LOST PARABLES
Luke 15

Click here to listen to this sermon.

Parables - part 3

Context: Verses 1-2. The Pharisees muttering about Jesus’ acceptance of sinners.

Jesus gives a three set ... About that which is Lost.

Setting: The Pharisees criticize Jesus for eating and drinking with sinners.

The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin

• The shepherd will not accept one lost sheep though he has ninety-nine. He searches.
• The woman will not accept one lost coin though she has nine. She searches.
• But then, he gets into the scandal with “A Father has two sons ...”

The Lost Son and the Older Brother

The younger asks for his inheritance
• Equals “I wish you were dead”
• Father’s response should have been to stone the boy
• By leaving, the boy no longer identifies himself with his father’s family. All of the family must consider him as good as dead.
He lives the life of a prince but squanders his wealth on sinful pursuits.
• A shameful waste of what his Father provided for him
• He is reduced to working a most shameful job: feeding pigs
• Unclean despised animals, he was a rich Jewish boy and now he works for a Gentile tending pigs!
• He is starving so horribly that pig slop looks good to him right now.
He decides to return home.
• He knows that his Father will not receive him after he has shamed his so.
• He knows his Father has disowned him and will likely slam the door in his face.
• But he has no dignity left to preserve, so asking to be a slave in his father’s house is his only hope.
The father is waiting.
• Very uncharacteristic, he should have disowned his son completely according to the culture.
• Upon seeing his son he runs to him. He hikes up his robe and runs. Truly undignified for a man of his standing!
• He cuts his son off before his son completes a full statement of repentance and showers him with gifts.
The father gives a banquet for the boy that is suited for dignitaries.
• “For his son who was dead is now alive, he was lost and now he is found.”
The older boy is in the field working and hears the celebration.
• He should be at the banquet, for as the older son it is his place to serve the meal to the guest of honor!
• But he disagrees with his father’s “weakness.” He is ashamed of his father and rebukes him!
The father explains his action:
• The older son has always been with the father and could have celebrated whenever he pleased.
• But as for the younger brother: “He was dead but now he is alive, he was lost and now he is found.”
Where’s the ending?
• Does the older son attend the feast? Does he kill his father out of rage? Does he disown his father and brother? What would we do?

Some need to see themselves as the younger son.

• Doubting the Father’s love and his willingness to forgive.
• No matter how far you’ve gone, the Father will welcome your return
Some need to see themselves as the older brother.
• We have been dutiful our whole lives.
• We’ve been diligent trying to be obedient and follow God’s ways.
• Admit it, we want these lost people to suffer just a little! We want them to grovel just a little.
• We wonder why the Father makes it so easy on them.
God is like the Father in the story.
• He waits longing for the return of his lost children.
• He may even seem weak because he is so gracious.
• He rejoices when the lost are recovered, because God does not believe in acceptable losses.

Now this dishonorable, greedy, insulting child leaves his father with his share of his inheritance. He takes the wealth that has been in his family for generations. He takes the money that his father has carefully saved and cautiously invested so that his son might have a future. He leaves the people who care about him and takes with him the riches that would save him in uncertain times ahead. He takes it and uses it to satisfy his basest desires. He pays for food and drink to make himself happy. He pays women to satisfy his lusts. He pays for others to be his friends. He pays for anything he wants, but when bad times come along he can keep nothing. And in no time at all his family fortune is gone.

So he takes work feeding another man’s swine. It sounds like honest labor, but it is the sort of labor that his family would find shameful. He’s not working for his family, he’s working for a wage among unclean animals. This isn’t the life he was meant to live. His father had provided for him to have a much better life than this – but that was before this son burned through half the family’s wealth. Back in his homeland where people had some sense of decency, someone might have taken him in and shown him some dignity, but in this faraway country no one wants to help him. And perhaps that’s because they know his story. They know what a reprobate he is. They know how shamefully he has treated his father and his family.

The son finally makes a decision to return to his father. He has hit bottom and he knows that even the hired hand at the lowest paygrade back on his family farm does better than he has done. He also knows that nothing can ever be the same between him and his father. He has brought such shame to his father. He has insulted his father and shamed his family. Everyone back home knows that he is a dishonorable, greedy, selfish person. Nevertheless, for the sake of survival he will confess his sin to his father and offer himself as a slave.

Now the father of this foolish child sees him approaching the house. Tradition and decorum dictates that the father should regard the son as “dead to him.” But the father does something truly unusual and truly unconventional. He throws decorum and propriety aside and runs to greet his returning son. Men of importance do not run. He could at least let the son stew in his shame and teach him a valuable lesson before offering him forgiveness, but he doesn’t. He lavishes love on the son who has hurt his family so horribly. It is such an overwhelming display of forgiveness it borders on being shameful. The man had two sons, and his older son is dumbfounded by his Father’s softness. It is one thing to accept the young man’s confession of guilt, but is it necessary to celebrate? That’s the older son’s question.

The father knows what it means to truly forgive. He isn’t just pardoning the son. He isn’t just erasing his debt or overlooking his shame. He is truly forgiving all the hurt and shame so that he can have his son back. He is truly forgiving the son so that he can maintain a relationship with him. And the father would be truly happy if his older son would truly forgive his brother. Because in that way they can all enjoy being family again. We aren’t told how the younger son felt about being truly forgiven. It is probably the last thing he ever expected. Does the new robe around his shoulders feel heavy? Does he twist the ring around his bony finger? Does he wiggle his toes in his sandals (when is the last time he wore shoes?). Does he rub his cheek where his father kissed him? This son doesn’t know what it feels like to be pardoned or to get out of jail free. He only knows what it is like to be truly forgiven – and it is something he will live with for the rest of his life.

Forgiveness is not as simple as a pardon or reprieve. Unlike pardon, forgiveness seeks to reconcile the relationship between offender and offended. Forgiveness strives for love and fellowship.

It is isn’t as simple as a truce or forgetting the past and ignoring what has been done. For if forgiveness is truly practiced, then the sins and injuries to be forgiven are on the table. Everyone shares in naming it, but they also share in the blessed work of renaming. The son confessed his sins and he named himself a slave. The father acknowledged his offense, but renamed him “son.”

That wasn’t easy. Forgiveness is costly and there is a good amount of time and effort that goes into the business of restoring relationship. That’s true of you and I when we forgive and reconcile. It is all the more true of our God who forgives us. He doesn’t simply announce a pardon or call a truce. God works through the cross and in our lives to forgive. And he works to overcome our very human resistance to forgiveness. Accepting forgiveness can make us anxious. We would rather deal with the comforting control of law or the neat simplicity of “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards. But God is forgiving us – He is truly forgiving us.

You are truly forgiven. We are truly forgiven. Can we accept that?

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Evening Sermon, 18 April 2010

 Link to next sermon

 Link to other sermons of Chris Benjamin