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Luke 15:25-32b- Back at the farm
Doug Partin – (VCC-2/18/96) The Christian Church 5/12/16
Unlike the shepherd who only lost one of a hundred sheep, or the woman who lost only one out of ten drachmas; the Father lost both of his sons. We usually emphasize the first son as the one who was lostbecause his lost state is so obvious; but the second son, the one who stayed home on the farm was just as lost, perhaps even more so.
As I have mentioned numerous times during this series from the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus was speaking to two very different groups of people at the same time. The tax collectors and sinners who were attracted to Jesus, and the Pharisees and Scribes who were scandalized that Jesus would have anything to do with them.
The second son in Jesus’ storyis the one who made good decisions when it came to obeying his father, but we find that he did not learn to see things from his father’s perspective. This is the sonwho would inherit all that was left of the father’s estate, but he did not inherit his father’s heart.
He is like the people who learn to play church. They go to Sunday meetings, but they never encounter the Lord. They read His word, but never let it impact their lives. They are more concerned about being recognized for their good behavior, than rejoicing over the lost being welcomed home by God.
We read this parable earlier in our service, so I won’t do it again, but I want you to recall that it begins with a “Meanwhile back at the farm, the older son was in the field.” He was doing what he always did, taking care of business. He was a hard worker, diligent in his duties. If a fence needed mending, he did it. If the animals needed food, he fed them. If the ground needed to be worked, he was the one out in the field, as he was on this day. He was a good son, and like a lot of good workers today, he felt that his hard work and diligence deserved a little recognition.
Let’s be honest, isn’t it nice to have someone show you a little appreciation every now and then for all the things that you do? It should be enough that you are compensated for what you do, but it is not.We crave indications that we are pleasing to those for whom we work. A nice big raise is always an acceptable form of appreciation, but cards and flowers and even a piece of Nambe ware every now and then are acceptable forms of appreciation; even a good ole pat on the back would be appreciated. If you don’t believe me, when I say that we feel this way, then think about what happens when an employer neglects the duty of handing out kudos, their employees will mumble and grumble and talk about how ungrateful they are.
Why else do we have such things as “Employee of the month, Bosses’ Day,or Administrative Assistants’ Day?These are not simply a ploy by card manufactures to sell more product; but they are attempts to make sure everyone is getting a scratch behind the ear every now and then.
When the elder brother came near the house he heard a symphony playing. I’m not joking, the Greek word used by Jesus to describe the music was “symphonia,” It wasn’t an orchestra but it was a band of some sort, and there was probably dancing. Not as we do today, but more like Miriam after the children of Israel were freed from Egypt. It was a victory celebration.
But the Elder brother didn’t know what was being celebrated, and he hoped that it might be a surprise party for himself, perhaps he would be the honored guest, perhaps he was finally going to be recognized. He was eager to find out what was going on, and so he called one of his servants and sent them into spy out the situation.
The servant returned and told him what his ears could not believe. He reported, “Your brother has come home.” “My brother?” he must have thought. You mean the one who disgraced my Father by taking his portion of the property and selling it, and taking the money and leaving? That brother? The one who perfers the company of strangers over his own family?That brother has come home? At least I’ll finally have the opportunity to tell him how I really feel.
Yes, the servant continued, and your Father has killed the fatted calf in his honor; for he has received him safe and sound. The Father received the prodigal back. “Received” is the right word, although it does not appear in every English translation. I want you to remember that the reception of sinners is the exact reason Jesus was telling this parable.
In Luke 15:2 the Pharisees said of Jesus, “He receives sinners.” And they were right. Jesus openly admitted that he had come to seek and save the lost(19:10). Jesus willingly and openly received sinners.
We’ve talked in this study how He welcomed Zacheaus; who ended up throwing a party to celebrate that He who was lost was found. And we’ve mentioned the story recorded in Luke 7:37-39, the one about the woman who had lived a sinful life learning that Jesus was eating in the home of a Pharisee. How this woman brought an alabaster jar of perfume; and coming up behind Jesus, and falling on her knees began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had thrown this party for Jesus saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."We’ve talked about how Jesus welcomed Saul of Tarsus after he had helped to kill and imprison many of the early followers.
Yes. Jesus receive sinners, even ones like you and me.
The older brother is to be compared to the Pharisees. They saw no reason to receive sinners. Sinners had made their bed, and now it was time for them to lay in it. Now it was time for them to experience the wages of sin. These sinners had brought their misery upon themselves, and were not to be pitied.
In Jesus’ parable, the elder brother was rightfully angry. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. Judaism, as well as Christianity has clear provisions for the restoration of the penitent, but where does it say that such provisions include a banquet with music? Yes, let the prodigal return, but to bread and water, not to a fatted calf; in sackcloth, not a new robe; wearing ashes, not a new ring; shedding tears, not in merriment; kneeling, not dancing.
The elder brother was so angry that he refused to enter into his own house.The Father, just as he had done earlier that day, went out to receive his lost son.He pleaded with him to come in and receive his brother just as he had done.
When it says that the Father called out to him, it uses the word “parakaleo.” To call along the side of – to help, to counsel, to advocate, to entreat. The noun form, Parakalete, is only used to describe Jesus and the Holy Spirit; as it is in 1 John 2:1, “If any one sins, we have aparaklete – a helper, a counselor, an advocate. We have one who comes to our aide.
It is hard to come to the aide of the one with whom you compete; and the Elder brother certainly viewed this as a competition of sorts. We are a competitive nation, and therefore we always think in terms of winners and losers; of us and them; even when it comes to matters of our faith. We choose sides, Jews or Gentiles, poor or rich, saint or sinner, older son or younger son. We pull for one, but not the other.
But God’s love is both/and not either/or. Receiving the younger son did not mean the rejection of the older son; the love poured out on tax collectors and sinners did not negate Jesus’ love for Pharisees and Scribes. Such is God’s love, but we find it difficult not to be offended by God’s grace toward others, especially if we have serious questions about that person’s conduct and character.
The older brother answers his father with pent up frustrations: 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. He did not say serving, not working for you or with you, but slaving. The older son viewed his position in the wrong way. And the next part of his complaint underscores that he did understand what all the Father had given him. “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!'
- He did not understand that all that was left was his. My son,' the father said to him, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’
- He did not understand that the Father not only loved him, but wanted him to be loving.
- He did not understand forgiveness, and the joy it brings.
- He did not understand how many times you have to forgive your brother? 7 times.
- He did not understand that he had nothing to lose, and a brother to gain.
- He did not understand that His Father had to celebrate. {32} 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.' We had to celebrate...had to –the word used literally means: it was necessary. It was not only the right thing to do, it was necessary to celebrate. What victory is not celebrated?
I want to close by sharing two stories of forgiveness. You may have heard these before. The first one is by Corrie Ten Boom, and it is her story of learning to forgive. It is in her book, "The Hiding Place":
It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!" His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him as you do. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself we need to do so. For one day our enemies, may be our brothers.
The second story if from a scene in a courtroom in South Africa: A frail black woman about seventy years old slowly rises to her feet. Across the room and facing her are several white police officers. One of them is Mr. Van der Broek, who has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman’s son and her husband some years before. Van der Broek had come to the woman’s home, taken her son, shot him at point blank range and then set his body on fire while he and his officers partied nearby.
Several years later, Van der Broek and his men had returned for her husband as well. For months she knew nothing of his whereabouts. Then almost two years after her husband’s disappearance, Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How well she remembers in vivid detail that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, “Father, forgive them…”
Now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, “So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?”
“I want three things,” begins the old woman calmly, but confidently. “I want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up dust and give his remains a decent burial.
“She paused, then continued. “My husband and son were my only family. I want secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining in me. I will cook for him, and have tea with him, and ask how he is doing, and tell him how I am doing.”
She also stated that she wanted a third thing, “This” she said, “is the dying wish of my husband. I would kindly ask that someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can hold Mr. Van der Broek in my arms and embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven.”
As the court assistants came to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. Van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he had just heard, fainted. As he did, those in the courtroom, family, friends, and neighbours-all victims of decades of oppression and injustice- began to sing softly but assuredly, “amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”
Although it appears that the elderly woman who had endured such a painful loss was doing Mr. Van der Broek a huge favour, she was actually doing more for herself than for him. Because of her actions, her past had no authority over her future. She was not allowing the pain of the past to poison her heart.
She, like her Lord Jesus, received sinners.
What about you? Do you demand justice? Do you require sinners earn your trust and acceptance? Do you look forward to them approaching you on their knees asking for your mercy? Or do you, as did Jesus, receive them? Do you run to them, embrace them, and throw a party for them?
We can be like the Pharisees or we can follow Jesus.
1. J. John and Mark Stibbe, A Barrel of Fun (West Sussex, England: Monarch, 2004), 76-77.