Theme: The loving and forgiving Father
Text: Josh. 5:1-9; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Lk. 15:11-32
Many people today think that the most important thing in life is to believe in God. This has led to the situation where many people claim they believe in God but have no idea what kind of God they believe in. There is nothing worse than claiming to believe in God but having a wrong conception of who God is. There are many religions in the world today that present many different pictures of God. I once read the story of a converted Muslim, a man who taught the Koran, to Christianity. According to him what really led to his conversion was when he was presented with a true picture of who God is. This happened when the story of the woman caught in adultery was presented to him. This woman was brought to Jesus to be stoned according to the Law but Jesus responded with love and sent the woman home without condemning her with the words “go and sin no more”. According to the converted man the Muslims had a similar story about an adulterous pregnant woman. This woman was brought before the prophet Mohammed and he decreed that she should be allowed to have the child before a decision was taken about her. After she had delivered he again decreed that she should be allowed to wean the child before hearing the decision about her. After weaning the child she was again brought before the prophet and this time he decreed that she should be taken out and stoned to pay the penalty for adultery. The converted man saw nothing wrong with this because at the time his conception of God was completely different from the Christian conception of God. He had always believed the Muslim viewpoint and the behaviour of Jesus conflicted with his idea of God. But, according to him, for the first time he saw God as He really is. He saw God as a God of love. You can believe in God, but if you have a false conception of God, you are no better off than an unbeliever. Jesus Christ became a man to reveal to us exactly who God is. He came to reveal to us the character and nature of God. He came to reveal God as the loving and forgiving Father.
It’s not enough to believe in God. We must also know His nature and character and understand that His love for us is like that of a loving father. We must understand that He loves us even though He is hurt by our rebellion and our refusal to obey Him. Like the rebellious son we often come to God asking Him to meet all our needs but are not willing to obey His commandments? It is love that makes God meet our needs. It is love that makes Him allow us to leave even though He knows it is to our disadvantage and He desires our fellowship. As our Father we cannot break our relationship with Him, we can only break our fellowship with Him. The whole time the younger son was away from home he was still a son. But he no longer had access to the presence and favour of his Father.
This parable is not about unbelievers but about believers. The younger son does not represent an unsaved person but someone who had experienced his father’s presence and favour and yet demanded his inheritance because he did not regard his father’s provision and authority. The father grants his rebellious and disrespectful son’s request to be independent of his father and he takes his inheritance and leaves his father’s presence. This son broke his Father’s heart as he left His presence and this is repeated every time a Christian leaves God’s presence. This is because once you become a Christian God establishes a love relationship with you. He becomes your Father and nothing can ever change that but you yourself. You may choose to rebel and disobey the Father. You may choose to leave His presence but He will never leave you. God loves you so much He will never force you to stay in His presence especially when you are determined to do something as foolish as leaving. God will not force you to be obedient and loyal. He wants you to freely love and serve Him. This is one of the reasons we often find our lives in a mess and this is often the reason we blame God and are often bitter toward Him. We blame God for not stopping us when He had all the power to do so. God does not stop us for the same reason He didn’t stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God does not stop us for the same reason He didn’t stop King David from having sex with Bathsheba. And God does not stop us for the same reason the father in this parable didn’t stop his son from leaving. God loves us so much that He not only allows us to make our own choices but also respects our decisions even though He knows what the consequences will be. Rebellious children or grandchildren always cause pain to parents. They can only be disciplined as children and at a certain age the only way to deal with the problem is to respect their choices and decisions and allow them to leave when they so desire. Some of you may be hurting because your children are alienated from you as a result of rebellion, a disagreement, a sinful lifestyle, or a bad relationship. Be comforted because God understands your pain and He cares. Be comforted because God will use his or her tragic circumstances to bring them to realize what the right thing to do is. Never close the door or tell your child they are never welcome back into your home and receive them when they repent.
The rejection of God’s love leads to a broken relationship with God. The younger brother rejected God’s love and provision when he left his father. Because he rejected his father he also rejected everything that was good, right and holy. The result was sin and sin always leads to more sin just as one bad decision leads to another. The rejection of God’s love and provision always leads to lack or a famine. No one is able to provide better than God. Living outside the will of God you can enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. But after a while the money will run out, the music will stop, and your friends will desert you. The land may be flowing with milk and honey but without God’s blessings it will experience a famine. Sin and evil is so prevalent in the world today that we constantly experience deaths through terrorist attacks, murders and wanton destruction. Such unnecessary deaths and suffering should remind us of the urgent need to fulfil Christ’s great commission to make disciples of all nations. It should remind us of the need to go out, seek the lost and those who have backslidden and tell them about Jesus. Unfortunately we have failed to reach many of the lost and they are now seeking refuge in the wrong places. The drinking bar has possible become the best counterfeit to the fellowship Christ wants to give His Church. It dispenses liquor instead of grace and escape rather than reality, but it is an accepting and inclusive fellowship. We should, however, not seek imitations when the real thing is available. Only Christ can offer the lost and backslidden the love they are searching for and we cannot reach them when we see them as the Pharisees did – as people who have no right to come to God or to associate with the so-called righteous. We need to understand that Christ came to seek and save the lost and that the situations the lost find themselves in can be the means to bring them to God. In the case of the younger son it was hunger that brought him to his senses. This led to repentance and restoration. It led to a turning back to his father simply because he had nowhere else to go. Repentance is what happens when you finally realise you have been going in the wrong direction. You turn around and go back in the other direction. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. Repentance means admitting that you are solely responsible for the mess you are in. You cannot go back home until you admit that you were the one who left in the first place. You will know that you are really serious about changing your life when you stop making excuses for your behaviour. You will know that you are serious when you do not work out any pre-conditions for your return since real repentance doesn’t make deals with God.
We all need to be restored to God’s love to enjoy His blessings, as we are all sinners. Both sons in today’s parable were sinners. One son sinned when he left home and the other sinned while staying at home. The father’s love is such that he forgets all that we have done wrong. God is always ready to restore our fellowship and does all that is necessary to help. The father knew full well how his son would be welcomed in the village when he returned a failure. To prevent this he runs to meet him and by being reconciled in public ensures that his son is treated properly. The father’s love for his wayward son had not changed in spite of the hurt and disappointment he had felt. This is an experience some of us are going through with a child or with someone else we love who has wondered off and broken our heart. Jesus knows what it means to be hurt and to be betrayed. He also knows how difficult it is for us, as human beings, to let go of that anger and resentment that we harbour against those who have injured us. He wants us, as followers of Jesus Christ, to live a life of forgiveness. The elder son in the parable who stayed with his father failed to learn the lesson of forgiveness. Like many self-righteous people today he felt he had earned whatever he received. They like the Pharisees are angry and resentful that sinners are being welcomed into or returning into God’s Kingdom. No Christian should think that they had sacrificed and done so much for God that only they deserved to be with Him. No Christian should resent God’s gracious forgiveness for others they consider to be far worse sinners than themselves. No Christian should turn anyone away saying they deserved what happened to them. Instead they should behave as the loving father did. He runs to welcome his rebellious son, who after working in a pigsty was not only unclean but also dirty and smelling, hugging and kissing him. He commanded his servants to bring the best robe and he lovingly placed it around his son, covering all the filth and dirt of his mistakes just as God covers our sin with a robe of righteousness. The father put a new ring on his finger symbolizing his full status in the family. He had sandals put on his son’s feet because it was only slaves who didn’t wear shoes and He ordered the fattened calf to be prepared for a feast to celebrate the return of his lost son. In the words of Ken Gire, ‘for the son’s lost dignity, the father bestows on him a robe of honour. For his bare servants feet, he puts on them the sandals of a son. For the hand that squandered an entire inheritance, he gives a signet ring that reinstates the son’s position of authority in the family business. For his empty stomach, he hosts a feast fit for a king’. Jesus died to bring us to God for us to enjoy His blessings. Some of us are living without God’s blessings and find ourselves hungry, lonely, in rags, and sitting among those things that defile us. We need to come to ourselves and return to the Father. A robe, a pair of sandals, a ring and a feast are the gifts of God’s grace upon those who do not deserve it.
True repentance is an inward decision to turn to God followed by an outward act of carrying out that decision. The wayward son made a decision “I will arise and go to my father” and immediately carried out his decision “and he arose and came to his father”. His repentance was evidenced by his words “Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son”. We should never forget or doubt the father’s love and after repentance should accept God’s offer of eternal life. God is always ready to forgive us when we repent. When the younger son repented his father forgave him. The older son was working in the field when the younger son returned and did not get home until after the party had started. One of the servants informs him that his brother has come home and that his father was exceedingly happy about it. He is immediately filled with anger and refuses to go into the house. The younger brother revealed his rebellious nature through loose living. The elder brother acted out his rebellious nature through pride and intolerance. His self-righteousness prevented him from rejoicing when his brother returned. When the father comes out to urge him to come in he is met with a flood of bitterness. He feels he had been treated unfairly, ignored, forgotten, or just taken for granted. The father forgave because he was filled with love. The elder brother refused to forgive because he was bitter about what he felt was injustice. In our society we would condemn the younger brother and praise the elder brother for being responsible, deserving and respectable. We often do not see the sin of the elder brother that is characterised by arrogance and pride because we often behave in a similar way. But the elder brother’s resentment rendered him just as lost to the father’s love as his younger brother had been. Let us begin to see life as it is and not as we are and God as He is and not as we are. God is a loving Father who will welcome us and lovingly forgive us when we come to Him and repent of our sin. Have you wandered away from God and are you willing to return to Him? Or are you already home and need to come to the party? The Father has enough grace for both of us. He’s looking for the rebellious and He’s looking for the proud. He welcomes those who accept they are sinners and also those who feel so righteous that they feel they are without sin. Today Christ wants to welcome you home, Amen!
