The Other Prodigal - Luke 15

A new creation, no more in condemnation. Here in the grace of God I stand. My heart is overflowing, my love just keeps on growing.

Here in the grace of God I stand. And I will praise you, Lord, yes, I will praise you, Lord. And I will sing of all that you have done.

A joy that knows no limits. A lightness in my spirit. Here in the grace of God I stand.

And I will praise you, Lord, yes, I will praise you, Lord. And I will sing of all that you have done. A joy that knows no limits.

A lightness in my spirit. And I will praise you, Lord, yes, I will praise you, Lord. A joy that knows no limits.

A lightness in my spirit. And I will sing of all that you have done. A joy that knows no limits.

And I will sing of all that you have done. A joy that knows no limits. And I will sing of all that you have done.

A joy that knows no limits. And you recall how the son goes off into a far country having insulted his father by asking him for his inheritance before father died. He finds himself in very, very bad circumstances after a while and determines to come back to father.

Verse 17. When he came to his senses he said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son through his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the oldest son was in the field.

When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed a fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him. My son, the father said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Why did Jesus tell the story? Well, you've already had an intimation of the answer.

There were those who muttered against the Savior. Socially, he had committed the sin of relating to folk who normally the rabbis would not allow their shadow to fall upon them. He welcomes sinners and eats with them.

And then the Lord needed to tell this story because he had to indicate to everyone, including ourselves, the reason why he came on earth as God, the Father's representative. There are other things that I reminded you of that we need to keep in our memories very much at the forefront of our thinking, actually, as we take in the last part of our Savior's teaching. And it is that this lovely parable is not to be thought of privately as a piece of conversation between Father and Son and ultimately the older son.

Rather, it's set in the context of a Semitic, an Arab, a Jewish village when everyone would know what was going on. Now, that's not something that's restricted just to villages. Some of the streets in Worthing are such that it seems as though everybody knows what is happening.

But in a village context, it's particularly the case. So we're to think of this in the backdrop that Scripture gives of a village. And then we must always bear in mind in reading this story that there were two sons.

You see, it's inaccurate to say it's the parable of the prodigal son, singular. It is the parable of the prodigal sons. And the distinction between the two sons is this that the one ultimately has his prodigality resolved.

He's no longer away from Father. But the older boy, alas, that's not the end of the tale. Indeed, there is no end to the tale.

Not as Jesus narrated it, as I'll show you in a moment or two. But there is no obvious reconciliation. So here is the younger son.

He's been off in the far country. His livelihood has been taken away. In fact, he had no livelihood.

He was really just using the money that he'd taken from his father. But now he's exhausted the supplies. There's a famine and he is at his wit's end.

There occurs what someone has called, I told you last week, a fall within the fall. He fell from his father's trust and confidence when he said, Give me the money that should be due to me when you die. In other words, behave as you're dead and let me have a lot now.

That was a terrible fall. But for this lad, there was a fall within the fall. He spent the money he's in need and he's a Jew.

He can't go back to the village for reasons that I gave you last week. And so immediately he determines to do something about it. And he glues himself to, if you please, someone who seems as though they can help him.

Verse 15, he went and hired himself. He clung to a citizen of that country who was not going to help. A Jew boy gone bad, not at all.

There is something hostile, it seems to me, as I sense the very verses of Scripture as it comes to this point. He sends the Jewish lad who was once a rich boy into the field to feed pigs. And Jews have no dealings with pigs.

Jews look upon pigs as being unclean. And this lad is so desperate that he accepts the employment, but he's still terribly hungry. He comes to the end of his resources.

Someone has said, there is no extent of departure from Father which precludes return. Did you hear that? You see, our Lord couldn't have set up a more horrific picture of someone being dislocated from Father than He has with this Jewish lad amongst the pigs. And you get that story, my friends, so that you and I, who perhaps feel that we are so removed from spiritual things, God Almighty can have no dealings with us.

There is no extent of departure from Father which precludes return. And so the lad comes to his senses. And he decides that he will go back to his father's house despite the problems that he might meet en route as far as the village youths are concerned and as far as the older son, his brother, is concerned.

Now I say that Trench is going too far when he says that when a man comes to his senses, he in effect comes to God. I don't believe that. I think that that is a stepping stone along the road.

But there is more ground to be covered before you return to God. He came to his senses and he decides to go back home. But he's not going back home in an attitude that Father can receive him in terms of a son.

He's got it worked out. Make me as one of your hired servants. Don't have me any longer in your household as your son, but as a hired servant.

Let me be able to earn my living. It's still an approach of works with the possibility that one day perhaps he can redress the situation and repay the money that he squandered. But you see, you can never come to Father like that.

This is the problem with the sects. S-E-C-T-S. In these days, the Mormons, the J-Ws, I don't care who you quote, all the sects will tell you this.

You earn Father's love. You do not. It is impossible to earn Father's love.

It is too pricely. It is too costly. The only way that Father can show his love to you is as a result of Father's own benevolent and kindly nature.

So the lad goes back towards his home. When the terrain gets familiar, instead of being met with the hostility of the youth of the village, who in some ways will have been related to him, and remember he's let the village, this family village down, instead of having to cope with them, the first person who sees him and comes towards him, you recall, is Father. So he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, verse 20, his father saw him.

Do you sometimes find that scripture choruses are not really fitting to your measure of spiritual ability and intellect? You know, there is a possibility to have an approach to choruses like this. We want the good, doer, 17th, 18th century stuff, but these choruses, you know, we're a little beyond that. I tell you that some of these scripture choruses have a way of wooing the soul and telling you what Father is like because they express it so simply that in some senses they can be more helpful to you than the 17th and 18th century hymns.

Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. Move towards Father, and you'll discover, as one African I knew used to express it wrongly in the grammatical sense, but right in the theological sense, God is always previous. He's always there first.

Father is always waiting. This is what the lad discovers, is it not? His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. If you have a relationship with someone whom you love, the possibility is that occasionally they will upset you.

One of the dangers of loving someone is that because you have such an affection for them, it can be costly in your emotions, not so? It's the people who you love who will hurt you most. It's always the case. The people who you don't love who behave in a disgusting fashion, it doesn't emotionally upset you.

Now here is Father, and he's been very, very upset indeed by the way that his son has behaved. And he knows full well what sort of reception is awaiting him amongst the villagers. So Father, with compassion, I touched on this last week, the word compassion, it really is a sort of psychosomatic term.

Doctors, medical people will understand what I mean. You see, it's not just an emotional thing, it's not just something of the mind, it's something of the body. He feels in the depth of his soul.

Those of you who have been bereaved, you will know something of that, the heartache. Some of you who have been let down by family, you will know something of that compassion you still love despite the upset. And here is Father who has known all the shame of the way that his boy has gone off home, the way that his boy has treated him and brought the family reputation down to gutter level.

Father nonetheless remains compassionate and runs towards his boy. Runs towards him in a way that a man will not normally run, not in the Middle East. Over thirty, I said, a man does not generally run, it's against his dignity.

With compassion he runs to his boy before the boy has said anything. I mean, this is the thing that strikes me in the account. The boy hasn't got to the business of his apology.

Father has read his heart. He flings his arms around him as Joseph flung his arms around Benjamin. And he embraces him and kisses him like a man in the East will kiss another man, even though it's foreign to our culture here in the West.

And then the boy gets going, doesn't he? With his prepared speech, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And at that point he stops. Why does he stop? Because Father butts in or does the boy begin to understand? Is this the process of his reconciliation? That the prepared speech, the second part about being as one of your highest servants, it no longer opines.

He now knows what he's done to Father. He sees it in Father's face. The very rushing of Father down the village street, risking the hostility, well not the hostility, but risking the ridicule of the village youths.

He begins to appreciate what he has brought his Father to, so no longer will he trade in terms of what he might do for Father, but rather bask in the mercy that Father offers him. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. That's the moment of truth.

No longer worthy. Do you really believe that, my friend? That you're not really worthy to be in relationship with this Father God, but on the basis of who He is, you are. You see, if you followed my relatively subtle reasoning there, you'll begin to appreciate even more just how indebted you are to this great God and Father who has no reason at the human level to love you at all, because there's nothing that you can do in terms of winning His affection.

The Father says to his son, quick, bring the best rope. I love that. Do you remember the story of Mordecai in the Old Testament in the book of Esther? And the story of Haman? Haman feels that the king is going to appoint him and make him the second in command.

Do you remember? A lovely story. Do read the book of Esther. It's fascinating.

And so the king puts up the question, what shall we do to the man who shall be second in command of my empire? Well, says Haman, anticipating that it's going to be him. Get the best robe, the one which the king wears, and give it to him. Now that's very good thinking, Haman.

You go and get it and give it to that Jew, Mordecai, because he's the one who's going to have it. I'd love to have had a camera at that point, wouldn't you? Bring the best robe for my lad who still smells of the unclean pigs. And incidentally, while you're about it, get the ring.

How is Joseph known to be second in the Egyptian empire? Because the signet ring of Pharaoh is placed on his finger. Now the father is talking to people, obviously so. You see, the village context is not something I've made up.

They're all looking at this scene. He turns around, the servants are there, he gives them the instructions. They all know that father has received the son.

And incidentally, while you're about it, that fattened cow, the one that we have been feeding on grain, because if you feed a cow on grain, the best grain, you'll get the best meat. Let's slaughter him. Everybody's going to be happy apart from the cow.

Let's slaughter it and let's have a party. Let's make sure that everyone in the village knows that this lad has been reinstated. Not on the basis of what he's done, for there's nothing that he can do that would make amends for the disgrace, but on the basis of what I have gone through.

You see, father suffers for the son. It's all there in the story if you read it with spiritual eyes. As God the father suffers for the sins that you have committed, for God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

Don't you appreciate that, my friend? And so, there's a party. For the very true nature of joy is that it runs over, longs to impart itself. And if this is true of joy on earth, how much more so is it true of joy in heaven.

Listen to Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 17, speaking of the consequences of God who is mighty to save. The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

The natural response to someone being converted, did you know that? Is really to hold a party. To thank the Lord for the return of the sinner. You know, we people in the continent of Europe are sometimes so lacking in our depth of perception of the joy that there is in heaven over the sinner that turns back, that is converted.

You see, if you can rejoice because a sheep's been found out of 99 that hadn't gone astray, if you can rejoice because a coin has been lost when 9 were still safely tucked in the purse, how much more should one rejoice when someone for whom Jesus bled and died has been returned to Father's house? This is what our Lord is saying and he's got his eye on his semi-hostile congregation as he's teaching this. So they began, the end of verse 24, they began to celebrate because the son who was dead is alive, the one who was lost has been found. But there were two boys, weren't there? Two boys at the beginning of the tale.

And there were two boys who are still involved at this point. The older son who's not been away from Father geographically, but you see, you can stick close to Father geographically or ecclesiastically. You see, my dear friend, you can come to the tab every Sunday morning.

And if you're really enthusiastic and energetic, some of you could even try it on a Sunday night. And that wouldn't make you near Father. You see, you can be distanced from Father even though you're in the presence of Father's family.

If you have a defective understanding of Father's heart and what sonship really is. And now this was the problem with this older boy. In one sense, he's geographically as far away from Father as the younger son was.

The older son, he is dancing. He's been in the fields, hasn't he? Verse 25, the older son was in the field. When he comes back to the house, there's this noise of music and celebration.

In those days, it was the men who danced. And they would have a dancing party, a dancing group who would be in this large house of the fathers. And as the older brother hears of this celebration, he wonders what it's all about.

And so he calls one of the boys in the village. Again, remember the village scene? Not everyone would have got into the elders' house of the village. The adults would be involved.

They would be there. But the lads, what do they do? Well, what do you do in a village? I mean, even now, a village can be a very, very stuffy place, can't it? Especially at night. So what do they do? Well, they go to where the party is.

They're not invited, but you can look through the window. You can crane your head through any gap that there happens to be or maybe the door's ajar. You see what's going on? And you report down the ranks, down the line, as to what is happening in the house.

And so the son comes back from the fields, and he takes one of these village boys, and he calls him, and he asks him what's going on. So verse 27 gives the summary. Your brother's come, he said.

Your father's killed a fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. Now that's accurate as far as it goes, isn't it? I mean, he doesn't know with the sensitivity of the father of the miracle that's happened. Your brother's back is safe and sound.

Your brother, your brother, that one who was lost, has been found. That one who was dead is alive again. Now that's how the word should have been fleshed out as soon as the older brother hears what this lad is saying.

But instead of being happy, he's angry. Verse 28, the intelligence he's received from the young man does not elate him whatsoever. He's angry and refused to go in.

Why the intense anger? Well, the younger brother has dishonored the family name, hasn't he? And here he is back in the house, and they're throwing a party for him. Has no one made amends in any way for the insult that's been directed to father and the family and village reputation? And what's more, you see, when in a household father throws a banquet in an Arab or a Jewish context, who looks after the servants and enables those who've been called to the banquet ensures that they have sufficient to eat? Well, it's always the older son, you see. He acts on behalf of father.

We are so glad to have you in our company that the oldest boy will look after the guests and supervise the servants and ensure that the guest of honor particularly is well supplied with food and is in no way neglected. Now you see the rub. Who is the guest of honor? It's none other than the younger son who's the one who caused the family name to be brought into disrepute.

It's him. It's too much, too much to ask the older boy to go into the house, so he refuses. Do you remember from the book of Esther, going there again, how in the opening chapter you come across one of the most remarkable women in the Bible of whom very little is written, but she has my admiration.

Vashti. She was the wife, the first wife of Ahasuerus, the king. And on one occasion the king threw a banquet, you remember, and the wine was flowing, and he decided that he would exhibit the beauty of this outstanding woman before his court.

And she refused. Full marks to her. And as a result of the refusal, the king burns with anger.

You see, you don't refuse an invitation from one who is over you, not in a Middle Eastern context. And here is the older son refusing an invitation from his father. So twice within this story, the father is in difficulty as far as his boys are concerned.

So what happens? So his father went out and pleaded with him. Within possibly just a couple of hours, father has gone out twice. For his lads, not so.

He goes out for the younger boy, the one who stinks of the pigs, embraces him, and causes him to be reconciled not only with himself, but the whole village. Now he's got another problem. You see, there's no dancing at the moment.

There's no music. The authority of father is in question. That is not allowable in this culture.

And it's a public debate that's going on. In fact, it's not so much a debate. It's just rank indifference to father's request.

And so all eyes at this time gazing not inward at the banqueting hall, but from the banqueting hall outward towards the older boy and father who's gone out. Will he silence him then and there? Will he ignore him until the guests have gone home and then arrange for him to be beaten? We're dealing with the most unusual father. He won't follow through what would be anticipated of him in this culture.

When the lad comes from the field, the older boy, you remember he summons, he commands a young lad to come to him and give him the information as to what is going on. Now father can come alongside the boy and summon him to himself, but he doesn't do that. The Greek word here is very interesting.

So his father went out and pleaded. He went out parakalio. He drew alongside his boy and stood there as though he was just as equal.

And now he starts to plead with his lad. In the same way as the apostle Paul will say when he's writing to the Corinthians, we beseech you in the name of Christ be reconciled to God. So father pleads with this boy and asks him to go back into the house.

For the second time father is disgraced. You see there can be no reconciliation in this context unless somebody bears the penalty of disgrace. This is why Muslim theology was never so wrong when it criticizes the Christians who take this parable as being basic to the whole gospel that our Lord proclaimed.

They say there is no cost. I say there is infinite cost. But the cost is borne by father.

The cost for your redemption my friend is borne by father. Every sin that you've ever committed, every evil act that even now you may be perpetrating, every time you have indulged in those things that you ought not to have done, you have affected father. You break his heart.

This is what the story rises up and tells you in the two incidents when father has to deal with his sons. So father pleads. He pleads with his boy and he asks him to come back.

But the boy is intransigent. His heart is so stubborn. He answered his father, Look all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. He doesn't even address the elder as his father. He doesn't even respond to the one who is back as his brother, but rather your son.

You see you can check through his response and there is no vestige of understanding whatsoever as to what sonship really means. What fatherhood means. You see he understands his relationship as a faithful servant, as a servant who has worked hard and everything that comes his way is as a result of his deserts.

Now you see that's alien to the Christian gospel. It's alien to fatherhood. It's alien to sonship.

You never gave me what ought to have been mine so I could celebrate with my friends. Wasn't father your friend? Many people would say that their father was the best friend they ever had. But wasn't this son your friend? No you live in two worlds.

There's the world of the home and your own private world and your own private world is the one that is most important to you. You don't understand what fatherhood means. You don't understand sonship.

You see in one sense he is breaking father's heart far more than the prodigal was and he's that much more distanced from him emotionally and spiritually. And so he continues to insult father as he launches into what father has done for the boy, the prodigal, and hasn't done for himself. How does father react? This is the amazing thing about God, how he reacts with his stubborn children, isn't it? Verse 31, my son.

You can't bring that out in the English, you can only get it in the Greek. You say, what do you mean? Well you see there are two Greek words for son, at least. One is much more intimate than the other.

When Mary loses Jesus, when our Lord is just a lad ebbing on the borders of teenage, you remember she remonstrates with him in Jerusalem and said, my son, we've been looking for you everywhere. And she uses the intimate term teklon. And it's that term, which father never used of the prodigal when he returned, that he now employs in regard to the oldest son.

My son, the father says, you're always with me and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad because this story of yours was dead. This brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And there the story stops. You see, it doesn't end. It doesn't need to end because in one sense it's still continuing.

You remember the congregation, the sinners, the obvious sinners, but then there were the Pharisees who were not in the scribes. And if ever they were represented in a story that Jesus told, it's in this story. And they're murmuring against Jesus.

They're murmuring because they don't understand what Jesus, who Jesus is, or who father is, or what father wants from them. And so it's left as an open case as to how they ultimately will respond. Will the oldest son apologize and go back in and be reconciled with his brother? Because you see, you can't be reconciled with father unless you're reconciled with your brother.

Father can't forgive your sins unless you forgive others. That's what father said in the prayer that he puts up for you and for me to pray, the Lord's Prayer. The answer to what happened is Calvary and the cross.

The oldest son refused. The Jews, largely speaking, have always rejected the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of Jesus Christ and what those two concepts mean. Now you, my young friend, my older friend, where do you place yourself? Maybe you've never seen this story in this light before.

Well, thank God, if anything I've shared has helped you to understand something of father. See, God's not dispassionate. You can break his heart as you can break your own father's heart, your own mother's heart.

Maybe you're doing that right now, I don't know. But father stands alongside, he doesn't come as a tyrant, he pleads with you. And he asks you to be reconciled and to accept the fact that his own son bore on the cross the consequences of your indifference and your prodigality.

Come to the father. Come right now. Let's stand.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. It might well be that some folks here have never really had a true relationship with father for a long time. Maybe some of you have put other things that God graciously gave you and made them number one in your life and forgotten the donor.

I don't know how you've got out of step, but there are many, many ways in which it's possible. You've forgotten the nature of the fatherly love and care and the cost of that love. Some of you are professional people here.

Your profession is more important to you than your Christianity. Some of you have even got children out of place in terms of the priority that you should be giving to father. Some of you have got relationships askew and they're more important than father.

But in the parable of the prodigal, you see how father continues to care. No matter how you've mishandled the very things that he gave you, we're going to sing of father's love. Father, your love is precious beyond all loves.

Father, your love overwhelms me. Make that a song that you can sing as you come back, perhaps, to the fatherly love that you knew a decade or two decades ago. Or if you're walking rightly with him right now, then let it just be an expression of what you feel toward him at this moment as you offer him your obedience.

Father, for the quality of your love and for its eternal nature, we praise you. Forgive us when we cause you hurt by our hardness. And enable us, Lord, whatever slot we find ourselves in without parable, enable us to respond to father as you deserve and demand.

And this we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now may the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest and remain with us all, now and always.

Amen.