The price of love

Luke's Gospel and chapter 15. In my opinion, not so much three parables, but three facets of the same story. Three sides to teaching which our Lord Jesus wants to bring as he shows for us what father is like.

You know, one of the things I thank God for here at the tab is virtually every night that I'm down here and most nights I'm here at some stage, there's always something going on. Some of you who are just here on a Sunday morning perhaps have no idea as to the hive of activity that a weekday evening can be. And on Thursday the case was the same, lots of people in doing different things.

And I took some of our Pathfinder children home as one of our minibuses wasn't running and we were short on transport. And I put these three kids in the back of my car and the twins and a sister, sister's older. And I was joking with them as I drove them back to Durrington and I said, you know, which of you is the cleverest? And the sister agreed that she was.

Then I said, which of you is the boss? The lads were trying to sort it out between themselves and the sister came up with mummies. And so I said, oh not dad. And then one of the lads says, no, we don't have a dad.

And then he went on to say, it was only knee-high to a grasshopper, he couldn't be more than six or seven years of age. He said, actually we did, but the police came and took him off. He said the mum was glad because dad used to beat her around and it's been better since he's been away.

And suddenly these children were in the back of my car. I was driving obviously on the front seat. Suddenly I just crumpled emotionally as I as I thought, when I speak of father, I always have a sort of glorified version of my own father.

Now that's the only way that I can begin to understand what the heavenly father is like. I realize that he is absolutely perfect in every detail and he can do things that my earthly father of course could not do. But at least I have a head-on start in understanding father by the fact that I had a very faithful father at the human ordinary level.

And the point breaks in on me time and time again that I can't always expect when I speak of father God, that everyone in a congregation like this has a head-on start. Because not every father's been a good father and not every children have known what I was privileged to know, a good family unit. And it may be that this morning you have problems when listening to an address on the fatherhood of God because you don't really have the advantages that I have.

Now what I want by God's grace is as we continue this little series of studies that I'm giving on the fatherhood of God for that whole picture of God as father to be fleshed out as our Lord Jesus illustrates it for us in his own life and through these triplet of stories which underline the one point. Now one of these stories had something to say about a shepherd going after a sheep that was lost. We'll not read it again.

Let's listen to the gist of the parable being being sung to us. Show me. From the gates of gold Away on the mountains wild and bare away from the tender shepherd's care away from the tender shepherd's care Are they not enough for thee But the shepherd made answer this of mine has wandered away from me And although the road be rough and steep I go to the desert to find my sheep I go to the desert to find my sheep But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through When he found his sheep that was lost Out in the desert he heard it's cry Sick and helpless and ready to die Sick and helpless and ready to die They were shed for one who had gone astray The shepherd could bring him back Lord when saw thy hands so rent and tall They appeared to night by many a thorn They appeared to night by many a thorn But all through the mountains thunder riven and up from the rocky steep There arose a cry to the gate of heaven rejoice I have found my sheep And the angels echoed around the throne rejoice for the Lord Brings back his own Rejoice for the Lord brings back his own Fellows that was splendid the first part of the parable the shepherd who finds the sheep Verse 7 chapter 15 Luke's gospel.

I tell you that in the same way. There's more rejoicing in heaven Over one sinner who repents and over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent There's a tinge of humor coming through again in the ministry of our lord that category does not exist There are no righteous people who do not need to repent the jews could have told you that the old testament scriptures All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all We all need the retrieving ministry of the shepherd We all need the retrieving ministry of the woman who finds the one coin that's been lost Out of the nine which was safely tucked away in what purported to be her purse rejoice with me I have found my lost coin In the same way jesus goes on to say I tell you there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of god Over one sinner who repents now our savior continues and sets up the third aspect of his teaching verse 11 There was a man who had two sons the younger one said to his father father.

Give me my share of the estate So he divided his property between them Not long after that the younger son got together all he had Set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living After he had spent everything There was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating But no one gave him anything 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 Threw 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 fatted 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 Now I want to continue sharing with you what I said last week I'm preparing it in much more detail to bring at the baptist union assembly in belfast uh in a few weeks time Studies on on the fatherhood of god. They will be more generous with the time allocation than what i've got here at the tab because obviously the baptist union doesn't Compete with a sunday school and uh bible class uh groups at the same time So so what what we will find this morning as we look into this story, which we won't complete This third part of this triplet of stories Which our lord relates will begin to find something of the picture of father god emerging You'll get it in much greater relief next week You'll never of course get it in in full accuracy for who can describe what father is really like But you'll begin to get an impression of father perhaps in a way that some of you have never thought of father god before so our lord continues his teaching by Telling us about a family in which there was father and two sons verse 11 And in narrating the story he goes into what someone has called the pearl of all the parables William barclay described it as the greatest short story in the world And an american theologian father's yearning For the lust that's how he describes it.

Well within this family circle there are two problematic boys now I think you need to bear that in mind to start with because There is a way of understanding this parable which doesn't do it justice and therefore you don't fully Get the main thrust of our lord's teaching which seems to suggest that the bit about the eldest son is tagged on at the end not so Jesus said there was a family a man who had two sons And I want to show you that both these sons were as lost as each other One was lost in the far country and the other was lost although he kept close proximity through the father You see you can be lost to the father by not understanding the heart of father god Even though you go through all the mechanics of so-called religious worship There's one other thing that I want to establish And it's this I think more than anything else that has brought me to a fresh grasp of how to approach this aspect of our lord's teaching and that is that this Incident does not take place privately I always thought it did You know that there's a two boys scrapping with one another And there's a private request on the part of the younger boy who wants to get up and leave home But of course, we're not in a private little family squabble. That's not the scenario The scene is a village. It's a village in the middle east typical of many of the villages that i've been in in bangladesh Pakistan and and uh and india in the in the in the near east and in a village there is no such thing as privacy And one more point that you need to bear in mind is this That within the village news travels very quickly And perhaps an additional a bonus point for i'm feeling generous is this thought that most arabic villagers Are really composed of folks who are blood relatives one with the other So it's it's a family community in a loose sense.

That really is the backdrop of this story So you've got that in mind Now now here's the younger lad coming to the chief elder of the village who actually happens to be His own father and he puts up a request which in village terms in arabic terms Is an insult Father I want you to give to me that portion that belongs when you're gone In effect he's anticipating he's wishing death of father now in our european culture unfortunately Esteem given to older people is nowhere near as high as it is in the middle east Or the far east for that matter And to insult an older person is recognized as being a crime by younger people Who have known something of the insulting behavior? So here is this young man who astonishes father and the villagers by his Insulting request give me my share of the estate It wasn't that he broke the law because one third or rather a half of what the older brother would have Would ultimately become his there was nothing illegal No breaking of the law, but there was the breaking of the heart Because this son does not want to relate to father in terms of being a partaker of all the blessings of father He wants to be utterly independent And so he says give me my share of the inheritance, you know, my friend we've got people here this morning who are like that They want to be independent of father They want to take what father has granted and use it completely on their own without any reference to the way that father Might want what he has given to be employed And so the son comes and he makes this astonishing request Give me my share of the estate Notice he doesn't say give me my inheritance You see again We've got to differentiate between the words estate and inheritance if you receive inheritance in in the semitic culture Then you acknowledge the responsibilities that go with that inheritance My older brother I suppose even in a very loose culture here in in europe in terms of family relationship Has has a responsibility for my mother My father having died And to some degree I share that responsibility, of course Inheritance brings with it you see the responsibility For maintaining the family name and the family well-being but it's not that that this younger son wants He doesn't want the inheritance. He wants the money To put it bluntly He wants to be as far removed from father and far removed from home as he possibly can be and therein is the parable Because so many people are like that. You see they want to be removed from from father He will have says one old preacher Of yesteryear, he will have to discover by experience what he won't take by faith that in father's service is truest freedom That to depart from him is not to throw off a yoke but to exchange it for a Heavy one and in doing so in substituting a tyrannical lord for a gracious father you see If we were in a third world situation the greatest advantage that any of us would have would very much be our home This is a problem of european society in one sense.

I am much more asian inclined than i'm i am european I have got more respect for the third world. I think than I have for the first world You see we have lived long enough to see the dissolution by and large of family ties now Now, why is this? Well, you see You have your insurance policies. You have your pensions and so on and so forth, don't you to make yourself independent? When you get older Well, those sort of options are not available normally in in a poorer culture Your security is very much anchored into your family And if you Reject your family if you cut off the roots so to speak from your family in one sense You are exchanging your inheritance for a bowl of soup Your Your bartering is to your utter disadvantage For living outside the household of god living outside the village community means to say you're on your own And the time will come what supports you at that moment will no longer be available and your roots have been severed You have no more security now Don't you find my dear friend you thinking people you wouldn't be such unless to come along on a sunday like this and and hear me Preach so regularly and at length would would you not agree? That by and large this illustrates modern european man He wants to live without father.

He believes he's got security But when those securities run low, he doesn't have the benefit of the household of god To live without father to cut off your roots, it's a crazy thing to do But this is what this young fellow is about it's a very tragic situation tragic then tragic today And so we discover something happening that would never normally happen in the middle east Father grants a preposterous request on the part of the younger son latter part of verse 12 So he divided his property between them Now no arab would ever do that I'm, not too sure that any jew would ever do that It's it's it's not within their culture But but this father behaves differently and for this reason you see jesus is illustrating a father who is utterly unique Who will not keep his people there under duress? Who will acknowledge a degree of freedom and choice to be outside the blessings of fatherly care and the securities of village life And so this lad's about to depart Now do remember that the oldest son is as involved as the villagers And it's here really that if it was a happy story at this point that the oldest son should have come into his own Because being an older son in that culture and for my money It should should still obtain in european culture gives you specific responsibilities You see family squabbles are terrible things whenever they happen And what really is required when mom dad children? I don't mind what the computation is when they're at variance one with another is someone within the family circle to act as an intermediary Not so Now who could possibly act as an intermediary in this dispute? You see father's been insulted and publicly so it's a village they all know what's happening there are no secrets in the village Who is it who can identify with father and younger son well no one who is as well positioned as the older son To put his arms around the younger son and said now come on This is your dad You may not understand all about his ways Maybe he's got some funny ideas, but nonetheless, he's your father Don't break his heart Don't cause your mother to be perpetually in a state of tears by you up anchoring and going off in such a fashion as this You see there needs to be an intermediary But but those both these sons have have a basic misunderstanding Of what sonship is and who father is and what he requires? And there's no indication at all That this son is going to act in the way that normally in that culture. He should have acted Perhaps he was glad to see the back of the younger son He's not even present at the moment of departure to at least commit the younger son to the lord and to promise him his prayers You see there's brokenness on both parts in terms of relationship with one another and with father of these sons So verse 13 not long after that the younger son got together all he had The idea in the original is that he he gets together all his possessions. They're liquidized In other words his the property is sold and that's a bad thing in the middle east I mean it would have been a bad thing for the jewels of the duchess of windsor Wouldn't it if they'd just been sold and nobody knew but southerby's they're pretty cute those people aren't they? I mean, it's the biggest publicity stunt that they've ever had In terms of getting worldwide coverage for their abilities as auctioneers with linkups in new york in this country in And on the continent you see you don't sell quickly if you're going to get the best price He who sells in a hurry sells at a loss But but here all the assets that come to the sun are sold The property is made in liquid form so that he can get together all that he has and set off for a distant country so far away as possible from from father in a distant country where the culture is different where people eat bacon and look after pigs So so very different an environment than the one that he's he's been brought up in And there what does he do? Well, the bible tells us he squanders He squanders his wealth in wild living He who has gathered together verse 13 earlier part all that he has now scatters with random All that had been passed on to him You see you're popular, aren't you if you become a big spender? You have your fair weather friends and here's a young fellow trying to make a mark in in a culture That's not the one that he was brought up in and the best way to to be popular as I say is to be Is to be generous He squandered all that he had the authorized version puts it in riotous living It's the same word as you get in ephesians 5 when speaking of alcohol and its effects upon you over against the effects of the fullness of the spirit The former leads to excess riot There's no control There's no thought you see a man who's who's controlled by alcohol is not really in in complete Uh hold on all his faculties.

He's been dominated by other things now This is this young lad. It's the popularity of the moment. He wants to make his impression So he scatters all that dad carefully accumulated and lives as though dad was no longer in existence Now that's a parable of modern man, isn't it? Perhaps a parable of of some people here And then Then what happens? Well, you know the story verse 14 After he'd spent everything there was a severe famine famines do come in the middle east.

Sometimes they're horrendous the like of which we'd never know in europe There's a severe famine in the whole country And he is in want He is in need You see as somebody a more modern commentator puts it. He planted his palm trees roots into cement that's rather Forceful, isn't it? You see the thing that would have made him fruitful investments and so on and so forth living as father would have had him live All that he he puts on one side he plants his root in cement and when he is in need Then he is at the beck and call of anyone who might offer a crumb of comfort to him He began to be in want Now here i've got a problem A problem with many of the commentators, but as I say, sometimes the commentators that confuse me in understanding scripture Why didn't he go home I mean quite frankly if this was me i'd be back on the train or wherever To my home, I mean I may have let dad down but I knew him well enough That no matter almost what I did I could go back to him And there's no indication in this story that this father is any less In fact, there's every indication that he's much more. So why doesn't the son go back when he's in need? Well, you see he's got two handicaps Remember the brother he's still around At least in the mind of the younger son if he goes back Then who helps to pay for the food that he will consume? Because father on his request has given him one third of the property and the oldest son two thirds So he has to go back to the older brother with whom he never got on with And receive his grace and favor And that's a problem, isn't it? What isn't it? What about the village You you see this is not an ordinary village and even an ordinary village can be a very close community You try to get into the social life in an ordinary village in west sussex And you'll find that you spend the first five years doing an apprenticeship Are you really normal? You see there's a clannishness in in the village and this village has been insulted the family name has been dragged down Property has been sold quickly.

They've all In some sense has been injured by the crass insensitivity of the young fellow who put up the request in the first instance Now villages can be cruel Do you remember earlier in this uh in this gospel bartimaeus I don't know whether this is the right translation, but it does the exact translation, but it's got the idea of son of filth This poor blind man looked on by some of the villages as being a filthy person son of filth Do you remember the bald-headed prophet in the old testament who had great problems because of the the youngsters shouting after him You get the uncouth in every village whether it's in europe or whether it's in the middle east And to face that the two barriers of the older son in the village that is more than this younger fellow can cope with He's in very bad circumstances, but there is what one puritan commentator calls another fall within a fall when he came To the position of being in want verse 15. What does he do? He can't go back home. So he hires himself out to a citizen of that country Here is the fall within a fall you see Now remember he's a jew it's a jewish culture it would obtain if he was an arab actually And what does this person to whom he goes to offer him in terms of help He went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs You see he's been tested to the very limit if you've got any self-respect you will not take that sort of job But that's the point he has no self-respect He's at rock bottom almost so in his life Because he's away from father and if you're away from father ultimately, that's where you will end up at rock bottom the fall within the fall And yet his only hope is to cling to that citizen in that country He went out and hired himself to a citizen of that country The amplified version puts it he glued himself to the citizen.

You know, it's like to glue yourself to somebody If you ever have the privilege of going out to india Then you will discover either in calcutta or bombay or delhi wherever you disembark what it is for someone to glue themselves to you Every taxi driver within about a hundred yards will feel that your rupees which they believe grow out of the ears of europeans Should be in their pockets and they just will not leave you alone. They glue themselves to Very difficult to get away in that sort of situation And to determine what you want to do yourself Now it's with that degree of urgency because this is is only hope that this young fellow Goes to this citizen and Hires himself out And and the citizen sends him to his field to to feed pigs They're revolting animals particularly in the middle east don't really have a passion for them in europe, but the middle east that's uh There's no sort of hygiene or cleanliness in the way that these things are uh Are brought up. They're really they're street sweepers You see the the awfulness of living without father he longed to fill his stomach Can you believe this? a jew He he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating so Great is the problem That is his Remember our lord jesus on one occasion When he was talking about Holding the communion supper the last supper With desire have I desired? To eat this supper with you Now that's exactly the same word As is used here.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one Gave him anything What a terrible situation In which he finds himself Someone has put it like this There's a hint is here of that awful mystery in the downward progress of a soul By which he who begins by using the world as a servant to his pleasures Must submit in the end in the reversing of relations Between them so the world uses him as its drudge and slave It ultimately rejected him as the sea rejects the carcass it originally swallowed up So here is this fellow Rejected by the very society that he reckons is better than the one that he lived in at home reduced to wanting to fill his stomach With a meal that was offered the pigs, but no one gave to him. You see no one really could Because basically what he wanted was beyond the physical Therefore it was beyond the ability to of ordinary people to satisfy his needs what he wants his father And don't you see my friend going through this world That what you need more than anything else Is this love of the great god and father of our lord jesus Now maybe you betrayed that love Maybe you squandered so much that you've come to the point where you're almost on the last rung of the ladder And there's there's nowhere else to slip but down into the depths of hell itself Now the amazing thing in our story is this that when you get to that point You'll discover that father still loves you 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 You see he's out in the far country, but he still regards The man back home as his father Not that he deserves it, but you see father is father by grace and not by merit How many of my father's hired men have food to spare? archbishop trench Goes so far as to say that That this is an indication of him wanting to return he says to come to oneself and to come to god Are one and the same thing i'm not too sure He comes to his senses he realizes what life is like back in his father's household the hired men They have food to spare and now you see he's starting to work it all through what he's going to do I will set out and go back to my father and say to him Father i've sinned against heaven and against you now. There's nothing wrong with that in saying that is there Against you you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight In one sense we injure ourselves.

We wound our neighbors, but strictly speaking. We can only sin against god Now here's my problem My problem with the with archbishop trench you see he says that to come to one's senses is to come back to god But he's not really at the point of a full repentance You see he's working through how father might take him back not as a son, but as a servant How many of my father's hired men have food to spare? You see you can be back in father's household in three categories. You can be a hired servant They're people that i've often seen the like of in johannesburg In the city center early in the morning black men waiting for some white person to come along with a truck and give them a day's wage a day's job That they're not really employed not not permanently They're on a sort of day by day hire Now if he can be like that Then there are certain benefits which we'll go into in a moment There is another category in which you can be in father's household you can be as a domestic servant Almost as one of the household itself, but he doesn't want that because well It means the older son will still be around And he doesn't want the older son does he because he's got a problem with the older son It's the older son and him that really are constituting the great misunderstanding in terms of what it means to be a son In terms of what it means to have a father The third category of her is of course to be reconciled to the father and be a son again But he's worked it this way make me as one of your hired servants and then possibly if I'm one of your hired servants i'll be able to make so much money that that i'll be able to balance the accounts and All will be well So he gets up and and he goes back to his father having predetermined what he is going to do But what do you discover? Well halfway through the 20th verse While he was still a long way off father saw him And was filled with compassion for him Now that's an amazing thing myself my friend This young man's theology is adrift But but one thing that remains constant throughout this parable Is the love and the vigilance of father? Now you may not have followed all that i'm trying to say although I've tried to keep it simple within the context of this story But this one thing remains clear for even the most Unintelligent person to take home with them father always remains father He always has a concern You start to draw near to father and you discover that father will draw near to you draw nigh unto me And I will draw nigh unto you.

Well, you see here it's fleshed out in this parable Here's this younger son and he's moving back to familiar terrain. What's it going to be like when I get there? There's the village main street to go through there are all the ruffians. There's the oldest son.

What is going to be my Reaction and their reaction to me You have no need to have any problem. Why? Because father has got his eyes upon you And father comes rushing down the main street The islamic community were never more adrift in their understanding of this parable than at this point In believing that father forgives the son with no cost at all There's infinite cost you see The cost is borne not by the younger son nor by the older son, but always by father Father has been insulted How is father going to react? I'll tell you how he reacts Old man that he be he takes up his skirt as a youngster might and he rums He doesn't just run the greek word is he races No man under 30 in an arab village will run not publicly. Why? Because it's against the culture Behind to the culture Here is my boy Here are those people wondering how i'm going to react here is the pain of my own heart for this man is filled with compassion and again in hebrew and arabic culture when you speak of your emotions you speak about the Physiological parts of your body your bowels your kidneys.

It's this that the greek word itemizes as it speaks of the compassion of this man There's tremendous cost here Emotions are high The shame and the ignominy of what the son has done. The father has felt And don't you see my beloved friend? This is exactly the case in terms of your forgiveness God is no allah Who in an arbitrary fashion passes mercy As his as his reaction to you This is the god and father of our lord. Jesus who suffers with his son who bears something of the shame and the ignominy of calvary I don't understand that But the bible says god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself I shamed my father By the sins that i've committed By taking what he had And using it wrongly By being out in the far country living as though father were dead But he wasn't dead He was hurting hurting all the time And the moment comes when I return and I discover that this father has compassion and love as well as hurt within his heart And he moves down And publicly he embraces me That's what happened isn't it? Here is this pig smelling son And father puts his arms around him It's public you see because later on he's going to be addressing the servants.

He's going to be telling them to do something No secrets in a village They're all wondering what's going to happen The lad is coming back The village reputation has been impugned Father has been insulted The boy has no longer any rights to live He should be under penalty of death And the justice of his father But what you discover That that same father heart that comes out time and time again in the new testament Is resplendent here As father embraces the son And he cries out in a voice loud for all to hear this My son Was dead But he's alive He was lost But he's found You see he cuts into the speech of the boy. He got it prepared father I'm no longer worthy to be your son. All right, you can say that But don't go on to say make me as one of your hired servant because that option does not exist There is no basis of works whereby you can reconcile yourself to me There is nothing that you can do that can redeem The the injustice and the wrong that you have done There is only one way in which this lad can be reconciled to the father and it is by the compassion of father And there's only one way my beloved friend In which you can be reconciled to this great god of creation not by anything that you do But by the sin that you bring to him as you confess against you you only have I sinned And done this evil in your sight And then the father who has been pained at calvary Because he has borne the cost of your betrayal The way that you have lived Father then can deal with you and lift you back into a relationship with him Whereby, you know And everybody who's got an ear out to listen knows You are his child Accepted in the beloved Because father remained constant in his affection Towards you My time has gone i've got a lot more to say on this part of the parable we'll take up Next week, but let's just bow our heads in prayer And let's think about this father again And the way in which We ought to be appreciative Of the love that He has extended towards us we listen to a song being sung About the father love of god