ECLIPSE OF THE HEART
Text: Luke 15:1 - 3, 11-32
Luke 15: 1 -3, 11- 32 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. (2) And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (3) So he told them this parable: …………. (11) Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. (12) The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. (13) A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. (14) When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout 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 to his fields to feed the pigs. (16) He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. (17) But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! (18) I will get up 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 like one of your hired hands."' (20) So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. (21) Then 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 slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (23) And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; (24) for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. (25) "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. (27) He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' (28) Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. (29) But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' (31) Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. (32) But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'" (NRSV).
There is the story of a customer who ordered chicken at a drive through window. By mistake the manager give him the wrong box. The manager would always disguise his bank deposits in a chicken box. The customer got to his pick nic location and discovered the error and got it back to the manager. The manager wanted him to stick around and have his picture made for the newspaper as the “most honest guy in town”. He declined the publicity saying "Oh no, please don't do that. I'm married, but she's not my wife." (Charles R. Swindoll. Strengthening Your Grip: Essentials In An Aimless World. New York: Bantam Books, 1986, pp. 77-78). Things are not always as they seem.
If we look at the personality of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, then we can see the resemblance, because he was not whom he appeared to be to everyone.
Most of the time, when we hear a sermon of the parable of the prodigal son, it focuses on both the father and the prodigal son. However, the elder brother's bitterness is addressed, but usually, just in passing. This morning let us strive to look at this story from a different angle as we give weight to the bitterness and indifference of the elder brother.
Today we will focus on the hungry heart and the alienated heart.
THE HUNGRY HEART
Have you ever had a hungry heart?
1) Hunger pangs: We all know what it is to have a hungry stomach as we yearn for something to hit the spot. How far would you go to feed that hunger? One time my family was in the mood far barbecue. Not just any barbecue but Shealy’s barbecue in Lexington SC. At the time we lived in North, SC which was a thirty seven mile---forty-four minute drive. There was Antley’s barbecue which was a twenty-one minute, seventeen mile drive. There was also Laird’s barbecue which was a three minute, one point three mile drive. Have you ever hungered for something far away when it was close?
2)The prodigals’ hungry heart: The prodigal son had a hungry heart for the things of the far country. Someone (the late Dr. Ellis A. Fuller) said that “The far country is any place that a man tries to live without God.” (T. T. Crabtree. ed. The Zondervan 2004 Pastor's Annual. T. T. Crabtree. “Living In The Far Country At Our Address”. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003, p. 284). The far country seems to have been Jesus’s code term for a land of forbidden things in a foreign place away from God. He had pipe dreams of making it big. He found out too late after he had squandered his inheritance that his hungry heart left him friendless, shoeless, lonely, destitute, starving and homesick.
3) The father’s broken heart: The prodigal’s father longed to be reconciled with his lost son even though his son had technically treated him as if he were already dead when he asked for his share of the inheritance. He loved his son and hungered for the day of reconciliation.
4) Our twin: Someone (T. T. Crabtree) points out that we might be identical twins with the prodigal. (T. T. Crabtree. ed. The Zondervan 2004 Pastor's Annual. T. T. Crabtree. “Living In The Far Country At Our Address”. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003, p. 284). Is it possible that the prodigal son has a twin in every one of us? Who likes to proudly admit that we have all been partners in crime in our own far country?
Does absence really make the heart grow fonder?
1) Rock bottom: Imagine a reporter interviewing the prodigal and asking him what it was like to go from riches to rags. He “came to his senses” (Luke 15: 17 NIV) when he had to take up a dirty job that no Jew in his right mind would ever do which was to feed pigs which made him ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 11:7). He had hit rock bottom because he was shooting for the stars---the illusion of the far country and landed in a pigsty. Can you imagine being reduced to being so hungry that he might have to fight the pigs for the slop that he had been hired to feed them?
2) Home sweet home: Absence had made the heart grow fonder of the home the prodigal once knew. He had once been sick of home and now he was homesick.
3) Homecoming welcome: The prodigal knew he was a sinner who was undeserving and unworthy. There was no doubt about the father’s love for his son when the prodigal returned. The prodigal wanted to beg to have the place of a slave but his father welcomed him back as a son (see John 8:35). It was obvious by the way his father ran to him while he was still a long way off, that he would probably be welcomed. His father threw a party, and restored his lost son and gave him shoes for his feet, a robe, a ring which all point to reconciliation. Slaves didn’t usually have shoes, robes, rings and certainly not parties!
THE ALIENATED HEART
What causes us to get lost?
Someone (T. T. Crabtree) has pointed out that there are four ways to get lost. 1) People can get lost through … “heedlessness” like lost sheep (Luke 15:1 – 7); 2) through “idleness” like the lost coin (Luke 15:8 – 10); 3) through “willfulness” like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11- 24) and lastly 4) through “haughtiness” like the elder brother (Luke 15:25 -32). (T. T. Crabtree. ed. The Zondervan 2008 Pastor's Annual. T. T. Crabtree. “The Four Who Were Lost”. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007, pp. 236 – 237 ). The elder brother was lost but did not seem to know it.
Why does the elder brother have an eclipsed heart?
1) Law: The elder brother was a legalistic. A point made often by many Bible commentaries is that the personality of the elder brother mirrors the attitudes of the Pharisees because Jesus told this parable in the presence of Pharisees (Luke 15:1 -2). Pharisees usually saw themselves as healthy and not in need of the Lord's forgiveness and reconciliation as Mark 2:17 describes.
2) Resentful: The elder brother felt angry, jealous, overlooked and hurt by his brother’s restoration and party. He was angry with his brother for coming back home,and he was angry with his father for reconciling him. He would have preferred that his prodigal brother stayed lost, and never return! What about our sins? Are we not sinners ourselves?
3) Sympathy: Like the Pharisees and the elder brother, it is easy for us to focus on his error and pass judgment on his sin. We seem to have a natural inclination to be sympathetic and resentful with the elder brothers of the world. (John C. Purdy. Parables at Work. Philadelphia: Westminster press, 1985, p. 65).. Like the Pharisees, the elder brother saw himself as worthy and justified.
4) Service record: 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' The elder brother resented the prodigal son for coming home because he himself had never left home.
5) Unforgiveness: The elder brother’s inability to forgive is a sin. He seems to echo Jonah who resented God for forgiving the people of Ninevah. He pouted and begged God to let him die because he wanted God to unleash his wrath, judge and condemn them (Jonah 4:8 -9 ). Do we deny that those same tendencies exist within us?
6) Projection: “There is an allegory that reads something like this: A man was complaining of his neighbors “ I never saw such a wretched set of people,” he said, “ as there are in this village. They are mean, greedy of gain and careless. They are forever speaking evil of one another.”
“Is it really so, asked the angel who was walking with him. “It is indeed,” said the man. “Why only look at this fellow come toward us. I know, his face though I cannot tell his name. See his little sharp, cruel eyes darting here and there. The very droop of his shoulders is mean and cringing, and he slinks instead of walking.”
“It is clever of you to see this,” said the angel, “But there is one that you did not perceive.”
“What is that?” asked the man.
“Why that is a looking-glass we are approaching.”
The Scottish poet put the morale to the fable this way: O wad some power the Giftie gi'e us to see ourselves as others see us.” (A. Naismith. 1200 Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes. Great Britain:Pickering Paperbacks, 1988, p. 133).
7) Condemnation: Methodist theologian Herb Miller once said, “It was not the prodigal sons of the world who nailed Christ to a wooden cross; it was the elder brothers who felt that they had arrived at spiritual superiority”. (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, p. 26). When we who are sinners refuse to forgive other sinners, like the elder brother, do we not condemn ourselves?
8) Missed opportunity: “As long as the Pharisees stayed angry at the grace shown to sinners, they stayed outside the Father’s house”. (Gary Inring. The Parables: Understanding What Jesus Meant. Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 1991, p. 26). Jesus once wept as He approached Jerusalem over those who had missed the kingdom because He who epitomized the elder brother who refused to come inside---to repent (Luke 19:41)!
9) The final appeal: This parable has a cliff-hanger ending. The elder brother in this story never came inside. In John 14:2 Jesus tells us that there are many rooms in the Father’s house. He also tells us that He goes to prepare a place for us there. How many will never receive their rooms because they did not earnestly repent and get reconciles with God and their neighbors in this life?
10) Rejoicing: The shepherd rejoiced over the lost sheep (Luke 15:4)! The woman rejoiced over her lost coin and there is rejoicing among the angels in heaven over every lost sinner who repents (Luke 15:10).
11) Sadness: God hurts for those who reject Him! God knows how resentment is toxic to those who harbor it in their hearts. God knows the elder brothers of the world and begs them to “come inside”! It must also make God sad for the lost who never repent. To drive the point home, I want you to recall the events of Exodus 14. Pharoah pursued the Israelites as God parted the Red Sea so that they could cross on dry ground. They rejoiced in their deliverance while it must have made the Lord sad for Pharaoh’s entire army who perished when God let the water loose on them.
12) Choice: I know that I refer to this verse often because it bears repeating: “2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (NRSV).
The father desired for both of his sons to be in fellowship with him and with each other. As members of the kingdom of God, we are called to carry on the fellowship that is involved with being disciples of Jesus Christ. When that fellowship fails, then so does our witness. Outsiders who see it might see that our words and actions do not match any more than a non-believer will not be inspired!
Now, we have covered the prodigal son, the elder brother and the father's invitation. We have clarified how we how could a have in twin to the prodigal son and we have hinted about how we could have a twin sibling in the elder brother as well. If the Father in this story mirrors God's forgiveness, and I believe it does, then should we not strive to be like God? Luke 6:26 reminds us that we are called to be like God and reflect His mercy: “Be merciful as your [heavenly] Father is merciful” (NIV).
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
