The Prodigal Son

I. The Most Popular Bible Story Ever 00:02

Worthy is the Lamb. Lord Jesus, we do thank you for the cross. We thank you for your love. We thank you that we can stand before you and accept the justification that you purchased for us. Lord, we pray, as we dive into your word, as we listen to the things that you taught us, that you would transform us inside and out. In Jesus’ name, amen.

So today we’re going to talk about probably the most popular Bible story ever. It competes, right? Because The Prince of Egypt brought the Exodus story pretty high up there, and whatnot. But it has so penetrated our culture that it’s normal to hear the word prodigal, which is a weird word. The Prodigal Son story is so powerful, and has been a part of so much of our culture and of shaping the way that we think, that it’s become really central to a lot of the arguments that are had nowadays.

I read this book, and it was really fascinating. Basically, the argument was that we’re having a bunch of arguments between Christians, even if people don’t identify as Christians. And the central idea is that in the Roman world, you didn’t argue about how to feed the poor or how to house the homeless or how to help the sick and dying. Those are the people you didn’t have to worry about. All you had to worry about, pre-Jesus, was the rich and powerful. But Jesus turned the whole world on its head. And he did it not just through his sacrifice on the cross, but also through the stories he told.

And so, when you listen to this story of the prodigal son, our familiarity can sometimes blind us to the radical nature of this story: the idea that a disrespectful, dishonorable, licentious, miserable wretch of a son would be welcomed and embraced without any repayment is mind-blowing. And that’s how the Jewish people he talked to would have heard it. Now, when we talk about it, I’m going to tease out some of the ways it plays in our lives, but I just want to remind us of how earth-shattering this is. The whole world is different because Jesus lived and died and told stories like this.

This is the most famous and popular image of the prodigal son, painted by Rembrandt. Beauty is so essential to how the Christian community has always told their stories. That’s why we have icons all over our church. We have beautiful art because it accesses us in a way that mere words do not. And so I wanted you to just see this for a moment and think about… I mean, would you want to hug that guy? That kneeling, miserable-looking, filthy, smelly swineherd, probably just skin and bones. I mean, it’s just this wonderful image. And you see the hands of the father: there’s this masculine hand and the feminine hand, representing the fullness of God’s love and revelation. There are all these layers of beauty in the art. And so I just want you to have images in your head that go beyond just the words.

II. Give Me the Share of Property 03:45

And so we’re going to dive in with Luke 15, and we’re just going to talk through this story here that you just heard. We start in verse 11. Jesus has just been challenged because he’s eating with the tax collectors and the sinners, those evil, wicked people, and this is the story he tells in reply:

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Luke 15.11–12

In this culture, if you as a son went to your dad and said, “I want my inheritance,” what you were saying (and this is not an exaggeration) is, “I wish you were dead so I could have my money.” Imagine saying that to your dad and meaning it. If I said that to my dad, he’d joke. He’d say, “There is no money.” No, but the point is, it’s hard to imagine the level of brokenness in the relationship here, that this son would go to his father and say something like this. It would have been shocking to hear that, and we should be shocked. Basically: “I wish you were dead so I could have my money.”

III. A Famine in a Far Country 05:08

And then what does he do with the money? We’re furthering the story of this prodigal in verse 13:

13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. Luke 15.13–14

Now, the first principle is: if you squander your property in reckless living, you will encounter a famine. That’s like a rule of the universe. If you spend your money on reckless living, then you will encounter hunger, because money runs out, and your reckless living is going to land you in a bad place.

So basically what happens is the son takes everything he has, and he encounters reality, and he gets broken by reality, because reality will have its say. You can only stave off the emptiness of this living for so long. Truly, what’s happening is he thought what he wanted was going to be found in prostitutes and gambling dens and drinking and all the various ways that he recklessly spent his money. He thought that would satisfy him. And it’s this beautiful spiritual picture: then he encounters a famine. He’s still hungry. In fact, he’s so hungry that he’s dying. What is he hungry for? The word of God. He ran from that which nourishes. In Isaiah 55:2 it says:

2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Isa 55.2

That verse is not about food. It’s about wasting yourself on power, money, pleasure, when only God satisfies. This is a parable. It’s not a historical story. It’s all spiritual. It’s all symbolic. Yes, if you spend your money, you won’t have any food. But even worse, if you spend yourself on that which does not satisfy, you will die. That’s ultimately the wages of sin. It does not satisfy.

And here’s the thing: all sin is a lie. Period. Every single sin that we commit is a promise unfulfilled: “If you do this, you will get this.” And you do this, and you end up with nothing. Sin is that which, when you do it, leaves you hungrier than you were when you started. You do the sin, and then you have to do more of the sin because you’re more hungry, and then you have to do more of the sin. It’s this endless cycle. Sin is that which makes you hungrier after you eat it.

And the son is figuring this stuff out. So he’s desperate. He’s dying. And he hires himself out to one of the citizens of that country. Now, the ancient church fathers said the citizen of that country… it’s a foreign country. He went away from the kingdom of God, the house of his father, and he went into a foreign country. So who’s the citizen of the foreign country? It’s the enemy. The idea is he has sold himself into slavery to sin and death. And what do you get when you do that? Well, he gets sent out to feed the pigs.

Now, we who love bacon do not understand how utterly humiliating it would be to be a Jewish man sent to feed the pigs. That was a slap in the face. It was the worst possible imaginable job. And it says, even worse, he longed to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything (Luke 15.15–16). Can you imagine being hungry enough to look at the slop and be like, “I want that”? It’s a level of desperation and need, and that’s where he got himself with his sin. The wages of sin are death.

IV. When He Came to Himself 09:05

And yet in this story we see, and Jesus is perfectly illustrating, that there is no level to which you can sink that grace can’t find you. Because the very next verse, verse 17, says, “But when he came to himself.” What do you think “when he came to himself” means? When he restored some sanity, by the grace of God, he realized, “Wow, this is terrible.”

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ Luke 15.17–19

He has this revelation in the moment. He’s longing after the pig slop, and it hits him, by the grace of God. Where do you think this revelation came from? We have no power in ourselves to save ourselves. By the grace of God he realizes, “Oh, this is dumb. What am I doing?” And he has a heart change in that moment.

In fact, I wanted to mention: so, sin is that which makes you hungrier after you do it. It’s also a form of insanity, because sin is rejecting reality, because it’s a lie. This is a good example. You get angry at somebody, and you convince yourself that what you need to do is show them you’re angry by hurting them in some way, by telling on them, or by losing your temper at them, or whatever. You do it. Are you satisfied? No. Maybe in the moment you’re like, “Ooh, that felt good. They got what they deserved.” But ultimately your soul thirsts for forgiveness, restoration, because God put that in you. And so you get your revenge, and it’s empty. I mean, tale after tale, until all the tales have been told, about this. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great revenge tale. He takes all his revenge, and in the end it’s not satisfying. It’s empty. So when we look at sin, think of sin as a form of insanity: trying to make the world conform to your fallen imagination, being tempted into stuff that will never fill you up. And so in that moment he had the grace that allowed him to become a little more in line with reality.

He still doesn’t understand who his father is. That’s kind of the thread that runs through this whole story, with the younger brother and the older brother. The reason he demanded his inheritance is because he thought that it would be better to have money than relationship with his father. That’s bogus. That is wrong. It is completely backwards.

It reminds me of Moses. Moses is trying to take these stubborn Israelites to the promised land, and they’re complaining every which way. Finally, God says, “You know what? I did promise you you’d have the promised land. So why don’t you guys go do that? But I’m not going with you. Not with your hearts like this.” And Moses in that moment says, “No, I don’t want the promise without the presence. I don’t want the stuff that you give me. I want you” (Exod 33.15). And that’s what’s backwards about the prodigal’s understanding of his father.

And then in this moment he says, “Well, maybe he’ll at least take me as a servant.” He doesn’t understand (how could he?) that his father still loves him. I imagine his father every day is praying for his son’s return. He’s looking for his son to come back. But all he can imagine, in his broken state, is, “Maybe if I’m really apologetic, he’ll let me be a servant, and that would be better than this.”

Now, there are many people who, because of their misunderstanding of who God is, would reject even that step. They’d be in the pig slop, and they would choose to die there feeding the pigs, out of fear or out of pride. And all of us have probably done that at some point. We’ve gotten into a situation through our sin, and we don’t want to confront God in the midst of it. Maybe you’ve done something where, when you think about what you’ve done… I remember (most of these strong memories come from when I was a child, because I was pretty precocious as a child, as most of you know), I remember you’d do something wrong, and the fear of confronting your father would just eat you alive. And so you’d do another thing wrong. You’d lie to try and cover it up. You’d do anything you can except encounter your father.

And yet we bring that into our relationship with God. And God’s waiting to embrace you, to put a robe on you, to put a ring on your finger. And yet we think he’s about to smite us. Like Bruce Almighty: “Smite me, O mighty smiter.” We have such a bad idea. And so your fear of rejection makes you hide your sin, makes you curl up around it, and it becomes that center of you. It’s so backwards and wrong and broken.

And yet God sent Jesus, while you were in your greatest sin, to die, that you wouldn’t have to face the wrath of God, so that you wouldn’t have to face the rightful consequences of your sin. Truly, all of us have fallen short. All of us deserve to go to hell without God’s grace and his abundance. None of us are better than anybody else. We are all the prodigal son, as I’m sure you know. And yet God is waiting to lavish us with his mercy and his kindness, to restore us, to make us sons and daughters of God. I love that Switchfoot line that says, “Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell.”

And it’s like we think we have to earn our way back: “I messed up, so I’ve got to go to church a couple of times, and maybe God will eventually forgive me if I recover from this sin.” No, no, no, no, no. He’s right there. He’ll walk it all out. When that son was embraced and clothed and all that, you think he was fixed? No. He was still the broken son who was just at the pig slop. He had to walk with his father into the reality of his sonship again. He had to be restored in his identity. But the first start was the embrace of the father. So we look in verse 20.

V. While He Was Still a Long Way Off 15:48

20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Luke 15.20

All of those lines, every little clause in this little verse here… “And he arose and came to his father.” Well, when you sin, you actually do have to turn towards God. Now, he gives you the grace to do so, but you have to actually go to him. And so he’s changing already.

But then, “while he was still a long way off.” What does it say about Jesus? While we were dead in our trespasses, he came and died for us. So while the prodigal son was not restored (he had done nothing right yet, except to turn to his father), still, at that moment, his father saw him and felt judgment, anger, disappointment, hurt, bitterness, rage… No. Compassion. Love.

We are so good at knowing what God is thinking about us, right? It’s like, “Man, God’s sitting up there: ‘That idiot. I can’t believe he would do it again. I told him, I healed him, I set him free, and he’s still like a dog returning to his vomit.’” That’s what the proverb says: so a fool returns to his folly (Prov 26.11). That’s not how God sees you. He sees “my son, my daughter. Come to me, that I might restore, heal, forgive.” He has compassion, even in that moment.

And so you look at this, and it says he saw him, felt compassion, and then he acted on his compassion. He ran and embraced and kissed him. And it reminds me of that song that we’ve sung many times: “Surely your goodness is running after me.” Your goodness is running. It’s running after me.

Now, I have a little encouragement for us, because it is difficult to live as though God is the person in this story, because we pick up judgment or anger or resentment. We have judgment, anger, resentment towards people, and we just lose touch with the love of the Father. We need to be reminded constantly. So I just want to encourage everyone here to take some time, daily, a couple of times a week, whatever you can do. Take some time and ask God: what does he think of you? Because what God thinks of you is reality. It’s not an opinion.

And yet we take on all these identities. “She’s fat.” “He’s ugly.” They don’t say that about me, obviously. But we take on these things. Or, “He’s not good enough,” or, “They’re this or that,” or, “I don’t like them,” or, “I don’t want to invite them to my birthday party.” Whatever it is, we take on the rejection of the world, and then we think that that’s who we are. But you need God to tell you who you are.

So take some time. This is my proposal. Take five minutes. Do it more than once. It’s hard when you do it once; sometimes you just don’t get in the rhythm of it. Just ask God what he thinks of you. Do it a few times, and then when you’re done with that five minutes, write down what you think he said.

Now, here’s an encouragement. If you do that and you feel like, “I don’t get anything good,” then see one of us, the clergy, the homegroup leaders. We would love to pray with you. There were times where I could not hear anything good from my Father because of my shame. And because of a few key people who prayed it through with me, I have been transformed. Because now when I ask God what he says, I hear, “I love you. You are my beloved son. I’m proud of you. I want to see you successful. I want to be closer with you. I want to change you.” All the goodness in this passage reflects the reality of who God really is.

VI. Bring Quickly the Best Robe 19:53

Okay? All of this is shocking to the Jews that are listening to Jesus at this moment, because that’s against the law. That’s against everything that they have thought. That’s why Jesus kept saying things like, “You’ve heard it said, ‘Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, if somebody slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek” (Matt 5.38–39). It’s rattling. It’s changing. It’s the upside-down kingdom. You mean that that son gets to be embraced and loved? Before he even apologizes, the father falls on him. And then we get his apology. And I can imagine he’s weeping at this moment:

21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. Luke 15.21–24

Before he can even get the rest of it out, the father says to his servants, “Bring quickly.” I love that word, quickly. It’s just incredible. It is mind-boggling. It is the gospel: that you didn’t have to do anything for God to make you his son, his daughter, for God to clothe you in righteousness, because it’s his righteousness, not ours.

Now, like I said, he has to walk into this reality of who he is. He’s got to stop thinking pig slop looks appetizing. He’s got to learn to love the things that his father loves. He’s got to be transformed to become a part of the family again. But the reality of his sonship is established immediately. He doesn’t say, “You’ve got to earn back your inheritance.” He immediately is given a ring. “You are a part of the family again.” Everything is restored. The reality is restored here.

VII. Jesus, the Anti-Prodigal 21:24

Now, one of the things that we do when we read the Scriptures (and we learned this from the church fathers, and from Jesus): he says, “You’ve searched the Scriptures, and you have not known me” (John 5.39–40). His implication: “I’m in the Scriptures everywhere.” And so what they did is they looked at the story and said, “Okay, there are a few ways we can find Jesus in here.”

Number one: he’s the anti-prodigal. What does it say about Jesus in Philippians 2? This is about Jesus:

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2.5–8

Now put that up against what the prodigal son did. The prodigal son said, “Give me all of my stuff. I’m going to go use it the way I want. I’m going to leave this land as a prince, and I’m going to go live like a prince in this foreign land.” Jesus instead says, “Take it all. I’m going to empty myself of everything I have a right to, become a servant, and go be obedient to the point of death on the cross.” It’s the anti-prodigal son story.

The most amazing thing is that because Jesus did that, the reception Jesus gets, where he’s crowned, the robe, the ring, is the same reception we get as the prodigal son. That’s completely nuts. What was God thinking? He’s so much better than we are. Jesus did all of that so that when you turn to God, the Father can run and put the robe of office on you, the ring of adoption on your hand, and welcome you in with celebration. So Jesus is the anti-prodigal that enables this story to even work. He did everything his Father commanded, even to the point of death. He gave up everything. He didn’t grasp onto anything, so that we might be welcomed as sons and daughters of God.

And he’s the image of the Father, who, while we were still sinners, runs to embrace us. Jesus shows us who the Father is.

And finally, he’s the fattened calf, the Lamb that is slain for the supper. When he says, “Go kill the fattened calf. We’re going to celebrate,” it’s an image of the marriage feast that we participate in every Sunday at the Eucharist. Who do we feast on? We feast on the body and blood of Christ, his sustenance. When I was talking about how starving the prodigal son was: he was starving for Jesus. And we get filled every week. And in the ultimate eternity, we get to experience the reality of that feast. We get to be truly one with God and Christ together in heaven forever. We don’t understand what that means, but we believe it, and we get to experience some of it today.

VIII. The Older Son 24:36

Okay, let’s talk about the older son. Maybe my favorite character in the story, at some point. There’s something really fun about this guy. We’ve got verse 25:

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. Luke 15.25–26

You know, he’s probably already offended, because he’s in the field working, and he comes home, and there’s a party. He’s like, “Why wasn’t I invited?” He’s already offended. How would we respond, really? He’s coming home, and there’s a party going on, and he’s not a part of the party: “What’s going on?” And so in that moment he’s already offended. He asks the servant, and the servant says, “You know your brother, who said, ‘I wish your dad would die,’ and took half of the money and went and lived like a prodigal (that’s a good word for it) for a long time? Guess what? He’s back. And your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him safe and sound.”

28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, Luke 15.28

I mean, the humility of the father, not only with the prodigal. But then his son is throwing a hissy fit: “What?” And yet he comes and he pleads with him: “Come, please join us. This is a happy moment. What are you doing?”

29 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. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ Luke 15.29–30

Let’s not judge the older brother too harshly, because all of us have a little bit of the older brother in us, and we know it. It’s why it’s funny. Every one of us has been sitting there going, “At least I’m not like them. At least I don’t do that.” Or, “Did you hear what happened to Gertrude?” Nobody’s named Gertrude, right? Okay. I tried to not make it specific. But we have this thing in us that wants to feel better than everybody else, more deserving than everybody else. “Look at me. I’m so good. I wear white robes on Sunday.” No, it doesn’t help. It’s all him. In fact, these white robes represent not my righteousness, but his. The only reason I get to be here is because I’m clothed in his righteousness.

And so when you look at these things, let’s just not be too hard on him. He’s pretty understandable. But it’s such a dangerous place to be, the person who runs around talking about how bad everybody else is. Because you know who that is in the Bible? Satan. He runs around the world talking about how terrible everybody is. He goes to God and accuses us before the Father. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is the Advocate. He’s always arguing for us and for people. And so when you start judging him, do you know what the Holy Spirit’s saying? “That’s antichrist.” Christ’s mission is to bring them in, not to push them out. And the Holy Spirit’s sitting there going, “Jesus died for him. He’s justified. Jesus loves her,” and arguing for restoration.

So, the older brother thing: now, all of us probably have not been against somebody joining the church because they’re just too bad. Maybe you have, in which case, once again, same message. But maybe that’s not your thing. But all the little ways that we judge ourselves against one another, that game that you play of “I’m holy and they’re not”: no more. That’s not Jesus. Jesus is always looking for how to love the sinner, always looking for how to call them home, to restore, to change. Because if God, by the blood of Christ, doesn’t hold anybody’s sins against them, what right have you? Zero. Special number: zero.

IX. Son, You Are Always with Me 29:12

And then, and this is why I love the older brother, the response of the father to him. What does he say, in verse 31?

31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. Luke 15.31

What does God say to you today? “Son, daughter, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” That’s an incredible promise. That’s the secret. If you go after the things that God gives you without God, you lose everything. If you go after God, you get the things that God gives you. You get everything. There’s no… you have to be ordered. Seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added to you (Matt 6.33). There’s only one answer.

And guess what? When you seek God with your whole heart, and you know how much he loves you, and you receive from him, then you will love the prodigal, and you’ll love the older brother, and you’ll especially be a fan of the father. Because ultimately, what’s our job? Our job is to be like him. Our job is to be praying for people and looking: “Oh, they’ve turned from their sin,” and running to them and embracing them and falling on their neck and kissing them and welcoming them in, clothing them in the righteousness of Christ. We are doing that. We get to be about the Father’s business. We bring them back to Jesus, and they receive all that they are.

So don’t be the prodigal, except in repentance. Don’t be the older son, except that you desire only to live in the kingdom. And be the father for everyone. Look for people that you can welcome back. Look for people that you can embrace, whether they deserve it or not, because he already bought them with his blood.

X. Dead and Alive Again 30:52

Last thing I’ll say: verse 32.

32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” Luke 15.32

And it is fitting today, in the middle of Lent, to celebrate and be glad, for we were once dead, and now we are alive. We were lost, and now we are found. So let us turn towards the embracing arms of our Father and move to the marriage supper of the Lamb this morning. Amen.