We're going to read from Luke chapter 7, verses 36 to 50.
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, asked Jesus to eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.
And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner,
when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house,
brought an alabaster flask of ointment.
And standing behind him at his feet, weeping,
she began to wet his feet with her tears
and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet
and anointed them with ointment.
Now when the Pharisees who had invited him,
when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this,
he said to himself, if this man were a prophet,
he would have known who and what sort of woman this is,
who is touching him, for she is a sinner.
And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you.
And he answered, say it teacher.
A certain moneylender had two debtors.
One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.
And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.
Now, which of them will love him more?
Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt.
And he said to him, you have judged rightly.
Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon,
do you see this woman I entered your house?
You gave me no water for my feet,
but she has wet my feet with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in,
she has not ceased to kiss my feet.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven,
for she loved much.
But he who is forgiven little loves little.
And he said to her, your sins are forgiven.
Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves,
who is this who even forgives sins?
And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace.
This is God's holy word.
We're going to read the story of the prodigal son from Luke chapter 15,
starting in verse 11 of that chapter.
And Jesus said,
there was a man who had two sons,
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.
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 and reckless living.
And when he had spent everything,
a severe famine arose in that country,
and he began to be in need.
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country,
who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate,
and no one gave him anything.
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.
I will arise and go to my father,
and I will say to him,
father,
I have sinned against heaven and before you.
I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
Treat me as one of your hired servants.
And he arose and he came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off,
his father saw him and felt compassion
and ran and embraced and kissed him.
And the son said to him,
father,
I've sinned against heaven.
And before you,
I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
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
and bring the fattened calf and kill it
and let us eat and celebrate.
For this son,
for this my son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found.
And they began to celebrate.
Now his older son was in the field.
And as he came and drew near to the house,
he heard music and dancing.
And he called one of the servants
and asked what these things meant.
And he said to him,
your brother has come
and your father has killed the fattened calf
because he has received him back safe and sound.
But 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've served you
and I've never disobeyed your command.
Yet you never gave me a young goat
that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when the son of yours came,
who has devoured your property with prostitutes,
you killed the fattened calf for him.
And he said to him,
son, you are always with me
and all that is mine is yours.
It was fitting to celebrate.
And be glad for this brother,
your brother was dead and is alive.
He was lost and is found.
This is God's holy word.
Now, this is a very famous story,
the prodigal son story.
We today live in what the sociologists
are calling a new cultural landscape.
And that new cultural landscape
is a movement from what was labeled post-modernism
into what lots of people today
called meta-modernism.
Post-modernism was a movement
that we've all lived through
that was about doubting everything
and questioning everything
and deconstructing everything.
And the meta-modern is one,
so many things it is.
And we're trying to understand
this cultural landscape we live in.
But the meta-modern is a return
to some of the authorities
that the post-modern world pushed away.
So that's why so many people
in our community,
our society today,
very different from a decade ago,
are returning to religions.
And it used to be even 10, 15, 20 years ago
that religion was the bad guy in the culture.
But today, religion is acceptable
in the culture again.
And it's not that people are merely
turning to ancient authorities
because of the question of truth.
They're turning back to religions
by way of aesthetic preference.
It's an expression of the inner self,
of personal desire,
of just what you like.
And so many of us will have heard
of the quiet revival movement.
The quiet revival has been
sort of misunderstood.
There is something of a revival,
but it's not a Christian revival.
Instead, it's a revival to transcendence.
So it includes all the religions.
People are returning to historic religions
and so many new religions.
And this is what some people
have called meta-modernism,
a little piece of it.
Now that means today,
most people in our culture,
in our city,
will say religion is a good thing again.
It's helpful for cultural.
It's helpful for societal cohesiveness.
It's helpful for moral order and education.
And it also means that
because people are saying
religion is good for you,
the broad understanding of religion
and the contemporary culture
is not only that religion is good for you,
but that religion is for good people.
It's for making good people.
Now, this is the most famous story
Jesus ever told.
And it is a surprise,
the surprise in some sense
of all of the gospels,
because it says that Jesus came
not to seek the religious,
the good people,
but the irreligious.
That people,
that Jesus came to turn
what we think of as religion
on its head.
And the prodigal son story
is a story that's probably
well known to everybody in this room
to some degree.
It's a story,
of course,
we've taught here at St.
C's on many occasions.
The last time was,
I think,
a couple of years ago.
But you can't really look
at the prodigal son story enough.
You could probably come
and teach it every single week
and it would still be fresh.
And it says to us
that the gospel
entered the world
to counter mere religion,
that Jesus Christ came
for those who know
they have a need,
for those that know
they need grace.
And it leaves the religious person
at the end of the story
standing on the outside
being beckoned by Jesus.
Will you come in
seeing that you too
are in need of grace?
That despite your decency,
that you're also in need
of salvation and redemption.
All right.
So this story is often called,
this parable is often called
the prodigal son story.
It's been misnamed.
It should be the prodigal sons.
It's about both sons.
And to really understand it,
you've got to see it that way.
So we're going to be
very brief tonight.
And let's see simply first,
who is this parable
being spoken to?
Then secondly,
have a brief look
at the younger son
and then the elder brother.
All right.
So first,
who is this parable
being spoken to?
Now to see that,
you got to go to the beginning
of chapter 15,
verses one and two.
And we read that
the tax collectors
and the sinners
were all drawing near
to hear Jesus.
So Jesus is being surrounded
by tax collectors
and sinners
and tax collectors
and sinners
are the two groups
of people
in the first century
that the religious,
the religious elite,
the Pharisees despise most.
The word sinner here
is just another name
for a person
who's committed
public sexual scandal.
So probably a reference
to prostitutes.
And the tax collector,
of course,
Jewish men
who have gone in
with the Roman government
to collect taxes
from the Jews.
And so these tax collectors
and sinners,
people who are hated
by the religious elite
are drawing near to Christ.
And so in verse two,
the Pharisees and scribes
grumble saying,
this man receives sinners
and he eats with them.
And so there's the Pharisees,
the religious elite,
the very decent people.
They're so upset
that these sinners,
these public scandalous people
have drawn near
and Jesus has broken bread
with them.
He has eaten with them
around the table.
And then the next line is,
so Jesus told this parable.
And so it's a section
of three parables,
but all the parables
are effectively
about the same thing.
Now, who is he writing
the parable to?
Who is he speaking
the parable to?
He tells the parable
of the prodigal son,
not to the prodigal sons
and daughters,
not to the sinners,
not to the tax collectors.
They are present
all around them.
They're drawing near to him.
They want to be
in his presence.
He says this parable,
not for their benefit,
but for the religious elite,
for the people
who were there grumbling,
believing that I should be accepted
because I'm a decent person.
And so he told
the prodigal son story,
not for the prodigals,
but for the religious.
That's who it was
ultimately directed to.
Now, secondly,
that means that
the main point
is aimed
not at
not at prodigal sons
and daughters
who have been reckless,
but at the respectable person.
And so secondly,
he's asking
the respectable person
to look first
at the younger son.
So the first half
of the story
is all about
the younger son.
You could think
of the parable
in two acts.
It's a stage play
effectively,
and there are multiple scenes
throughout these two acts.
So act one,
the prodigal son,
the younger son,
and in act one,
scene one,
we've got verse 12.
And in verse 12,
the younger son
says to his father,
father,
give me the share
of property
that is coming to me.
Now,
this is a scandal.
Every one of the scenes
in the first act
is a scandal.
And the younger son
comes to his father
and he says,
I want my inheritance.
So if you're a younger son
in the first century
Greco-Roman Jewish context,
you are owed
one third
of the family wealth.
And so he's saying,
I want my third.
Now to say that
to a father
in an honor shame culture
is to say to a father,
I want you to be dead.
I want you to die.
I want my stuff.
And the shock
of the passage is
the father does it.
The father actually
gives it to him.
The father accepts this.
And this isn't
contemporary
21st century
Western culture.
There's no banks.
The father would have
had to liquidate
in order to get the cash
to give one third
of his wealth
to his son
and he does it.
Now,
this is the shock
of the passage.
This,
the shock of the passage
is that the father
would tear his life apart,
would deconstruct his life
to accommodate
his son's rebellion.
And this is,
this is a tale
as old as time.
This is where
true religion
starts to begin.
This is the oldest story
in all of human history.
It's from the beginning.
From the beginning,
humanity
said to God,
the father,
father,
I don't want you.
I want your stuff.
God made us
and he gave us
all sorts of gifts
in this world
and we turned around
and said to him,
I'm not interested in you.
I just want the stuff
you give to me.
I just want my circumstances.
And the shock
of world history
is that the father
continues to provide
for us.
It's called common grace.
He continues to give
his gifts
even though
we take the gifts
and shake our fist at him.
Now,
when you start to see
that about yourself,
that's where
true religion
starts to begin.
That you and I
are people
who have taken
the gifts of God
and said to God,
but I don't want
the gift giver.
And when you see that,
if you're willing
to admit that,
you start to move
on the path
from mere religion,
just being respectable,
to true religion.
You start to begin
to say,
there is someone
to whom I must be grateful.
There is a gift giver
that I must offer
my gratitude.
That's the beginning
of the pathway
of true religion.
And we're being told
about it all
in this story.
Now,
the second scene,
verse 13 to 16,
is this young man.
He goes into
the far country
and it says
that he was reckless.
That's where we get
the word prodigal
in verses 13 and 14,
reckless.
He spends everything
and he gets into
such a destitute situation
in the midst of
famine that he starts
working for a farmer,
a pig farmer,
and he becomes so poor
that it says
he desires even
to eat the pods
that the pigs
were being fed.
Now,
remember,
who is this parable
being told to?
It's being told
to the Pharisees
and the religious elite.
And if you're
a Jewish Pharisee
in the first century,
there is nothing
that is more known
to you than the fact
that pigs are
desperately unclean
in the Levitical law.
And that means
we're being told here
that this man
has gone so far
down into the pit
that he has become
less than the beasts
because it says
even he desires
to eat the pods
that the pigs were eating.
He's not even
to their level.
The Pharisees
are thinking
this young boy
has become beastly.
There's no coming back
from this
in their culture.
And yet,
in verses 17 to 24,
scene three,
it says that
the young man
comes to himself
and he says,
I'm a sinner.
I'll,
he makes a plan.
He says,
I'll work it off.
I'll come back
to my father's household
and I'll work for him
as a hired hand,
as a servant.
And if I work long enough,
if I put enough time in,
I know I won't be a son,
but maybe I could be
accepted as a servant.
And so that's his plan.
Now,
the religious crowd there
would have been nodding.
Absolutely.
If anybody is to be reconciled,
the only way
that they could ever do it
is by earning it back
over years and years
and years and years
of repayment,
of paying off
every one of their sins,
of earning their favor
back in their father's house.
And when this young man
comes back
to his father's house,
he's got his plan ready.
He's going to say,
Father,
I'll work for this many years.
I'll do this,
this many good works for you.
And maybe then
you'll call me servant again.
And his father
sees him out on the horizon.
And breaking every rule
of a patriarch
in the household
of the first century,
he rolls his robes up
and he runs out
to his son.
And before his son
can say a word,
he wraps his arms around him
and kisses him on the neck.
And he,
you know,
the son starts to give his plan.
He starts to say,
well,
here's my plan,
dad.
I'm going to work for you
and I'm going to earn
your favor again.
And it's as if in the text,
the father just stops him
and says to the other servants,
go and kill the fattened calf.
Get my best robe,
my signet ring,
my sandals,
put them on his feet.
Whose robe is the best robe
in the house?
It's the father's robe.
Whose ring is the signet ring
of the family?
It's the father's ring.
He,
he,
he robes him
in his own clothing.
He puts his family seal
on his finger.
And what we learn here
is that
you cannot earn your status
as a son or daughter
of the father.
You cannot work your way
into the father,
the heavenly father's
good graces.
Becoming a son or daughter
of the king,
becoming a son or daughter
of the father
is a status change.
It is acceptance.
It is by,
by grace alone.
There's no other way.
You cannot work your way
into sonship.
And so that means tonight
that
if you come tonight,
some of you in this room
are the prodigal sons
and daughters,
you are,
you are the reckless
spendthrift.
You've,
you've looked back
at the past of your life
and you say,
I am the younger here.
No matter what you've done,
no matter what you're doing today,
no matter what secret sins
you may be hiding
in your life right now,
there is a heavenly father
who is looking for you
out on the horizon,
longing to run to you
and wrap his arms
around you in mercy.
And you can come to him
and you can receive forgiveness.
And you will be called son
and you will be called daughter
and you will be bathed
in his robe
and his signet ring
and his sandals
and he will throw a feast for you.
Some of us tonight
might be struggling
as prodigal sons
and daughters from the past.
You might be wrestling
and thinking,
I don't,
there's guilt in my life
that I don't know
that I'll ever get past.
I just want to ask you
one question
and I'll move to the final thing.
Do you think
that Jesus Christ
died on the cross
in the middle of history
for your heavenly father
to look at you forever
with a frown on his face?
Jesus Christ died
in the middle of history
so that for the rest of time,
God the father
could smile at you.
And so no matter
what you've done,
you can come tonight
and you can receive his mercy.
Now,
it would be great to end.
Let us pray.
But we can't
for just a few minutes
because that's not
where the parable ends.
The story is so happy
in this moment,
but yet there's
an elder brother
and this is the main audience
are the elder brothers
and sisters,
the religious elite,
the people who believe
they are respectable
and they're decent
and they can earn their way
into God's favor.
And so here we have
an elder brother
who comes back
from the field
and he hears the party going
and he says,
what's happening here
in verses 28 and 29?
And notice in verse 30
how he even speaks
to his father.
He refers to his younger brother
as this son of yours.
He's not my brother.
I don't know him.
He won't say brother anymore.
And then he explains himself.
He says,
all these years
I have slaved for you.
I've worked for you
and you have never
given me a party.
You've never killed
the fattened calf for me.
Now,
it's very clear
how the elder brother,
how the religious elite,
how the respectable
believes they earn God's favor.
And it's this.
He wanted the father's benefits.
He wanted the father's benefits,
his stuff.
He never wanted the father.
He said,
all these years
I've been good for you.
I've been good to you
and you've never
thrown a party for me.
He wanted everything
the father would give him in life,
all the inheritance.
He never wanted the father
and he wanted that inheritance
by way of being good.
He wanted to draw near
to the father's stuff
by way of his decency.
And so the younger brother,
the prodigal brother,
he told the father outright.
He was explicit about it.
He said,
I want you to die.
I don't want you.
I just want your stuff.
The elder brother
was implicit about it.
He said,
I don't want a relationship
with you.
I just am here being decent
so that I can get your stuff.
You see,
you can be prodigal
by way of spending your life
in the most reckless living.
You can be prodigal
by being a very good person.
You can stay far away from God
by simply being decent.
As long as you stay respectable,
you can say,
if you stay respectable,
you can say,
I never need to draw near
confessing my need for grace.
And so you can be
just as prodigal
on the outside,
on the inside,
I should say,
as the younger brother
is on the outside.
You can be alienated
from God by your sin
and you can be
just as alienated
from God
by your goodness.
And so here,
what we've got
is salvation
by morality
in the elder brother's life.
And if you,
you're a person
who approaches salvation
as salvation
by morality,
you might be treating
Jesus as a helper,
as an example
in your life,
as an inspiration
to be a good moral person,
but he is not yet
your savior.
He's not yet
your redeemer.
And so at the very end
of the story here,
all we get
is a pronouncement.
It was fitting
to celebrate
and be glad
for this,
your brother was dead
and is alive.
He was lost
and is found.
The father says,
look at the movement,
the status change
from death to life
and your younger brother.
And then the parable
just stops.
Why?
The ending
is left
for the scribes
and the Pharisees
to put themselves into.
There's the elder brother
standing outside
the door,
the threshold
of the party
and Jesus turns
to the Pharisees
and the scribes
and says,
will you come in?
And so he's inviting
every one of us
who believes
in salvation
by morality
that our respectability
and our decency
is what's going
to get us
into the heavenly throne room
instead of our confession
of need,
of grace.
And he's just
leaving it open
and saying,
will you come?
Will you come
and receive
the open arms
of the father as well?
Will you confess your need?
Now,
let me finish with this.
How do you come home
to God?
You come home to God
by saying,
therefore,
I'm unworthy.
I'm a sinner.
No matter how respectable
your life may have been,
I need to be rescued
just as much
as the prodigal sons
and daughters
down the road.
You come to the father
by confessing your need.
That's faith.
That's clear
in the passage.
But,
what's unclear
is what some
commentators
talk about
and that's this.
If God
is the heavenly father
who no matter
what you have done,
whether that's salvation
by decency
and morality
or that's running
away from him
and spending your life
in utter recklessness,
no matter what you've done,
all you need to do
is come back to him
and he will open
his arms to you
and he will accept you.
Is there any need
for the cross
of Jesus Christ?
So,
if God just forgives you,
if he just brings you in,
if he just accepts you
no matter what,
why in the world
is there a cross
at the end of the gospel?
And here's what I think
commentators miss
when they suggest that,
when they ask that question
and it's this.
Remember,
he's talking to
the Pharisees,
the religious elite,
the scribes,
those who are grumbling
at the tax collector
and the sinner
and what does he tell them?
He doesn't tell them
one parable
but three parables.
Don't worry,
I'm not going to teach
all three.
In the first parable,
there's a shepherd
and he loses
one sheep
and it says
that he goes out
into the far country
to bring that sheep
home again.
In the second parable,
there's a coin,
there's many coins
and this woman
loses one coin
and she flips her house over
just to find
the one coin.
She goes on the hunt,
she goes on the search
and in the third parable,
there's a son,
one of the sheep,
one of the coins,
one of the little bits
of treasure of the father
and he goes out
in the far country.
See,
in parable one,
the shepherd goes
and gets the sheep
and brings them back
and parable two,
the woman goes
and finds the coin
and brings it back
but in parable three,
what's missing?
See,
what would a true
elder brother have done?
A true,
a good,
a righteous elder brother
would have said,
Father,
I will go into
the far country
and I will go
and bring
my prodigal
little brother home again.
I will go get
into the muck
of the pigs with him
if I have to
in order to bring him home.
See,
that's
the real center
of the passage.
Do,
do you have
a true
and better
elder brother
than this
elder brother?
Yes,
you do.
Jesus Christ,
he is the true
and better
elder brother,
Jesus Christ,
the righteous
and he says
in Hebrews,
I am not ashamed
to call you
my brothers
and sisters.
Jesus Christ
went into
the far country
and got all
the way
into the muck
so that he
could bring you
home again
and the invitation
is before you,
will you come?
Will you come
and receive
the father's embrace?
Let's pray.
Father,
we ask that you
would give us
faith tonight.
We ask,
Lord,
that you would
help us to see
our need,
that we are not
saved by our morality,
nor are we
too far gone
because of our
recklessness.
And so,
we pray,
Lord,
whatever condition
we may be in tonight,
that you would
teach us the grace
of your gospel,
all because we have
a true and better
elder brother.
And we pray
for this grace
to be received
in Christ's name.
Amen.
Thank you.