Hollywood Endings
Luke 15:25-32
How many of you like Hollywood endings when you go to the movies? You know, the joy-filled, love engaged and relationship mending that leaves you with a warm, feel-good heart and smile on your face? The problem is, life doesn’t always give us a Hollywood ending. Sometimes, life gives us a plot twist that we don’t see coming: the good guy doesn’t win, the problem doesn’t get solved, the bad guy isn’t going to get what’s coming to him. Sometimes, we want a Hollywood ending in life and we don’t get one.
This is the problem with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son asked for his inheritance early which in effect is saying to his father, “I wish you were dead!” He went to Vegas where it was was laissez les bon temps roulez. He went broke and was starving, but eventually came to his senses and returned to his father. He asked him for forgiveness and was received with grace and open arms. A broken family was reunited and if this story were a movie, the music would cue and everyone’s happy as the credits roll. But that’s not how it ends. There’s a plot twist that no one saw coming. There are three things we learn from the older brother.
First, he lost his joy. The older brother was angry at his younger brother and why shouldn’t he be? His younger brother had hurt their father by his actions and he left to go have a good time while the older brother remained behind as the faithful son laboring each day. But what did the father do? He received his wayward son with open arms. The word “received” in Greek word is “hygiaino” - where we get our word hygiene. It’s used to translate the Hebrew word “Shalom” which means peace. “So when it says, “The Father received him,” it means “The Father offered peace between them.” This is what made the older brother mad. The brother who squandered his dad’s money would be allowed into this family again. And to add insult to injury, they are actually pulling out all of the stops and throwing a party for him.
Let me ask you a question: are you happy when great things happen to others? What if it happens to them and not to you? We’re in the middle of appointment season in the UM Church where pastors are assigned to new churches. Ministers watch the announcements for who gets appointed where and there is always conversation about who deserved what and who didn’t. Behind it all is jealousy. They got a raise or a larger church and you didn’t, and whether they deserved the church is immaterial. We can lose our joy when good things happen to others if we don’t celebrate them. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15) It’s not that hard to weep with those who weep. We can hug them, pray with them, cry with them and be with them. But I’ve learned that it’s harder to rejoice with those who rejoice. It’s an older brother problem. When we can’t rejoice with those who rejoice, it’s because we think we deserve more. We started to think that because of our good deeds and faithfulness that God owes us something. We start to believe because we’ve been keeping the rules that we deserve to be blessed. And it kills our joy because the only joy we experience in life is when good things happen to us and we miss out on celebrating when good things happen to others.
Second, the older brother lost his focus. The older brother gets caught playing the comparison game. Instead of rejoicing that his brother came home, he was angry. All he could think is, “My brother lived wildly and my dad received him back. I’ve been here this whole time doing the right thing and there’s no benefit.” Have you ever noticed that when we compare what we have with what others have, we always pick out someone who has more than us. If we’re feeling sorry for ourselves and believing that we are deprived, we always pick out the family that has more. We say, “Why do the Jones’s have 2 cars, and they’re both Lexus’s and their house is a ½ million dollar mansion.” We fail to consider how many in this world have less than we do. One of the surest ways I know of to make yourself miserable and discontent is to start comparing yourself with others because you can always find someone who has more.
And this is what the older brother does. The comparison game focuses on what we don’t have rather than what we do have. In other words, we lose their focus. Instead of thinking, “I’m blessed to have a gracious father,” he compares himself to his brother. Nothing good comes out of comparing yourself with someone else! Comparing does one of two things: you either get depressed because you don’t measure up or you’re filled with pride because you’re so much better than the other person. Neither serves you or the purposes of the kingdom.
But here’s what we don’t realize. When I’m envious and jealous of others, my problem isn’t with the person who has what I want. My real problem is with God because we say God is the one who causes good stuff to happen to people who don’t deserve it as much as we think we do. God could have blessed us with that promotion or that raise or a nicer home. When we start to believe our faithfulness and obedience will bring blessings in our life and remove our pain and sufffering, then we’ve lost our focus. We see this attitude when people start coming back to church and they expect God to make life easier, lessen their pain and solve their problems. And when you think about it, that’s crazy. If anyone deserved to have an easy life, it was Jesus. Look at what he gave up to come to earth: his royalty, his kingdom, his divinity, the confines of heaven and all those singing his praises and serving his needs. If Jesus had to deal with all of the problems and pain and betrayal and suffering in life, why do we think we’ll be exempt?
Paul understood that following Christ didn’t make life easier. In fact, he came to understand that following Christ meant that there might even be more suffering, pain and disappointment in life. It’s how we can know Jesus even more intimately and powerfully in our lives as we share in his sufferings. Paul put it this way: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Philippians 3:10 He would go on to say, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5 So we should expect pain, suffering and disappointments in life when we follow Jesus. Paul continues: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you….Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” 1 Peter 4:12-19
And do you know what’s interesting? The older brother did the same thing to his father that his younger brother did. He shamed him with his actions. Culturally, a party like this would be hosted by the older brother. But he wouldn’t go in and celebrate because he wouldn’t rejoice at his younger brother’s blessing of returning home and receiving unmerited grace. So for his father to leave the party to plead with him was an incredibly humiliating for the father - just like the younger brother asking for his inheritance. Here’s the point: My sin on me needs to be forgiven but the sin I see in you needs to be judged. When we lose our focus, we not only miss out on the grace and blessing we need but we also fail to celebrate the unmerited grace and blessings other receive and we miss the gracious, forgiving heart of God completely.
Third, the older brother lost his perspective. It’s about Jesus first and others second and then we’re way down the list. Yet, it’s so easy to follow the message of the culture and make life and everything else about us. We do this in our prayer life when we spend more time asking God for things than listening for what God wants from us. We do this when we serve only when it’s convenient rather than when we are called. We do it when we neglect the call to the tithe and sacrificial giving and instead give only what’s left over at the end of the month because we’re unwilling to really give up anything meaningful to us for God. We do it when we come to worship looking to be fed and filled rather than giving ourselves wholeheartedly to God in worship and emptying ourselves to Him.
The older brother forgot that our standing before God has nothing to do with keeping the rules. We have a relationship with God by grace through faith. He wasn’t accepted and loved by his father because he kept the rules. That’s what he believed and that’s what many Christians believe. They think God loves them because they keep the rules. They attend worship, they’re involved in a Bible study, they don’t lie or cheat or commit murder and so they think they have earned God’s love and deserve his blessing. The Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us that you can be rebellious and lost or you can be religious and lost. The older brother’s obedience to his father was just a means to get what he wanted out of his dad and when his dad didn’t give him the party he wanted, he disobeyed. He obeyed so God will love him and bless him. The Gospel paints another picture - I am accepted and loved by God through the work of Jesus Christ, therefore, I obey. Obedience to God is a response to God’s love, not a prerequisite to attain it.
So why isn’t there a Hollywood ending? Because the older brother thought that he could earn God’s love by keeping the rules. Jesus left us something that was supposed to remind us: it’s not about our performance but His, His finished work on the cross. And for that, we should be eternally grateful and live our lives in gracious response to it.
