"Rebel Without a Cause"
"Luke 15:11-32
A young woman writes: "My dad kept a coin jar on his dresser.
Every night when he got home from work, the first thing he did was head upstairs to change his clothes.
You could hear the familiar jangling of coins as they spilled from his pocket and he set them in the jar.
When I was about nine years old, I decided his coins should be mine.
Over time I pilfered a few nickels here, a handful of pennies there.
Before I knew it, I had successfully swindled my dad out of his loose change, and he never even noticed.
Sometime later, guilt gripped me.
I knew that what I'd been doing could only be considered stealing.
I had no way to explain away my behavior.
With a pounding heart, I penned an apology to him, confessing my sin and asking him to forgive me.
I tucked it under his coin jar along with a pile of pennies as restitution.
I waited anxiously for my dad to confront me.
Day One went by, and he didn't say anything.
Another day passed; still nothing.
And then another, and another.
Eventually, I forgot about the note.
Then one day out of the blue, my dad stepped into my bedroom and said, 'Mary Anne, I got your note and the pennies.'
My heart raced; my throat felt like a marble was lodged in it …. I was expecting punishment, but … he seemed on the verge of tears.
But that didn't make any sense.
I had wronged him.
He had every right to be mad and punish me.
Instead he said, 'Thank you.'
And then he gave me a hug.
And then he left.
We never spoke of it again.
I stood there dumbfounded.
Why, when I fully deserved my father's wrath, did he instead show me mercy?
I didn't deserve it; I hadn't earned it.
I felt like a criminal let off scot free!
This was my first powerful lesson on judgment and grace.
Since then I've never gotten over the way grace feels.
It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never does.
It's experiencing utter relief and humility in the face of guilt because you know how bad you can be, but God (or your daddy) chooses to love and forgive you anyway.
It is truly God's riches at Christ's expense."
(pause)
There is--quite simply--no farther down a first-century Jew can sink than to the place where the unhappy young man in our parable finds himself.
He has slammed right into rock bottom with a huge "thump"!
He's like Jonah, trapped in the belly of a huge fish at the bottom of the sea.
He's burned every bridge behind him.
Why did he do it?
He had been raised in an extremely loving home.
His family was rich, and there was no doubt that he would continue the tradition on until his death--as he would one day inherit part of his father's great wealth.
But, for some reason, he rebelled.
He wasn't happy with the great things he had.
He wanted to live life on his own terms.
He wanted to do his own thing.
He might have "looked down" on his father for living such an upright and gracious lifestyle.
"I want to run with the wolves," he might have thought.
"I want to party with the devil."
"I want to experience all the lusts of the flesh.
I don't want to be a part of my goodie-two shoes family any longer."
He thought that the grass would be greener in another country--far, far away.
He's not exactly a very likable character is he?
There really isn't much difference between the Prodigal Son and the first humans God created--Adam and Eve.
God had created them out of love, in order to love and be loved.
He walked with them in the garden.
He provided them with everything they could want.
But when the temptation came to "rebel" and possibly become like or take the place of the Good Lord Who loved and created them--they jumped at the chance.
Paradise just wasn't quite "good enough."
And so, in all reality, they kicked themselves out of the Garden.
But God, the ever-loving Father is always waiting for His children to return.
God created us to be in a loving relationship with Him, each other and all of creation.
That is the bottom line.
And it is God's dream to renew, reconcile, repair, and restore that relationship.
And that's really what the parable of the Prodigal son is about, is it not?
The father in the story represents God.
The land represents paradise.
The son represents the human race...
...all of us--you, me, and all the rest.
For a people who can't seem to get along very well, the human race sure has a lot in common.
We are all Prodigals.
The word "Prodigal" means: recklessly wasteful...to squander...
And so, we all recklessly waste and squander the love God has for us; the good plans God has for our lives; the creation we are meant to oversee and protect; our very selves--we throw our opportunities and privileges recklessly and wastefully right down the toilet!!!
And then we wonder why we are unhappy.
And we often blame God for the mess we have made--for the mess we are in.
Can you relate?
I can.
In our parable the Son just can't wait for his wonderful, loving father to die.
So he loses patience and asks his dad for his share of the inheritance.
And his father didn't have to give it to him, but he did.
Just as God created us with free-will; God does not stop us when we make the decision to rebel--to become reckless and wasteful--mean and hateful.
The son's inheritance would have been a portion of his father's land.
So, after he sold the land he took off for another country.
He left his family, his religion, his heritage and he went as far away as he could.
He disowned his dad.
Then, we are told, that "he wasted his wealth on extravagant living."
He showed no restraint, and no common sense.
And before he knew it he had lost his fortune.
Then there is a crisis in the country where the son had fled.
There is a famine, and because he wasted all his inheritance, he had no money to help him survive.
So, "he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs."
This is a crazy picture.
Not only has this young man defiled himself by cutting ties with his family and living in Gentile land.
He is now a "fallen Jew" who is forced to take care of pigs.
And the Jewish people were not supposed to have anything to do with pigs.
They were not supposed to eat them; they weren't allowed to touch them.
Pigs were an "unclean animal."
All this, and we are told that the son was so hungry that he "longed to eat his fill from what the pigs ate..."
Not only was this guy feeding pigs--he had become a pig himself!!!
There was truly no lower a Jew of the 1st Century could have fallen.
And he brought all this mess on himself.
By the Jewish standards of his day; he had made himself a "non-person."
And it would have been unthinkable that he would ever be welcomed back into his family after all this.
But in his hunger and desperation he remembered that the hired hands on his dad's farm were at least well-fed.
So, he had an idea.
"I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, 'Father I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son.
Take me on as one of your hired hands.
So, [as a last resort] he got up and went to his father."
And then we are told about something so marvelous, so beautiful, so scandalous that it defies all customs of the time, all earthly rules.
"While [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion.
His father ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him."
The son can't even launch into his groveling speech.
Instead, his father cuts him off.
"the father said to the servants, 'Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him!
Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet!
Fetch the fattened calf and slaughter it.
We must celebrate with feasting because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life!
He was lost and is found!'
And they began to celebrate."
Is there any more beautiful picture of what it is like for God when one of us returns to him?
God compares Himself to a love-sick father who has been keeping vigil, praying for the day when his son would return.
...All of heaven breaks out in joy "over one sinner who changes both heart and life."
The party that the father in this parable throws for the son represents heaven itself--in celebration--throwing a huge joyful celebration over each person who is brought back to life through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ--the One Who died and rose again!!!
God reclaims us.
We are restored to a right relationship which was lost due to our reckless squandering of God's gifts and friendship in the Garden so long ago.
That's how much God loves you; that's how much God loves me.
If you have not done so, have you returned to God?
Who could resist a love such as this; a celebration in our honor--not something any of us deserve...but something which occurs simply because God loves us this much???!!!
Whatever you have done in life; wherever you stand right now--have you made the decision to return to God?
Do you believe that God loves you?
Do you believe that God is holding a vigil, that God is waiting and waiting for you to come to Him...
...that God is watching out for you--and if God sees you--even if you are still a long way off--God will run to you and embrace you--and all of heaven will celebrate because of your return?
If you believe this, but have not yet come home...
...won't you do it right now?
This morning?
