Sunday, June 15, 2008: Lost and Found

Lost and Found
Luke 15: 11 – 32

I. Introduction.

Luke 15 is a very familiar passage of Scripture to many people. But there is a danger in becoming too familiar with something. The danger is that something can become so familiar that we can become desensitized. The initial “shock” of experiencing something for the first time tends to wear off the more times we experience it. For example, it was before my time, but do you remember hearing about the initial shock around the country when profanity was first used in the movies? And now, there is so much profanity in movies and even primetime TV that we are no longer shocked. Or, I can remember the first time I ran barefoot across my grandparents’ gravel driveway. I didn’t understand why it hurt. But, over time, I got used to the gravel, and it no longer hurt my feet.

In much the same way, when we are exposed to things repeatedly, we become desensitized. We can become desensitized to worldliness and sin. But we can also become desensitized to the stories and teachings of the Bible.

And I think Luke 15 has lost its “shock-value.” This is a story that we have heard so many times that it doesn’t shock us anymore. We know the ending before we even start reading the story. But when Jesus told this story for the first time, no one knew how it ended. Well, they knew how it was SUPPOSED to end, but they were SURPRISED by what Jesus said. I want you to join me as we attempt to hear this story as if it were the first time. Let’s listen to Jesus’ words…And let Jesus surprise us.

Read Luke 15: 11 – 32.

We normally refer to this passage as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But do we really know what that means? The word “prodigal” is not a word that use in everyday conversation. But since I grew up hearing about the “Prodigal Son”—and since the Prodigal Son ran away from home—I naturally assumed that “prodigal” meant runaway. But I looked up “prodigal” in the dictionary. Did you know that “prodigal” actually means “wasteful?” So we have the “Parable of the Wasteful Son.”

And that made me wonder…Did Jesus really tell us a parable about a wasteful son? I don’t think that was the main point at all. In fact, if you read the first words Jesus spoke, I think Jesus tells us what the parable is all about: “There was a man who had two sons.” Jesus did NOT say, “There was a son who wasted his inheritance.”

I also think it is important to read this parable in its context. This is the third and final in a series of stories Jesus told about being lost and found. First, Jesus told a story about a good shepherd who paid a great price to search and find his one lost sheep. Second, Jesus told a story about a woman who paid a great price to find a lost coin. Finally, Jesus told a story about a father who paid a great price to find and forgive a lost son.

The story begins when the younger of two sons asked his father for his share of the family inheritance while the father was still alive. This is the first place where we have lost the initial shock of the story. For a son to ask for his inheritance while his father is still living is like saying, “Dad, I can’t wait until you are dead. In fact, I wish you were already dead, so I could have your money.”

In the ancient world, the oldest son would receive twice as much of the family estate as the rest of the sons. So, if there were two sons, the younger son would receive one-third of the estate. And the father gave it to him.

In verse 13, we read that the young man “got together all he had.” More than likely, this is an expression that means he converted everything to cash. He took one-third of the land, one-third of the cattle and one-third of the family valuables and sold it all to the neighbors.

Then, the young man took all of his cash and “squandered his wealth in wild living.” We don’t know exactly how to interpret the phrase “wild living.” The older brother assumed that his brother had been engaged in an immoral lifestyle—and that may be true. But “wild living” could also mean simply wasteful living, or a prodigal lifestyle.

Eventually this young man had spent everything—lost the family fortune. And it was at just that time that a severe famine came to the land where he was living. The son had no choice but to hire himself out as a common servant feeding pigs in a foreign land. Now, as you can imagine, this was the worst possible state a Jewish man could find himself in. Gentile country, broke, feeding pigs and so hungry that he waited every day for whatever food was left over when the pigs finished eating. Yet, even at this lowest possible state, he was not beyond his father’s love. Even when he came home smelling like a pig, his father welcomed him home as an honored guest.

In fact, when the son finally came home, the father killed the fatted calf. This was a big deal in the ancient world, because they weren’t like us. We eat meat every day, sometimes three times a day. Some of you are probably on the Atkins Diet, and all you eat is meat! But in Jesus’ day, meat was reserved for special events.

Have you ever wondered where this fatted calf came from? Of course, it came from the family farm. But remember what happened at the beginning of the parable. The father divided everything between his two sons. The younger son sold everything he had and wasted the money in a foreign land. So, everything that remained on the family farm ultimately belonged to the older son. This was the older son’s calf. No wonder he was so angry when he heard about the party. My brother is eating my calf!

The older brother was so angry that he disowned his family. Look at what he said in verse 30: “…this son of YOURS…” “He’s not MY brother…He’s YOUR son.” The brother even refused to go to the banquet. This is what sets this parable apart from the other two parables Jesus told. This is not a story about a father who lost ONE son. This father lost BOTH of his sons. It is possible for us to be lost in a foreign country, and it is possible for us to be lost without ever leaving home. Both sons turned their backs on the love of their father. One turned his back by leaving home and living a wild lifestyle. The other turned his back by being angry and self-righteous. I believe this describes the sins of Christian people and non-Christian people…church members and non-church members.

But notice the father. Normally, the father would just ignore his sons anger, go back to the banquet and deal with him later. But not this father, and not on this day. The father wanted both sons and the whole family together for the celebration. So he went out onto the porch searching for his lost son. The father treated both sons equally. Both sons disowned their father, and the father searched for both lost sons.

II. The Father Paid the Price for Forgiveness.

The original audience was very familiar with Jewish laws and the consequences required of a son. A Jewish son who lost the family fortune to Gentiles was to be “cut off” from his people. There was even a ceremony where the guilty son was brought before the entire village. They would take a large, clay jar filled with burnt corn and nuts. The jar was then held high in the air and smashed on the ground as the village declared, “This person is forever cut off from his people.” From that moment on, the family and village were to have absolutely nothing to do with this person as long as he lived.

But that is not what happened in this story. No. The father waited and watched for his lost son to come home. He probably stood at the town gate everyday, knowing and hoping that his son would one day appear on the horizon.

I don’t think we can overemphasize this point, because this is the Gospel! In verse 17, we read that the young man “came to his senses” and decided to go home. This is only half of the story. It was not enough that the son “came to his senses.” He had a father that loved him and wanted him to come home. This father was willing to pay whatever price was necessary to have his son again.

Most fathers would have done what was “acceptable” by disowning his son and forcing him to suffer the consequences. Everyone would understand. But this father had no interest in doing the “acceptable” thing. Instead, he took all of the pain and dishonor and embarrassment on himself to forgive his son and to welcome him home as a son once again.

Forgiveness always comes at a price. It is always the innocent party, the victim, who must pay the price. God has offered us forgiveness for our sins, but he first had to take the pain and dishonor and embarrassment on himself. It cost God his only Son. Jesus had to become human like us and offer his own life on the cross to pay the price of forgiveness. The innocent party suffered so that we might have forgiveness.

III. The Father Valued Relationships Over Rules.

There was only one character in this story who “played by the rules.” The younger son broke all the rules by asking for his inheritance early, leaving home and wasting everything. The father broke the rules by allowing his son to leave home in the first place and then allowing him to come home again as a member of the family. The older son played by the rules.

The older son kept all the rules to “the letter of the law.” But playing by the rules caused him to break his relationship with both his father and his brother. Sometimes it is wrong to be right!

The father’s actions toward his lost sons show us that he valued relationship more than rules. But don’t misunderstand me here. I don’t think we should completely discard the rules in favor of relationship. We need rules. Without rules we would promote and even encourage others to live sinful lifestyles. But neither do we need to enforce the rules so strictly that all relationships are lost.

But, let me say again that I believe we need rules. Rules give us an accountability to right and wrong. But when we emphasize relationships, we place value on people over anything else, including our desire to be right.

One of my seminary professors was a marriage counselor. He told us a story about a couple who were facing serious problems in their marriage to the point that they disagreed on everything. In counseling them he finally got to a point where he told them, “You have to make a decision. Do you want to be right, or do you want to be married?” This father didn’t want to be right. He wanted his son.

Perhaps we need to strike a proper balance between rules and relationship. I believe the story of Israel is a perfect illustration of what a balance of rules and relationship might look like. God gave Israel his law—the rules for living in this world. Israel continually broke God’s law. Yet, God continued to pursue Israel as his people. They broke the law, and God pursued. That is what the Old Testament was all about: God’s people broke God’s rules, and God continued to pursue a relationship with his people. Ultimately, this story was fulfilled when God took the initiative to send his only Son. God wants us to do what is right. But God gave his Son so that we might have a right relationship. Even when we break the rules, God still wants us in relationship. And God paid the price so that relationship can never be lost.

IV. The Father Was Motivated by Love.

At least five times in the story of the father and his two lost sons, the father acted contrary to the norm of the ancient world. Perhaps the most significant way is that the father showed an elaborate love for both his sons. This was not the traditional role for an ancient father. No. The father’s role was to provide for the physical needs of his family. The mother was supposed to nurture and love and otherwise rear the children. But this father acted more like a mother.

We might expect a mother to run out onto the streets of the town to welcome the lost son home. But not the father. We expect the father to remain in the house and make no attempt to initiate contact with him. In fact, the only contact the father would have would be like that of a judge who listens as the son “presents his case” for why he should be accepted back into the family. It was certainly not the father’s place to run out of the house and publicly embrace the one who had sinned against his father and his family. This father did what we would expect a mother to do.

This father was motivated by an intense love for both of his sons. He stood at the door watching for his younger son. He paced back and forth across the porch searching the horizon. He probably even walked to the city gates hoping to catch just a glimpse of his son coming home. And when the son finally did appear on the horizon, the father ran to meet him. He never even allowed his son to enter into the city limits. The father knew that if the son entered the town alone, the people would immediately try to start the proceedings against him. But NO. The father ran, embraced his son, made a fool of himself by kissing him and proudly accompanied him into the city.

Then the father ran out onto the porch in pursuit of his older son. This son who had disowned his own father and brother…And the father ran to him as well. He begged and pleaded for his son to come home. The father was once again watching and waiting and hoping that a lost son would come home.

But Jesus never told us what happened to this older son. Did he ever answer his father’s invitation? Did he go to the family banquet? Did he accept his father’s love? We don’t know!
It’s a story with no ending. It’s a story waiting for us to search for an answer in ourselves. What will I do with this extravagant love from my father who is begging and pleading and waiting for me to come home? What will you do?

V. Conclusion: An Invitation into the Family.

My oldest son, Collin, will be eleven in a couple of months. But when Collin was four, we taught him how to play the game hide-and-seek. You know the game. One person closes their eyes and counts while the others go and hide. When the person finishes counting, they try to find the ones who hid.

When Collin first learned how to play hide-and-seek, he would say, “Daddy, close your eyes and count to 18, and I will go hide behind the couch.” Or, “Daddy, close your eyes and count to 21, and I will go hide in the closet.” Or. “Close your eyes and count to 27, and I will go hide under the bed.” For Collin, hide-and-seek is only fun is he was found. It’s not fun to be lost.

And maybe that is your story this morning. Maybe you are lost, because you have been running away from God’s love all your life. But God is pursuing you. He is standing at the door watching for you and waiting for you to take just one small step to show him that you want to be found.

Or maybe you are already a member of God’s family, but you are just like that older brother. There is someone who ought to be your brother, but you have disowned them. You might even hate them or resent the fact that they can be included in God’s family. Your selfish attitude and self-righteous behavior has put you on the porch—on the outside, looking in. God is pursuing you as well. God is standing at the door pleading with you to come back inside. And God is waiting for you to take just one small step to show that you want to be found.

It’s no fun to be lost. And you don’t have to move to a foreign land to be lost. You may be right here in church this morning. Do you want to be found?