Compassion for Prodigals... and Pharisees, Too!

Sermon Excerpt: John Edgar

Elkins Park RP Church, June 6, 2019

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          The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of Jesus’ best-known stories. Everyone loves the story of the wayward son who returns home to his father’s love. When Jesus told this parable, however, he was appealing to a hostile audience primarily through the older son, the responsible one.

 

Read this sermon. Then think how you might rename the parable to help us remember the father’s appeal to his older son not to harden his heart against his brother. Email your suggestions to Betsy Perkins at duran.perkins@gmail.com, and we will publish our favorites in a future issue.

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"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying,

' This man receives sinners and eats with them.'" 

-- Luke 15:1-2

 

          It is more comfortable to live in a tidy mental world in which some people are good and some people are bad and in which God loves the good and God hates the bad, for then we know what to do. We are to be good and keep the Commandments, be just, and God will love us. This was the Pharisees' religion. It is many religions.

 

Jesus brings a different religion. But we better keep it straight. Jesus says God seeks the Sinner. God carries the Lost back to safety. God rejoices over everyone who repents. There is no one so lost that God cannot find him, no one so dead in sin while still alive that God cannot bring him to repentance. This is the message of God for you, but it's easy to think like the Pharisees, and to say yes, yes, God wants you, but not them. It's easy to follow the Pharisees and grumble if sinners come.

 

So the Pharisees asked – and this is one place where Jesus does not condemn them for their question. The Pharisees – they're really confused. "You seem to be a man of God, but you're hanging out with the sinners. And you don't just tolerate them coming to the edges! You go and eat with them. You look like a man of God. You sound like a man of God. You do miracles like a man of God, but you're not doing this part right. Jesus, what are you doing?" It's a genuine question for them. And if our heads aren't right, it will be a genuine question to us too.

 

So Jesus says – and I love how patiently he speaks here. He really goes all out, not only to explain, but also to persuade. He goes all out. We think he's persuading the prodigal. He's really trying to persuade the Pharisees.

 

He says, Imagine you have a hundred sheep. Now by the way, if you have a hundred sheep in that culture, you are rich enough to have a servant. So when you leave the ninety-nine, they're not defenseless. You left them with a servant. The Pharisees and scribes Jesus is talking to know that if you had a hundred sheep and one got lost, you’d leave the ninety-nine with a servant and go after the lost sheep. You should go and search for that sheep.

 

And you should keep searching until you find it. And when you find it your primary emotion should be joy. Not irritation. Not frustration. But JOY. In fact, it should be such a generous joy that you don't beat the sheep to make it walk back. You pick it up. And when you get back, you should not just think that you are tired. You should invite others to celebrate with you.

 

Now Jesus here is deliberately using a lot of Old Testament background. They chanted Psalms in synagogue. They knew that, "the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters." (Psalm 23) All right, what does that make you? You're a sheep. It goes on. Psalm 100: "Indeed, we are his sheep." We sang Psalm 95 today: "We are his sheep." And at the end of Psalm 119, what is it? "I am a straying sheep. Lord, seek your servants." In fact, he's not just using Psalms. He's using Isaiah 40. The Lord will gather his sheep. He will gently lead them. He will carry them in his bosom. In fact, there's a hint of Psalm 53: "All we like sheep have gone astray." In other words, Jesus uses an Old Testament illustration that we are like sheep to God. We go astray in sin the way the sheep go astray in the field.

 

And yet we are still of value to God. The man seeking a sheep is meant to be a picture of God seeking people; God seeking sinners. Again, God is the owner of the sheep, that is, of us. And if you want to know how does God seek? God seeks by coming in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He here explains not just what God does, but what he is doing. He is implicitly saying "And I am the man seeking the sheep. That is why I receive sinners and eat with them."

 

And God is still seeking today in Jesus Christ. Jesus now sits in heaven. Yes, but he has sent out his messengers to continue the work. And he sends out his Holy Spirit so that this work can be continued in power and so people can be convicted of sin. This work continues to this day.

 

Now, how is the sinner found? We know when the sheep was found when he gets picked up and carried back, but the sinner is found when the sinner repents. In terms of the moral of the story, the sinner is found when he repents. Repenting seems more active than getting picked up, and that's because we're more active than sheep. So Jesus needs to tell another parable.

 

But we see it from God's perspective here that we are his lost sheep, and with great compassion he brings us back. What is God's attitude towards you when he brings you back? Well again, this man, we're not told that he grumbled while he sought the sheep. We're not told that he rebuked and beat the sheep when he found it. We're not told that he drove it back. "Let's go, Stubby!" We're not told that he went to bed in an exhausted huff when he got back. No, he's not a picture of someone resentful over the trouble that this stupid sheep has caused him. He's a picture of Joy. He
calls together friends and neighbors. There's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees and scribes, "I am right to welcome sinners. I am right to eat with them. Their coming to hear me is a step on the way to their being found." Like the man in the parable he is saying, I don't exact a price from them. I don't keep them at a distance. I rejoice! This is what God does.

 

I want you to marvel at how much Jesus is extending himself to the Pharisees so that they could get it – because in some ways they had a zeal for God, but they didn't “get” God. So he's extending himself to their experience. If you have sheep – and many of them did – don't you like it when you find them?

 

He is saying, "Haven't you been in synagogue and talked about being the straying sheep and you ask God to find you." And "don't you know in Ezekiel 34, God condemns the Shepherds" – that is, the leaders of Israel. And God goes on to say, "I'm condemning you because you have not sought your sheep, but I will. I will come and seek my sheep."

 

So again, he's not just saying this what God is like. He's saying God told you he was going to do this and here I am fulfilling the prophecy. That should convince you Pharisees. I'm fulfilling the prophecies that you know.

 

He even accepts their vanity in the first place. He speaks of ninety-nine righteous ones who need no repentance. As he begins to reason with them, he doesn't challenge them on being righteous at first. At the beginning he says, "Now for starters, let me not challenge your understanding of yourselves. Let me just challenge your understanding of God. You're righteous. Sure. For the sake of argument, temporarily, you are righteous. But here's what God is like with the unrighteous. I want you to understand God." That's where he starts with them. He gently leads them. He gently leads all who think that they are actually pretty good.

 

But that's because he intends to go on to another Parable. He says, "What woman having ten silver coins if she loses one doesn't light a lamp, sweep the whole house and keep looking until she finds it. And when she finds it she doesn't just put it into a better pocket. No! She calls together neighbors and calls them to be happy with her because she's found her coin."

 

Jesus first says, "I will picture God as a well-off farmer." Now he says, "I will also picture God as a poor woman." How do we know she is poor? She has to light a lamp because her little one-room house has no windows. Poor people can't afford windows. It's harder construction to put in windows. You want a cheap house? No windows. So when this poor woman has to look for her lost coin, she has to light a lamp. She is poor. That's why the tenth coin is so important to her.

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As you think about this Parable, you should not say, "How did God lose me?" because you're not a coin. You want to say, "How does God search for me?" Jesus himself is the light of the world, who shows us what is good and what is lost. The light has been lit to show and to speak to your conscience.

 

And again, the punch line of the parable is not finding the coin. The punch line is the rejoicing that follows finding the coin. You notice that? In both of these stories, the punch line is the party that follows the finding. As he appeals to the Pharisees, he says,“When I eat with sinners I do so to lead them to repentance. I do so because they have repented. They're coming to me. They are repenting. It’s a happy occasion. It's supposed to be. I should be happy. You should be happy.”

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Notice again how he leads the Pharisees along, like a shepherd with sheep. Notice also how he's intensifying the picture. He began with one in a hundred. Now it’s one in ten. He implies that there may be more sinners than he said at first. He also raises the guilt of the sinners because sheep are ignorant. You don't blame a sheep too much. But a coin is stamped with the picture of the king. We are stamped with the picture of the king because we are made in the image of God. So when we go astray from God we're betraying our own created makeup. We're not living as we should. We're to think of this: we're lost in sin, and not just because we don't know things: we're more guilty than that.

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Notice also in the second parable how he reduces the profile of the righteous, who don’t need to repent. He does not repeat that part. There is no speaking of the nine sinners who don't need to repent in the second parable, only the joy in heaven over the one who does repent. That point he intensifies. God rejoices over those who repent. The angels in heaven rejoice over those who repent. Jesus rejoices over the sinner who repents. He's saying this is the right way to be. His followers must rejoice over the sinner who repents.

 

But there are a couple questions left by the time you're done the first two parables. One is, "What are you? Are you a lost coin, a found coin, or a coin that never left the purse? Are you a lost sheep? Are you a found sheep, or are you a sheep that never left the field? Who are you? Where do you locate yourself in this?"

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And furthermore the devil always wants to tell you a lie, either that you are just fine the way you are, or you are bad in an especially bad way. Satan may not be able to stop you from realizing that Jesus came for sinners, but he may get you to think that you're too big a sinner for Jesus. That can be a problem. Will God have me when I've been running off so long? Would he have the apostate who has left the faith?

 

Jesus said there was a man who had two sons.

 

If you've any ear for rhetoric, you know he's amping up the pressure. We're not talking about sheep or coins. Now we're talking about sons. And there are only two of them. These aren't your possessions. We're talking about your family. We're talking directly about people now.

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And how do you identify? You are not to identify in this parable with the father because the father is God. You are to see yourself in one son or the other. You should be encouraged by the father. You should rejoice in the father, but you should not for a second imagine that you are the father in this parable.

 

The younger son spat in his father's face. "Dad. I want nothing to do with you except your money. I can't wait for you to die to get it. How about you give me my third now." A third because he's the younger son – older son gets double in their culture.

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That is an extremely insulting thing to say, even in our culture, and it would have been ten times worse in that culture. You do not dishonor your father by telling him that you can't wait for him to die, and you want his money, and you actually think he should give it to you now. It's an outrageous request.

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This is what you might expect next: "Then he got written out of the will." But Jesus is making this point: the father gave him the third of the farm. And having gotten the third of the land and the animals and perhaps the servants – however they arranged that thing – he then did something even more scandalous. He sold it all.

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If you are a farmer, if you are a peasant, what is the real wealth? It's land. Some of you can think of a movie. “You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got some land.” You got to buy the fields. You don't sell them. He sold it all – because you can't take fields with you. And he wanted to get out of there.

 

He didn't just hate his father's family. He hated the whole village. He wanted to get out of there. You can't take the land with you. The animals are a pain. That's what money is for. Money is very portable. Some of us are porting it right now; in your pocket you have money. It's a beautiful invention.

 

So this son sold it all and turned it all into easily carry-able money and he left. He left. He left his parents' house. He left the village. He left the country. He went out of the country – this represents he left the faith. He went to a far country – maybe Rome. He lived among pagans and he lived like pagans and he had no intention of ever coming back 'cause he couldn't come back. He hadn't just burnt bridges. He'd blown bridges up! The whole village knew what this son had done to this father.

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And once far away he lived it up. But everything is a two-edged sword. Land is tricky. If you can't move it, you also usually can't spend it too quickly. But you can sure spend your money quickly. That money goes fast. So you have here a picture of sin: sin is departing from the father. Sin is leaving God behind. Sin is wanting nothing to do with God. Sin, really, is a shameful thing when you break it down. Sin is also a spending, a spending of your God-given gifts. Sin spends recklessly without thought of tomorrow. And so the son sank to the bottom.

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And then a famine came, and now everybody's desperate, and everybody's looking out for themselves, and maybe their families. But he's not with his family. He's a foreigner in a desperate country with a famine. So he's lucky to get a job feeding pigs. He's fortunate to be able to hire himself out feeding pigs and wanting to eat what the pigs are eating.

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And all the friends that he had enjoyed – you know, if you're spending a lot of money, and inviting people to party with you, oh, you'll have "friends." Keep that in mind – you'll have "friends,” but when you actually need a friend, they won't be there. Bear that in mind. Once he had nothing, he found out who his friends were, and he didn't have any.

 

He's a picture here of sin. Sin is leaving the father. Sin is reckless spending. Sin is also a state of need, because when you spend God's gifts and you have no contact with God, you have nothing, for every good gift comes from your Creator.

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And sin is misery. He was longing to eat the pods that the pigs ate. And you're of course not just to think of how grubby dirty pigs are. Jesus is speaking to an audience that keeps kosher. They feel much more revulsion at the uncleanness of the pigs than we do. And he's really down there because, even if he's left the faith, he still knows in the back of his mind that you're not supposed to eat or be close to pigs. And he wants to eat their food. Yes, sin puts you into a state of isolation. You'll find that your anger will cut you off from other people. The criminal in jail is cut off from society. The thief and the liar are not trusted by anyone. Sin leads you in isolation.

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And sin is a form of slavery. The devil's the master and he's not nice. He doesn't pay well. He seduces in order to exploit. Sin, finally, is insanity. This guy chose this way to live? Yes! He had been the younger son of an upstanding and very generous and compassionate father. But he chose this. Sin is insanity.

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The insanity part is signaled when the story turns: "when he came to himself." Yes, a turning to God is a coming to yourself; it is coming back to the image in which you are made. You realize, "Yes. God has to be part of any sane picture here. If I'm not relating to my Creator, in whose image I am made, I'm nuts. This is insane."

 

So when he came to himself, he said, “I need words.” That's in the Old Testament. "Take with you words and return to the Lord your God." (Hosea 14:2) He thought about it. He says, "I need words. Because I have torched my bridges, but I'm sure my father will at least – he will make me a servant if I ask. At least I will be a servant and I will eat. I need words." And so he did not spare himself with his words. He planned his words. "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you. I'm not worthy to be called your son." He had that right! "Treat me is one of the servants."

 

You know repentance takes words. You have to at least say them to God. You have to confess your sins to God and you're not to lessen them. That is excusing. You need to confess. He did have to say how bad it was. Here's the early Church Father Tertullian. "As far as you have not spared yourself and your confession to God, so far, believe me, will God spare you."

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And he's just saying First John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And so the man acted. He got up and began walking home. He did not say, "I owe this guy more service," because you owe the devil nothing. He did not say, "Once I get my life in order, I'll start home," because you will never get your life in order as long as you are apart from God. He did not say "I'm too tired because I haven't eaten," because he wasn't going to get any more food there. He might as well get started. He began to go because you must go spiritually, with words, go to God. It's the going and the doing that makes the reconciliation possible, because God welcomes you when you repent.

 

How does God welcome you? We are pictured a father with his eyes out down the road seeing his son coming a long way off. His father ran to him. Now, he's a father with two adult sons. He's not a young guy. Have you seen an old man run? It ain't pretty. If he's been running the whole time he could do it. But if it's an old man who hasn't been running – and in that culture, no old man had been running. It's just the most undignified silly look, and if he's wearing a robe, this is even worse. And so we are given a picture of a man who's not standing on his dignity, but is just so glad to see his son that he is running in spite of the fact that this son shamed him in front of the village; in spite of the fact that this son has been an idiot and shameful and in spite of the fact that running he looks ridiculous. It is a picture of God gladly welcoming us home.

 

When the father gets to his son, the son begins with his words. And the father cuts them off. He cuts them off. He says, "Put the best robe on him." I guess he brought some guys with him. "And put a ring on his finger." That means he's a son not a servant. "And put shoes on his feet." That means he's a son and not a servant. "Because he's my son" and so as the son is confessing his sin, he never gets to the part about "count me as a servant." He does not insist on continuing his prepared speech, the part about being a servant. It is for him to receive this most unmerited, undeserved welcome.

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And the punch line of the story is not even the welcoming home, but the party. "Kill the fattened calf" – that would feed thirty-five to seventy-five. "Let's party with the whole family and all the servants and a chunk of the village because my son who was lost is now found."

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Now, you expect the story to end. But it doesn't stop here. And this is what makes this parable really interesting. It's already tremendous story, but it's not done yet. The story should continue, "Just so, I tell you there is joy before the angels in heaven over every repentant sinner." But Jesus gives the story a sudden new twist.

 

"Now the older son was in the field. And when he came in at the end of the day, he heard a party in his house." Now if you come home tomorrow, and there's a party in your house, what are you going to do? You know, if you trust the people in the house, you'll probably go right in, and start to enjoy yourself. But this son did not do that. This son came home to a party, and he stood at a distance and he called a servant out of the preparations to explain.

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He asked, "What is going on? Why is there a party in the house?" And the servant answered very prudently with all the proper relationships. "Your brother has returned and your father has killed the fattened calf because he received him back safe and sound." There's no fault to be found with the servant’s report. This is all on point.

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The older son is tired from his day work. He's emotional from his day working. He is still burned by that brother of his who had shamed the family. And he does not go in and join the party.

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So the father comes out, and you're supposed to catch something there. How many times did the father come out? He comes out twice, because he has two sons and neither one of them has the same heart that the father has. He came out to welcome the young prodigal home. Now he has to go out to the older son. The older son says to his father, "What are you doing?" He doesn't even call him father. He says, "Look. Look! All this time I've been working. I've never disobeyed a commandment. You never gave me even a goat for partying with my friends. But when this son of yours who has wasted your wealth with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!"

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With whom did the older son want to party? With his friends! With whom did he not want to party? With his father and brother. The father answers him with great patience, because the father is God himself. He is merciful and compassionate both to prodigals and to Pharisees. He says "My son. You are always with me." He acknowledges that all the time, working there on the farm, his older son was with him. Then he reassures him. "All that is mine is yours. Have no fear. There will no be no re-division of the property. It's all yours – now. Your two-thirds is still yours. There will be no new division of the property. You have nothing to fear. You will not be cheated. But we had to." The 'fitting' is a weak translation. "It was necessary for us to rejoice and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found." Notice how he reminds the older son that the prodigal younger son is “your brother.” “This your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found.”

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And then Jesus messed up his story for a second time. First, he did not continue the refrain from the first two parables about rejoicing in heaven. Now he doesn’t finish the parable! We never find out what the older brother did. The parable ends with the father speaking to the older son. The father – you know what he's going to do. He's going to go back to the party and rejoice with the son that was found. What you don't know at the end of the parable is what the older brother will do.

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Why did Jesus, the master storyteller, leave us hanging? Because in this case it wasn't for him to finish. It was up to his audience, the Pharisees. They are the older brother. Will they join Jesus in welcoming sinners who repent? Remember the beginning of Luke 15: the Pharisees and scribes are grumbling because Jesus has received sinners. By not ending the story himself, Jesus makes it clear to his Pharisee audience that it’s up to them to end the story. They can say, “You are right. We should celebrate that our brother is back." Or they may say, "No. I will find somewhere else to stay tonight. I will not go in."

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Yes, it's a powerful parable. The Father here seeks his self-righteous, bitter son. That is the real point of the parable in its context. Jesus draws a picture of himself seeking the self-righteous, bitter Pharisees.

 

You'll notice that some Pharisees did go in later on. It says in the book of Acts that there were many Pharisees who believed. Some priests also believed. Jesus’ appeal in this parable did not fall on universally deaf ears. Some did perceive, "Ohhh, God is in this. Jesus is the shepherd sent to seek the lost, ah! Ezekiel 34, correct? I got it."

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But many others did not. They said, "Well, if this is God, I don't want God. I want my own vision of a just God who gives people what they earn. I don't want a compassionate and forgiving God." Many were like the prophet Jonah. When God had mercy on Ninevah, Jonah was angry because he had been a successful preacher. He didn't want those evil Assyrians who oppressed his people to repent. He wanted them to be destroyed. The Book of Jonah also ends with God pleading with Jonah, "Is it not good that I have not destroyed them?"

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And that's where this parable ends. Isn’t it wonderful that God welcomes his prodigal son home?

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What is the living God like? He is far better than we could ask or imagine. He receives you home when you return to him in humble repentance, not demanding, just coming. And we all need to repent and return. There are, in fact, no ninety-nine sheep that never left the fold. There are no coins that never got lost. They are only a variety of sons and daughters who have rebelled in one way or another, who are at some distance from God, whether openly or in their hearts. And so the call here is for all to repent, that everyone needs to repent: the prodigals and the tax collectors and the sinners and the Pharisees and the older brothers. Everyone must repent and join the party.

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And the amazing thing is that the full gospel is even better than this parable. It includes what Jesus had to do to bring us back. He bore the punishment and the shame that atones for our sins and reconciles God to us.

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But for today, let us remember this, that all of us by nature have a heart problem. We're not tracking with the father until we repent. And when we repent, the father is gracious and compassionate not to stand on his dignity but to receive us back with joy. He wants us to return, and he will rejoice, and we will rejoice, not only for ourselves, but for everyone whom the Lord calls home.