THE SHATTERING CONFRONTATION
Luke 15: 20-24 (p740) July 31, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
On Sunday July 17th Casey Anthony was escorted out of the orange County field in Orlando, Florida at 12:14 am. She was accompanied by her attorney Jose' Beaiz and a police officer with a sub-machine gun. She was rushed to an awaiting S.U. V.
Standing outside the police barriers were a thousand people...including parents with children and a myriad of reporters from every network...
Unless you live under a rock you've heard something about this trial...A young single mother who was arrested for killing her 2 year old daughter Caylee Marie...convicted of lying to police about her whereabouts and not reporting her disappearance for 31 days.
After 6 weeks of trail a jury of 12 declared her not guilty of any of the murder charges...she was sentenced to 4 years of lying to police officers but because of time served and good behavior time she was released just 10 days after the verdict...2/3rds of this nation thought the jury got it wrong.
1000 of them waited outside the police barriers on the night she was released...and as she was rushed to the vehicle that would take her to parts unknown...people screamed "you suck!" Baby Killer...Murderer...LIAR!
They pushed against the barrier...the hatred and anger poured out...the injustice exploded in venom...
I've quit trying to figure out how this story will end...I have no idea what Casey's life will be like...nor the life of her Mom, Dad and brother...But because of that little 2 year old a part of me hopes she's a pariah everywhere she goes.. A part of me hopes she has to run that gauntlet every time she walks out her front door. If she's truly guilty of Kelly her daughter she deserves that and far worse...
a life lived where you are hated everywhere you go would indeed be far worse than prison..or even death.
Verse 20 records these words about the prodigal youngest son in our story...
"So he got up and went to his father. But while he 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."
As the prodigal returns to his village he expects to run the gauntlet...As soon as people discover he's lost the money among the gentiles the "KEZAZAH" ceremony will be enacted....the pot's broken, pieces of clay scattered like his dreams...He will then be obliged to sit outside of the gate of the family home before even being able to see his father.
Finally, when he's summoned..having already been rejected and humiliated by the village, he'll stand before the angry father and be obligated to apologize for everything as he pleads for job training in the next village...probably while his older brother looks on with hatred and distress
Even with the plan he's worked out in his mind...none of this is omitting...each step he draws closer...the dreaded humiliation fills his heart...as he sees the village...and the people in the streets...he prepares himself for "Son of pigs"...."they" "Rebel" "Loses"
But hit isn't what happens, as
I HIS FATHER BREAKS ALL THE RULES
This father breaks all the rules of an oriental patriarch as he runs down the road to reconcile his son to himself.
The word run in Greek (dramon) is the technical term used for the footraces in the stadium. Paul uses it many times in his letters... 1Cor 9:24 says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize."
Luke chooses his words carefully...this is not a slow gallop or a trot..."His father saw him and had compassion and RACED to him."
In the middle East a man of his age and position always walks in a slow dignified manner...no villager over the age of 25 runs. It's pretty safe to assume the father has not raced anywhere for 40years.
But now he races down the road...He's tucked his garment in his belt...'girded his lions" as the saying goes...revealing legs that haven't seen the light of day in decades. Doing this is humiliating...its painfully shameful for him...The gang in the street will forget about the prodigal and turn their taunts on him...Amazed at a respected village elder becoming totally undignified as he races out to his son.
What motivates this shameful display our text tells us...'compassion'.
These actions clearly affirm the deepest levels of what incarnation and atonement mean.
Paul affirms this truth in 2 Cor 5:19 "In Christ God was reconciling the the world to Himself"
John tells us in his gospel that Jesus proclaims "I and the Father are one" John 10:30
This parable show us a father who leaves the comfort and security of his home and humiliates himself before the entire village. It's a costly demonstration of unexpected love...It is exactly what we see on the cross.
Jesus leaves the security and adoration of heaven to endure the humiliation and scorn of the world...there is no greater cause for a few then to be stripped and displayed out on a tree.
Romans 5: 6-8 captures this truth better than any other scripture.
Romans 5: 6-8 (p798)
The father's suffering at the beginning has no effect on the prodigal...he's not even aware of it...A demonstration of the father's suffering must be witnessed by the son....unless this happens the son's callousness will never be penetrated. He'll never realize he is the cause of it...Quite likely he'll gradually take on more and more of the characteristic of his older son. Without this visible demonstration of costly love there can be no reconciliation....
This is the story of how God deals with the sin of the world on Golgotha.
How will the prodigal respond to this outpouring of costly love.
"The Son said to him, "father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (v21)
Stunned beyond belief the prodigal changes his mind and does not finish his speech! the offer to become a craftsman is set aside. He doesn't offer a solution...plan "B" lays crumbling at his feet...
Overwhelmed he places himself completely at the mercy of his father and says "I am no longer worthy to be called your son"
At the beginning of the story he insisted on unhampered control of his own life..."Give me my stuff...I'm 18 and out of here" Now he leaves his destiny in his father's hands...these words that had originally been designed to manipulate are transformed into a speech of genuine repentance.
The truth is...
II THE PRODIGAL ACCEPTS BEING FOUND
Traditional Western interpretation has said the Father interrupted the son and didn't give him a chance to finish his speech.. But it seems more plausible that faced with the incredible event his soul is flooded with the awareness that his real sin is not the lost money, but rather his father's wounded heart.
He is overwhelmed with the awareness that there is nothing he can do to make up for what he's done...
His proposed offer to work as a servant now seems blasphemers...He is not interrupted...he changes his mind and accepts being found....like the lost sheep, and the lost sin...It's here we find the definition of repentance Jesus describes in all three stories.
The shepherd searches for the sheep until he finds it...The woman searches for the coin diligently until he find it...the father humiliates himself racing to his son...not vice versa.
[I sat in my office with Beau this past week sharing about just this truth...] It's God that comes looking for us...that makes salvation and reconciliation possible.
I was 17 years old...a High School drop out more interested in getting high than participating in life...the interactions I had with my parents usually involved anger and guilt...the overall theme of my life was take all I could get from them and as soon as I turned 18...escape their control...for the better part of 5 years I broke their hearts...I lived in the far country...the only time I thought about coming home was when I got arrested or in really deep trouble...
And then 3 or 4 months before my 18th birthday God came running after me...I was burned out...used up...life was just existing, not really living...I'd totaled my car while drunk...I shouldn't have survived the wreck...And for the first time the Holy Spirit convinced my "I was lost"...But God id more than that he sent someone to genuinely show me Jesus...in fact several people...and as I struggled to let go of my old life He made it clearly evident he was right there waiting.
If you have an extra week I'll tell you about the dozens of things He did to demonstrate His compassionate love...but one comes to mind immediately...
I remember the month before I became a Christian I was caught in between two worlds. My old life, my old friends, my old habits---and a new one God was opening...new friends in youth group, Brewster our youth minister, Becky the girl that lead me to Christ... I loved "Bible Rap" at Brewster apartment. I didn't feel guilty after "putt-putt" or "youth group activities...but to say I made the transition easily would be a lie...
And here's my "God running to me story" believe it if you want but its true...I had an old fiat 850 car and whenever I was going to church, youth group or to Brewster it ran perfectly...but when I decided to go to a party or hang out with the old crowd...it broke down...every time...during that time my favorite Rock Group came out with a new album...Boston what was it called, "Don't Look Back"...I believed God was delivering a message in a very unlikely forum...(so you'll know why Tyler plays that song at my funeral)
I didn't run to God...He came chasing after me and I don't know why....yes I know God is Love, yes I know he loves me and you, but does God cause the starter to go out 7 times on everyone's car? Does he do that for everyone? I don't think He does...So why me? Why did Paul have such a powerful encounter on the Damascus Road? Could he have said no to Jesus after wards...sure, but how could he!!! I cannot understand that kind of Grace...pursing grace. You see when the Father observes that the Son has no bright ideas abut how to restore their broken relationship...He takes the imitative.
(Verse 22-24) (p740)
Let's pray
