Episode Transcript
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Half last week. Will cover the
second half this evening, Lord Willing,
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but we'll go ahead and read the
whole parable again so that it is fresh
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in our hearing. So, Luke
Fifteen, beginning in verse eleven, this
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is the word of the Lord and
he said there was a man who had
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two sons and the younger of them
said to his father, father, give
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me the share of property that is
coming to me, and he divided his
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property between them. Not many days
later the younger son gathered all he had
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and took a journey into a far
country and there he squandered his property and
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reckless living. And when he had
spent everything, a severe famine a rose
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in that country and he began to
be in need. So we went and
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hired himself out to one of the
citizens of that country, who sent him
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into the fields to feed pigs,
and he was longing to be fed with
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the pods that the pigs ate,
and no one gave him anything. But
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when he came to himself, he
said, how many of my father's hired
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servants have more than enough bread,
but I perish here with hunger? I
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will arise and go to my father
and I will say to him, father,
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I have sinned against heaven and before
you I am no longer worthy to
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be called your son. Treat me
as one of your hired servants. And
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he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long
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way off, as father saw him
and felt compassion and ran and embraced him
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and kissed him, and the son
said to him, father, I have
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sinned against heaven and before you I
am no longer worthy to be called your
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son. But the father said to
his servants, bring quickly the best robe
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and put it on him, and
put a ring on his hand and shoes
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on his feet, and bring the
fattened calf and kill it, and let
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us eat and celebrate. For this
my son was dead and is alive again.
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He was lost and is found,
and they began to celebrate. Now
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his older son was in the field
and as he came and drew near to
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the House, he heard music in
dancing, and he called one of the
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servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, your
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brother has come and your father has
killed the fattened calf because he has received
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him back safe and sound. But
he was angry and refused to go in
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his father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father. Look,
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these many years I have served you
and I have never disobeyed your command.
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Yet you never gave me a young
goat that I might celebrate with my
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friends. But when this son of
yours came, who has devoured your property
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with prostitutes, you killed the fattened
calf for him and he said to him,
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son, you are always with me
and all that is mine is yours.
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It was fitting to celebrate and be
glad for this. Your brother was
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dead and is alive. He was
lost and is found. You may be
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seated. Is there any virtue in
greed? Is there anything redeeming about an
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intense desire for something that you don't
have, or an intense desire to work
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for something that you don't have enough
of? Is there any virtue in that?
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Is there anything good about greed?
Well, in one thousand nine hundred
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and eighty seven, Oliver Stone put
out a film called Wall Street. I'm
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not sure if you are familiar,
but if you are, you'll remember Michael
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Douglas played a role in that film, which won an academy award, and
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one of the reasons by a want
an academy awards. Some say it's because
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of this famous speech in the movie
titled Greed Is Good, and Michael Douglas,
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who plays Gordon Gecko, says this. Greed, for lack of a
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better word, is good. Greed
is right, greed works, greed clarifies,
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cuts through and captures the essence of
the evolutionary spirit. Greed and all
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of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love knowledge,
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has marked the upward surge of mankind. Now, in a way, Gordon
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Gecko here, played by Michael Douglas, perhaps crassly so, paints a picture
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of the capitalistic, free market spirit
that we have in our country, doesn't
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he again, maybe crassly so,
but this is a picture of the American
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spirit, and I don't don't necessarily
say this critically. There has been great
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social benefit from those who have longed
for something that they don't have and have
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been willing to work hard to get
it. We have seen great societal progress
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because of this idea. Whether you
want to call it greed or not,
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this is kind of built into our
system. Well, as lively as a
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discussion as we could have this evening
about economics in the civil sphere, that's
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not my aim. I want to
consider economics in the Kingdom of God as
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we continue to move through the parables
of Jesus, where he is speaking about
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the economics of the Kingdom of God
and how one acquires position within God's kingdom.
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Then I want to consider these ideas
as we look at the parable of
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the Prodigal son, specifically the second
half and this other producal you could say,
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and the older brother will continue calling
the parable of the prodigal son the
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parable of the gracious father. I
do think that that might be a more
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fitting title for the parable and will
do so this evening, thinking of it
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in two different categories. And again, I by no means mean to be
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provocative, but are two categories for
this evening are free market legalism and divine
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welfare. Again, the ideas not
to be overly provocative but to consider some
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things in terms that we are familiar
with, and so bear with us this
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evening is as we consider the parable. I want to consider two other things
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as we walk through this text and
I want to kind of give them to
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you up front so that you can
be thinking about them specifically about what legalism
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brings. One it is it separates
us from God, and I want to
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see that in the text. So
they want. It separates us from God,
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but also it separates us from the
family that God has called us to,
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and those are the two things that
I want to consider as we walk
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through our text for this evening.
So let's jump right in. Point one.
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Free Market legalism. Now, the
older son was in the field,
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our section begins with and right off
the bat this is a fairly pregnant phrase.
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There's a lot of meaning here.
This older son, though, seemingly
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closer to home than his brother,
at least before he came walking down the
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driveway smelling of pigs. He seems
to be close to home, doesn't he?
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But this says that he is in
the field, not in his home,
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but hard at work. Interestingly,
the younger brother had also found himself
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in a field. Out of desperation, he hired himself out to be the
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slave of a pig farmer. Well, now this older brother, certainly in
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a more dignified servitude, also finds
himself and a field, this time placed
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there out of his own sense of
duty, and he hears music and dancing,
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the last thing a good legalist wants
to hear. Right, a party
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going on in the distance, and
he certainly despises these things, being the
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legalist that he is. I saw
a quote this week that was referring to
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certain folks within the reform community saying
that they were marked by a grave concern
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that somebody somewhere was having a good
time. And I hope that's not true
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about the reform community, but perhaps
that's true about this older son. He
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is concerned about music and dancing.
Well, if we think about it,
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this concern and the fact that he
has heard this music and dancing from a
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distance in and of itself is a
sign of his estrangement. No doubt the
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entire household is aware of this party, I mean the the father has hired
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a band or someone to create music. They they didn't have a Jewbox.
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The fatted path has been killed,
the barbecue is going, people are already
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dancing and the only person that doesn't
seem to be aware of the celebration is
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his very brother, this older son, who is at work out in the
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field. He is certainly astranged from
the family. I think these details are
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important. If we'll recall from the
introduction to this parable as we talked about
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last week, the contexts is that
that Jesus is talking to who? Pharisees
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and scribes, right, and they're
they're angry that Jesus is hanging out with
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sinners and tax collectors. Well,
those are the people in society that would
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seem close to God, right.
And yet what we find is that they
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are actually far, far off from
the father and they have no idea about
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God's program to come and to seek
and to save those who are lost.
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It is those scribes and Pharisees who, those seem to be close to home,
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are themselves estranged from the celebration.
They are far off from the family
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of God. I think this is
a reminder for us to consider that there
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is no such thing as Loner Christians. It is impossible to be far off
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from the family of God and be
close to God. To be called to
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Christ is to be called to a
family, it's it's to be called to
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his church. And one of the
issues that we find with legalism is as
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certainly the legalism that we find in
the Pharisees is not only does it provide
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them with an improper theology of how
to be right with God, but it
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totally separates them from God's community,
those who God is calling to be part
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of this divine salvation that he is
bringing through his son. legalism is isolating,
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because when we have the idea that
we are better at law keeping,
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which is precisely the idea that the
Pharisees had, seems to be as well
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move on the idea that this older
son has. We will always judge others,
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won't we? We distance ourselves from
others in our very law keeping,
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or at least our perception of law
keeping. And the case of this brother,
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though, again I'm not against law
keeping, but again we're talking about
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the economy of the Kingdom and meriting
something before God and oftentimes I think we
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can get in the rat race right
in church about trying to position in ourselves
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to look like better lawkeepers in the
next guy, and it's not a great
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way to build community, is it. It will always separate us, as
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it has with this older brother.
So the father comes out, this loving
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father that we met last week,
and he entreats his son, he compels
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his son to come to the party, he urges him. But what is
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the son's response? Look, he
says not even calling his father father.
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He totally skips the title, unlike
his younger brother. He says, these
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many years, I have served you
and I never disobeyed your commands, yet
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you never gave me a young goat
that I might celebrate with my friends.
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First of all, does he really
believe this that he has kept all of
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his father's commandments, as he really
all that great? Well, what I
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think is going on here is precisely
what we had just spoke of, that
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instead of looking at his father's commands
and keeping his and considering his own law
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keeping in light of God's perfection and
light of God's holiness, who does he
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compare himself to? Well, that
brother who's horrible at lowkeypink. I mean
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that's exactly what goes on here.
He says, I've never disobeyed your commands,
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while that son of yours devoured your
property with prostitutes. Sure, compared
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to the lawlessness of the younger brother, he looks pretty good. Well,
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has brought brother Skip town with his
dad's cash. This dutiful son has been
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working since his youth, laboring in
the family fields, obeying the commands of
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his father. A dead giveaway of
a legalistic spirit, as when we compare
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our behavior to the behavior of others. It's a dead giveaway, and it's
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what we do when we want to
look good. We don't compare ourselves to
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God's perfect righteousness, as we should, as we are called to do.
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We compare ourselves to the really bad
centers, or at least the ones who
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send differently than we do, the
addicts, the murders, the adulterers.
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I mean, looking at a drunk
makes us feel a lot better about our
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gluttoness tendencies, doesn't it? Considering
a murderer takes the staying off of our
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hatred for others. How we speak
about others, how we speak to others.
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Putting the spotlight on adulters allows our
own lust and covetousness to hide in
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the shadows. This is how a
llegalistic spirit operates. It never compares itself
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to the holiness of God, but
the law keeping, or lack thereof,
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of those around us. Well,
I want to consider something else that's interesting
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here. What is it that this
son wants out of his law keeping?
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Well, it seemed that he does
not long to celebrate with his father and
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family, does it? If you
want to do that, he could go
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to the party. Well, what
it indicates here is that he wants to
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get a piece of his dad's wealth
to celebrate with his friends again. He's
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not overly interested in being part of
the family. It would seem here that
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this hard working legalist is really after
the same thing his worthless little brother is.
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He's just chasing his father's wealth and
a far more dignified way, and
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a lot of ways he's chasing it
in the American way, something that we're
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steeped in, something that I think
we have to be aware of when we're
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considering who we are before God,
hard work, delayed gratification, meritocracy,
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the idea that we can merit our
position in life by hard work and ingenuity.
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That's what this guy is living for
right I mean in a lot of
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ways, depending on how we measure
commendability, his behavior is commendable a hard
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worker. Before we continue, and
when I want to jump over to the
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book of Romans for just a moment
and and consider Romans chapter ten, because
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I think it does give us some
help here in considering and theological terms what
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seems to be going on. The
Romans tend beginning in and verse one,
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Paul is considering this idea about how
how it is that the Jews have not
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reached righteousness before the God, before
God, all while gentle gentiles who have
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squandered God's law are declared righteous.
How can this be? Will in this
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section Paul is answering this question and
he says in Verse One of Chapter Ten.
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They, the Jews, have a
zeal for God, but not according
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to knowledge. For being ignorant of
the righteousness of God and what seeking to
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establish their own, they did not
submit to God's righteousness, for Christ is
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the pull a nation or the end
of the law, so that there may
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be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Paul, as we know from reading his
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letters, does not to cry hard
work, does he? And then I'm
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not trying to decry hard work either. But when it comes to the Kingdom
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of God, Paul explains the Jews
acted ignorantly by seeking to establish their own
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right standing before God. They missed
the entire point of God's law, that
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it would point people to Jesus,
that Jesus is the end of the law,
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that Jesus is the CULM nation of
the law, and by faith,
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and faith alone, and him,
righteousness is then given as a gift to
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all who believe, to all who
confess the name of Jesus, as Paul
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will go on to say. Well, considering the older brother. Look,
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these many years I have served you
and I have never disobeyed your command,
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zealous for the law. Yet you
know, you never so much as gave
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me a young goat that I might
celebrate with my friends. The son is
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working his tail off for an inheritance
that is already his. He himself is
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like his younger brother, squandering the
good gifts of the father, not by
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spending them on prostitutes, but pretending
like he must merit them instead of simply
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receiving them. See that the brothers
aren't that far off, are they?
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In a lot of ways. In
the case of the older brother, his
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greed looks like hard work, it
looks like, as Gordon Gecko said,
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the evolutionary spirit, it looks like
the upward serge of mankind, hard work,
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make yourself, pull your up,
yourself up by your your bootstraps and
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do something working in order to make
a name for yourself. And though these
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things certainly have merit, and this
earthly kingdom, this type of free market
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legalism is we're calling has no benefit. And the Kingdom of God at least
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in trying to merit our position before
God. In fact, as will find
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from the book of Romans, it
turns out to be damning, and I
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think we need to be careful of
this, because we're steeped in this spirit,
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aren't we? In some ways it's
good, in some ways it's helpful,
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but but if we import this into
our theology of you, of right
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standing before God, it can be
very, very dangerous. In the economy
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of the kingdom there is no free
market legalism, there's only divine welfare,
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and that'll be what we consider in
the second part of this parable divine and
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welfare verse. Thirty one. Let's
look together and the father said to him
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son. This word used for son
here is a pretty intimate word, even
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though this older brother would not even
refer to his dad as father. The
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father comes to him and says child, my child, you are always with
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me and all that is mine is
yours. I mean, I think if
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I was writing this, a rebuke
would be fitting here, right. I
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think if it was me I would
say, you ungrateful Jerk, you act
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like a slave. When you'RE A
son. You work your tail off to
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earn what's already yours. What's wrong
with you. But this father is not
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like my father and it's not like
how I do things. He calls him
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child and he comes to him with
grace and kindness. He comes to us
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with grace and kindness. My children, you are always with me and all
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that is mine is yours. You
can't earn my affection or my wealth because
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you are already an heir all these
things, all that I have is already
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yours. What he says here is
literally true. If we remember from last
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week, it says that he divided
his wealth between the two sons. The
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younger son took what he what was
coming to him, and now the whole
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estate already has the older son's name
on it. When he says all that
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he has is yours, he means
it. And yet this son is outworking
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in the field. All that I
have is yours, not because the son
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deserves it, but purely based on
the wealth and love of the father.
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And so with us, as heirs
to the kingdom from a God who is
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pleased to give us the kingdom,
not secured by our work, but purely
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based on our adoption as sons and
daughters of the most high God, from
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eternity past far before we can merit
or demerit anything. Right it is ours
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to receive. The whole estate is
already the brothers. But he slaves in
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the field to try to merit ownership
himself. He squanders the gift by not
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receiving it and he separates himself not
only from his father but his entire family.
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He won't come to the feast.
Stad says, come on in,
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it's a it's a great party,
it is fitting to celebrate and be glad
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for this. Your brother was dead. Your your brother, your blood,
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was dead. He's now alive.
He was lost and is found. And
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then the parable ends. We don't
find out how the older brother response.
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We do find that most of the
older brothers, in the gospel of Luke,
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referring to scribes and Pharisees, do
not repent. In fact, they
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have the father arrested, beaten,
tried, whipped, crucified for his lavish
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tendency towards runaway sons. But Luke
leaves it open for us, doesn't he?
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He lets US consider. Without closing
remark, we get the opportunity for
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a bit of self assessment. So
let's consider. Are you a younger brother,
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a younger daughter, a prodigal who
has spit in God's face and squandered
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his gifts by wasteful living? Are
you an older brother, a legalist who
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has squandered God's gifts by not joyfully
receiving them? Well, the sad truth
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is, we're both. When we
think about it, it seems like we
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can bounce back and forth between the
two fairly quickly. We have all sinned
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grossly against God, we have turned
and we have rejected his good gifts,
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both by squandering them and not receiving
them. I think it's why this parable
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is so relatable. We can relate
to both brothers. What we can't relate
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to is a god, a father
this gracious. He's a lot more difficult
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to figure out. And yet it
seems pretty simple, doesn't it? Well,
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the truth is is that, if
we consider this closely, there is
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a good brother in the parable,
and it's the one who's not mentioned,
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the one who actually kept the father's
command, the one who actually merited the
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father's good gifts. And even though
he merited those good gifts, he selflessly
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set aside all that was rightly his. He took on our lawless living.
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He took on our self righteousness and
he bore them on a cross, bled
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and died that we might feast on
something greater than a fattened calf, his
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very body and blood given for the
full remission of our sins broken and poured
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out on our behalf. And this
feast that we partake of, that we
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partook of this morning, is is
one that looks forward to an even a
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greater feast, the feast that these
chapters in Luke that we've been looking at
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for the last few weeks of all
been pointing forward to. This marriage,
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feast of the lamb, a feast
where God himself is the host and where
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you are at the top of the
guest list, not because you were classy
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enough to make it in yourself,
but because of the grace of the host.
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And won't that be an incredible celebration, a great and true family event
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where we all come on equal playing
field, on equal standing before God and
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his presence, no more having to
think about our standing, to worry about
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it, no longer having to think
about our identity, no longer having to
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doubt whether we're worthy to get in, no longer having to beat ourselves up
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over not following God's law, no
no longer having to compete with others around
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us for position before others in the
father will be in, and won't that
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be glorious? But beloved. As
we look forward to that, don't forget
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that God has given us a foretaste. He has given us a foretaste of
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that day, a celebration with a
group of people, yourself included, who
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no longer has to think about standing
before God, at least on their own
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merits, who no longer has to
make a name for them self, a
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group of people who no longer have
to worry about whether we're going to get
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in or not, who no longer
have to work to the bone for God's
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love. This is that group.
This is that foretaste, this little church
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and this faraway town where God is
present here, giving us a picture of
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that great feast, and it's a
wonderful guest list. Look around, no
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really look around, but to the
person next to you, the person behind
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you. This is the guest list, all people invited for the very same
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reason that God so loved the world
that he gave his only son, that
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whoever, I believe in him,
would not perish but have eternal life.
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What a party, but a celebration. Jesus came into the world to save
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lawless reprobates and legalistic tight wads,
and that's good news for all of us.
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Anyone who would turn to him and
admit I am no longer worthy to
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be called your son, no longer
worthy to be called a daughter, I
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have squandered your gifts through wasteful living
and through worrisome labor. And he comes
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with divine welfare. And it is
only an unders standing this that we are
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truly able to live this life as
Christians, understanding that we're all here for
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the same reason, because God is
gracious and he has shown us that grace
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through his son, Jesus Christ.
Then that's where hospitality comes from. That's
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where all the one another's in the
new testament come out of, not because
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we're trying to step on one another
to earn our way in, but because
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we're already in, because the kingdom
already has our name stamped on it,
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because our name is now united with
Christ's, the King of this kingdom,
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and we are here on equal standing
with sinners of all types, planted firmly
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in the merits of Christ himself,
who has come to seek and to save
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that which is lost, for,
as Paul will say, everyone who believes
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in him will not be put to
shame. And so we labor alongside each
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other, not as those estranged out
in the field, but those laboring is
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part of a kingdom that is already
ours, together alongside each other. And
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we do this because all he has
is ours and because we are his his
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children, his beloved. Let's pray
together.
