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"A sting in the tale"

Mark Standen

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A sting in the tale

Over the Summer, our theme is A sting in the tale (Probing parables from Luke’s gospel)

27 July         ‘The seed of change’          Luke 8:1-15

3 Aug           ‘An invitation to a party’   Luke 14: 1, 7-24

10 Aug         ‘The meaning of love’         Luke 10:25-37

17 Aug         ‘A long term investment’     Luke 16:19-31

24 Aug         ‘The Paradox of Pardon’     Luke 18:9-14

'The best of all fathers’?

·         People have been choosing their favourite hymns ....

·         I’m going to share with you my favourite verse in Bible. Here it is...Luke 15 v20

‘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.’

·         Does that ring a bell for you? Hope so. It came in the passage Mike has just read to us. One of the most important little stories Jesus ever told- the ‘Parable of the Prodigal Son’.

·         The story concentrates on 3 characters:-  a lost son, a loving father and a jealous brother. Let’s think about each of them for a few moments.

         a)      The lost son

Probably the person most people remember from maybe childhood memories of this story is the lost son. He is presented to us as a thoroughly selfish and uncaring lad. He had got bored of living with his dad on the family farm. The bright lights of the city were far more attractive to him than staying at home with his family. He goes to his dad and barks at him for his share of his NOW. There’s not a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ mentioned here. There’s not a hint of ‘I’m really going to miss you dad; rather there’s an impatience with his life, and a desire to put as much distance between himself and his dad as humanly possible!

Off he goes, and to begin with, life is one constant party. He has the time of his life, but pretty soon the money runs out, and the friends disappear soon after that. His cash flow problems are compounded by a severe famine, and he’s reduced to working in a pigsty, and drooling over the pods the piggies were eating!

This was a terrible plight for a Jewish boy, and many of Jesus’ audience would have been rubbing their hands with glee. ‘Just what he deserved’ would have been their response- ‘Serves him right’

And the turning point in the story is v 17 . We’re told that this unpromising youth ‘came to his senses’. He realised that even his father’s servants had better rations than he had at present, and he needed to go home, ‘tail between his legs’ to face the music. ‘Sure, he’d blown it, he couldn’t expect the guest suite at home- all he could expect was a lodging in the servants’ hall, but at least he’d be alive.

Off he goes, v20, on the long trek home, with his apology already rehearsed....

Well - who is this boy meant to represent? In a way he represents all of us, but in particular I guess he is meant to bring to our minds the person who has dramatically slammed the door in God’s face, and said that he or she wants nothing to do with him.

It may be someone like Simon – a 19 year old lad at college with me. He was brought up by parents who were committed Christians, indeed his dad was a Vicar, but Simon had resented like mad having to go to Church as a kid, and resolved aged 19 that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with God. University was one long party for Simon- a really godless existence, and he found as many excuses as possible not to go to his parents’ home during vacations. Simon was the same type as this boy in the story.

Or maybe someone like Jane- a lady in her 60s, who had never been terribly religious during her life – neither pro or anti God- but when her husband got cancer and then died soon after his retirement, Jane slammed the door in God’s face, just like this boy in the story. ‘I want absolutely nothing to do with you, God’ was her attitude.

This boy portrays very dramatically what SIN is. It is not just doing naughty things. The heart of sin is not wanting to be with God, but distancing ourselves from him- feeling we want to live our lives independent from him.  As one person has put it ‘sin is wanting to enjoy God’s gifts, but not wanting to be near him’

Doesn’t that sound familiar? We see it in all people – the  young, middle-aged and older all over the world. Perhaps it strikes a chord with you personally- maybe you realise that you have treated God a bit like the lad in the story- you’ve lived your life far away from God....

The question this little parable answers is how God feels about people who’ve spurned him in their lives – people like this boy, maybe people like us- and there’s a wonderful surprise for us here. So let’s turn to the 2^nd character in the story:-

b)      The loving father

Many of the Jews listening to the story so far would have been eagerly waiting for the encounter between the boy and the Father. They pictured God as majestic and righteous, and they expected this young man to be very severely punished by the Father he’d treated with such contempt. They – like many people today- picture God as a severe Judge waiting to meet us at the end of our lives with a ‘This had better be good’ expression on his face as we splutter our excuses from the dock!

And here’s the surprise- and it brings us to my favourite verse in the bible. How does God view this thoroughly unworthy son of his. Is he waiting with a whip in his study? No – a thousand times no! Look what it says in v20

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 round him and kissed him.’

Think for a moment what this tells us about God.

First, of course, it teaches that the relationship between God and us human beings can be compared between a Father and a son. The God who created us – the God we’ve spurned- nevertheless wants us to acknowledge him as our Father, and for us to want to enjoy a Father- child relationship with him – a wonderful truth for us to revel in this Father’s Day.

And see what sort of Father he is. The clear impression of v20 is that this Father is waiting, hoping, longing for his son to return. It’s as if he’s there with his binoculars in hand, hoping that his boy will come to his senses and come back home. Then, one day, he sees a speck on the horizon, that speck becomes larger, it’s a boy- could it be his precious son. Surely not- he looks so pale and gaunt – a bundle of bones, not the ‘cheeky chappie’ who’d left full of bravado a while ago. Then, the light dawns on the Father, yes it is his boy. The Father hitches up the hems of his robes and runs- yes runs- towards his son. He falls on him and kisses him over and over again. The boy stutters out his apology, but the Father orders a robe, a ring and sandals to be brought for him – things that ‘a son of the house’ would wear- and throws a lavish party to celebrate his homecoming.

Is that how you see God – a waiting, searching, running, embracing, pardoning, reinstating, partying sort of God? It’s not how many of Jesus’ audience then saw God. It’s not how many people think of him today. People often imaging God is quite fond of the religious types- those who hang out in Church a lot, say their prayers, try to be good, but he’s a bit of a Victor Meldrew type figure to those who’ve rejected him in the past!

Not a bit of it – God is waiting for us to ‘come to our senses’. More than that, he’s longing for us to do so, and even whilst we are on our journey towards him, he runs towards us, and hugs us and reinstated us into his family – not as slaves, but as sons.

Isn’t that good news? Maybe you can identify with this boy trudging slowly towards his dad? Maybe even coming here tonight is a sign that you want to ‘come home’ to be with God, and live your life under his blessing, knowing him as your loving heavenly father. Take heart- in God, there is no reluctance to accept you. Indeed the very opposite is true. He will more than meet you on your journey- he’ll come to you, arms outstretched.

Well our time is almost up, but there’s one other character we need to give a little time to. Someone has said that there was only one person not pleased to see the son return – and that was the fattened calf! Actually that’s not quite accurate, is it? This lost son had a brother, and let’s look at him as we close. I’ve called him

c)        A jealous brother, and we see him in vv 25 -32

He had been working out in the fields, and as he came back to his home, he heard all the music and saw people dancing. ‘What’s happening’, he asked one of the servants. ‘Oh’ was the reply ‘ your younger brother is home and your father has killed the fattened calf, and is throwing a party, because he has him back safe and sound’.

Well, to say that the elder brother is unimpressed is an understatement! There seems to have been little love lost between himself and his younger brother. And one can understand why! The younger son has treated his dad shamefully, has impoverished the estate and doubtless caused extra work for this older ‘stay at home’ brother. Yes we can understand why the older brother now does his impression of ‘The incredible sulk’ and refuses to go in to celebrate his brother’s return!

How does the Father deal with this situation, then? He goes out to plead with him to come in. In this Middle Eastern society, the elder brother’s behaviour would have shocked people. His refusal to obey the father as shocking as the younger brother’s behaviour. Jesus’ audience would have been waiting for the father to come out of the house with a whip.

But he doesn’t! Just as he was tender to his younger son, now he is tender to the older one- pleading with his, cajoling him, encouraging him to share the Father’s joy at his brother’s return.

But the Father has a mountain to climb with this boy too. Look at what he says (vv28 -30). He has quite clearly resented his Father over the years. He sees his time as ‘slaving  for’ the father, rather than any loving partnership. He resents like mad that the Father hasn’t given him a goat to celebrate with his friends- though there’s no indication that he ever asked for one, or that the father would have refused him one if asked. And the crowning insult is that the father has been prepared to welcome home this scoundrel of a younger brother.

Isn’t this sad?! Though the elder boy has stayed at home with his father, he clearly hasn’t felt ‘at home’ with him. He feels that his father is as much a stranger to him as perhaps the younger brother felt towards his dad during his time away from home. What an irony!

So who is this elder brother meant to represent? Surely he is the person who is apparently near to God, but actually is very far away indeed. There are many ‘elder sons’ around the world today- people who are outwardly respectful to God- they turn up at church , they try to be good citizens, they ‘tut tut’ over the lawlessness of people in society today, but actually God is a stranger to them. They know nothing of that intimacy God the Father longs to have with them. They’ve never felt the Father’s warm embrace- all they perceive is a distant nod of faint approval in their direction from God!!

Maybe that’s you tonight! You’ve never slammed the door in God’s face like the younger son; but you find the elder son closer to home! You’re not a vocal rebel, rather you’re someone who – truth be told- is a stranger to God in your heart. You know about him, but you don’t know him personally.

The wonderful news tonight is that God woos elder sons, just as he reaches out to younger sons! Look how the story ends – in v31. The Father calls this elder boy ‘My son’ and says that all that he has is his. He wants him too to come in to the party to be with his dad, and to rejoice that his brother who had been dead is now alive again, and restored to his family.

It’s an intriguing end to the story, isn’t it? We don’t know whether the older boy accepted his dad’s invitation, or continued his sulk. The jury is out- maybe for us too- will we accept God’s invitation to be our Father, or will we spurn him?

It’s a great theme for us this Father’s day, isn’t it? We may have enjoyed a brilliant dad, and a great relationship with him – as I have- or our relationship with our human dads may have been more strained. Whatever the truth about our human relationships, God tonight offers us a very personal invitation to be our Heavenly Father, and he says RSVP!

A couple of years ago a daughter left her home in the sticks to go a city a few hours away. To begin with, she wrote, telephoned, texted and e-mailed, but after a couple of months the communications dried up. The parents were devastated, and neither the Police nor Social Services were able to help. The mother decided to go to the city to look around, but soon realised that it was hopeless- they place was too vast. She had an idea. She made a couple of thousand postcards with a photo of herself and the dad on the front, and on the back she wrote ‘Wherever you are, and whatever you’ve done, Come home’, and posted these in as many bars and cafes as she could. Sadly she returned to her village. A couple of weeks later, the daughter saw one of the postcards, and ‘came to her senses’ and within a day, she was being hugged by her parents at home.

God is like that mother! Through this story of the Father’s tenderness towards BOTH of his children, he says to us ‘Wherever you are, and whatever you’ve done, COME HOME’.

Many of us in Church tonight have accepted that gracious invitation years ago, but if you haven’t, wouldn’t tonight – Father’s Day 2008 – be a wonderful night to come home to God! This is the most important decision we’ll ever take, but also the best one we’ll ever make!

‘Come home!’

Mark Standen