Luke 15:20-32

Transcript

00:00:00:45 – 00:00:24:43
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. If you weren’t with us yesterday, you are welcome, of course, to be with us today. But I think given that we find ourselves halfway through a parable, you may find yesterday’s discussion helpful. But we are in the parable that is most often called the prodigal Son. Though there’s not a great name, There are several different titles for this.

00:00:24:48 – 00:00:54:47
Clint Loveall
We are about halfway through. We are around verse 20. And just a quick recap. The the younger son has done the unthinkable, asked his father for his share of the inheritance, quickly parted town with that money, quickly blown that money in partying and what the scripture calls dissolute living, which is, you know, a Bible phrase for lots of bad stuff.

00:00:54:52 – 00:01:26:33
Clint Loveall
And then he found himself hungry, feeding pigs and looking at what the pigs were eating longingly. And in that decided, it says literally when he came to himself, he decided he will go back, he will confess to his father that he’s no longer worthy to be called a son and see if his father will hire him. And so when we left yesterday, he had just turned his face for home and prepares to eat crow.

00:01:26:33 – 00:02:00:56
Clint Loveall
He has this speech prepared and he’s this is his plan. So verse 20, he set off 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. Then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.

00:02:01:01 – 00:02:24:43
Clint Loveall
But the father said to his servants, quickly, bring out a robe. The best one. Put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and get the fatted calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate.

00:02:24:48 – 00:02:49:21
Clint Loveall
So this parable is kind of told in three acts, and I think this middle act is the most emotional in some ways. We have this beautiful picture of this young man tail between his legs coming back home to admit that he was wrong, to admit that he’s blown it and his father, when he sees him, doesn’t point at him.

00:02:49:21 – 00:03:20:54
Clint Loveall
It’s not. I told you so. It’s not. I knew this would happen. He runs to him, and in a lot of people point this out, and it’s probably an important detail in Jesus culture. Running was disrespectful for a man. He wouldn’t do that. So the father loses himself in seeing the son and he and he puts aside his own status and he runs to his son, kisses him, hugs him, and the son tries to get through this speech.

00:03:20:54 – 00:03:48:48
Clint Loveall
He’s been working on this. I’ve sinned against heaven before. You no longer worthy, and he only gets halfway through before his dad interrupts him and says, two of the servants, bring out the robe, put it on and put a ring on his finger, put sandals on him. We’re having a party. Get the fatted calf. And then Luke not introduces, but repeats this beautiful theme that’s woven through this chapter for He was lost and now is found.

00:03:48:48 – 00:04:03:09
Clint Loveall
And really, this is where we see the strongest tie we’ve seen the lost sheep, the lost coin, and now we hear the father rejoicing over the lost son that’s been found.

00:04:03:14 – 00:04:32:47
Michael Gewecke
Now, Clint, not only that detail that you’ve already pointed out, the detail about the fact that men traditionally didn’t run in this time or place, that’s an credible detail of the story, but another that I would want to point out so that we don’t miss is this detail that we find right there where it says even while he was still far off, his father saw him, this idea that his father was looking, that he was actively keeping an eye on the road.

00:04:32:47 – 00:05:12:07
Michael Gewecke
And even when this young man is way out there, he recognizes his son. And it is in that moment then that he’s been prepared to welcome that son home. And these are the details of Luke’s telling of this story that I think make it so compelling. I think they make it so accessible for us, Clint, because we can imagine what it would feel like to come home with all of these fears and anxieties about what would happen and then in that moment to meet what is unimaginable, extravagant grace and love and acceptance.

00:05:12:07 – 00:05:33:04
Michael Gewecke
And in that moment to to realize that you’re being welcomed home, that there’s a celebration as part of your return, that there’s going to be good news come in that encounter. That’s not a thing that you could take for granted. And it’s certainly a place where Luke delivers us and I think to great effect.

00:05:33:09 – 00:06:08:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And this is I, I think as is standard practice the father character in the parable represents God and to do so so tenderly by Luke to do so again without thought of his own property, that it’s now decreased by whatever amount he gave the son that’s now gone. But to have his son home and to run to him and to welcome him and to throw a party for him in celebration, you know, this has been the theme of being found throughout this chapter.

00:06:08:07 – 00:06:30:27
Clint Loveall
And then we move on and we get the third act. And so verse 25 now, the elder son was in the field when he came and approached the house. He heard music and dancing. He called out to one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He said, Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he got him back safe and sound.

00:06:30:32 – 00:06:56:35
Clint Loveall
Then the older son became angry and he refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him, but he answered, his father listened for all these years, I’ve worked like a slave for you, and I’ve never disobeyed your command. You’ve never even given me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when the son of yours came back, who is devoured your property with prostitutes, you kill the fatted calf.

00:06:56:40 – 00:07:21:33
Clint Loveall
Then the father said to him, Son, you’re always with me. All that is mine is yours. 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. And I think this is the genius of the parable. This is a wonderful parable. We said that many times yesterday.

00:07:21:37 – 00:07:49:21
Clint Loveall
It could have ended at verse 24. I mean, the man, welcome home. This last sheep is found that that could have been the end. But in in giving us this next section, Jesus paints this wonderful dichotomy between the sons and the elder brother is put out his own head like, I can’t believe it, I’m out here working. That guy runs off with your money.

00:07:49:33 – 00:08:09:41
Clint Loveall
He blows it all, comes back, and now we’re having a party for him. And and it’s so easy to imagine the kind of sibling stuff that could go on here between an elder and a younger or between a responsible child and an irresponsible child. We’ve seen that kind of drama play out, if not in our own family. Certainly in some family.

00:08:09:41 – 00:08:29:20
Clint Loveall
We know. And it is the the sort of focus on this third character, Michael, I think that gives this parable a real depth and I’ll save this for a minute, but I also think this, more than anything, ties it to what Jesus said to start the chapter he writes.

00:08:29:20 – 00:08:53:06
Michael Gewecke
So I think you’re exactly right that we would have expected this idea of the lost coin being found. We’re going to now have a celebration and or the idea that the lost sheep has been found. And so the shepherd shepherds us celebrate. So these are moments in the text that Luke has already brought us through. We are accustomed to the pattern by this point.

00:08:53:06 – 00:09:19:03
Michael Gewecke
So verse 24 ends and we think to ourselves, Well, isn’t that nice? This young man received extravagant grace, and that’s enough. But when Luke continues, I think there’s an implicit question being asked in the continuing of the parable, and that is, what character in this story do you identify with in the first place? And we ended yesterday with this.

00:09:19:08 – 00:09:48:05
Michael Gewecke
It is difficult maybe at first to imagine identifying with the younger son because as the older brother makes absolutely clear here, Clinton verse 30, it wasn’t just destitute living, it was prostitutes. It was immoral. It was not just losing the farm gambling. It was it was losing the farm on all of the things that a good Jewish boy shouldn’t be doing.

00:09:48:05 – 00:10:16:04
Michael Gewecke
And here the son lost all of this. And so now to have a party is not only extravagant, but from the eyes of the older brother. It is a complete injustice. It’s injust because, as he says so explicitly, I work for you all of these years and you won’t even give me a fatted calf yet alone or tie a donkey yet alone of fatted calf.

00:10:16:04 – 00:10:58:51
Michael Gewecke
And the reality is that we are in a position of seeing in this story how the older brother has been at home the entire time and yet has been lost. He’s been lost in the relationship with his father. He’s been put out by his younger brother’s action, though this is the first we’ve heard of it. And now in the moment of celebration, the dichotomy between these brothers, the dichotomy between the brothers and their father, it all becomes clear in this one instance, this one moment, and and Luke, almost like a master director telling a story, zooms out and shows us the whole picture.

00:10:58:51 – 00:11:13:33
Michael Gewecke
And it leaves us, the audience, asking very poignant questions about what place do I have in the story? Am I like this younger brother? Or maybe this character I didn’t expect. This older brother is a closer analog for my experience.

00:11:13:35 – 00:11:38:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think in some ways it may be easier to admit you’ve been a prodigal than that. You are ungracious. It it is difficult to think that you might be the older brother, the one who does things well, but struggles to allow others some grace when they don’t. And I think this kind of speaks as you brought up, Michael, to the difficulty of naming this parable.

00:11:38:52 – 00:12:07:36
Clint Loveall
You know, sometimes it’s called the parable of the prodigal Son. Probably that’s what we most know it as. It’s also sometimes called the parable of the older brother. But to name it for either one of the children, I think is to make a choice, because in some ways they both misunderstand the father. They both get it wrong. Both sons don’t see that the youngest doesn’t trust the father’s grace.

00:12:07:40 – 00:12:37:35
Clint Loveall
The older resents his grace. And in that sense, Luke paints a picture of two boys that are lost, one lost by running away and the other lost by being ungracious without ever leaving. And they both stand in need of what the father offers. This brother of yours was dead, but now he’s alive. How do we not celebrate that?

00:12:37:35 – 00:13:08:33
Clint Loveall
How do we not rejoice in that? And this is where I think we have to flip back a page and remember that we open this chapter with these words. The tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling and saying, This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. Clearly that is a foreshadow warning of who is going to be the younger son and who is going to be the older son.

00:13:08:38 – 00:13:41:11
Clint Loveall
The scribes and Pharisees are the older brother here. They’re unwilling or unable to be gracious. They cannot celebrate when sinners are being found because they can’t see past their sin. They can’t be see past their own judgment. And so Luke does a just a beautiful job of wrapping this up. Two short stories about being lost and then one very deep and complex story about being lost, not knowing you’re lost.

00:13:41:22 – 00:13:51:43
Clint Loveall
And both the sons standing in need of being found by the father. And there is a reason that this is sometimes considered one of the best chapters in the gospel.

00:13:51:48 – 00:14:31:52
Michael Gewecke
It absolutely is. I mean, no question. And I think that we should note how masterfully this final statement is in verse 31, when the father says, Son, you’re always with me. All that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, and that is the most difficult, mysterious, beautiful line to walk as Christians even today, to be people who try to be faithful and and do the work and sometimes find ourselves in a position of feeling like we’re not appreciated or not recognized for that work.

00:14:31:57 – 00:14:58:09
Michael Gewecke
And in those moments of our life and faith, especially if you’ve been in the church for a long time, it’s easy to become resentful. But to hear those words at all that is mine is yours. This reminder you’ve been there, You are loved. The father has been there the whole time. It takes work and perseverance and preparation and real effort to be grateful in the midst of that process.

00:14:58:13 – 00:15:29:25
Michael Gewecke
But life is missing something and our faith is missing something. If we cannot rejoice and be grateful when the wayward one is returned, it’s a matter of life and death. That parable literally says that the brother of yours was dead and return to life. He was lost and has been found. God rejoices over the lost being found and to the people who have counted themself as being found the entire time, it’s both easy to actually be lost and think we’re found.

00:15:29:40 – 00:15:56:15
Michael Gewecke
And also it’s easy to be prideful and think that being found, whatever that means, gives us some kind of credit or ability that others shouldn’t have. And the gospel is clear. Jesus is clear. Luke is clear in his telling of Jesus, His story that Jesus loves the 99, but he also loves the one that’s lost, and he will leave the 99 to go get the one and there will be celebration when it’s returned.

00:15:56:15 – 00:16:15:34
Michael Gewecke
This is the extravagance of a loving, gracious, compassionate God. And Christians need reminded of that because it’s so easy for us to become tunnel vision and fixated on what we want or what we think should be and Miss Jesus is heart and love, which is open arms, which are open to find those who are lost.

00:16:15:39 – 00:16:41:19
Clint Loveall
There’s a great sermon on this text by a pastor named Fred Craddock who tells a story about his across the street neighbors who have a daughter who’s kind of a wild child, and at some point she ends up pregnant and she is she disappears for a while and then word is that she’s coming back. And so he said all the neighbors found an excuse to be out in their yard, kind of watching the neighbor’s house.

00:16:41:24 – 00:17:10:18
Clint Loveall
And she pulls up with the baby and her family runs to her and hugs her. And they start inviting people over from the neighborhood to come and see her. And this was in a time where that was, you know, a very serious thing and alienated a person. And he has this wonderful line in the sermon where he says it’s easier to preach the parable than it is to go to the party.

00:17:10:22 – 00:17:44:26
Clint Loveall
And that’s the choice that the Pharisees and scribes are met with. That’s the choice that we are met with. They see these men see the grace of God working itself out into the lives of others right in front of them, sinners and tactical sectors coming to Jesus to repent and be redeemed. And they cannot find joy in it because of their self-righteousness and their judgmental ism and the idea that they deserve something that the other people don’t.

00:17:44:31 – 00:18:11:04
Clint Loveall
And it gets in the way and it is the that thinking is the Achilles heel of grace. It’s it’s the weak spot of the church. And Jesus has has no he has no time for that. He Jesus is always going to lavish grace. He is the father looking out the window who runs down the lane when the sun is far off.

00:18:11:09 – 00:18:40:23
Clint Loveall
He is the one who throws the party and says We have to rejoice. And so sometimes we’re told in this story or it gets presented in which in a way to say, you know, which character do you see yourselves as, and in almost always is a choice between the brothers. But the character you should aspire to in this story is the gracious father that’s the God character in the parable, and therefore the best example for the rest of us.

00:18:40:28 – 00:19:12:49
Michael Gewecke
The amazing thing about this parable is that in just a few short verses, it spins out this beautiful and complicated set of relationships between younger and older brothers and the father. And in the midst of all three of those relating one to the other, we discover that the process of getting lost is complicated. It doesn’t require you leaving home.

00:19:12:54 – 00:19:57:30
Michael Gewecke
It doesn’t require you running into that rock bottom experience. It doesn’t require you bringing shame upon you or your family. And yet and yet it does include all of those things that the father is open to both the son who is bent towards judgmental wisdom and lacks forgiveness. And the father is open to the son who, through whatever motivation, got him there, took half of everything of the father’s, lost it all, squandered it in in unashamed immorality, and then comes home asking for a place.

00:19:57:30 – 00:20:24:34
Michael Gewecke
And in both cases, we see that love is enough and that the father’s patience, both with the younger and also the older son, and being patient enough to wait until that moment where he could teach this lesson to the older son that that his faithfulness and his care and his commitment mattered. And that is also a gracious gift that we discover in this story.

00:20:24:34 – 00:20:51:09
Michael Gewecke
And so Clint’s right, I think, to point us to that the father is a character that we are called to model. We’re not going to be the father. We will not be Jesus in our life. But as Christians, little Christ, we are called to emulate the one who, with patience and love and compassion and forbearance, can be oriented to others in such a way that they too can find life wherever their path has taken them.

00:20:51:09 – 00:20:57:59
Michael Gewecke
Whether it’s been far from home or it’s always been at home. And that’s the great good news of a parable like this.

00:20:58:06 – 00:21:27:27
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And if the father can look at the prodigal and be overjoyed that he returns, and if Jesus can look at the sinners and tax collectors and and celebrate and rejoice that they’re coming home, that they have found themselves and remembered themselves and regained their status, regained their place in the family, if if the shepherd can celebrate the sheep who has returned to the fold, then we can do no less.

00:21:27:27 – 00:21:34:04
Clint Loveall
And so it’s a it’s a wonderful challenge for us, an outstanding parable. One one of the very best.

00:21:34:17 – 00:21:54:24
Michael Gewecke
Thousands of sermons have been preached. Thousands of books have been written going through a story like this. So hopefully in a very short, cursory summary like this, over the last two studies, I hope you have encouraged hope and challenged hope. There’s something that speaks to you in it, and we look forward to seeing you when we continue our study this Thursday.

00:21:54:28 – 00:21:55:13
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.