Have you ever lost anything valuable to you before? Perhaps you have lost your keys, wallet or purse, or something even more valuable? [Prompt the congregation for items they have lost]. If you have lost something of value you know the feeling of panic. You know how desperately you search for it.
In all three parables in Luke chapter 15, Jesus talks about losing something. In the first parable a shepherd had one hundred sheep and one wandered off sheep. One lost sheep. The shepherd left the ninety-nine to pursue the one lost sheep, searching until he found it. In the next parable a woman lost one of her ten coins worth a day’s wage, and she searched her house until she found the coin. The last parable which we are focusing on today is the about the lost son, or sons as I am calling it.
The worst thing to lose is ones own child. I have told you stories before of my tendency as a child to wander off when my parents would take me to a store. One time when I was a youngster my parents took me to J.C. Penny around Christmas time and I decided to go out on my own. I became their lost son. Of course I wasn’t lost, but because I wasn’t near my parents they thought I was lost. You can imagine they were terrified because not only was I lost in a large department store, but when I came up missing they were near the entrance to the mall and they were afraid I could have wandered off into the mall. They frantically searched for me until they found me. Why did they search so diligently for me? Because my parents love me.
It is certainly scary when a child is suddenly missing, but what if a child or youth leaves by choice? It’s not a sudden missing person, but they intentionally choose to leave, perhaps out of anger. Maybe some of you have had teenagers who have rebelled and literally walked away, or perhaps you were that teenager who ran away from home. Whether it is by accident or intentional when someone or something valuable is gone I think the loss is just as great.
Jesus told these parables because all of us can identify with losing something important to us at one time or another, and we all know the feeling of anxiety and desperation when something or someone we care about is missing. These parables show us in a tangible way how much God cares deeply about every single person, whether they are already in the household of God, or if they have wandered away and chosen their own path. God cares about his lost children just like a parent who has lost their child. Unfortunately the religious leaders in Jesus’ day apparently didn’t appreciate God’s passion for the lost because they were too busy following his commandments and their own religious traditions to pay attention to what God found important, people. These religious folks got so caught up in the rules and regulations that they failed to appreciate what God was doing around them. In fact they ridiculed Jesus for hanging out with “sinners and tax collectors and sick people” because they were sinful, unclean. Jesus really irked them because he regularly hung out with these people. What they failed to realize was how much God loved these people Jesus hung out, and that he sent his Son Jesus to bring these wayward children home.
Earlier in Jesus’ ministry when he was asked why he hung out with these people he said: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick (Luke 5:31, NIV).
Later in his ministry Jesus said of himself:
NIV Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Younger Brother – the first prodigal
Let’s look at this parable of God’s love for his children. In Jesus’ parable the younger son asked his father for his share of the inheritance. Forget that his father wasn’t even dead yet. He wanted his inheritance right then. In essence he was wishing that his father was already dead. He wanted money more than his father. Some of you parents have probably been in that position before. It’s painful to be rejected by your own child. It would have been extremely disrespectful in their culture for a son to ask this of his father. In fact the father could have had his son punished or even stoned to death for even suggesting something like this disrespectful request. However his father did something equally as incredible, he actually honored his sons request and gave him his share of the inheritance. This would have required selling off perhaps a third of the family estate just to get the funds. The father gave his son the money, no questions asked, no strings attached. Then the son took the money and did what? He left town, and headed for a distant country and squandered his wealth on wild living. We don’t know what kind of wild living this was (although the older brother later made some suggestions), but in any case he lost all the whole inheritance. If that weren’t bad enough a famine hit the land, and the younger son had to become a slave probably working for an unbelieving Gentile slopping the pigs, which was about as demeaning as it could get for a Jew, working for an unclean person feeding unclean animals (pigs). He was so poor and hungry that he even longed to eat the pig’s food.
The son chose to take his inheritance and leave the father, it was his free choice. If you’ve ever had a teenager or young adult child you know they have a mind of their own. So the father let him go. Why didn’t the father go after the son? Unlike the parable of the lost sheep or the lost coin where the owner came looking for what was lost, in the parable of the lost son the father did not come after the son because the son had free choice to leave, and he needed to come back of his own free will.
The parable illustrates that God gives us free choice. We can choose to be his child by his invitation and grace or we can turn away and do our own thing. Unfortunately, as this son discovered, walking away from our heavenly Father frequently leads to destructive behaviors. If we choose that path, God will not interfere, but it doesn’t mean God waits idly by waiting for us either, he continues to work to bring us back.
Fortunately, in Jesus’ story the younger son, in his misery, finally came to his senses, he woke up and realized that even his father’s servants had it better off than he did at that moment. It’s interesting how human nature doesn’t change, frequently we need to hit bottom before we come to our senses. The son decided to come home to his father and apologize for his behavior. He began to rehearse his lines: “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 men.” In other words he truly came to the realization that what he had done to God and his father was wrong. The son recognized his sin, and returned home to repent and ask for his father’s forgiveness.
When we wander from our Father in heaven to follow our own path, at some point we have to realize our own path wasn’t all we thought it would be. We thought following our own path would be fun and exciting, which it may have been, at first, but soon reality hits, and we discover doing our own thing isn’t as great as we thought it was cracked up to be. The choices we make along the way end up hurting someone, whether it is ourselves or someone else. We have to come to the realization that it is much better to be in the Father’s home where even his servants are cared for, while his children are treated with love.
The Love of the Father
The next sentence is probably one of the most powerful verses in all of scripture in describing the love our heavenly Father has for us, particularly his lost children. “While he [the younger son] 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 around him and kissed him.” How could the father have seen his son while he was still a long way off unless he was waiting in anticipation? Every day, for what could have been months or even years, his eyes kept looking down the road longing for the return of his son wondering, “Is today the day he comes home?” [Demonstrate looking down the aisle] One day he saw his boy coming down the road with his head held low in shame yet after seeing him the father’s face lit up, and as Jesus said, he ran to see him. In the Middle Eastern culture it was very undignified for an adult man to run because they had to hike up their robe above their knees, therefore exposing their legs. Culturally this was a no no. But the father didn’t care, he missed his son. He was willing to be undignified and cast off all restraints by chasing down his son, and then embracing him and kissing him.
This my friends is Jesus’ image of how much God loves you and how much he loves each and every person including his lost children, those who are not yet in the family of God or who have wandered from God’s family. He longs for each wayward child to come home so he can shower them with love, and welcome them into his family.
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The father asked for the best robe, ring, and sandals to be put on his feet, all symbols of being accepted back into the family, and he called for a celebration feast by eating the fattened calf, a meal reserved only for special occasions.
If I could say anything to lost children, I would say this based on this parable; God is wild about you and wants you to come home. He wants you to take your place in the family. God isn’t interested in religious servants, he is interested in a relationship with his children. Come home. Come home. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve fallen, if you are willing to admit your sin and “come home” and ask for his forgiveness he will receive you with open arms.
The story wasn’t over though was it?
Older Brother
There was another character in the story, the older brother. While the younger brother took his father’s inheritance and squandered it, the elder son stayed home and was the good boy and did all the right things. He served his father faithfully doing everything he commanded. Yet when his younger brother came home there was a great difference between the father’s response and the older brother’s.
When his younger sinful brother returned, was he overjoyed? No, he was angry, jealous. He was jealous because his little brother who squandered his wealth on God knows what, returned to royal treatment. In fact the younger brother was treated better than the faithful older brother ever had. It just wasn’t fair. He had served faithfully for years and here his sinner brother was treated like a king, given the best robe, the ring, and the fattened calf just because he came home. He accused his father, “You never even gave me a goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” He wanted to have a “pity poor me party,” because the father was willing to lavish his love and attention on the lost son, and he felt cheated.
As Christians we can run into the danger of becoming the older brother. The one who faithfully serves God year after year without question, coming to church, doing ministry in the church, going to Bible study, following God’s commands to the letter, just like the religious leaders in Jesus’ time did I might add, and yet there is no joy because we act more like God’s slave than his son (child). A key indicator as to whether we have made ourselves into a slave is burn out, and having little excitement about God’s activity, such as the lost being found, the sick made well, . If you find no joy in those things then perhaps you have become a slave instead of a child. A child does things out of love for the Father while a slave does it because they have to. If in your heart you don’t really care that 50 kids might make commitments to follow Christ in a week and a half at the Seven Project, or you are afraid it might make our church uncomfortable and different having some of these youth coming to our church. You have taken your status as child and become a slave like the older son. If your Christian faith has become a duty rather joy you have become a slave rather than a child.
But what was the response of the father (v. 31-32), “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’"
The older son had forgotten the joy of living in fellowship with his father and that he had complete access to everything of his fathers. How many Christians forget that when we are a child of God we are adopted into his family and have complete access to everything, including joy, love, and peace?
Gal. 4:5 God sent him [Jesus] to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.
That is a powerful statement people, “everything he has belongs to you.” As God’s children are we acting more like a servant than a son (or child)? Are we claiming everything God desires to give us as his adopted children? The elder son complained because his father had never given him anything like the younger son, but the father reminded him he has access to everything, he could have it whenever he wanted if we would have only asked. Jesus said, “ask and you will receive.”
Conclusion
Have we become the older son? Burned out, without joy, angry over the wayward children getting more attention from God or the church than we are?
To both the older son and the younger God is telling you come home my child…come home. Everything I have belongs to you, will you ask and receive it?
