A Parable of Two Brothers (and Their Father) | Luke 15 | Lenten Reflections

Transcript

00:00:00:23 – 00:00:21:52
Clint Loveall
Hey friends, welcome back to Passenger Talk podcast. In the series that we’re working on as we move through Lent, some of our favorite texts or texts that have been important or meaningful to us and texts that we hope might speak to others and be helpful to you as well. And I think, Michael, we find ourselves in the gospel today in the New Testament.

00:00:22:06 – 00:00:23:02
Clint Loveall
What do you have for us?

00:00:23:20 – 00:00:50:18
Michael Gewecke
So today my text that I selected was Luke chapter 15, verse 11. Looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son, though this story is notoriously difficult to name. As we’ll talk a little bit about here today. But this is a very, I think, popular, well known parable of Jesus, a story that many people have heard memorized as children.

00:00:50:18 – 00:01:20:06
Michael Gewecke
And so I won’t belabor the telling of the story, but as you know, there’s a father who has two sons, the youngest son comes to his father and demands that he receives his inheritance early. He is restrained at home. He feels shut out, shut in. And so his father, very grieved, gives his son the half of his inheritance or the full of his inheritance, half of the the full inheritance.

00:01:20:06 – 00:01:42:14
Michael Gewecke
And the son goes off to the city and it’s there where he goes, and he squanders all of that wealth. The tax says that he does so with dissolute living, which is the Bible’s way of saying he went to Vegas and did whatever he wanted to do and he very quickly goes through his money there, all of those resources.

00:01:42:14 – 00:02:06:03
Michael Gewecke
And so it’s not long until a famine comes upon the land and that son then goes and needs to find work. And we’re told that he finds a person who is willing to employ him feeding the pigs, which for a person in the Jewish context is literally the lowest of the low. If you were to imagine the job, that is the lowest that you could possibly get for, for lots of different reasons.

00:02:06:03 – 00:02:26:52
Michael Gewecke
And so it’s from that place that he comes to his senses come, it comes, he comes to himself, the text says, and he asks, How many of my father’s hired hands have brought enough to spare. But here I am, dying of hunger. So he plans to go back to his father to confess what he’d done, to beg him to allow him to return home to be a slave.

00:02:26:52 – 00:02:50:22
Michael Gewecke
And then there the text turns. And is this beautiful moment in which Jesus tells us about how even when this son on his way home is still far off, his father sees him and he’s filled with compassion. He runs, puts his arms around his son, kisses him, and the son confesses as the father hears it, but he puts on a ring on his finger.

00:02:50:22 – 00:03:11:17
Michael Gewecke
He puts a cloak around him and he says, No, we’re going to have a feast because my son was lost. My my son was dead and he’s alive again. And so they go to celebrate. And many of us might think that this is the end of the story, But if we stopped here, this actually would probably not be a story I would have picked up.

00:03:11:18 – 00:03:35:43
Michael Gewecke
For me, the story of this parable only gets more close to home for me as it continues on because it’s the elder son who stayed home. He was working faithfully in the field. He continued to do his duty even when the younger son took half of everything and went and squander that. And when he sees the celebration, the music, the dancing, he asks What’s going on?

00:03:36:07 – 00:04:03:45
Michael Gewecke
And the reply is, Your your brother’s come home. And the oldest son refuses in anger to go into the celebration. When his father comes out and he says, You know, I’ve never disobeyed your command, Dad, and yet you’ve not even given me a goat. So I could celebrate. And then here it says, this son of yours, not my brother, not our family member, but this son of yours came back.

00:04:04:04 – 00:04:38:04
Michael Gewecke
Who’s devoured our property with prostitutes. Kill the father. You’ve killed the fatted calf for him. And then the father says, Son, you’re always with me. All that’s mine is yours. But we had to celebrate. Rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found. This story, I think, is compelling because it connects to those ideas that we have a family we can relate to the extent that we would all go at our best to welcome and to forgive and to show grace to those that we love.

00:04:38:18 – 00:05:05:07
Michael Gewecke
I think there’s a kind of rags to riches story here in a weird way, because the son so quickly goes into dissolute living, and then when he returns home, the father still bestows upon him honor, though he’s done nothing to deserve that. That kind of extravagant grace is compelling to us. But as I insinuated, the reason this story is compelling for me is I have always identified not with the younger son, but with the older.

00:05:05:33 – 00:05:28:40
Michael Gewecke
And for me, the idea that this older brother stayed in the field and continued to do the work, tried to chip away day by day, do the right thing, and that on the day of the youngest son returned, that feeling of this isn’t fair. The feeling that this is an equitable art. He he went as squandered everything. And yet he’s the one who we’re celebrating.

00:05:29:13 – 00:05:57:16
Michael Gewecke
And this is the kind of scandalous measure I think, of Jesus’s grace and it’s one of the reasons the story’s always been so compelling to me is that when the father looks at that son and says, You’re always with me, all that’s mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice. It’s for me a constant reminder that in Jesus’s kingdom, in God’s way, it’s not how long you work, it’s not how productive you are.

00:05:57:27 – 00:06:16:17
Michael Gewecke
It’s not how acclaimed you are in the work that you do or how much people look up to you because you’ve done that work. Well, now it’s because of the grace of Jesus Christ, which includes the people who you don’t think should be celebrated and acclaimed. And I think that there’s both a critique in that, and there’s also a grace in that.

00:06:16:17 – 00:06:19:15
Michael Gewecke
And I find this story compelling for all of those reasons.

00:06:19:51 – 00:06:55:28
Clint Loveall
It’s interesting, Michael. I think a very few biblical stories that so easily draw people in to resonate with one of the characters in particular. You know, you only have really three characters here, and yet everyone who encounters this parable probably instantly connects with one and perhaps misunderstands or even dislikes another. Right? If you have struggled and been wayward in your life and been received in grace, clearly the younger brother makes sense to you.

00:06:55:49 – 00:07:23:52
Clint Loveall
If, as you said, you are a person that’s tried to do it right in spite of the fact that most other people don’t. The older brother. If you have had the experience of a parent of longing after a wayward child or despot, certainly hoping that someone you loved would find their way to a better life in the midst of their own bad choices, then it is perhaps the father character that that is compelling to you.

00:07:23:52 – 00:07:58:31
Clint Loveall
And this this text so easily invites us into the roles. And you mentioned earlier the sort of difficulty of naming it. And to Luke’s credit, I think that that’s really one of the fascinating things as you read this parable, the toughest question to answer is who is this about? Luke has done this incredible job of of weaving this in such a way that it’s hard to know at some level who the main character is.

00:07:58:31 – 00:08:28:01
Clint Loveall
I mean, clearly when you read Father in a parable that that matters. That’s a huge tale. But is this a story about the younger son who squanders and does disillusion dissolute things? Is this a story about the stubborn, prideful, older son? Is this a story about a father that is soft or is it a father that’s gracious? Is it a father that’s foolish or wise?

00:08:28:22 – 00:08:50:02
Clint Loveall
It is all of that. I think one of the one of the amazing aspects of this parable is just how big it is, how deep it is. And I think who we relate to in this story not only tells us something of the parable, but perhaps tells us something about ourselves as well.

00:08:50:15 – 00:09:18:32
Michael Gewecke
I once was having a conversation with a parishioner and we were talking. It was a young person and we were talking about this parable actually, and they remarked about how simple it was and about how, you know, well, we all know what that means. And it made me smile because for me, this is one of Jesus’s parables that, to your point, Clint leaves the most room for my imagination to go.

00:09:19:04 – 00:09:41:36
Michael Gewecke
Could this story be called The Parable of the Lost Son? Yes. Maybe it’s the parable of the waiting father. Maybe it’s the parable of the gracious father. Maybe it’s the parable of the unforgiving older brother or the prideful brother. This story could be named so many different things, and I’m not certain that any of those names would be wrong with Uncharacteristic.

00:09:41:36 – 00:10:05:04
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, and I think that what is so powerful about a story like this is how real it is. Because when Jesus tells this story, he’s telling it in the context of so many disputes with the Pharisees and religious leaders who want to nail him down on what’s the thing you’re trying to say, Jesus, what are you for this thing or against this thing?

00:10:05:04 – 00:10:27:21
Michael Gewecke
And we live in a moment that desires the same thing, that wants Christians to say, Are you for this thing or are you against this thing? What side of the line are you on? Because we want to know whose team you’re on. And when Jesus tells a story like this, there are no teams. There’s not. The father loses half of his property, the older brother loses half of that.

00:10:27:34 – 00:10:54:09
Michael Gewecke
The older brother feels put out, the younger brother loses everything goes, serves the worst job possible. I mean, every one of these layers is complex and has skin on it and is human, is real. There isn’t a team here. This is all people who stand in need of grace and forgiveness and yet celebration and renewal and promise. And that’s the hope and promise that Jesus brings.

00:10:54:09 – 00:11:36:14
Michael Gewecke
That’s the kind of story that Jesus invites us into in our own lives. And so maybe the meditate version or the turn. And this is regardless of what character you identify with, regardless of where you find yourself in this story right now, this story does call you out of yourself in your own present moment, into the arms of a waiting father or back into the celebration from outside the cold, where you’ve been working into the warmth of fellowship with other people, or the humility of saying it would be better to go back home to ask forgiveness from the for my father than to continue to live in the way that I’m living now.

00:11:36:14 – 00:11:50:49
Michael Gewecke
Wherever you’re on in your own journey or wherever step, you’re on, there’s a there’s an invitation in this text, and it’s an invitation, I think, that speaks to our humanity and recognizes our humanity. And that’s what makes it so compelling.

00:11:50:49 – 00:12:21:46
Clint Loveall
It’s telling Michael that in the 15th chapter of Luke, which is kind of all about lost things, the occasion of the parable is people who aren’t celebrating sinners coming to Jesus. And so if you think you know what this parable is about, I think you have to be very cautious in thinking about the context under which it’s told, as well as the last point here, which is the older brother.

00:12:21:52 – 00:12:54:45
Clint Loveall
But underneath that, I think there’s this reality that if you read it carefully, what you learn is that both sons misunderstand the father. Yeah, it whichever side you happen to be on, they both don’t get the love and the compassion and the grace of the father that they live with. The one says, I’m going to go and say I sinned and could you let me be a hired hand?

00:12:55:19 – 00:13:20:22
Clint Loveall
And is surprised when his father runs to him, hugs him, welcomes him. The other sees in his father the kind of man who should say, I told you this would happen. There’s nothing here for you and punishes the younger son as if he could turn his back on his beloved child. And neither of them truly understand who the father is.

00:13:20:22 – 00:13:48:45
Clint Loveall
And interestingly enough, it takes both of them to paint a picture for us of who this man. And when you again, when you see father in parable, that’s God. Almost always it takes both of them to paint a picture for us that is compelling and encompasses both perspectives. I think, you know, this is one of those parables that seems dangerously simple.

00:13:48:45 – 00:14:09:07
Clint Loveall
Yeah, but it is not. And when you are swimming in this parable, you are in deep water. And it is good to know that. And again, whichever character it is that you happen to resonate with, there is a challenge in this for you of what you do and don’t understand about the father.

00:14:09:30 – 00:14:36:14
Michael Gewecke
You know, Clint, this story may be above all of the stories that Jesus tells, exemplifies and puts skin on what grace looks like. And I think at least this is not comprehensive, but at least it teaches us two things about grace. Grace is extravagant, good news. It is unbelievable good news. The extent to which God is willing to welcome us back from whatever wayward journey we’ve taken.

00:14:36:52 – 00:15:02:43
Michael Gewecke
It is above and beyond whatever we can imagine. There is no place that you could go or a thing that you could do that’s going to push you beyond God’s willingness, God’s bounds to welcome you in with grace. The waiting Father is looking, actively waiting and looking for you. The other part of grace that I think this story teaches us is that grace is a difficult pill to swallow, and both of those are true.

00:15:02:56 – 00:15:30:01
Michael Gewecke
It grace is really great good news and we celebrate it. And there is an other moments in life where grace is very hard for us to stomach and Christians both to our credit and discredit because we’re human and there’s reality. We encounter grace in both of those ways. Sometimes grace is repugnant to us because Grace has given to folks we would prefer who didn’t receive it and that is, I think, a part of this story.

00:15:30:12 – 00:15:51:41
Michael Gewecke
The good news of it is convicting and the conviction leads us to the good news. And it’s that beautiful. Paul And take and the push. It’s all in that that I find this story so compelling. And it is the thing in the Lenten season. The reason I would pick this passage is because it is one of Jesus’s a lot of Jesus’s parables.

00:15:51:52 – 00:16:11:56
Michael Gewecke
He will summarize with a simple paragraph or this is what the parable means here. Jesus, at least in this part of of Luke’s telling, leaves it open for us to see all of it and to recognize that the truth is the whole thing. And I think that’s a beautiful invitation to the light in practice.

00:16:12:11 – 00:16:41:54
Clint Loveall
There’s just so much beauty here. You know, first of all, when that when the young son or the prodigal son says when the text tells us he came to himself, there is a sense in which he’s saying he remembered who he was. But in the remembering, he thinks he’s lost something. So he tells he plans to tell his father, I’m no longer worthy to be your son, so make me one of the hired hands.

00:16:42:25 – 00:17:06:41
Clint Loveall
And then the question that hangs over the prodigal son is what will he do now? What will his life be now that he’s learned these terribly hard lessons, now that he’s suffered, now that he’s been humbled, now that he has received grace from the father? And then the question that hangs over the older son is, will he ever learn to celebrate?

00:17:06:41 – 00:17:36:57
Clint Loveall
Will he ever learn to be gracious or will he hold on to his anger and his belief that he is right and that his father is wrong to be loving? And, you know, the challenge of the text is if we ever have to choose between anger and self-righteousness or love, clearly the gospel shows us. But as you’ve pointed out, Michael, that’s one thing to understand and a very, very different thing to live out and to actually do.

00:17:36:57 – 00:17:59:04
Clint Loveall
So it would be it would not be hard to make a case that this is one of the great parables in all of Scripture. And there is so much here that I this is another one of those texts. If you read this every day for a while, you would likely find yourself challenged by something different almost every time you read it.

00:17:59:52 – 00:18:27:18
Michael Gewecke
I think the final note is maybe as you read the text like this one turned to Luke. Chapter 15. Begin here verse 11. And if you read this text as part of your Lenten practice, you might ask yourself what character resonates for me and what movement am I called to in that character? Is it the father who you’re called to wait patiently and expectantly, looking with compassion?

00:18:27:35 – 00:18:49:57
Michael Gewecke
Are you? The youngest son called to humble yourself and to come to your senses and to return asking forgiveness and seeking restoration? Or are you the older child who in this moment is angry and pull it out and cold and you want nothing more but righteous sneer send to throw out those who don’t make the market wherever you are.

00:18:49:57 – 00:19:04:49
Michael Gewecke
That’s an invitation for you to make the next step in your own Christian discipleship, which, if you’ve been with us thus far likely you’ve seen is both good news and very challenging news. And that is the exact practice of Lent.

00:19:04:49 – 00:19:17:34
Clint Loveall
So this is a great text. Michael is a great selection and we hope that it’s helpful. Can’t imagine there isn’t something in it that would speak to you and challenge you. So what a wonderful addition.

00:19:18:01 – 00:19:25:48
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us today, friends. We hope you’ll join us again next week, Thursday, when we release the next of these Lenten reflections. And till then, be blessed.

00:19:25:49 – 00:19:48:27
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody. Hey, we want to thank you for listening to this broadcast. We’re grateful for the support and the connections, the relationships we get to make through some of these offerings. We hope that they’ve been helpful. We know that there are lots of choices that you have, lots of things you can listen to. We want to make you aware of some of what we’re doing, and we greatly appreciate you being a part of it.

00:19:48:43 – 00:20:07:35
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. We want to just thank you for being one of our audio podcast listeners. It’s amazing to have you with us in the midst of our conversations. Of course, I hope you know that you can find the whole archive of all of these conversations at Pastor Taco. We would love for you to join us there. You can find options for subscribing by email.

00:20:07:49 – 00:20:41:13
Michael Gewecke
You can easily share things there with other people who you think might appreciate recordings like this. And of course, we just want to welcome you. If you’re ever interested in joining us for the video podcast, you can do that on YouTube. It is YouTube.com/fpcspiritlake. There you can comment and engage with us or if you would prefer to do that without going to YouTube, you can actually just click the link in the description of this podcast where you will be able to send us form and information and reach out to us.

00:20:41:25 – 00:20:58:21
Michael Gewecke
We’d love to hear from you. An engaging conversation with you. Thanks again for taking time to be with us. We look forward to our next conversation and can’t wait to see you then.