philip. What's So Amazing About Grace? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997. Pg. 15. Print.
3 Ibid, Pg. 32.
4 Lucado, Max. In the Grip of Grace. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996.
Pg. 9. Print.
5 Ibid. Pg. 10
6 Ibid. Pg. 39-40.
7 Epperly, Bruce. “Presidents’ Day: On Leadership, Greatness, and Stature.” Patheos. 16 Feb 2011. Web.
