For those of you old enough to remember the years of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. I was a young kid back then and my parents lived in northern Alabama. We welcomed my sister in those days as I remember waiting in long lines at the gas stations hoping they haven’t run out. But few things stand out from those days as Iran Hostage Crisis where 66 hostages were taken inside the American embassy in Tehran. We saw them blindfolded and paraded in front of the television for Americans to see. In the midst of the crisis, Americans took to tying yellow ribbons around trees and utility poles throughout our nation. Tony Orlando and Dawn sang “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” in the early 1970s and it became an international hit. The song spoke of man who had spent three years in prison and as he returned home, he looked for the yellow ribbon around the outside tree as a sign his wife welcomed him home again. The yellow ribbon soon appeared everywhere during the 444 days of captivity for the American hostages in Iran. It was a sign of hope and joy as the families of those held hostage returned home.
Jesus Himself tells a story where we picture a yellow ribbon tied around the open gates of heaven itself, awaiting the return of prodigals. Today, we hear a story that badly needs rescuing from its familiarity.
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2)
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:11-32)
God’s love is what is needed when the young daughter returns home over thanksgiving and her mother asks why she hasn’t found anyone. God’s love is what is needed when the father slumps down in the corner of the Pediatric ICU looking at his daughter hooked up to more tubes that he can count. God’s love is what is needed when the young girl bounces from house to house looking for someone to love her. The love of God.
Jesus tells a series of three stories about three items that are lost: a sheep, a silver coin, and a son. There’s a connection between all three and Jesus wants us to see this connection. He wants us to keep the image of a pyramid in mind as the three have one essential truth but each story represents a side where God’s love is shown in a little different light. It’s because the religious teachers grumble that Jesus offers this parable, this three-sided pyramid to show how wrong they were and how loving God is. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the longest of Jesus’ parables yet it is simple enough as we see three main characters: a father and his two sons. This parable is significant in history as it has been painted by a host of artists including Rembrandt… …it’s been made the subject of plays —most notably those of Shakespeare — been set to music, and made the subject of movies. The idea of the prodigal son is so pervasive in our culture than even rock singer, Kid Rock has a song named after it.
Jesus’ story is generally referred to as the Parable of the Prodigal Son but it’s really the Parable of a Father and his Two Sons. The Parable can be likened to a lake because it is remarkably clear spot where you can see all the way to the bottom of the gospel itself. We’ll take two Sundays to see the biography of both sons. The younger son is our focus today.
Again, it’s the story of two sons – the lost younger brother and the lost older brother. Both sons are alienated from their dad. One is the son who rebels against the rules and runs to Deep Ellum while the older son obeys all the rules and stays to work his young adult years at his father’s company. And Jesus tells the story so you’ll compare the two boys. Both assess their own state: one sinned and the other claims not to have transgressed one command (vv. 18, 29). One wants to be a hired hand while the other claims to have served his entire life (vv. 19, 29). One goes and one refuses to go (vv. 20, 28) while the father goes out to both (vv. 20, 28). And lastly, both choose to celebrate without the father (vv. 13, 29).
Everyone of us is either the runaway rebellious son or the rule-keeping Pharisaical son. Which son are you?
The Inheritance
The people of Jesus’ day were shocked when they heard about the younger brother asking for his inheritance early. The custom was for a father to give his oldest son a double portion of what the other children inherited. If you had two sons, then the oldest would have received two-thirds while the youngest would have received one-third. But that happened only when the father died. No one dared asked his father for their share of the inheritance while their father was still alive. Essentially, his father heard: “I want your stuff but I don’t want you.” He might as well said to his dad, “I wish you were dead.” But if people of Jesus’ day were shocked to hear the son’s request, they would have scandalized to hear the father’s response. Today, a father might blow up and not speak to his son for weeks if not years. But not then… Deference to those in authority was much more weighty then. The father might have very well been excused had he slapped his son across the face. But the father acquiesces to the son’s request.
Land
Everything in us expects the father to refuse his son. Note the words at the end of verse twelve: “And he divided his property between them.” Jesus doesn’t tell us how long it takes the father to liquidate his assets, soon the younger son finds himself with a boatload of wealth. It’s helpful for to pause and remember the father’s wealth was land. Today, a father’s money might be in stocks or cash in the bank which are relatively easy to give to his children. But when a family’s possessions are land and land that is being used to farm, then it becomes awkward. Imagine the embarrassment of the father when he tells the story of why he’s selling his land as the son’s request would have brought deep shame on the entire family. And most anyone knows that it takes to sell land in order to get the right price. And it could have very well been family land that was passed down from generation to generation. After the father sold his land, less would be available to farm and support the father himself. Again, everything in us expects the father to refuse his son. This is the first of some five times in the parable the father doesn’t behave in ways we think he will. Did the family sell the land substantially below cost to get the money for the land to appease the impatient son?
The Younger Son Leaves
The boy is in hurry to get out of “Dodge.” Look at the runaway son as he finds himself with a fake ID on 6th street in Austin. What this younger son asks for is unthinkable. Jesus says it wasn’t many days later from the sale of the property before the son takes off. Watch the boy with his proverbial knapsack tied to stick as he heads off to find adventure. And watch him pick up the tab for his friends.
Just a week ago, a detective discovered a twenty-one year old girl from North Richland Hills. She barely conscious and sweating profusely. Her body was rigid and here hands and feet were flailing. The young girl had taken the drug “Molly” and died this past Wednesday. Heartbreaking for her family. This is what is pictured in our story today – a child just like this.
But all of a sudden, the younger son returns. The Prodigal Son’s return doesn’t begin in his heart but in his stomach – he sees the pigs eating better than he is. His freedom turned rotten and he found himself penniless and hungry. His stupidity married itself to a natural disaster when a famine swept the land. The combination was deadly. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford the women and the wine, it was he couldn’t even afford bread itself. He finds a job but it doesn’t pay enough – the pigs he cares for are eating better than he. Because his money was gone so were his friends. So he went to work at a pig farm – the worst of the worst if you’re a Jewish boy who doesn’t even eat bacon much less touch pork. As he found himself at the bottom, he didn’t think back to his luxurious dinners he threw for his friends but he thought back to dinners at home with his parents.
The Returning Son doesn’t bring any gifts to his family from his time away. Instead, he comes asking for a small amount of mercy and a job. Does he consider his father's broken heart and the agony of rejected love that his father has endured? If he is a servant standing before a master, his plan is somehow adequate. But if he is a son dealing with a compassionate and loving father, his projected solution is woefully short.
Note carefully the father runs. Respected older men didn’t run in Jesus’ day. In the parable, a traditional oriental patriarch would be expected to sit in grand isolation in the house to hear what the wayward boy might have to say for himself. And again, the father breaks the mold of Middle Eastern patriarchy. He takes the bottom edge of his long robes in his hand and runs to welcome his pig-herding son.He falls on his neck and kisses him before hearing his prepared speech!
The father does not demonstrate love in response to his son's confession. Rather, out of his own compassion he runs to his estranged son. The Father interrupts the son’s confession by kissing Him. Think of a waiting family outside the security gates waiting on a returning solider and you get the picture. Where the steps of your repentance are slow, the steps of His love and mercy are fast.
Three Take Away’s
1. The Essence of Repentance
The story takes a major turn when Jesus says the runaway “came to himself” in verse seventeen. Let’s break this down.
1.1 You Hate Where You Are
“And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” (Luke 15:16) Listen to him say to himself, “How could I have been so blind?” “How could I have been so ungrateful?” Jesus describes the rebellious runaway son who ran away as “in reckless living.” Whenever you try to control your life away from God, you end up giving control of your life something else. This younger son hated where he was. But you’re not repenting if all you do is hate where you are.
1.2 You Understand Where You Are
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 15:17) To come to your senses means you realize that you’re running from God. You’re running from God’s control of your life in order to run your life. Sin rises up and says, “I’ll be in charge of my life, thank you very much.” Think of it: Jesus could have told a number of different stories to communicate the essence of sin and need for you to repent. He could have told a story about robbers breaking into a home to rob you blind. He could have told a story of a murder. Instead, he choose to tell a story about a son that tells his Father, “I want what is mine and I want you to leave me alone. Let me live my life.” The person who says, “I’m a pretty good person. I don’t go to church, read a Bible or pray but I’m pretty good person.” You’re the son whose taken your stuff from God and say to Him, “I don’t need you.” This boy realized where he way and saw that his actions put him precisely in the place But you’re not repenting if all you do is hate where you are. Nor you repenting if all you do is understand you’ve done wrong.
1.3 You Decide to Make a Change
“I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ (Luke 15:18-20)
When the younger son goes back to his father, it pictures repentance. It’s coming back to our senses where we I say, “I need God to control my life.” Repentance is real only at this third aspect – you decide to give God control of your life.
2. Our Church’s Purpose
The Parable can be likened to a lake because it is remarkably clear spot where you can see all the way to the bottom of the gospel itself. I see all five of the major reasons our church exists in this passage. And I’ll move quickly just to remind us all of why we’re here.
2.1 God Matters
What kind of God runs to rebellious, run-away sinners? Had the Father kicked the son, we couldn’t have blamed Him. But instead, the Father kissed the son – marvel with me at the love of God.
2.2 Truth Matters
Many feel repenting doesn’t matter that we make up the rule of what’s right. Not so with God. He loves sinners to repent and turn and to change. This is why we’re working so diligently to find a permanent home for our second campus.
2.3 Generous Living Matters
Our church exists to be graceful to both kinds of sinners – the one that is rebellious and the one who is a rule-keeper. Few stories show us the real value of grace.
2.4 People Matters
It’s one thing to know you’re Father loves you, it’s another thing altogether when He kisses you. When He kisses you, you experience the love of God.
2.5 Evangelism Matters
Both sons were far from God and both sons needed to hear of God’s love for sinners. We are a people who love to share the good news of God’s love for sinners.
3. Extravagant Grace
In that culture, a wayward son might have been grudgingly permitted to come back into the village, but he would have been humiliated and scorned. The father would have been unavailable or distant and aloof. When David allowed his murderous son Absalom to return, he refused see him for two years (2 Samuel 14:24, 28). Then, when the boy did see his father, he would be made to grovel. The father coldly would have set forth the demands that the boy would have to fulfill to earn his restoration to the family.
We may gain fresh amazement if we compare the story Jesus told with a somewhat similar story in the literature of Buddhism. In a famous “Lotus Sutra” the story is told. A young man leaves his father’s house and is gone for many years, “twenty or thirty or forty or fifty.” His father searches for him and moves to another country, where he becomes immensely wealthy. The son, on the other hand, continues his wanderings as a despised beggar. One day the son happens to come to the town where his father lives. He does not recognize his father, but stares with curiosity at the princely magnificence of this elderly man. Fanned by attendants, the father sits on a throne under a jeweled awning, his footstool decorated in gold and silver. He is concluding business deals in gold bullion, corn, and grain with a surrounding crowd of merchants and bankers. The beggar is thoroughly alarmed. “People like me don’t belong here,” he thinks. “Let me get out of here before I am seized to do forced labor.” But the father has recognized his son at first sight and sends his servants after him. They bring him back, kicking and screaming in terror. Sure that he will be put to death, he faints dead away. The father sprinkles cold water on him, and tells the servants to let him go. He does not identify himself to his son, or his son to his servants. Instead, he sends servants to find him again in the slum
section of the city, and to bring him back with an offer of employment. The servants disguise themselves as street people, smearing dirt on themselves and wearing rags, so as to gain the trust of this beggar. Their mission succeeds, and the poor man is set to work at the lowliest of tasks (You should know the estate is not equipped with septic tanks ?.) The father watches his son through a window as he is shoveling manure. He, too, smears on dirt and puts on rags so as to go and talk to his son and encourage him on the job. The son works faithfully on the grounds, but continues to live in a shack nearby. Many years later, the father expresses great appreciation for the son’s faithful work; he declares that he will treat him as a son and make him his heir. The son is indifferent to all the wealth that is now declared to be his; he continues to live in his shack and work on the estate. After some twenty years, “the householder perceives that his son is able to save, mature and mentally developed; that in the consciousness of his nobility he feels abashed, ashamed, disgusted, when thinking of his former poverty.” Aware of his approaching death, the householder calls his relatives, officials, and neighbors, and declares before them all, “This man is my natural son, the heir of all that I possess.”
What is the difference between these two stories? In a word describes it: grace!
This father hugs and kisses his son. Slow are the steps where you repent but quick are His feet of forgiveness. God runs where you scarcely can limp.The gates of heaven really do have a yellow ribbon tied around them waiting on sinners to repent and turn to Christ.
