Grace That Runs (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
My text for today is the crown jewel of Jesus’ parables – the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is rich in drama, characters and theology. It is often referred to as “the gospel in miniature.” It is the last of a trilogy of parables Jesus told in Luke 15, coming after the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. And what provoked Jesus to tell these parables was the grumbling of the Pharisees and the experts in the Jewish law who complained that Jesus was welcoming sinners and eating with them.
I have never liked the title of this parable. We have always called it the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but this title is misleading because there are two lost sons in this story. The older brother was lost too but in a different way. A better title would be “The Parable of the Two Lost Sons.”
The younger son was lost in the distant country having realized that life away from the father did not live up to the hype. Ironically, the older son was lost at home with the Father, blinded by rage and resentment. But what we are going to discover today is that both of them yearned and hungered for the same thing – the blessing of the Father.
The truth is we all yearn for that, which is why this parable is so powerful and speaks to so many people. It is a story about something we all desperately want. And until we experience it, we feel lost and out of sync with life.
In some cultures, there is something called the parental blessing, or the father’s blessing. It is some event, a rite of passage that is necessary for the person to move into independent adulthood. And if they don’t receive it, they stay emotionally dependent, waiting for the blessing, or trying to earn it, trying to be perfect, trying to excel in all things.
Throughout my ministry, I have come across many people whose lives are a frantic mess because they never experienced that parental blessing. They spend so much emotional energy trying to earn approval, trying so hard to be liked and accepted. And no matter how hard they try they are never satisfied, that void is never filled.
Perhaps you feel the same void today – the same hunger and yearning. Your whole life is about trying to earn approval, trying to gain acceptance, and you are never at peace in your soul.
Both sons in the parable have the same yearning – a deep desire for the Father’s blessing. One of them acts out by rebelling. The other son acts out by being self-righteous. But they both feel the same thing. And the cure for both of them is the same.
You see, the only real difference between these two sons is that the younger son realizes what he needs, while the older son does not. And I have a hunch that many of us relate all too well with that older son standing outside the party who can’t really see what he needs.
Maybe that’s why many sermons never address the older son in the parable. His anger and resentment hits too close to home. His struggle to be accepted is our struggle. His grasping in the dark to find relief is what we do, and it’s hard to see ourselves in that way. So today, I want to take a closer look at the rest of the story, the older son’s story. Because as we do, we will find the cure to the soul ache we have. We will find our hunger satisfied. The void will finally be filled, if we are willing to experience it.
Let’s take a closer look:
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’” -Luke 15:25-27
So, the younger son has come home. He is lost and now he is found, and his father throws him a big party.
They are doing the macarena and drinking champagne, but the older son is nowhere to be found at the party. He is lost in another distant country. He is in the field, separated from the joy and celebration. When he hears the music and dancing, he asks a servant what in the world is going on. He says, “You didn’t hear? Your brother came home and your dad is over the moon! He’s throwing him the best party ever!”
The older son is isolated from the joy of his brother’s return. I know many people who feel isolated like that. Life for them has become a series of numbing obligations. There is no joy. Is that how you feel today? Separated from the joy of life? You envy those around you who express bliss and happiness. You wish you could be like those around you in worship who allow the songs to wash over them…You wish you could receive life the way so many do, with such peace and assurance.
There are many in the church who feel isolated like that. And I have learned that many feel this way because they are stuck and unable to see what will set them free. And what will set them free is so simple, so easy that it never dawns on them that it’s the answer.
And maybe you are thinking, “Well what is it? What is it that will set me free?” Let’s keep reading.
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’” -Luke 15:28-30
While all this joy and celebration is going on, the older son is outside of the party stewing about it. He is angry. Every bit of laughter, every clanging dish, every melodic sound enrages him.
But notice what the father does. He goes out to the older son. Just like the father ran to the younger son and embraced him, the father goes out to the older son and pleads with him to join the party. This was not, “You better get in here right now if you know what’s good for you!” It was, “We miss you. We need you and want you to join us. Please, come in.” It was an appeal of a loving, comforting father.
But this plea doesn’t do any good. The son explodes with a list of complaints. And it is clear that behind those complaints is jealousy and resentment over his younger brother being lavished with love and celebration. But behind that jealousy is something else – a son who believes he deserves what the younger brother didn’t deserve.
He was saying “Dad, if anyone ever deserved a blessing, it’s me. I worked hard for it, I sacrificed for it, I didn’t go across the river into the fleshpots of a Gentile country. I never did that. I’ve always been obedient. Always faithful. And yet you throw a party for my sin loving brother! It’s disgusting, it’s immoral. What about me? Where’s my party? Where’s my party?”
And then watch what happens next:
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’” -Luke 15:31
The father is so tender here. When he says, “My son” he is literally saying, “Child.” In other words, “Child, you will always be my child. All my love and all that I have to give is yours. It has always been that way. You have never been outside my grace. It is yours.”
The older son had never been outside the blessing of the father. The father was saying, “You already have my blessing.” The very blessing he craved and yearned for had already belonged to him.
Then why was he so angry? Why was he so unsatisfied? Why was he so blind?
Because he never received the blessing. He never received the grace of the father. He always tried to earn it, to work for it, to struggle for it when it was always his to receive.
You see God’s grace is received, not achieved.
And that’s what so many people miss and why so many people get stuck. And why so many people don’t have peace. They have never come to the place where they receive the grace of God.
Oh, I know. Some of you have worked all of your life to get it. You know what grace is. You can define it. You can point to the passages in the Bible that mention it. But you’ve never experienced it. You have never received it. Instead, you’ve tried to earn it. And that’s not how grace works.
To receive the grace of God you have to stop the fighting, stop the struggling, stop the working, and receive it.
Imagine a person who is drowning, flailing in the water. They panic as they struggle against the waves. Their arms thrash, and they gasp for air, and they are exhausted.
Now picture a lifeguard diving in for the rescue. The lifeguard knows that the more the drowning person fights, the harder it becomes to save them.
The lifeguard calls out, “Stop! Just be still! Let me help you!” The drowning person, overwhelmed by fear, might think they need to fight harder to survive. But the truth is the only way to be saved is to surrender, to stop resisting, and to trust the rescuer.
We must learn to be still, to surrender our striving, and allow God to reach out to us. In that stillness, we find that God’s hand is already extended toward us, ready to pull us from the depths of despair. But he can’t grab hold of us if we don’t let him.
The older son was drowning in obligation and resentment when all he had to do was be still and be saved by the embrace of his father.
You know who was just like the older son? John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Mark Trotter writes, “He was raised in the Church. He was a good Anglican and became an Anglican priest. He was a professor at Oxford University, which even in the eighteenth century was the most elite university in the world). He was extremely religious. He was fanatical about his religious disciplines, even in college.
“But his striving for perfection didn’t make him perfect; it just made him mean. As a young priest he went to Savannah, Georgia as a missionary. It took him about two months to alienate everyone in the colony, including the governor. He denied the sacrament from people who disagreed with him, or who crossed him. That is when Governor Oglethorpe sent him packing.
“Wesley went back to London depressed. He realized he lacked graciousness because he never really experienced grace. He confessed that. And that’s when it happened. When he stopped trying to earn it, it was there waiting for him as a gift.
It happened in church. He was listening to somebody read Luther’s interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Romans, where Paul says that we are saved by our faith in God’s grace alone–and not in our own works. Wesley went home that night and wrote in his journal, ‘I felt my heart strangely warmed, and knew that Christ had died for my sins, even mine.’”
His heart was strangely warmed. You know why? Because grace encourages intimacy with God. Grace is rooted in love, not in fear, obligation or shame. God is after a relationship with us because we are his children. He loves us so much, not because of what we do, not because of what we have achieved, but because we are, we are his creation.
When I tuck my son Paul in at night, and he finally drifts off to sleep, I just stare at him. And my heart just swells over the depth of my love for him. And that intense, profound love has nothing to do with how he did on his spelling test or whether or not he scored a goal in his last soccer game or whether or not he ate his vegetables (he never does!). That love is there simply because he is my child and that will never change. I love him because he is. He always has my blessing.
How much more does God feel that way toward you and me? Some of you need to stop the fight, stop the struggle, and surrender to the grace of God today. Because when Jesus told this Parable “he was swinging for the fences,” as Tom Long says. He was telling us that God’s love is so relentless, so reckless, so boundless that God runs out of the house in two directions. His prevenient grace runs both ways, to welcome those prodigals who have lost their way and to welcome those who never realized that God’s grace was theirs all along. There is joy, music, and dancing inside God’s house for everyone.
You know the parable never ends. Jesus intentionally leaves the parable open ended, with the older son waiting outside the party. Why? Because he is leaving the choice to us. Will we come home and join the party? Will we embrace God’s embrace of us?
“A fifth-grade teacher had what she called the Scholastic Olympics in her class each year. She would ask each child to pick a sentence from literature, name the author and source from which it came, and then explain why this sentence could be called the most important sentence ever written.
“You can probably guess what some of the entries were, like “Fourscore and seven years ago,” and “All people are created equal.” A lot of political phrases like that. There were also a lot of literary phrases, like “To be or not to be.” The girl who got the most points for knowing that “To be or not to be” was from a play got some points taken away because she said the author was a writer for the show Everybody Loves Raymond.
“There were fourteen entries of the biblical verse, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” probably because the teacher said that was her favorite verse.
But you know what sentence won? It was not written by a famous author at all. It wasn’t found in any literary source. It appeared on a postcard from Hawaii that one fifth grade girls received from her stepfather, who was on a honeymoon with the girl’s mother. The teacher was reluctant because the children were supposed to explain why this is the most important sentence ever written. But she let her speak. The girl said that until she received that postcard, she didn’t know how her stepfather felt about her. The girl’s entry won the prize. It was written on the back of a postcard from Waikiki Beach. It said, ‘Charlotte, I love you’” (story by Mark Trotter).
That’s the greatest sentence ever written. And there are many versions of it. It’s in the parable today. It’s from God and it’s addressed to everyone – to sons and daughters, to prodigals and to the righteous: “Come home. I love you.” And this I know, for the Bible tells me so.