Will Preach For Food Podcast

The Prodigal Jesus, Re-Visioned (Luke 15)

September 10, 2022 Doug Season 3 Episode 26
Will Preach For Food Podcast
The Prodigal Jesus, Re-Visioned (Luke 15)
Show Notes Transcript

Today’s reading is  Luke 15:11-32, often known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. The word “prodigal,” comes from the description of the younger son’s “wild living” in verse 13. Reckless, extravagant, wasteful, over the top. A closer reading wonders about several “prodigal” characters, including both brothers and the father, and whether maybe the younger brother is actually the hero of the story, and is, in fact, a way for Jesus to describe himself and how it is that God’s kingdom is being “wasted” in the world to this day.

My sermon title for today is “The Prodigal Jesus, re-visioned.” This is a re-vision of this message, because, well, learned a few things since the original recording. 

Luke 15:11-32

“There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But 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.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father 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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

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.’

28 “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!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.’”

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The Prodigal Jesus, re-visioned (Luke 15)

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. Faith is a welcoming community: growing closer to and more like Jesus; making Christ known; joyfully serving each other, our neighbors, and all God’s creation. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. Thanks for listening today. 

Today’s reading is one of the more well-known stories Jesus taught, Luke 15:11-32, often known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. The word “prodigal,” comes from the description of the younger son’s “wild living” in verse 13. Reckless, extravagant, wasteful, over the top. A closer reading wonders about several “prodigal” characters, including both brothers and the father, and whether maybe the younger brother is actually the hero of the story, and is, in fact, a way for Jesus to describe himself and how it is that God’s kingdom is being “wasted” in the world to this day.

My sermon title for today is “The Prodigal Jesus, re-visioned” This is a re-vision of this message, because, well, learned a few things since the original recording. We start with the reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke, the 15th chapter, beginning at the 11th verse.

Luke 15:11-32

“There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But 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.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father 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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

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.’

28 “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!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.’”

The gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The Wrong Crowd

The issue in Luke 15 is the company that Jesus chooses to keep. By the standards of the religiously competent, Jesus is wasting his time with the wrong crowd--“sinners and tax collectors,” they are called. These are the sorts of people who fall short of the mark, didn’t make the cut, haven’t kept up appearances. The ones voicing their disapproval are the Pharisees and teachers of the law. These are the respectable, God-fearing, hard-working, tax-paying, church going crowd. You can see their eyebrows arching and their disapproving frowns. Jesus Christ, they mutter. Why in heaven’s name do you bother with THOSE people? What a waste of time.

Essentially, the grumpy church people are criticizing Jesus for being prodigal: He is associating with the wrong people. Wasting his time with the wrong crowd. And so Jesus responds with a story about a prodigal shepherd, a prodigal woman, and this story about a prodigal father and his two prodigal sons. We can look at the shepherd and the woman another time. Today, I want to focus on this father and his two sons, and how the story illustrates God’s amazing grace. Let’s start with Dad.

The Prodigal Father

God’s amazing grace is personified by the Father in this story. “While his son was still a long way off, the father ran to his son, embraced him, and welcomed him home—long before the son could muster a speech about being sorry. This is the gospel promise for you and me: that no matter how far you or I might stray, no matter how “prodigal” you’ve been in your life, how far or wayward your life or choices, no matter what family, friends, or grumpy church people might think or say about you, the Father never stops loving you. Repent, therefore, return home, and you will be received in the loving the embrace of your heavenly Father. 

Welcome Home, we say around here. It’s GOOD to be home. Each one of us has been embraced by the Father: welcomed, received, forgiven, clothed in righteousness, and given a place at the table by God’s amazing grace. And so, we seek to experience, exemplify, and extend that grace toward others. When we gather for Holy Communion, we are being given a “foretaste of the feast to come.” In worship we are sharing a meal with a bunch of forgiven sinners. We practice in this life to prepare ourselves for the heavenly feast to come.

The Prodigal Jesus

But maybe we aren’t going far enough. Maybe God’s grace is even more amazing than we realized. Maybe the hero of the story isn’t the Father. Maybe it’s the Prodigal Son. Maybe this is the story of the Prodigal Jesus.

After all, we understand Jesus to be the Son of the Father from eternity, the one who became flesh to show us the Father, to reveal and carry out the will of the Father. Which son more closely resembles the Father? Which son shows generosity and grace? Who is to say that the son’s journey wasn’t the Father’s will all along?

Second, in the other parables the hero is active: the shepherd goes looking for the lost sheep; the woman searches for her lost coin; and the Father even goes out looking for the older son by the end of the story. The younger brother is the one who “leaves home and goes off to a far away land. And that is what Jesus did, right? “For us and for our salvation,” we teach in the Nicene Creed, “he came down from heaven.” Or, as the gospel of John says, Jesus is “the Word that became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Third, the Prodigal in the story is criticized for wasting, spending, using up his family fortune while hanging out with the wrong crowd, which is exactly what the grumpy church people are accusing Jesus of doing, you know, “welcoming sinners and eating with them.” But the apostle Paul argues that this is precisely the gospel:

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him, receiving eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:16-17)

So maybe this parable is saying that spreading the prodigal grace of God “among sinners” was God’s plan all along. Jesus came from heaven, filled with the Holy Spirit, and spends his earthly ministry teaching, preaching, healing, and sharing the grace and good news of the Father. He leaves it all out on the field, as it were. And when he had spent it all, when everything had been accomplished, as he breathes his last on the cross, he recalls the faithfulness of his Father: It is finished, he says. Into your hands I commit my spirit! 

In death, Jesus returns to the Father’s loving embrace. On the third day, the Father vindicates Jesus by raising him from the dead. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. As Jesus glorified the Father by his faithfulness unto death, now the Father glorifies the Son, and places him at his right hand, at the marriage feast which has no end. The Prodigal is Jesus!

Consider this as well: by the time Luke records this encounter, the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed. In the context of this parable, there is no more family farm. All that remains of the Father’s provision is that which the younger son has dispersed among all those “sinners and tax collectors.” The miracle of Pentecost replaced the presence of God in the world from a single location in a building in Jerusalem, to the hearts and lives of countless Spirit-filled followers of Jesus Christ. 

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

The Other Prodigal Son

The only one left outside is, ironically, the older brother. He is the one who is really lost, the true prodigal who is wasting his inheritance, missing out on the grace of God. At one level, the older brother is a critique of the Jewish leaders in the time of Jesus. God’s chosen people had become possessive of God’s gifts, insulated from the rest of the world, hardened to the idea that God so loved the world. They were the ones wasting their inheritance, missing out on the party.

But the older brother is also me. I am 55 years old. I work at a church. If that isn’t “staying home,” I don’t know what is! I have spent most of my life—and to this day—being a good boy, managing my words and my actions so I don’t bring shame to my family or cause another person harm. But this comes at a price: I am quick to judge and condemn the choices, actions, and behaviors of others, especially if they seem to be having fun. 

True story, I was on a business trip in New Orleans over Halloween. I was staying at the convention center there, right there on Canal Street. By late afternoon, the whole place was showing up in costume, the streets packed for a raucous night of Halloween celebration. And I avoided the whole thing. I spent the entire night in my hotel room working on a paper, watching the Seahawks play the Houston Texans—anything but go outside. Why? Because out there “those people” were having fun, and that is something I am really not comfortable with. 

So I totally get the dilemma of the older brother. It is bad enough that there is a party being thrown in the first place. But how can I actually relax and enjoy the party if all my energy is being spent on managing my self and trying not to judge other people for “letting things get out of hand!” Nearly unbearable. I’m better off outside, I think. 

But then the Father shows up and tells me that he wants me there. That celebrating, mixing with the wrong crowd, feeling uncomfortable, is exactly the kind of crowd he likes. It’s not about me, after all, and that’s a good thing. It’s about the dead rising and the lost showing up and salvation has come. Jesus already judged the living and the dead, so I don’t have to. I’m wasting my time, wasting God’s amazing grace sitting on the sidelines. Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them, including the chief of sinners. Including me. And there is room at the table for you, too. Come, for the table is ready…

Prodigal Faith

We worship a prodigal God. May the amazing grace of God bless and encourage you today. May God lavish you with the Holy Spirit. May God’s embrace hold you and set your heart at ease. May God give us the humility and courage to set aside our prejudices and pride, to come to the party, to join the feast that has no end. Amen.

Conclusion

Thanks for listening, folks. Our website is www.faithshelton.org. This podcast is available on most podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and Google. Like us, subscribe, donate, or sign-up for our newsletter. Thank you, Chas and Nadia, for your production and tech support for this podcast. All glory be to the Father…