Watch this devo on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4vuTf6O_3g
Luke 15 Ok, It’s long but it’s a great read: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015&version=NLT
This chapter contains three parables. We will look at them separately, but they all make the same point in different ways. My prof once told us that, in ancient Hebrew, repetition was a way of emphasizing something. I just want to notice that Jesus gave at least three different parables to illustrate how much it matters to God when someone who is not in his kingdom joins it. Individuals are precious to God. ALL individuals are precious to him. He doesn’t like the nice ones better than the mean ones. He doesn’t prefer the wealthy and refined to the poor or ill-mannered. Through these parables we find some very apt analogies for entering the kingdom of God. The sheep and the coin are found by one who treasured them. The son returns home to a father who runs to meet him when he is still a long way off. Do you ever wonder how God feels about you personally? Jesus is unmistakably clear. You are precious. No matter how lost you were or are, when you repented of trying to live as supreme ruler of your own kingdom, and turned to God to humbly ask for help and forgiveness, he and all of heaven rejoiced.
Look at the picture of the man who has left a large herd of sheep because one has gotten lost. He searches. He carries that found lamb home. He celebrates finding it with his friends. The safe return of a lost lamb is cause for celebration.
I want to cautiously suggest something about verse seven. When Jesus talks about ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent, I think he is being facetious in view of the context of his comments. The Pharisees believe they are righteous and don’t need to repent. It seems pretty clear that Jesus is not affirming that belief. I think when he talks about people who don’t need to repent, he is talking about people who don’t think they have anything of which to repent. People locked in that mind set don’t give heaven anything to celebrate. But when someone recognizes they are lost without God, and when they come under the authority of his kingdom because they recognize their need of him, heaven parties!
The parable of the lost coin paints a similar picture. What I find powerful in this is the diligence and determination with which the woman searches for that coin. That coin matters to her. It’s not just one of ten. She tears the house apart until she finds it. I have seen God pursue people this way. I have asked him to pursue people this way too. If by chance you are someone I love who has not yet believed in Jesus and submitted your life to him, you may as well know, I ask him to hound you. I ask him to pursue you relentlessly until you find peace and fulfillment and joy in him. I’m simply asking him to do what is already in his nature to do. He treasures you. You will always be free to reject his love and his kingdom, but it is always his desire to welcome you into it. And if and when you do, your heavenly father will celebrate with all the angels. I’m not making this up. Jesus said it.
The last of this trio of parables gives us a little more to think about. It is often called the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son, sometimes it is even called the Lost Sons because when we look closely, both sons in this story are lost in various ways. I have also heard a couple of speakers who are well-versed in the culture of Jesus’ day call it the Parable of the Running Father. They have explained that a father running to meet his son would have sounded almost scandalous to Jesus’ hearers. A father was dignified. He was the authority. He didn’t go to you, you came to him. And if you had dishonoured him the way his son had, you came to him with fear and trembling. But this father was not behaving like a first century middle eastern father. He saw his son from a long way off. I imagine him staring longingly down the road many times a day, longing to see his son. And when his son came into view, he didn’t fold his arms and await his fearful approach. He ran to him. He showered him with forgiveness and shocking grace. God’s heart is glad when his children come home, no matter where they have been and no matter what they have done. He loves us and he wants us in his kingdom. It is scandalous. We deserve nothing of the kind, but he showers us with it.
Before we leave this parable, let’s pause with the older son. A lot of us identify better with him. At least we should. We certainly have a lot to learn from him. I’m pretty sure Jesus was hoping the Pharisees would see themselves in him. He also knew I would one day read this story and need to hear it. I was a pretty good kid, a compliant child, a people-pleaser, not unlike the older son. He (and I) pretty much do what we are told and hope the people around us notice our diligence and responsibility. These are generally good qualities to have, but they pair nicely with self-righteousness and judginess. This man had a chronic case of both. He felt he had earned his position in the family by doing his duty. He also felt that his brother was utterly disqualified from his. But here’s the thing, being someone’s son isn’t a job you can get or a position you can lose. When the father decides to throw a party, he doesn’t celebrate that the son who had abandoned and disrespected his family was becoming a son again. He celebrated that he had been dead and was alive again. When that boy left his home taking his father’s inheritance, there was a death in the family. But it was still in the family.
And the elder son didn’t earn his position or inheritance. He was the firstborn son. His father’s property and title would pass to him no matter how hard or how little he worked. He was born to his position. He didn’t earn it. The father loved his sons, not on the basis of their performance, but on the basis of their heritage. They were his sons. He loved them. He no doubt appreciated the hard work of the eldest and was crushed by the rebellion and rejection of the younger, but he loved them both. They were his sons. Just in case I haven’t driven this point all the way home, let me overtly state the connection. If you believe in your heart (the part of you that changes the way you feel and think) that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, you are a child of God. You can’t earn it, you can’t escape it. You are his. How you respond to that truth will govern the quality of your relationship with your father, but it doesn’t change your identity. What I sometimes fail to think about when I read this passage is how this truth applies to the older son. He was his father’s son. But do you see how he characterizes the relationship? He says, “I slaved for you.” I think he missed out on the joy of his position. Why didn’t he have a party? Why didn’t he enjoy the privileges of being his father’s son? He was the eldest son and heir of what appears to be a very wealthy and influential family. But he was living the life of a bitter slave, as though serving his father was a mundane duty instead of a privilege that was preparing him to manage a rich inheritance.
I may need a few moments this morning to pause and examine my own heart. Is my relationship with God and my service to him based in duty or privilege? Do I obey grudgingly to earn his approval? Or do I follow him like an adoring daughter who just wants to be like her daddy? Do I delight in the fact that I already have access to his table? I don’t have to earn it. I’m already welcome.
It’s worth remembering that you don’t have to wander far from home to squander and reject God’s kindness.
