Luke 15:11-24 *
In the name of Jesus Christ, the sinner’s best friend:
Close your eyes. When I say a certain word, I want you to remember the first picture that enters your mind. Are you ready? What do you see when I say the word, “home” (wait a few seconds)? It’s okay to open your eyes now.
How many of you thought of “home” as the place where you
grew up? How many of you pictured the
place where you are living now? “Home” can
mean different things to different people, but chances are that our different ideas
have at least one thing in common. We
usually associate “home” with some kind of structure: a farm house, a
A home has a roof and walls and windows and doors. Home is where we spend the majority of our time. Home is the place where we feel the most comfortable. Home is the one place that we can call our own.
Today I want you put a different picture in your mind. I want you to think of your home as a person, not a place. I want you to picture Jesus (whatever he looks like to you). He is standing in front of you with a warm smile on his face. His arms are open wide. His voice is soft and kind.
This picture is more than a mental image. We can’t see him, but Jesus is with us this morning. We can’t hear his voice, but Jesus is speaking to us through His Word. Even if you haven’t been in his company for a while, even if this is the first time you have ever stepped foot inside his house, this is the message that Jesus has to share with you…
WELCOME HOME!
Jesus was a master teacher. Instead of lecturing people, he often used stories, or parables, to get his point across. We will take a closer look at perhaps the most famous of these parables today.
In the Bible in your pew it is called the Parable of the Lost Son. Some of you might remember it by another name, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Others claim that the main character of this story is not the son at all, and so they have dubbed it the Parable of the Father’s Love.
Because both the father and the son play important roles, I
have come up with a new name in an attempt to capture the attitudes of both of
these men. At least for this morning,
let’s call it the Parable of the Cold Shoulder and the Warm
Embrace.
It doesn’t take long to figure out who gave who the cold
shoulder. Jesus said: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father,
give me my share of the estate.’ So he
divided his property between them” (11,12).
It was common practice for the children to divide up their father’s estate, but usually they waited until after the father had died. For some reason the younger son couldn’t wait to get his inheritance the conventional way. Without any warning, without any explanation, he demanded his share immediately.
We don’t know if the father tried to talk his son out of it. We don’t know if he tried to convince him that this was a bad idea. We don’t know if the son eventually wore his father down. What we do know is that the father granted his son’s request and allowed him to learn his lesson the hard way. And a very hard lesson it was.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living” (13). With new wealth came new freedom. Exotic destinations. Extravagant meals. Expensive clothes. Life was one big party…at least for a while…at least until his money ran out.
And then reality set in.
With no friends, no family, no funds and on top
of all that a severe famine in the land, the son was forced to do the
unthinkable: “He went and hired himself
out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods
that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything” (15,16).
In the end the son was left with nothing but time, time to remember how badly he had treated his father, time to regret the poor decisions he had made, time to lament the mess he had made of his life, time to think about his broken relationship with God.
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It is not too difficult to identify the father in the story with our Father in heaven. But who is the son? Do you know someone who tries to keep God at arm’s length, someone who says, “I can do it my own way,” someone who has deeply hurt the people who love him/her the most?
Maybe you know someone who fits this description, but when Jesus told this parable he didn’t have a single person in mind. The Lost Son isn’t one man. The Lost Son represents sinful mankind. That means we see the Lost Son every time we look in the mirror. With every impure thought, we turn our backs on God. With every harsh word, we give God the cold shoulder. Because we sin, we are the ones who are lost.
You are a lost and condemned sinner. That isn’t exactly a heart-warming thought. That doesn’t sound like a very uplifting message for a Friendship Sunday. But it isn’t entirely bad. In fact, that realization was the turning point for the Son in this parable. He recognized his sin, and then he felt his father’s warm embrace.
Maybe the smell of the pigs was too much for him. Maybe his growling stomach was keeping him up all night. With nothing else to eat, with nowhere else to turn, the son finally decided to swallow his pride and go home.
But he couldn’t act like nothing had happened. He couldn’t expect his father to treat him like a son again. And so he came up with a plan: “I will admit my mistake. I will beg for forgiveness. And I will ask to be treated like one of the hired men.”
This was not an easy decision. This was not a hasty decision. The son knew there were no guarantees. The son prepared himself for rejection. But nothing could have prepared him for what
happened next: “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” (20).
The father didn’t lock the doors as soon as he saw his son. He didn’t refuse to speak with his son. The first words out of his mouth were not “I told you so.” The father didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to because his actions said it all: “Son, I love you. I forgive you. Welcome home.”
But the father didn’t stop there. He wanted everyone to share his joy. He wanted everyone to be a part of this
homecoming. And so he 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. 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” (22-24).
Most people like a happy ending. And the ending to this story couldn’t be much happier. The only thing that’s missing is “and they lived happily ever after.” But it’s just a story, right? It didn’t really happen.
In the real world the outcome would be different. If the son would have died of starvation in that foreign country, that would be real. If the father would have kicked his son out of the house, that would be real. If the two would have settled their differences on a daytime TV talk show, even that would be more real.
I am here to tell you today that this is not just a story. It is real. It did happen. And it has everything to do with another Son. The prodigal son was rebellious. God’s Son was obedient. The prodigal son was sinful. God’s Son was perfect. The prodigal son felt the full weight of his sin. God’s Son took on his shoulders the sins of the world.
God the Father loved the world so much that he sent his Son, his one and only Son Jesus, down to earth to be our Savior. Jesus lived the perfect life that you could never live. Jesus died on the cross to take away your sins. Jesus rose from the dead to proclaim his victory over death itself. And Jesus has ascended to prepare places for all believers in heaven.
Do you know what that means? That means Jesus loves you. That means Jesus died for you. That means God is your loving Father. No matter how far you have drifted away, his love remains the same. No matter how long you have been away, his arms are open wide. No matter what has happened in your past, your future is secure.
Earlier in this chapter (Luke 15) Jesus made the remark that “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (10). Can you picture that? Can you see the joy on the angels’ faces? And if you use your imagination, maybe you can see something else.
Amidst all the laughing and singing, two of the angels are
putting up a huge banner, a banner with a message from God himself, a banner
that every believer will pass under one day, a banner with a message that gives
us peace today and hope for tomorrow: Welcome Home! Amen.