Today Jesus tells us a story to teach us more about who God is… It has become pretty familiar to most of us… most people even if you are not Christian have heard the term “Prodigal son”… but to the disciples and the crowd that gathered to listen this was an entirely new story…
A very wealthy father had two sons. One of his sons approached him and asked his father to give him the inheritance set out for him in the future. The Message bible translates his request, “‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.”
And the Father gives his son what he asks for… he gives him what was meant for the future.. now and the son squanders all his money… all his inheritance… all that his father had worked for his whole life…. All the money his father hoped would give his son a good life… the text tells us… he spent it all on “dissolute living.”
Eric and I have worked really hard to buy and keep up a four family home in New Haven that we rent out to Yale students. People have told us to sell it, but we want to be able to give it as an inheritance to our two sons…. I cannot imagine if one of our sons… as a teenager… sold two of the apartments and then disappeared with the money…. wasted it on video gaming and prostitutes and drugs… and then… essentially became an indentured servant.
So here is this boy in our text… a privileged child who has wasted his inheritance and now a famine hits the land… and he goes to a farmer to work his land and is not given anything to eat…. Hungry he looks at the slop he is feeding to the pigs and the text tells us that at that moment… he “came to himself,” the message bible translates it… “He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop…That brought him to his senses.” Alcoholics Anonymous might say… he had hit his rock bottom. He hit the point at which he knew he had to change… he could not go on like this…
And what does this child do? He remembers his father… He thinks of who his father is… He thinks of how his father is hardworking and kind… His father does not try to save money by not feeding his workers and leaving them to pick up the scraps from the animals… His father is generous and gracious and makes sure that his workers have three meals and bread to eat… His father spends some of his profit making sure his workers are well cared for and nourished to do the work he has sent out for them to do….
So this boy… comes to his senses and thinks about how generous and compassionate his father is even to his workers… He looks at the slop in the pig’s trough and he decides to go back to his father and say to him… "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."'
I have often thought of this boy as being quite humble… going back to his father with his tail between his legs… “no longer worthy to be called your son”… but this time the Lord really kept bringing me back to how audacious this boy was in this moment…
This boy had sinned and betrayed his father so grievously…
Can you imagine what you would feel if you were this child’s father?
I cannot imagine the sorrow I would feel… if my boy had wandered off with all of his inheritance and disappeared… I would worry day and night if he might be dead… and at the very same time… I would so angry I wouldn’t want to see him even if he did show up again…. I worked hard for that money, I woke up early and stayed up late… and you took my treasure…. You took all that I had stored up for you and wasted it on girls you don't know and drugs that would harm your body… that is not what I worked for…
As this child looked at the slop in the pigs trough… he knew what he had done.. he knew how he had wasted money that his father had worked hard for… he knew that he had taken treasure that his father had stored up and thrown it away…
Have you ever had a moment like this before God? God has given you so much, such abundance in life… a good mind… a good home.. a beautiful family and you do something that throws it all away…
Here is this boy. He threw away all of the treasure his father had stored up for him…. and yet… at this very, very low point… he decides to go back to his father, whom he took from…. How dare he? How dare he think that he can go back to his good, hardworking, kind, generous father and become one of his servants?
Child… you sold two of our apartments and wasted the money in a matter of months and now you are asking to become our handyman for the property… No way…
This child had no leg to stand on… and yet… there is something that gives him the audacity… the boldness to go back to his father...
How audacious are you before God? When you have sinned… do you go back to God… or do you try to work it out on your own first without God?
Do you think… you know what I can fix ….. I can work it out…. I’ll just try to work for this horrible farmer and eat enough pig slop to get me through the day and save my money and then when I’ve saved enough that’s when I’ll go back to my father… and perhaps he won’t notice how much I have wasted away… perhaps I could even save up enough to show him that I have done well for myself….
And perhaps you have worked it out on your own… you’ve tried really hard and done a good job… but what will you do when the temptation comes around again… The boy works hard for this miserly farmer who doesn’t feed his servants… but a prostitute comes around right when he is exhausted and feeling lonely and he has enough to spend on her and still have something left over…
I’m gonna take a gamble here and bet that none of you are eating pig slop and wasting your little savings on prostitutes…
But all of us are tempted to fix it on our own when we have gone astray… we are tempted to get our ducks in a row and then go back to Church…
It’s not prostitutes… but it might be that you have been drinking more than a little too much these days or that you have been ignoring your family a little too much these days… or that you have been spending on those credit cards a little too much … or you haven’t been to church … or you’ve become addicted to facebook … or the news…
You came to lent and decided to give all that up and I wonder… did you take that to God or was that something you were going to accomplish on your own….?
Because this child who had sinned and betrayed his father so grievously.. this wasn’t a facebook addiction... this wasn’t even snapchat… this was a tinder level offense (don’t look it up if you don’t know what that is) … This addicted child had the audacity to get up from the pig slop and go back to his father to ask him if he could work for him….
Jesus is telling us here… even when you don’t feel like you have got it all together… and actually especially when you don’t feel like you have got it all together… go boldly before God… be willing to take a risk… get up the nerve to go before your father in heaven….
This child is being so bold, so audacious here to think that he can go back to his father at all…. In his rock bottom, what did this child know that allowed him to get up from the pig slop and go to his father…
Even at his rock bottom, he recognized the goodness in his father… He knew that his father was a father of compassion. He was able to go boldly back to his father because he knew that his father would have mercy on him. He remembered that his father had abundant love and kindness.
He also knew that he could not do this on his own… “I cannot pretend that I will be able to eat slop and save money and resist temptation again all by myself”… I cannot pretend that I will be able to work this out without my father… I need my father’s guidance… I need to learn how to work hard… I need to learn how to save my money and be responsible.. I need my father…
Audacious means “a willingness to take bold risks”… it can also mean being rude… not showing due respect to an authority….
This boy here is being anything but disrespectful… in fact he is finally being respectful isn’t he…
Coming to God at your lowest point before you’ve had a chance to work it all out… That is bold… but it is also the highest praise.. it is also a sign of highest respect…
God I am willing to take a bold risk here… to admit that I need you… I cannot do this without you… I need your help now..
And how does this wealthy, worried, angry father respond as he sees his son in the distance… Does he go for his sword and get ready to kill him? Does he tell his servants to stop him at the gate and tell him to go away? Does he let him become a servant, but spit on him and yell at him and demean him?
What does this father do as he sees his son who has wasted all his hard earned inheritance… What does God do when you boldly come back to him… telling him… I know that you are good… I have sinned… I need you to help me… What does God do? He runs up to you with open arms…. I’m so so glad to have you back… It is time to celebrate! Good job… this is the step I wanted you to take… This is where you need to be… well done my good and faithful servant.. well done…
Paul tells us that in Christ we are a new creation: “everything old has passed away.” When you come home to God even and perhaps especially when you boldly come home to God at your lowest and weakest point… All that you have done has passed away… you are made new and our father in heaven will run to you with open arms to celebrate that you have arrived even perhaps before you have gotten through the church doors….
God is so grateful that you have come to him…. So wherever you are go boldly before God.
Practically speaking this might mean turning to God and quietly telling God in prayer about your sin… then admitting to God… God I need your help… and then asking God… Can you help me? This may seem audacious.. it is.. it may seem scary… but it is the most respectful thing you can do… It shows God that you know who he is… the God of compassion, love, and grace.. and it shows him that you want his help…
So be bold… before you think you can or you should turn to God and ask him for his help…
He will give it to you… He is a good, good father.
