In Jesus Holy Name March 27,2022
Text: Luke 15:11-31 Redeemer
“In the Chaos of the Pigpen…. Hope and Direction”
“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus… and the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying… This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them….. so Jesus said… “let me tell you a story…”
In other words Jesus is saying, “You think you know God, but you do not. God doesn’t play by your rules. Here is what God is all about.” Let me tell you a story. “A father has two sons…” One of the boys is called the “older” and the other is called the “younger”.
In reality Jesus said to the Pharisees: “let me tell you three stories.”
The parable of the Lost sheep. The parable of the Lost Coin; then the parable of the two Lost Sons. A shepherd pays a price to find and restore a lost sheep. The woman does the same for her coin. A father gives both boys the family inheritance early.
The parable is the story of a father with two lost sons. The younger son chafes under his father’s rule and perhaps feels put down by his obedient older brother. So he demands his inheritance from his father. The inheritance is substantial. This is a wealthy family that has a herd of fatted calves and a herd of goats, and house servants. In traditional Middle Eastern culture, this means, “Father, I am eager for you to die!” If the father is a traditional Middle Eastern father, he will strike the boy across the face and drive him out of the house. This is an outrageous request. The father is expected to refuse. (Jesus is flipping the cultural rules upside down…for a reason.)
The father grants the youngest son his request, but it also means the older son now receives his share as well. “The father divided the property”. The younger son gathers together all he has and converts it to cash. He is selling part of the family farm. He leaves with a pocket full of cash, which he did not earn. The family breakdown becomes public knowledge. The culture does grant the father the right to divide the property but to sell the property before the father’s death is an offense and the family is shamed.
The younger son’s “ban” from the family and the community is more comprehensive than the Amish “shun”. When shunned an Amish person can at least eat at a separate table. The first century Jewish shun was a total ban on any contact with the family or community.
The younger son in a “far country” spends every dime he has on riotous living. Parties day and night, (spring break in Miami) women on both arms, the good life, the fast lane. Whatever he wants, he buys with his father’s money. (Christianity Today October 26, 1998[Christianity Today October 26, 1998 article: “the Pursuing Father by Kenneth Bailey.)
Eventually his money runs out. In the “far country” the Jewish boy lives among Gentiles… they own pigs! When a famine breaks out, not having any money and being too far away from home, he attaches himself to a farmer who says, “The only work I have is feeding my pigs.” The prodigal son ends up penniless, homeless, starving, feeding the pigs, eating the pods from the carob trees. He who had eaten at the best restaurants just a few weeks earlier now dines with the pigs. (Quote from Ken Pritchard)
Chaos is now his lot in life. Becoming a pig herder, does not work. No one gave him anything. “As he worked feeding the pigs he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating…” Ever been near a pig sty? His clothes stank. He is fed, but not paid. The prodigal son decides on one last option….He could not ask to be accepted into full son ship again…but he could live better, even as a hired hand. It is the memory of a good father that beckons him back home.
His one hope is that his humble speech will touch his father’s heart as he seeks to be a wage earner to pay back the lost inheritance. He is returning empty handed. He has shamed his family; his father… the painful road back is endured for one reason. He is hungry!
The father knows his son will fail. He waits day after day, staring down the crowded village street to the road in the distance. The father plans to reach the boy before he reaches the village. The father sees the son “far off”. He picks up his robe and runs to embrace his son.
Traditional Middle Easterners wearing long robes do not run in public. The father runs. Overwhelmed the son cannot even blurt out his prepared speech. He only declares that he has sinned and is not worthy to be called a son. He does not know how to mend a broken relationship between a son and a father.
Jesus is saying to His listeners: The “father” is a symbol for God. “Remember God does not play by our rules.” He offers grace. God’s grace comes first and then we can accept it or reject it.
In the Old Testament, which the Pharisees knew quite well, the prophet Ezekiel calls God the Father the “good shepherd” who goes after his lost sheep. (Psalm 23… the Lord is my shepherd…” In Ezekiel God refers to himself as the Good Shepherd who will “search for the lost sheep”. (Ez. 34-35) Jesus takes this known symbol for God and quietly transforms it into a symbol for himself. Didn’t Jesus say in the gospel of John, “I am the good shepherd”?
Jesus retells that classical story and introduces Himself as one acting as God the Father acts. The Pharisees have complained that Jesus “welcomes and eats with sinners.” Jesus replies with these three parables. He is saying: “Indeed I do eat with sinners. But it is much worse than you imagine. I not only eat with them, I run down the road, shower them with kisses, and drag them in that I might eat with them!” They are shocked! By the end of the story the father does what Jesus does. Amazing grace.
Joy returns to the Father’s heart. A banquet is prepared. A ring is put on the son’s finger. The boy was lost and has been found. Who found him? The Father! Where did he find him? At the edge of the village. As the shepherd went searching for the lost sheep, and the woman searched for the lost coin, even so the father went down the road to find his son.
This is the love that God has for each of us. What does Paul write in Ephesians 2? “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…. But because of His great love for us God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead… it is by grace you have been saved.”
Jesus knows the Pharisees are like the older son. They become angry and refuse to go to the party. They do not like the fact that God has different rules. The older son refuses to participate in the banquet because he knows his brother has been restored… a ring has been placed on his finger. The finest robe is brought. The older son is angry at his father. This is a public insult.
God is on a never-ending search for the lost and missing. God is like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep, a woman searching for a lost coin, God invites us to rejoice – “rejoice with me, for what was lost has been found”.
The Heidelberg Catechism puts it this way. “God … grants to us the perfect righteousness, satisfaction, and holiness of Jesus Christ, as if we had never ever sinned or committed any sin…”
When Adam & Eve were lost, God came looking. God came searching. He found them hiding and afraid. In both the O.T. and N.T. we encounter a God who is on a mission to seek the lost and redeem His people. The central act of God in the O.T. is the Exodus, a divine intervention into human history to free His people from slavery. The decisive act of God in the N.T is the divine intervention of God into human history at Bethlehem to free us from slavery to sin and eternal death. (Gregory Dawson, Luke 15:1-15).
God rescued his people so they could be his partners. They were chosen to be the “priest of God” representing him to the whole earth.
Listen to the words of I Peter 1:3-5 ……… and promise. Romans 5:1-2, 6 …… for what purpose? I Peter 2:9-12
We live in the post modern world, a world filled with people who are insecure about their eternal destiny. We are surrounded by people who have been told “there are no absolutes.” They are lost. It’s David disrobing Bathsheba. It’s Adam accepting the fruit from Eve. It’s Abraham lying about Sarah. It’s Peter denying that he ever knew Jesus. It’s Noah, drunk and naked in his tent. It’s Lot, in bed with his own daughter. It’s your worst nightmare. It’s sudden. It’s sin.
Today, there are millions of people “unattached to Jesus”, many are struggling in the chaos of life. They have made wrong turns. Each decision moving them miles away from the Father, their Creator, who would do anything to bring them home. It’s the alcoholic buying “just one”. It’s the boss touching his secretary’s hand. The husband walking into the porn shop. The mother accepting a lunch she never should have accepted. The father abusing his child. The gambler losing his money. The Christian losing control. And it’s Satan gaining a foothold in each life. (Come Home, God is Calling Published by Word Publishing ©1995 by Max Lucado)
Our war is not with the flesh and blood but with Satan himself. Do like Jesus did when Satan met him in the wilderness. Call him by name. Rip off his mask. Denounce his disguise. He appears in the most innocent of clothing: a night out with the boys, a good book, a popular movie, a pretty neighbor. But don’t let him fool you! When the urge to sin rears its ugly head, look him squarely in the eye and call his bluff. “Get behind me, Satan!”
Confusion. Guilt. Rationalization. Despair. It all hits. It hits hard. You never intended it to happen. Many of them are tired of the life they are living. They find themselves living in the chaos of the pigpen. Some have lost the direction home. The far country is any place where your life seems empty and you look up and say, “Is that all there is?” And the Father says, “Of course not. Come home.”
God is our Father and He offers His Amazing Grace. You know the hymn written in 1772 by John Newton, and you know why it was written. Let’s sing this great hymn of grace.
