The Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 10, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Isaiah
12:1-6 2
Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our text for today is one that is well known
to all of us. The Prodigal Son desires
his inheritance early, takes it, and goes off to the ancient version of Las
Vegas, where he quickly gambles away all his money in what the bible very
kindly calls, “loose living,” a life style our modern society is very familiar
with.
When the money is
gone, the fun ends for the prodigal as well.
His posse of friends runs off when the money is gone. The bars and clubs won’t honor his credit or
let him in the door. He has creditors
filing suit against him. He ends up working
on a pig farm, a profession considered unclean for an Israelite, desiring to
eat the foot that the pigs chow down on.
Rather than wallow
his life away, the son repents, the son trusts in the mercy of his father. With his head hung low, he decides to return
to be a servant for his father, knowing that he will then at least have enough
food to eat. Shamefully he returns. But upon his arrival, his father runs out to
greet him in his repentance, embracing him and forgiving him before he could
even ask for mercy. The fatted calf is
killed, the Father’s feast is set, and the rejoicing begins.
We know, and we
have heard how this is exactly the way our heavenly father deals with repentant
sinners. With mercy. With forgiveness. With blessings and life. The sins of those forgiven by the father are
gone, not even a memory. The prodigals
are welcomed back with grace and forgiveness forever.
But the truth is,
so often we aren’t really the prodigal son are we? So often we are the son who stays behind while
our brother goes off on his sinful path.
We remain behind, certain that our brother the sinner will get what’s
coming to him, while we will be the
favored one who will be blessed. After
all, we’re the ones in church every week.
We’re the ones who listen to God, we’re the ones who obey. Don’t believe it, just look at how much goes
in the offering tray from me, compared to that sinner over there. Look at how holy my life appears outwardly
compared to that adulterer over there.
Look how much better I am. I am
perfect, incomparable to that poor miserable sinner. And as we repeat these words to ourselves, we
truly begin to believe them.
And then that
cursed prodigal returns into our world.
Repentant, desiring mercy, but knowing he deserves none. And as the older brother in our text today,
we want justice. We want fairness! Yes, you can return dear prodigal, but just
know you will always be less than me.
I’ve never strayed as you have.
I’ve never sinned as you have, so get in your subservient place, and bow
down to the holy me. You see, so often,
in our sin, we’re not prodigal, but judgmental.
And while we are
all high and mighty, we’ve failed to notice who the father has shown mercy
to. The sinner. The repentant one. The prodigal who has returned, with a
contrite spirit, and has been forgiven. The
repentant sinner is embraced by the father, and is a son again, same as you and
I.
Instead of having
to earn trust, he is forgiven. Instead
of making penance he is forgiven. Wait a
second God, what gives? Why should he
receive the same treatment as me? Why
should a sinner be treated as a son? Look,
these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. I’ve been a Sunday School teacher, I’ve been
a trustee, I’ve cared for the church, and never have you thanked me. I’ve been to voter’s meetings, I’ve shoveled
and mowed, I’ve done all sorts of work for this church! Don’t I deserve more than one who wandered
away? Don’t I get a bigger piece of the
pie? Don’t I get more recognition from
God, won’t I be higher in heaven?
These are the same
questions the son asks his father in our text today. Our text says, “he was
angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but
he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never
disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I
might celebrate with my friends. But when this son
of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you
killed the fattened calf for him!’
And the Father,
our heavenly father, answers with compassion, and with truth to us in our
pride. Son, you are always with me,
and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to
celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he
was lost, and is found. What’s God’s is
yours. What’s yours is God. You are a member of the family of God, and
all the blessings of heaven belong to you today, here now. They have been given to you by Christ. You may receive the washing in his
blood. You may eat and drink for
forgiveness of sins. You may eat the
lamb who has been slain.
But you should
rejoice also in your brother’s repentance – and not in your own high and mighty
attitude. Rather, you ought to repent as
well. For you see, you’re no different
than he. Really you’re not. Your sin is as great. You sin is a bad, your sin is as filthy. If you haven’t given away your inheritance
with prostitutes, you have still despised your father and his mercy.
So repent, dear
friends, just as the prodigal has.
Repent of your sin, turn away from them, and despise not the mercy of
your father.
For your Father
shows mercy to you as well. Your father
sent you other brother to secure it for you – no not the prodigal, but a third
brother, the one called faithful and true – Jesus. He is the fattened calf that is slaughtered
for the feast. Your father sent him to
earn mercy for you, to suffer in your place, to grant forgiveness for all sins,
yes, even yours. To give you life in the
face of death, and to destroy the power of Satan in your life. And this he does for you, dear sinful
brothers, by his work on the cross, by his bloodshed, by his death, by his
suffering. He does it for you, dear
friends, so that you may be welcomed back by the father, in peace and in
comfort. He does it, so that your sin
may be forgiven.
You are no longer
a prodigal son – in Christ you are forgiven.
And, dear friends, you are no longer a judgmental sinful son – in Christ
you are forgiven. You are set free in Jesus. You are a true child, in Christ. So come partake of the forgiveness earned in
Christ. Be received into your Father’s
family – hear his words, “your sins are forgiven, in the blood of the lamb of
God who takes them away forever.” This
is your promise. Amen!
