Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Pharisees rejected Jesus. They believed Him a heretic who presented a false picture of God. Because He welcomed and ate with despised tax collectors and “sinners”, the Pharisees believed Jesus stood for an “anything goes” kind of religion, leading to moral chaos. They totally embraced Jesus when He called all sinners to repentance. But they didn’t think Jesus set the bar high enough to restore sinners to a holy God. For the Pharisees, there has to be something in us, our change, our improvement, our embrace of stricter standards – something that makes us acceptable to God. They might wish that the Father in our parable had the Prodigal son horse-whipped or put on a long probation. After all, the younger son essentially said to his dad, “Drop dead, dad. Give me my money now, I’m sick of you. I want out.” Then this jerk-of-a-son abandoned his father, squandering dad’s money on loose living.
The Pharisees would have thought it was sweet justice to hear Jesus say that the prodigal son or wasteful son had hit rock bottom. They might have even laughed that this boy who scorned God and his family ended up slopping hogs for a living. For a Jew there couldn’t be a more abysmal, unclean job. [Remember pork was forbidden in the Old Testament.] The Pharisees probably thought the young man got what he deserved. They may have looked forward to the father’s rejection when the son returned home. After all, for lack of a better term, the father had been effectively divorced. He had no obligation to help this selfish punk who lost all his money.
Yet, while he was still a long way off, his father spotted him. Apparently, his father never stopped watching and hoping the son would return. Seeing him in the distance, the loving father ran to his son, and before even a word was exchanged he bowled his son over with a bear hug, kissing his cheeks with tears of joy.
Not a word was said. The sorry-excuse-for-a-son didn’t have time to apologize, before the father was squeezing him tightly in his arms overjoyed that the son was now home. The son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Gone is the request to be a servant in his Father’s house. The father’s overwhelming display of love made clear… He would not be a servant, but a son.
Much to the Pharisees chagrin it gets better. The loving father orders an extravagant feast. He clothes his son in the finest clothes and puts the signet ring on his finger, meaning he is a son again – with all the authority and every blessing of sonship in his father’s house. His restoration to His father is complete, undeserved love – grace.
Guess which character represents you and me? Yep… we’re the wandering, wasteful sons and daughters, whom God has called to be His children. I know that’s a bitter pill for us upstanding, church-going folk, but we often live as though we would tell God to drop dead. We live comfortably in our Father’s house on Sunday and spend our week’s eating the pig-slop of the world, living in uncleanness and sin, mired in our world and our preoccupations and selfishness.
The truth is we need to wake up. We can’t live and survive when we’re so filled and bloated with our own self-satisfied goodness. We can’t survive when our pride no longer lets us approach God broken on bended knee. A Christian filled with pride may as well be laying face down in the pig slop. Pride causes us to despise the grace of living under our Heavenly Father’s care. In the end it leads to physical and eternal death.
If it offends you that we are the prodigal son in this story – if it offends to admit that we’re the shameful, wasteful sons and daughters, don’t waste your time denying it’s true. Your Father desperately desires to throw His arms of forgiveness and grace around you and me, welcoming us with tears of joy. He crushes us in His Fatherly bear hug of life-restoring forgiveness and prepares a meal of restoration as we come to His altar to receive Jesus’ very body and blood. By grace, undeserved love, He gives you the ring of sonship and authority in His house. John 1 says, “As many who believe on His name He gives the right to be called children of God.” It’s kind of cool to know God the Father runs to embrace unworthy kids, just like us. 1 Timothy says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves complete acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” You have a great, gracious heavenly Dad.
Now Jesus adds a character to the parable, and contextually the older brother would be the prideful Pharisees, yet I think a lot of times we’re like the older brother, too. We’re like the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who don’t mind restoring the son, but only at a price.
God’s grace truly is amazing, but it also scares us. We’re afraid to let the good news be too good – that God saves sinners, because we think it might lead to tolerance of evil, embracing the disgraceful, degeneracy that our world endorses. We’re almost afraid to really talk about God’s amazing grace, because we’re afraid those living in sexual sin or drunkenness or greed or pride or don’t come to church will delude themselves into thinking they can survive on pig slop. In other words, we’re afraid to give full voice to the amazing, life-changing grace of God, because we’re afraid some will take that as permission to eat from life’s pig trough until they die outside of God’s grace.
Dr. Luther at the time of the Reformation had the same struggle. He was told you can’t preach we’re saved by grace alone for Jesus’ sake alone, because then sinners won’t do good works. They’ll believe God forgives them, so party time! St. Paul faced the same battle when he wrote in Romans 6, “Since we’re saved by grace shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means!” But Luther wisely reminded teachers in God’s Church that some would misuse and abuse God’s grace to their damnation. Some will hear of God’s grace and forgiveness, using it as an excuse to eat pig slop in a far away country – dying eternally outside the house of God the Father. And that’s a risk we must take. We can’t make the Gospel of God’s grace – less amazing by qualifying it with, “Jesus died for you, but you’ve got to do … to be saved”, because then grace is no longer grace.
We preach God’s Law – His unchangeable Law – in all its severity and condemnation of sin and sinners, but when the Law has left me dead, face-down in pig slop the Gospel of grace and free forgiveness lifts us up, cleanses us and gives eternal life. When the Law has convicted us, we point to God the Father who in His incarnate, crucified and risen Son is running to embrace us sinners.
Is it risky to trust the Gospel and preach it alone as God’s answer to the Law? In our own minds, we might like the look of the Church a little better if we were a little harsher, changing hearts through the fear of hell. If we were more like the Pharisees we might have a church we could really be proud of, you know one with fewer sinners. Sounds like a pretty lonely place to me! We think it’s risky to trust the Gospel of forgiveness in Jesus, as the way of salvation. But it’s the only way God the Holy Spirit creates faith, by pointing us to His final, full and free forgiveness.
Will some abuse it? Yes, the same way all good gifts are subject to abuse, but that’s the amazing thing about our Father’s love – He permits Himself to feel the anguish of sons and daughters who say, “Drop dead!” But it doesn’t keep Him from standing at the window watching. It didn’t keep Him from sending Jesus to suffer shame and disgrace and a naked, bloody death on the cross. It doesn’t keep Him from longing for His children to come home to be loved and kissed and fed with the very body and blood of our salvation, as He spreads a feast of life.
Can God’s grace be so amazing? Could God really forgive a broken, addicted mom who neglects her children while she sells her body for sex to buy her next fix? Can God’s amazing grace run to hug a man who bruises and bloodies and nearly kills his own child? Can God’s love really heal those lost in homosexuality or addicted to pornography or living together outside of marriage? Can God’s love really heal the pious, every Sunday church member who thinks he’s saved by his own goodness?
That’s the amazing thing about grace. While we play the part of both brothers in the parable, Jesus as true God became our brother in human flesh to do just that. No sin stands beyond God’s power to restore, because no sin was left unpunished when Brother Jesus died in our place.
In God’s Kingdom there are none better and none worse, only children for whom our Savior died. Our minds limit God’s power to forgive, because we could never bring ourselves to His depth of love, but Romans 8 says, “There is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ.” So the only question isn’t, “Can God forgive me?” It’s, “When will I come home?”
In Christ, the feast of salvation is finished. The robe is ready to be wrapped around you – the same one Galatians 3 said, “As many of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ.” Jesus already paid the highest price to bring us home. The amazing thing about grace is – there’s nothing left for you to do but receive your place in His family.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.