Sermon on Luke 15

Thanks to Pixabay.com

(The following is a text of a sermon I gave at Oasis Christian Fellowship in September 2017, largely inspired by two sermons given by Glen Scrivener at All Souls Eastbourne that summer).

1.          Losing something valuable

How often do you lose something?  Weekly?  …Daily? … And when was the last time you invited us all around to your place to rejoice when you’ve found it?!

Getting the neighbours round to celebrate is a very odd response to finding something you lost!  But Jesus, here, says:

·         “doesn’t he call his friends and neighbours together and say, ‘rejoice with me!’?”, and

·         “doesn’t she call her friends and neighbours together and say, ‘rejoice with me!’?”

“Doesn’t he…”; “doesn’t she…” – it’s as if his audience would totally accept this odd response as normal, so there must have been some common understanding about how incredibly valuable the sheep was to the shepherd, or the coin was to the woman.

2.          The Lost One

So, who or what do these incredibly valuable two lost items represent?

It’s really important to remember who Jesus is talking to at this point.  Verses 1-2 say He is with “tax collectors and sinners … Pharisees and the teachers of the law”.

Two key groups of very different types of people…:

- those who believe themselves to be:

- no good

- and reviled by society

- and those who believe themselves to be:

- very good

- and revered by society

The rebellious and the religious!

Jesus tells the first 2 of these parables to show both groups of people how they are both valuable, but both lost.

First, the sheep: a creature widely looked down upon as stupid, who has wilfully walked away from the shepherd.

Second, the coin: an inanimate object incapable of independent thought or action, and that can do nothing towards being found.

The sheep represents the tax collectors and sinners: thought of as having low worth in society, and therefore often separated from it.

The coin represents the Pharisees and teachers of the law: highly regarded in society, and therefore central to it.

Both groups of people, Jesus points out, are lost to Him - to Him, who is the good shepherd and the rightful owner of all creation.  But only one group seem to be aware that they are lost.  Look at verse 2, “the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them’” … as if only the Pharisees and teachers of the law were worthy dinner companions.

Jesus has responded to this exact same criticism by this exact same crowd once before, at a meal at Levi’s house (Luke 5:27-32):

“The Pharisees and teachers of the law… complained…: ‘why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’

Jesus answered: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

However, they still don’t seem to have identified with the sick, with their own need of healing.  So, this time, Jesus sets out to make it more clear to them, through the parable of the two sons.

3.          The prodigal son

So, first of all, we’re introduced to a father with two sons.

Under inheritance laws, each son would be given a share of the father’s property when the father died.  So, when the younger one demands his share of the estate before his father’s death, he is saying, unashamedly: “I wish you were dead.  You are dead to me.  Now give me what is yours”.  He doesn’t love his father, but lusts after what he can get out of him.

If you were a 1^st century lawyer or tax collector and heard this story, you might think the son deserves death.  Instead, in the parable, he is allowed to go off and see what life is really like without his father.  He finds out that, whilst it shimmers with enticing mystery from a distance, it is pig-swill close up, and he eventually reaches a point when he “comes to his senses”:

“‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants 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 servants.”

Now, I have a question for you: is this repentance?  Is the younger son, here, repenting?

The son considers: his father’s provisions; his own needs; and what he would have to do in order to come back into his father’s house.  He realises that: there is no lack in his father’s household; that his own needs, if unsatisfied, will lead to death; and that he has given up his right to be his father’s son, so must return as a hired servant.

But so far, so self-serving!

Yet, he has, literally, turned around and walked back the other way, towards his father … isn’t that what we’re commonly told repentance means?

4.          Re-pent

I’d like to suggest a better definition for the word “repent”, and this is really important, and not just for this passage.

“To repent” is often defined as “to turn 180° around and start walking back the other way”.

I think there are three problems with this.

The first is that the biblical phrase “repent and turn” (Acts 3:19 … Acts 20:21 … Acts 26:20) would then mean “turn and turn”, which doesn’t make much sense!  (That said, the bible does repeat words for emphasis, so I wouldn’t seriously challenge this definition on that basis alone).

The second problem is that the Latin word for to “turn back” or to “turn around” translates to our English word “revert” - from “re”, meaning “back” or “again”, and “versare”, meaning “to turn”.  But the Latin word translated as “repent” comes from “pensare”, meaning “to weigh carefully”, “to think”, or “to realize”.  So, to “repent” actually means to “think again”, or to carefully weigh again our way of thinking.  (Getting right back to the original Greek word, “metanoia”, this also means “to change one’s thinking”).

Before we look at that any further, the third problem is the most important: how does this affect our understanding of God and the gospel?

Jesus tells us to “repent and believe” in order to be saved from God’s wrath on Judgement Day.  The apostle, Paul, later says this salvation comes through faith, “not by works, so that no one can boast”.  So, repenting and believing can’t involve anything we could take credit for – anything we could boast about.  But, if “repenting” meant “turning 180° around and walking back the other way”, we could boast that we were good enough to have chosen to do that.  So, this can’t be the right definition.

But what about my proposed definition?  Couldn’t we also boast that we were good enough to change our thinking?

The apostle, Paul, wrote: “The god of this age (that is, Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Now, if we’re blind to the light of the gospel, then we can’t see it … and if we can’t see the light of the gospel, we can’t change our thinking in response to it.

So, who does take the credit for our change of thinking, our repentance?  Paul, again, wrote:

“What we have received is … the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us … The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, … they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:12)

So, without God’s Spirit, we are blind and consider the gospel foolishness, so need to repent, but cannot.  With God’s Spirit, we can see the light and discern the truth, and so – thanks to the Spirit - repent and believe.

5.          The Unrepentant Heart

So, back to the younger son – is his turning back from the pig-sty actually “repentance”?  What is his heart saying?

“How many of my father’s hired servants 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 servants.”

His heart first says: “I want food, and I know where I can get it” – which is pretty much what his heart was saying when he demanded his inheritance: “I want something that will satisfy my lust for worldly pleasures, and I know how to get it”.

This is not repentance.

Then his heart says: “I need to get the one with food to give me the food – what can I say to him to make that happen?”

                “I have sinned against heaven and against you…”

In Exodus 10:16, the Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron: “‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you” and said they could leave Egypt.  But it took fewer than 5 verses for him to change his mind again.

The parallel “I have sinned against heaven and against you” is not repentance either.

Finally, his heart says: “I don’t want to be his son, because I don’t love him”.  (The son didn’t love his father when he left; there’s no way he’s going to start genuinely loving him for who he is while they’re not in each other’s company).  He goes on: “But I don’t want to be his slave either, because I’ll still be beholden to him.  If I am a hired servant, I will get food, lodgings, and pay, and I can leave again when I want.”

This is not repentance either.

So, whilst he has turned around and gone back to his father’s house, he has not yet repented.  Let’s go back to the parable, and the son’s return.  What happened next must have thrown the son into some confusion.  He is prepared for, at best, a cold reception, an assigning to quarters, and a handing over to a manager to be given his orders.  Instead, and “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 round him and kissed him.”

… Slightly disconcerting, given how the son had treated him; still, the boy had his speech ready, so he launches into it:

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But, before he can finish what he’d planned to say, his father has called his servants - not to give the son his marching orders, but…:

· to clothe him in his father’s “best robe”, covering his pig-sty stinking shame;
· to put his father’s “ring on his finger”, taking him back as his son;

· and to put “sandals on his feet”, distinguishing him from the hired servants.

He doesn’t stop there: kill the precious “fattened calf” - reserved for special, whole-village festivities - and we shall celebrate the return of the boy, and his restoration as son.

… This is where the son’s repentance truly begins, when he sees, hears, feels, and tastes his father’s love for him, even after a lifetime of his own cold-heartedness towards his father.

6.          Rejoicing

I wonder what those celebrations would have looked like?  Lots of people feasting on the fattened calf, certainly – but what else?

                                                                      

Back in verse 10, Jesus says: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’”  Do you see who is rejoicing here?

“There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God”.  Who are the “angels of God” in the presence of?

The angels of God … are in the presence of God!  It is God, himself, who is rejoicing!

What does that look like – God rejoicing?  Well, a glimpse has been given back in Zephaniah 3:17:

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you; in his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.’”

This “Mighty Warrior” will open His mouth and throat and lungs and serenade us, His beloved.

When we lift our voices to sing praise and worship in honour of God, we are not doing a new thing, or an idea that we came up with – we are just responding to what God has been doing ever since He first saved us!

So, on that note (if you’ll pardon the pun), let’s sing a song to God now!  [Break to sing “There Is A New Song” or “Amazing Grace”]

7.          The Other Son

Now, remember, there were two sons, and there were two groups of people Jesus was talking to.  We’ve spent a lot of time on the younger son – the rebel who walked away from his family home, separating himself from his father.  But what about the elder son?

In the beginning of the story, both sons are given their share of the inheritance, revealing that the father is as good as dead to both of them.  But isn’t the elder son still dutifully serving his father?  He seems to think so: “Look!  All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders”  And yet this complaint also reveals something else about the elder sons actual, real relationship with his father – it is one of a slave, not a son.

He has not accepted all that he has been given by his father: “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends”!  But, back in the beginning of this parable, the father “divided his property between them”.  All that was the father’s was divided between the sons.  When the younger son took off, all that was left behind belonged to the elder son … which included the fattened calf the younger son was, at that very moment, enjoying.

What’s more, the elder son had the added benefit of having all this and having his father still alive and well and living with him – a father who willingly gave his sons what they asked for despite the hatred he was shown, and the pain he must have felt as his younger son left home.  On top of all that, the father was still actively managing the estate, but now, of course, he was doing this for his elder son, as the estate was now in his name.

The elder son literally could not have been given anything more by his father.  And yet the elder son chose to see his father as a slave driver.  His mind had been blinded indeed.

8.          Two Sons

So, what about this elder son?  This is where it is helpful to remember to whom Jesus was telling these parables.

Remember?  “Tax collectors and sinners … Pharisees and the teachers of the law”?  He was addressing both.

The tax collectors and sinners were, collectively, the younger son.  They were the brash, rebellious types, who openly took the gifts of God and turned their backs on him, seeking to get as far away from him as possible.

But the Pharisees and teachers of the law were, collectively, the elder son.  They lived in the “house of God” but chose to see him as a slave-driver rather than a father, fostering a hatred for him in their hearts.

… And yet, how does the father respond to each of them?

To the younger son…:

· he “ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him”;

· he put the best robe on him, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet;

· and he hosted a feast of his very best produce and celebrated.

To the elder son…:

· he “went out and pleaded with him”;

· then he reminded him of his own status as his son: “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours”;

· and finally – in contrast to the slave driver caricature - he revealed his fatherliness: “we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

9.          What then?

We are not told what happens next, but questions are left hanging.

Can you identify – in any parts of your life – with the younger son?  Are there parts of your life that you steal away from God?  Do you take his good gifts, and run away to squander them in the pig-sty?

And, do you think that He will not now take you back as His child?  Remember, He is filled with compassion for you; and He runs to you while you are still far off, thinking about what you might have to say to Him.

He has His own robe ready for you to wear before Him; for you - if on repenting you turn back to Him - are clothed in Christ.  There is no unclean stench of pig-sty shame to offend your Father.

What about with the elder son?  Can you identify – in any parts of your life – with him?  Are there parts of your life that you acknowledge are from God, but you take them grudgingly, carrying out tasks or jobs joylessly, and with no passion or interest – just doing them because you think you will get something from God in return?  Or do you strive to earn the love or respect of God – or others in the church – by your own merit?

Remember, He is your Father, who loves you like his Firstborn.  All He has is yours, and all He does is for you and on your account.  He is ready to feast with you any time you want.  And He longs to work side by side with you.  Don’t block Him out, and don’t think of Him as anything less than your father.

10.       The Morning After

Can you imagine the morning after this parable?

The repentant son gently wakes from the best sleep he’s had in months to the morning sun streaming through the curtains of his own bedroom, and the sound of his father, down in the kitchen, whistling some vaguely recognisable tune, slightly off key.

The smell of fresh coffee lures him out of bed and he realises he’s still in his father’s best robe.  He looks down at his finger, and sees his father’s ring at its base.

He goes downstairs and, seeing his father loading up a plate of eggs, he croaks: “Morning … Dad!”

His father turns to him and smiles: “Ah, there you are – just in time for brekkie!”  He puts the plate in front of his son: “I thought I’d let you sleep in a bit - last night was …”  He gets a little misty-eyed “…something else, wasn’t it?”

The son sits down: “Yes … I … Dad, I just want to say, again, that I’m really sorry for…” but his father interrupts him: “That is all in the past; there’s nothing more to be said - it’s a new day … now eat your eggs!”

After a little while of eating in silence together, the father says: “so, what do you want to do today?”

The son thinks for a while – about all that is now his, and about all the time he now has:

“I don’t know, Dad … what do you want to do today?”

…Let’s pray:  Our Father in heaven, help us to repent of our thinking of you as anything less than our Father – you, whose love we can only thinly imagine as we hear this parable.  Help us to live, today, in the knowledge that all that is yours is already ours, and that we have an eternity to enjoy your gifts with you.  My Father, what do you want to do today?  Amen.