Lost and Found
Series: Parables - Small Stories, Big Truths
Brad Bailey – June 27, 2021
[Note: This message is only slightly adapted from what I had taught entitled “Our Story” when engaging this passage in a series in the Gospel of Luke. Both series called for teaching the text in its entirety in one message...and therefore required a similar approach. I have previously done a 4 week series “Coming Home to Our Father’s Love” on tis Parable...which allows engaging each character.]
Intro
My added good morning to each of you joining today...and a warm welcome to those connecting at another time. I’m excited for this time...as last week we launched into a NEW series and focus for this summer season... that of engaging the Parables of Jesus. Each week we are engaging one of the parables of Jesus. As I noted last week, the parables are some of the most dynamic teachings of Jesus.
Parables are short stories... or illustrations... with big truth. Jesus came to declare and demonstrate that the kingdom of God was breaking into this world... and he used these parables to explain what this meant... what the Kingdom of God is like... and how to be a part of the kingdom. God’s kingdom will set wrongs aright… so he warns of being prepared. And because it’s God’s kingdom we need to understand our relationship with God... with the king of the kingdom.
And today that is what Jesus explains as we engage a parable that may be familiar to many... that which is often referred to as The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
And again it’s helpful to understand the context... because Jesus isn’t just telling stories... he’s providng stories as a way to respond to what people were not understanding. So we can note that this chapter in Luke’s Gospel account... begins....
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” – Luke 15:1-2
As we saw last week, this was the underlying confusion and conflict that emerged around Jesus. When they assume that the world is simply divided between good people and bad people… naturally they wonder… how could Jesus be representing God…if he welcomes bad people...and eats with them. Such meals meant a lot in a culture in which sharing a meal was a significant expression of inclusion in one’s life.
Jesus responds with three parables capturing the same truth... first he tells a parable of a lost sheep... in which the shepherd leaves everything to find the one sheep... and then another about someone who lost a valuable coin... and then finds it. Each story ends with how they gather others to rejoice with them...explaining that the heavenly realm rejoices every time a life who was lost...is found and turns back to God. [1a]
Jesus then launches into a third parable that shares that truth... but it goes far beyond it. Jesus expands the whole storyline... in what I believe is the ultimate storyline of us all. He is saying to those who are upset... that they need to hear the real story that they are actually a part of. [1aa]
As we hear this story.... I encourage us to hear it like the long lost story of our lives. From the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, beginning in verse 11 we read...
Luke 15:11-32
Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 "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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. 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. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"
With this story… I believe that Jesus is telling us the real story of our lives... what is really playing out between the Creator of our existence…and ourselves. It may play out in different cultures …with different levels of drama… with different nuances…but I believe it identifies the core dynamics that play out in our own lives. And that is what I want to do…I want to help us identify the essential truth Jesus is capturing about our lives and relationship with God. And if you have been seeking to know God...I am so glad you are engaged right now. I want to encourage you to let these truths speak into your own life.
Let's take a moment to pause and pray...to simply open our own hearts to the potential of what God wants to say. Would you join me in a moment of prayer?
Pray: God... from the place we each find ourselves in relationship to you... we pray that we have ears to hear what you are saying to us. Amen.
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Luke 15:11-13?"There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
Jesus begins by stating…"There was a man who had two sons”
The story is rooted in a father and his sons.
Clearly Jesus was describing how they should understand the nature of God. When Jesus spoke of God as a father... we realize he speaks as the embodiment of God the Son. This is an eternal relationship. It was never about implying that God was male. For God is spirit and cannot be understood as bound by human gender as such. The point is this: understanding that God is our Father is to understand that we are persons… created from the nature and will of a personal source. With these words... Jesus is saying that we are not merely chemical compounds who have no source of meaning or moral center. We exist as those who bear God’s image in the created world.
We are God’s children.
Jesus came with good news… you have an ultimate father who is the source of your existence and life. The eternal father nature of God... has created us to know that nature...and to live in home of his heart. Christ as son is united with the father to bring us into that union.
"There was a man who had two sons.”
They were his own… not unrelated or unconnected… they were HIS SONS… his children. If you wonder if you are really loved… how God feels about you… hear what Jesus is saying… ‘a father had two sons’… God looks at you as his child. [1c]
…But now Jesus describes what has led to the state we are in. We have lived outside of that relationship. And that separation has been passed along in countless tragic ways.
The human experience is one in which we are missing that bond… we long to belong...we are never truly at home ... though we try in a million ways to find it... to find that bond again... that belonging again. [1aaa]
When my kids were very young…one of the hardest parts of traveling was being away from them. I made cards for my wife to give them on the consecutive Saturdays while I was away. In one I placed a leftover passport photo for each one. I recall my daughter Cate… when just 22 months old… hard so When I spoke with my wife from oversees… she described Cate who was just 22 months... old holding the picture in her little hand saying “Dada” as she walked around the house looking for me. And while we may become far more sophisticated in the way we do it...I believe that we are all looking for our ultimate father. [1b]
Jesus describes two sons... and in that cultural religious context... there’s no doubt he is speaking in a very general way about the sinners who are coming to him...and later about the religious leaders who can’t see anything to celebrate about. But the intent of Jesus is to speak to two forms of being lost.... and as such...I don’t believe the point is simply to decide which son we identify with... but rather to learn from how each relate to the father.
The younger son demands his inheritance. … he wants what is the father’s … the inheritance he would gain because of his relationship as a child to the father… Since he was the younger of two brothers, he would have received nearly half of the inheritance. But such an inheritance would only be fully transferred when the father passes away.
> Any Jewish person of the time… would have heard these words in horror. The son is declaring “I want your things, but I don’t want you. I don’t want to live in relationship to my father. I don’t want you involved with my life. I’m demanding your goods... and defying your position...by leaving home.”
So our story begins… with God creating us to share life and serve the creation with him…but then… as Jesus identifies…
We declare our independence…wanting creation without the Creator…demanding the goods without the governance.
What we hear is a declaration of defiant independence. We want to rule our own lives. We are essentially claiming our own kingdom. This helps us to understand the real nature of sin...and what the Bible means when it speaks of us as being sinners. We can resent hearing the belief that we are sinners...because we tend to think it means we can be really good people who just miss the mark a few times. But what the Scriptures actually speak of is something at the core of our nature... they say that “we have all gone astray... gone on own way.” We are like a son who takes what is not ours...and declares our independence.
Our story is not one of simply breaking rules…but of breaking relationship.
You have to understand in that culture this was an absolute outrage.
The consequence was set… and it severe. For such defiance, the son would be considered dead … cut off from life … if not actually killed.
> And now comes the most provocative and shocking statement to any hearer of the time.
Verse 12 says...”So he divided his property between them....”
The father grants him the inheritance… he lets him have the goods… and to walk away.
And with that …Jesus says....the son leaves for a distant country. When Jesus says, "and left for a distant country," he indicates much more than the desire of a young man to see more of the world. He is giving up his identity… his source of belonging… believing he can forge his own. And we do well to look at what this tells us about the nature of freedom.
The truth is that the most deceptive dynamic in life…may be related to the nature of freedom.
We have been fooled into believing that we need to be free... free to make our own choices. When can spend our whole lives trying to fight to have control of our lives. And the tragic irony is that we have always had it. God has given us that control. The son is allowed to take the goods and go. The truth is that we already have freedom… freedom to leave home… even as Jesus describes here.
Our real story is not one of gaining freedom from God... it’s one of having freedom ...and presuming we that we must be the gods of our own existence... the kings of our own kingdoms.
The son thought that that in his freedom.... he could find himself. But the truth is that … he was now lost.
The next point in our story is that…
We become “lost” forging a false identity in a “foreign place.”
The son heads off... to exercise his freedom to find himself. [1d]
Jesus is revealing that the idea of ‘becoming our own person’ has a deceptive dimension.
When we decide to just “do our own thing”… we actually BECOME our thing.
The son is not lost because no one offered any sense of direction, He is lost because he chose to live outside the only relationship that could ground and honor his true nature. [2]
Next point in our story is that…
We waste our life… seeking what can no longer be found.
The younger son… discovers that life in the ‘distant country’ ultimately degrades him. His life is exploited… used… because apart from the source of love… at some level we will become reduced to what we have … and one day our merely material value will run out.
And he is left empty.
We are reminded of the added disregard… of taking what still belonged to the father and squandering it… even as we can with the goodness and gifts of life.
We take the gifts God has given us… and use them to try to find value and love. We use our intellect…our wealth… our bodies… to try and find value…and love.
We can all find ourselves…in a distant country… a foreign land… where in our misguided independence… we’ve lost our identity… where we sense our lives are being reduced… our personhood is being exploited. It’s not simply the story of the marginalized...but often reflected in the exploitation of the rich and famous. It’s the story of every one of us.
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Luke 15:14-16?14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Jesus goes on to say in verse 14 – “After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.”
What a picture of this foreign land... of life outside of God. Reduced to our material nature… we will spend everything on that which can never satisfy or secure us. And we will face the famine… we will face a hunger that cannot be met.
He is left with nothing. He hired himself out. And he is left feeding pigs. And Jesus says that he realizes that the pigs are eating better than he is. You may recall that pigs were deemed unclean animals to he Jewish people... so any Jewish hearer would be struck by the most tragic loss of dignity imaginable.
So the next point in our story is that…
We face the emptiness and loss of our dignity.
There is guilt to be sure…but there is more than just the sons obvious guilt. There is emptiness. There is the recognition not just that I did something wrong…but that I have lost who I am.
This begins the process of turning. Jesus speaks of the potential to awaken.
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Luke 15:17-20?17 "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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father.
This is the pivotal moment in what Jesus is describing. It is captured in that little phrase… “When he came to his senses…”
He realizes that the distant country does not offer what he really needs… but also that what he had back at home is what he really needs. As he develops how he will have to address his position in order to find a place back at home… Jesus describes how he recognizes that he had sinned… done great wrong in denying the father his place in his life… and that he did not deserve to be his son… to be his child. So he presumes he is only in the position to be considered a servant.
And so the next point in our story is that…
Hope begins with coming to our senses…realizing the good we long for… but no longer deserve.
This is not simply a moment of guilt ...He realizes that there is a good that he has lost… and he says “I will go back to my Father…”
As Henri Nouwen notes…
“The meaning of the younger son's return is succinctly expressed in the words, "Father, ...I no longer deserve to be called your son." On the one hand the younger son realizes that he has lost the dignity of his sonship, but at the same time that sense of lost dignity makes him also aware that he is indeed the son who had dignity to lose.
…When he found himself desiring to be treated as one of the pigs, he realized that he was not a pig but a human being, a son of his father. This realization became the basis for his choice to live instead of to die.” [2b]
This is what turning around is like. He knows he that he no longer deserves to be a son. We can imagine what the son must have felt. It’s an intimidating prospect. What will we face?
Notice the change in the posture of this son… he begins his demise by claiming rights that weren’t even his…. And he returns stating he no longer has any right to what had been his… the right to be a son. It’s a striking change. The son who had once been demanding… now comes undeserving. [2c]
This is the type of sorrow that actually restores us. This is the type of a sorrow that doesn’t end with regret...but with returning. It leads us home. [2d]
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Luke 15:20-21? "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
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Luke 15:22-24? 22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.
And this leads to the next point in our story.
God as our Father will welcome us with mercy and restore us.
As we see the son return...we can feel his long walk of shame. Jesus tells us how he knows he has no hope but to plead for mercy.... to recognize that he has no right to be treated as a son...and only pleads to be taken as a servant. And here’s what so striking...the father runs to him… in a way that would be shameful in such a culture for an elder father to do. And he throws his arms around him...and kisses him. And as many have noted... he does on the open road for all to see. He is not ashamed to be his father.
And as for responding to the sons’ request.... the Father doesn’t even let him finish. Why? Because the son is making a case to be accepted as a servant. But the son is a son. That is who he is.
And the father could not have declared that the son is one again a son anymore loudly...as he calls on the whole household to join in celebration. He calls for them to bring…
Sandals. In ancient biblical times only servants and slaves went barefoot. The Father is declaring that he is being restored as a son.
And to this he adds a new robe… a mark of dignity. He has been wearing his own filthy clothes… and he will now receive what God provides. It is symbolic of how God has said when we receive Christ… he will exchange our unrighteousness ...and cloth us in Christ’s righteousness.
And to this he adds the Ring - It is the granting of authority to a person. Whoever has such a ring has the power of attorney for his master. He has authority, his master’s authority, to make decisions and to help the master govern his realm.
And there is the celebration itself… the son is not merely welcomed…he is celebrated.
This is actually central to the story. You will never know who you really are until you know that when you come home…you are celebrated.
Many of you tend to think that God doesn’t really see you… and doesn’t really want you. You may think he might just accept you as part of a group deal... as part of some acceptable group you might belong to.
> You need to understand…God celebrates YOU when you come home. That is who you are to him.
But the story is not over… it has only helped us understand one part of us… the rebellious part. But what of the part that is good and moral and even religiously so? Jesus hasn’t forgotten the religious leaders… grumbling about why Jesus was with these bad people. With these three stories he has been describing that those who are lost… being found… returning to where they belong…and that such returning… repenting... is something to celebrate.
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Luke 15:25-27? 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.'
Luke 15:28-32? 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. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"
But now in the older brother… he is telling these religious leaders what they must understand about who they are. The older brother represents their own posture. Bu they are not just the villains we can scoff at. The older son represents the moralist in every one of us. This relates to that part of any of us that might see ourselves in a self-righteous “I am better than others” superiority.
Jesus is showing the more moral people a picture of themselves.
He’s holding a mirror up. He’s saying, “Look at this. This is who you are.”
Jesus brings home the full picture by bringing forth that…
Our own self-righteousness “goodness” can refuse the grace of the Father’s heart and home.
As the older brother… the firstborn…he is the deserving brother…and he makes that quite known. The younger brother tried to get control of the father’s things without the father by going away. The older brother tried to get control of the father’s things without the father by staying…. And proving how deserving he is. He doesn’t seem to find value in actually being with the Father…but rather with proving how good he is. We too might say in our own way…: “Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.”
We can think that we are part of the group that deserves to be accepted. But whenever we begin to think that we should get what we deserve… is a sign that we really don’t understand what we deserve. Such a posture will resent the very grace we need...and if we reject grace... we are left outside... separated from life with God. [4]
He’s as lost as the younger brother ever was. This is the central dynamic of all three stories which Jesus was telling...something is lost… not where it is supposed to be. In every single situation you have someone going out to get it back. And now Jesus includes the older brother in the same way. He includes the Father’s heart for the religious as well. You have the older brother… outside of his father’s home… and heart. And the father has gone outside to find him.
To that part of us that believes we are morally superior... the Father says “Come inside, my son... and join the place of grace.”
Closing: This is the story that Jesus tells… about our lives.
It’s a story that includes the rebellious and religious alike… and those who can identify both elements within themselves.
It’s a story that calls out to us: “Come home.”
In whatever ways you may have wandered into the distant country… there is a father who is looking for you. The story is strikingly clear: he won’t force you to come home… but he will see you, even from a long ways off… and wants to embrace you... and celebrate you. It all begin when we “come to our senses.”
So let’s take a moment to pray... to bring ourselves before the presence of God our Father.
Closing Prayer:
God, you are the Father I long for. You are the Father of life.
I want to be your child.
I want to honor you as my Father …and live as your child.
Come infuse my life with your divine will.
May I live in the blessing of your deepest affirmation… of being fundamentally wanted.
May I be bound in identity and intimacy with you as the source of all good that exists.
Resources: Previous series I did entitled “Coming Home” which went through this parable over 4 messages. Then and now, I drew from the great work of Henri Nouwen “The Return of the Prodigal Son”; this time I also drew from Tim Keller’s two messages in 1998, “First Son” and “Second Lost Son.”
Notes:
1a.‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7-8) and
‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:9-10)
1aa. It’s like that point in a movie where everything you thought was a certain way…is suddenly given a twist…and you think “What?”…and then you have to reconsider everything…and you realize you had made certain assumptions... and therefore, misunderstood the whole story. Nothing is what it seemed. Some may remember the end of the original Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston’s is shocked to learn that he didn’t land on another planet, but on Earth, just in a future where humanity has been mostly wiped out and subjugated by apes. Or there is The Sixth Sense (1999)…Shutter Island… and of course, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) where the great hero is fighting the villain Darth Vader… a simple battle between good and evil...UNTIL the villain Darth claims that he is actually Luke Skywalkers father.
1aaa. We are in a fatherless search… a search for all that a father reflects. Thomas Wolfe wrote:
“The deepest search in life , it seemed to me, the thing that in one way or another was central to all living was man’s search to find a father, not merely the father of his flesh, not merely the lost father of his youth, but the image of a strength and wisdom external to his need and superior to his hunger, to which the belief and power of his own life could be united.” – Thomas Wolfe was an American novelist who in his short and tragic life (1900-1939) was preoccupied with themes of lost youth, memory, transience and an insatiable wandering. He was a wanderer who in his brief life made seven voyages to Europe and compulsively explored that continent. He would never own a home or a piece of land. He rarely lived in an apartment for more than a year and more commonly for just a few months. (Thomas Wolfe: Study of a Wanderer by Jon A. Shaw)
The great Christian theologian of modern times, J.I. Packer was asked what is the central distinctive of Christ and Christianity. He responded:
“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old…. Is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.” (Ed Piorek p. 21-22)
1b. E.T. – the story of a little alien creature who was stranded on earth, with a deep desire to return home to the place where he belonged. In a famous scene E.T. is sending signals over a radio device he has made and the kids who have befriended him ask him what he is doing. He responds with those now famous words, “E.T. phone home.” He is trying to phone home… trying to figure out how to get back to that place he belongs.
> We too have a deep desire to return to that place where we belong… that place where we are loved for who we are. It’s a desire that God our father has placed deep within us. It may often be covered up or confused… but deep down we long to be home in our Father’s house… our Father’s heart. (Piorek, The Father Loves You, p. 159)
> But we like E.T. may be stranded in a far away land… and not know how to get home.
1c. In the Scriptures we hear the words of the disciple John, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)
The Apostle Paul wrote, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption When we cry 'Abba,' it is that spirit healing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:14-16).
1d. As Henri Nouwen describes…
“Leaving home is … is a denial of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being.’ Leaving home is living as though I do not yet have a home and must look far and wide to find one.”
2. This is precisely what is described in the account of our beginnings… in the opening book of the Scriptures called Genesis (which means beginnings.) In Genesis, God declares he is creating those who will bear his own image… and that everything is theirs to be stewards of… and he even blesses them as he calls them to and multiply and fill the earth. The one boundary…. Not to eat of the one tree which represents life outside His goodness. To pursue such they will die. But another voice comes along… ‘You won’t die… you will become like god… so declare your independence.’
But they accept the lie of the serpent that they will not die… but rather they will become free to be like God. They eat… and their eyes were opened and they were naked… uncovered… and ashamed. At that point, God finds them hiding… and they explain it is ‘because we were AFRAID.’ They had only known love when they remained within life in relationship with God… but now they have sought to declare and define their own existence and they are left uncovered… and living not in a state of love but fear.
As the Scriptures later would explain… ‘nothing is made perfect in fear’ (1 John 4:18-21)
They are deceived…and exploited. In the original description of Adam and Eve…the serpent slips away… leaving them just where he wanted them… facing the consequences of their own separation from God. In seeking to become more than human we became less than human… in believing we should seek to exist apart from relationship with God… we are lost… and left to a life that will reduce us and exploit because there is a need that all have that is never met and we will try to find it in ways that will never satisfy.
2b. Henri Nouwen, "The Prodigal Son"
2c. As C.S. Lewis states,
“If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again.
. . . Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realised that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power - it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christinaity begins to talk. When you are sick, you will listen to the doctor.” - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Bk 1, Ch 5, p. 38-39
2d. As we Scriptures say:
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Cor. 7:10)
2e. The Father says, “My son, you have always been with me.” We may assume that he is describing being in good relationship. But clearly the son is actually in defiance of the father. He is the outwardly dutiful and inwardly defiant …operating as one who is deserving.
In John 14:9, Jesus says to one of his disciples Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?” In Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, “On the last day people will come to me and say, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we do mighty deeds in your name? Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we do miracles in your name?’ ” Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”
3. As Tim Keller describes, The Bible defines sin as trying to be your own savior and lord. The Bible defines sin, in a sense, as cosmic treason. The Bible defines sin as overthrowing your rightful Savior and Lord and saying, “No, I want to do that.” The Bible defines sin as trying to be your own savior and lord, and here’s the point.
In younger brother lostness, you just do it. You’re conscious. You say, “Yes, I’m going to be my own savior and lord. I don’t need God. I don’t need religion. Don’t tell me what’s right and wrong. I will decide what’s right and wrong for me.” So you know you’ve done it. When your life falls apart, you say, “Maybe I need God.”
In elder brother lostness, the goodness masks the fact that you are also being your own savior and lord. Because of your goodness you’re not all that dependent on God. You don’t want total salvation. You just want help at certain points. Because of your goodness you don’t pray to him day and night in dependence on him. You pray when you’re in trouble. Because of your goodness you don’t really make him your Savior and your Lord. You’re your own savior and lord, but the goodness masks it.
Until the Holy Spirit comes in and intervenes, the natural human heart will take goodness and always use it like this. Good deeds, moral rectitude, caring for the needy, helping your family, however you define it, what your heart will do with that goodness is you will use it to take control of God and the people around you.
4. As Tim Keller noted, The Great Divorce is a fictional account by C.S. Lewis of a busload of people from hell who go to the outskirts of heaven. People who are in hell are met generally by people whom they knew from earth who are in heaven. The people from heaven come on down, and they try to urge the people from hell to come to heaven.
Here’s an interesting example. What you’re going to find is the ghost is a person from hell. The bright man is a person from heaven. This is one of these encounters. “ ‘Look at me, now,’ said the Ghost, slapping its chest (but the slap made no noise). ‘I gone straight all my life … I don’t say I had no faults, far from it. But I done my best all my life, see? I done my best by everyone, that’s the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn’t mine by rights. If I wanted a drink I paid for it and if I took my wages I done my job, see? That’s the sort I was …”
The bright man said, “It would be much better not to go on about that now. […] You can never do it like that … Your feet will never grow hard enough to walk on our grass that way. You’d be tired out before we got to the mountains.”
Ghost says, “Who’s going on? I’m not arguing. […] I’m asking for nothing but my rights. […] But I got to have my rights same as you, see?”
“Oh no. It’s not as bad as that. I haven’t got my rights, or I should not be here. You will not get yours either. You’ll get something far better.”
“That’s just what I say. I haven’t got my rights. I always done my best and I never done nothing wrong. And what I don’t see is why I should be put below a bloody murderer like you,’ ” which he was.
“Who knows whether you will be? [Maybe you will be put above me up there.] Only be happy and come with me.”
“What do you keep on arguing for?” said the Ghost. “I only want my rights. I’m not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity.”
“Then do. At once. Ask for the Bleeding Charity. Everything is here for the asking and nothing can be bought.”
“That may do very well for you, I daresay. If they choose to let in a bloody murderer all because he makes a poor mouth at the last minute, that’s their look out. […] I don’t want charity. I’m a decent man and if I had my rights, I’d have been here long ago and you can tell them I said so.”
The Ghost was almost happy now he could in a sense threaten. “ ‘That’s what I’ll do. I’ll go home. I didn’t come here to be treated like a dog. I’ll go home. […] Damn and blast the whole pack of you …’ In the end, still grumbling, but whimpering also a little as it picked its way over the sharp grasses, [the Ghost] made off.” Now this is a perfect picture of the elder brother.
