Message

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The Heavenly Father's Love

Luke 15: 1-32

KV 32 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.

Most Christians are familiar with today's Bible story. This amazing story has been read by children and adults alike countless times. Some painters like Rembrandt were inspired to bring it to the canvas. It reveals the heavenly father’s heart. Unfortunately, many people cannot begin with concept of father. As for many from broken families, the concept of father is strange, even distorted and confusing. We need to learn about the concept of the genuine father. In today's passage we learn about God’s heart. His love is much greater, deeper, and wider than we imagine. May God open our eyes and transform our life!

Luke 15:1-2 teach us about the historical setting for this parable. According to Luke, there were two kinds of people who had come to Jesus. The first group was called "sinners", who were publicly condemned as social outcasts. They did not observe the moral law of the Scriptures or the rules for religious purity. They fell far short of moral standards of the respectable society. Amazingly these sinners were gathering around to hear Jesus. And Jesus had compassion for them, welcomed them heartedly, and healed their soul's wound by God's love. Jesus gave them a new start for their lives. The tax collectors and prostitutes couldn't believe it. They went and told their friends so that more and more public sinners began to flock to Jesus.

But the second group was strongly offended by Jesus. They were Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who played a leading role in that society. They studied the Bible and kept the laws. They would never associate with the sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes. As for them, sinners were reserved only for God's judgment and lost is lost. So they grumbled about Jesus: "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them!"

Jesus wants us to learn what God is really like. He wants us to look at our blindness and open our hearts for the heavenly Father's heart. Jesus told them three parables. The first two parables are about the lost sheep and the lost coin. Here Jesus showed that God seeks for the lost until he finds them, and he rejoices when he finds them.

Jesus continued his third parable. There was a father who had two boys. Definitely this father symbolizes God. The boys grew up living in a very nice home, in which there was everything: love, joy, fellowship, comforts. But the younger boy did a strange thing. One day, he said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate"(12a). It was not a request like "I need an allowance." When we put ourselves in those days, we know that the younger son is making an impossible and shocking demand. Inheritances were given only when the father died. To demand the inheritance while the father still lived was the same as saying, "Father, I wish you were already dead!"  It was more than hurting his father's emotion. It showed a rebellious and proud disregard for his father's authority, not to mention a selfish and immature attitude. The son was transgressing the most basic human duties. He didn't care how his father loved him and cared for him.

Hearing the shocking demand, the father must have been torn inside. He couldn't find any words and looked at his son. How would you respond to such a demand? A father in those days would be expected to respond to such a shameless demand with two options: Option 1: He should severely punish the son with physical blows and force him to stay home. Option 2: He should disown him and kick him out of the family forever, empty-handed. But see what the father did! He took a third option. He decided to yield to the younger son's demands and divided his estate between his sons. The father knew that his son would learn his lesson so painfully. He wished it didn't have to be that way. But he gave his children great latitude in making choices. It was because he did not want them to be slaves, but free sons. He did not want slavish obedience, but a genuine personal relationship.

As expected, the younger son left with his pockets full of money which he did not earn. Every bit of it came from his father. And he headed out for the far country. What did he do there? He “squandered his wealth in wild living,” which means he led a Hollywood-style wild life. Every day he was having such a “good time.” He had many fair weather friends. But the wild life began to catch up with him. There came a day when he reached in his pocket and there wasn't anything left. Not only was he broke, but there was a severe famine in that whole country and grass was drying up. All his fair weather friends left him.

The younger son began to be in need and ended up in a pigpen slopping hogs. And as he worked feeding the pigs, “he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” What a life! Every Jew would wince to hear that because Jewish persons were not supposed to have anything to do with pigs, not to mention that he would live with them and even envy them. He was degraded to a subhuman level. He finally hit rock bottom.

In verse 17 we see a turning point. “He came to his senses,” which means he had a realization of the truth. When he ended up in an awful plight, he got the sense of reality. Then, he began to think of his father. “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” A great desire to go back to his father began to grow in his heart and he rehearsed speech:  “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.” So he got up and went to his father. How would the father receive him?

As Jesus told this parable thus far, his audience of Pharisees and tax collectors expected him to say, “One day the father saw his son returning. He waited with his arms crossed. The broken-down son begged his father to take him back. But the father looked away from him and said, ‘Forget it! You had your chance. You’ve chosen to live like a pig, now go back to your pigs.’ ” It was a story reflecting the legalistic idea of the religious people.

But Jesus gives a surprise twist to the plot. Now we picture the father in our parable. Every day while his son was gone, the father thought of the son. Each afternoon about sunset he would stand at his stone fence and look down the road that had taken his son away. He scanned the horizon, looking for any sign, hoping that his younger son would return. People might have told him to forget the wayward son forever. But the father would never forget his lost son. “How can I give you up, my son?"(Hos11:8). Then one afternoon, he sees a bent over figure dragging along the road. It can’t be his son, because his son always had a spring in his step and held his head high. But it was his son, struggling to stay on his feet, dressed in rags. He knew it.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him". The father did not judge his son for the life he had lived in a shameful way. Rather all his compassion was aroused. “He ran to his son" As a general rule, distinguished patriarchs did not run. Children or young men or women might run, but not the dignified patriarchs dressed in robes. But this father chose to humiliate himself to receive his son.

The son stank like a pig. He looked and smelled awful, not exactly the kind of person you want to hug and kiss! But the father could hardly wait to throw his arms around him; and he kissed him, which was a sign of forgiving all his past sins. In this way, he covered over all of his son's past with love. There is not the slightest hint of a lecture or ridicule. There is only joy that the son has returned home.

The father's welcome has taken the younger son by surprise. The son remembered what he had come to do. So he tried to roll out his rehearsed speech. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."(21) But the father interrupted his son and said to his servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet."(22) The best robe in the house would have been the father's robe. The father covered the son's nakedness, his shame, and poverty with his robe of mercy. Father called to put a ring on his son's finger and sandals on his feet. It was the unmistakable sign that the younger son was restored as heir in the family.

Then, the father commanded to prepare the celebration, "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate"(23-24). The fattened calf was the very best food the father had. It was reserved for special occasions and parties like weddings. But when this wayward son now returns, the father kills the fattened calf to celebrate his return.

Everybody knew that the wayward son was no longer worthy to be called the son. But this father was different! He contradicts both social consensus and the legalistic idea of religious people. The father restored the returned son to his heir-ship. It was not the son's repentance that earned the heir-ship. No. It was the father's forgiving mercy who took the son's shame upon himself. It was the father's authority who accepted him as son and heir. Now he wants the whole family and entire village to share in his rejoicing. This is what our God is like.

I suppose that there is no father in the world like the one in this parable. This father is really challenging all fathers in the world. He is recklessly extravagant or lavish in love. The son was extravagant in a negative way, but the father was extravagant in a positive way. God amazes us by his tender mercy.

Look at the famous Rembrandt's painting the Return of the Prodigal Son: The father touches both his hands on the son's shoulders. If you look at the painting carefully, the father has two different hands; one strong and gnarled like a father's hand, the other smooth and delicate like a tender mother's hand. Our God is genuine fatherly and motherly. God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. As the father has compassion on his children, so our God has compassion on sinners. Jesus is the sure evidence of God's lavishing love. He didn’t withhold anything for himself, but gave his life for the sinners. Our God is most gracious and merciful. That’s what God is really like.

It would be nice if the story ended there, but Jesus had a message for the “self-righteous” people who insisted on their own idea of God. Now the older son could not accept his brother who had squandered everything with prostitutes. He condemned not only his wayward brother but also his father who welcomed him with a greatest feast. Is it fair that a wayward son receives a banquet while the loyal son received no such honor? Do you think it is fair? The older son openly insulted his father and rebelled against his father's authority.

How would the father respond to the older son's rudeness? Did he disown the older son on the spot? No. He said with amazing tenderness: Look at 31"My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.” He was saying, “It’s not your work that I cherish – it’s you. Just knowing you are here at home with me has given me a great sense of enjoyment.” We want service. But God treasures our relationship with him more than our work.

Then, look at verse 32. “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" Rejoicing about the return of a lost person is not an option; it is a necessity. It is not just a necessity, but it is the right thing because it is God’s celebrating. The father wanted the older son to repent of his pride and come into the feast and join the father's rejoicing. The father loved his first son, but his son didn't understand his father's heart. He did not share in his father's compassion for his brother. He did not share in his father's rejoicing. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law are represented by this older son. They didn’t like the fact that God doesn’t play by their rules. They looked very religious, but missed the point. They didn’t know the forgiving love of God, who makes a new beginning for all of us possible. Henry Nouwen who was proud of his goodness, but was later changed by this parable, writes about the older son (in his “The Return of the Prodigal Son”): There is so much judgment, condemnation, and frozen anger among people who are so concerned about avoiding ‘sin’. But herein lays the essence of the gospel: God is for us. God’s love is far beyond our earning, deserving, and rewarding.

We live in a world of un-grace. The wayward son was really surprised by the father's welcome; the loyal son was offended by the father's welcome. We see how differently God sees things from the way we do (Isa55:8). When we return to God, he restores us as his beloved son and daughter, no matter what our past. As I was laden with my miserable sins, God’s mercy has taken me by surprise. I was filled with heavenly joy because of God’s forgiving love. Therefore, I named my first child Ine, which means Mercy and Love. But each time I read Jesus’ story of grace, I realize that I need all the more God’s mercy to open my eyes. May God have mercy and open our eyes for God’s heart! May God bless us to know His amazing grace in Jesus Christ and to share in His rejoicing over a lost person who returns this Fall Semester!

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Attachment

• The Heavenly Father's Love.doc

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