The Father’s extravagant (prodigal) joy and delight over us – Luke 15:1-2, 11-32 

(Gospel Imagination or gospel astonishment in Jesus) – Ginger

Slide - The younger prodigal son – A rule breaker extravagantly self-indulgent vs. 1, 11-19 

 

Notice the two different groups of people that Jesus is talking to here.  One group was the tax collectors and the sinners/rule breakers.  The tax collectors and sinners are full of greed and self-indulgence.  The second listeners were the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law”.  They were the rule followers and the people that were highly respected by upstanding citizens in the society.  They were the ones that made their parents so proud.  “They studied and obeyed the Scripture.  They worshiped faithfully and prayed consistently.” 

 

Think about your growing up years.  Did you tend to be more of a rule follower growing up or a rule breaker.  Think about your siblings.  Did they tend to be more rule followers or rule breakers? 

 We all find ways of getting what we want either through breaking the rules and rebelling or by obeying all the rules and manipulating the system.  Who in this room was more of a rule breaker like me growing up in your family of origin? How about rule followers?

 

The younger son very similar to the tax collectors/sinners is a rule breaker.  He is a hedonist and is focused on pleasing self – extravagantly self indulgent.  He essentially says to his dad “I wish you were dead”.  He asks for his inheritance now showing he was more interested in the father’s money than the father.  This meant the father likely had to sell 1/3 of his property.  Most often the elder son had more responsibility in those days and would inherit 2/3’s of the estate as a result.  The younger son then goes off and wastes all the father had given him trying to find happiness.  He thought that joy came from stuff and doing whatever he wanted to do.  There is some truth in this and he experiences happiness for a little while.  After doing this for a while the younger son runs out of money and the economy slowed down.  Younger brothers are good at taking love but cannot give it.

 

No matter what family you grew up in it was flawed.  You have distorted thinking and you have developed a false gospel.  Both of the brothers in this story missed the Fathers love for them.  The younger brother was extravagantly self-indulgent and was addicted to sex, drugs, and wild living.  Does that sound at all familiar? 

 

Only when the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying the same do we change. This is when the son admits that he is lost.  When we admit we are lost, we begin searching for a rescuer outside of ourselves. 

 

The irony here is that the son who wishes his father to be dead is discovered to be dead and he is in need of resurrection.  He is dead because he is focused on money instead of the relationship with his dad. 

 

There are two distinct ways that we seek happiness and try to find joy.  One is the way of the younger brother seeking self-indulgence. The other is the way of the elder brother and that is through self-righteousness.  Most of the time it is a mixture of the two.  Sometimes we get tired of following the rules and we flip to being self indulgent.  Middle life is a time that this often happens for people.  Give up relationship for individual.

 

The elder brother was extravagantly self-righteous and was addicted to following the rules, moralism and religion.  Where are you in this story?  Do you tend towards self-indulgence or self-righteousness?

 

Slide - The elder prodigal son – A rule follower extravagantly self-righteousness   vs. 2, 25-30

 

Where is the older brother is at this point in the narrative?  He was out in the fields working while all of this transpired.  He was faithful and a hard worker.   He hears music and dancing in the house.  He asks a servant what is going on.  He learns that his brother is back and that His father has killed the fattened calf and that they are celebrating because of his safe return.  Notice the contrast between the fathers response to the son and the brothers response.  The father was filled with compassion and excitement for the son and the brother was filled with anger, distain and jealousy.  You see how self-righteous he is?  We see his heart here.  He is doing all the right behavior for all the wrong reasons.  Often elder brothers can give love but not receive it.

 

The older brother was thinking about how much it was going to cost them to bring back the younger son in the family.  He is focused on money.  He thinks about how he has been working every day and how his brother has done nothing to deserve this wealth.  Maybe some of you feel that even as we read it.  The Father’s love is extravagant to all who will receive it.  They give up their individuality for the sake of the relationship. 

 

The father finds the elder brother and invites him into the feast as a son.  The elder brother is resentful because he has worked all these years and the father has never even given him a goat.  He feels slighted by the father and feels ripped off.  Both of the sons are seen looking for their inheritance instead of being interested in the father’s love.  The boys are focused on money vs. the love of the Father.  The elder brother is a rule follower, moralist, he is passive/aggressive by not going to the party.  The father chooses to come out and leaves the feast of love to seek after his other lost son.  The rule follower looks a lot better on the outside but his heart is just as lost.

 

Both of the sons are equally lost.  The father has to go out and invite them both into the feast of his love.  The lover of prostitutes is in the Father’s banquet of love, and the man of moral conformity is lost.  The older son is losing the fathers love because he is focused on his own goodness rather than his lostness.  The barrier between the father and the older son is his pride. 

 

Both sons rebelled.  One did it through being extremely bad and the other did it through being extremely good.  The attitude of the older sons is that God owes me a good life and a ticket to heaven.  There is a spirit of entitlement.  Good thing we don’t have that in our churches or religious people any moreJ  Religious people live moral lives but then believe God and others owe them for their morality.

 

Slide - “If like the older brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior.  You are serving as your own Savior.  If you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things that you really want.”

 

The elder brother attitude leads to an attitude of self-righteousness and pride.  If when others criticize you it devastates you that is a sign that you are struggling with this perspective. 

 

Slide – “If the elder brother had known his own heart, he would have said, I am just as self-centered and a grief to my father in my own way as my brother is in his.  I have no right to feel superior.  It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.”

 

My cousins and I were sledding down a hill.  Younger cousin in the family went where his mom told him not to go by going to high on the hill.  My cousins older brother said lets try to hit him with a snowball when he comes down.  We both wind up and normally I am not a good aim but this time something changed.  I threw a perfect throw where the snow ball met his cheek perfectly as he was sledding down.  Immediately he burst into tears.  When we got down there my brother said.. Chad… it is God’s punishment.  Chad stopped crying and we all started laughing.  To this day we say… it’s God’s punishment.  The elder brother condemns and is throwing metaphorical stones or snow balls in his self-righteousness.  God took the punishment…

 

Slide – Rembrandts prodigal son picture

 

This picture speaks so powerfully about this story so I am going to engage your right brain a little with this pic.  Look at the elder brother in this picture…  He is distant and in the shadows full of condemnation and self righteousness.  There is another story of two brothers in the O.T. that was understood as Israel’s story.  There were two brothers and one of them took more of the inheritance from the other.  What story?

 

The story of Jacob was Israel’s story and Jacob was later renamed Israel.  Kenneth Bailey believes that Jesus is re-telling the story of Jacob and Esau.   The younger brother takes the inheritance that should have been the elder brothers using dishonorable methods and leave for a far country.  Both sons seek inheritance from their father and succeed.  Both elder sons have a lot of anger.  In both stories the younger son is estranged from the older brother and are exiled from the land and they eventually return.  “Jesus tells a new story that follows the outline of the old.  He creates the parable of the prodigal son following the story line of Jacob.  Jacob’s story is a tale of life at home followed by exile and finally return.   Israel took the name and identity of Jacob.  This is Israel’s story.. The major difference in the story of Jacob and Esau is the contrast of fathers.  Isaac was old, blind and about to die.  He played favorites and had a dysfunctional family that is full of lying, scamming and deceit.  Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  A little secret here is that we are all messed up and even though we are good at hiding it on Sunday morning everyone is broken and in need of Jesus.  In all reality this is probably not too far off of the families that we grew up in.  Brothers fighting, mom and dad having favorites, some lies and deceiving and broken relationships.  This is our story as well. 

 

Those of you who were following me about the story of Jacob and Esau might be wondering… If Israel is Jacob and is the younger son why is Israel being compared to the older brother?  Because Jesus is saying you were Jacob but you have become Esau.  How often does that happen to us where we were once a younger brother when we first came to Jesus and then we slowly flip to the opposite side and become the elder brother.  Jesus is calling Israel Esau.  Very offensive.  No wonder the religious leaders wanted to stone him.

 

The elder son doesn’t offer acceptance but rather condemnation to his brother and his father.  By not coming into the banquet it was seen as shaming the Father just as much if not more than what the younger brother did.  The elder brothers job was to go after the younger brother to bring him back.  That is why the elder brother would receive 2/3’s of the inheritance because they were responsible to redeem and bring back the lost. So thoughtful listeners would be asking where is the elder brother?  We long for a true elder.

 

As a licensed counselor part of the reason I love this story is that I see the two primary attachment styles of anxious and avoidant attachment in these two brothers and in Jacob and Esau.  This is our story!  If you give up your relationship for your individuality or if you give up your individuality for your relationship you become less of a person with less of a relationship.  Differentiation involves having relational grace and individual truth

 

In this redemptive story there is a different kind of father.  We all have father wounds.  Some of us more than others.  We long for a Father who loves generously, defeated death and see’s all.  Let’s turn our attention to our true Father full of compassion.  He is differentiated in his love and is full of grace and truth.

 

Slide - The Prodigal God – A Father extravagantly self-giving and full of joy vs. 11-12, 20-24, 31-32

 

I get a little uncomfortable with how freely, lavishly, and generously the father gives away his resources to his sons.  He is free with his stuff and his children….  He is also emotionally differentiated.  He cares about the relationships with his sons and pursues them while remaining an individual without them.  He is full of relational grace and individual truth about who he is.  He comes full of both – emotional differentiated in his love for his children.  One hand is more gentle and full of grace, the other hand strong and full of truth.

 

Slide – Zoomed in version of Rembrants return of the prodigal son on the Father’s hands

 

We are turning our attention primarily to the Father today who acts like a compassionate mother.  Father of the fatherless and protector of widows. Ps. 68.  He was eager to have his son return home even though his son had caused him so much hurt.  This is a small village similar to Frodo coming back into the Shire.  Everyone knows when people leave and everyone knows when people return.  The Father races towards the son.  Running shamefully exposed their legs.  Men only girded up their loins when they were in battle.  The Father is fighting for his son and even though he should have been fighting against his son he chooses to fight against shame by taking the shame upon himself. 

 

This son’s identity is completely shattered.  Imagine coming into a village half naked.  Likely no shoes and in rags.  You smell and have nothing to show for yourself.  A village where you destroyed the family name and brought such shame.  Similarly, in our moments of worthlessness, shame and nakedness we become experts  by hiding, covering and blaming.  We are trying to sow our own fig leaves.  You see we are all poor, blind and naked.  We have no hope.  The Father’s compassion, acceptance and a loving embrace act as healing balm.  The gospel will be most potent for younger brothers when they have failed and the Father races to them to show how much he loves them.   The Villagers had a tradition called Kezazah which means to cut off.  They did this to any Jewish boy who wasted their fathers inheritance on gentiles.  We imagine they were getting ready to do this tradition when the Father comes running in a shameful way and takes all the shame on himself that the son deserves.  In that moment you see a grown man exposing his legs and becoming shamed and taking all the insults that we so deeply deserve upon himself.  The son sees the great suffering he has put the Father through.  This is not the first time the Father took shame upon himself.  When the son asked for his inheritance and he had to sell a bunch of stuff to give this to his children it was shameful for him to be seen as a dad who was being rejected by his son. 

 

“The Father humiliates himself before the village multiple times.  He races to cover our nakedness and welcomes us into royalty.  The Father through Jesus has covered us!  He gave his most precious Son to cover our brokenness and cloth us in his righteousness.  We immediately move from homelessness being poor, blind and naked to being rich, full of life and royally clothed.   The Father gives his very life for us as his children thru Jesus! 

 

Slide - “This parable contains the gospel within the gospel because it is Jesus message within which the community that bears his name discovers its identity.”  - Tim Keller

 

The sin beneath the sin is rooted in identity.  Our ultimate identity comes through our heavenly Father.  He created us and gets to define us.    Vs. 22. The Father says to his bond servants… bring the best robe!  His Fathers finest robe would be recognized by the neighbors and they would understand that he is not only a son but a highly honored reconciled son.   Servants went barefoot, sons wore shoes.   Jesus became poor so that we might become rich.  The father covers the sons reckless living with his reckless love.

 

Through my gospel imagination in prayer the Spirit of God took me back to a painful situation and instead of harshness I was given a hug and embraced by the Father.  His compassion brought healing. We need to not simply know the good news… we need to experience the Father’s extravagant joy and delight over us. 

 

Slide –  The Father joyfully delights in his children and longs for them to come home to receive his love.

 

“The father in the parable does exactly what Jesus is accused of doing: he receives a sinner and plans to eat with him.”  He has joy and seeks to reconcile the family but also offers individual freedom.  

 

Vs. 23-24 – Fattened calf – whole village would be coming over and it cost the Father extravagant money to throw this celebration.  The son repents and the father’s grace moves him from shame, nakedness and death to being royalty, family and celebrated.  There is a huge price to be paid for this celebration.  Who pays this? 

 

Vs. 28 – The father humiliates himself in front of his guests by leaving to go and entreat his other son to come to the banquet.  It was already an insult that his son didn’t come to the banquet.  The greek word here is parakaleo.  His father gently comes alongside the older brother and seeks reconciliation and appeals to him.  This is a very humble posture because the elder brother should have been serving the guests in the banquet hall.  “The Father freely offers his compassionate, costly, self-emptying extravagant love to both of his sons.”   “In painful public humiliation the father goes down and out to find yet one more lost son.” The older son is angry.  Indeed, he is so angry he breaks the relationship with his father.  He should be the one greeting and serving the guests.  This is a public insult of rejection to the father.  This is as deep of an insult to the Father as the younger sons.  It would be similar to a Father and son getting into a yelling match with each other at a large family wedding and the son walking out instead of participating.  “The Father twice takes the posture of a suffering servant towards his wayward sons” (Bailey, 207)

 

Jesus is the true elder brother.  It is only through his sacrifice of his inheritance and relationship with the Father that we can be welcomed into the Father’s arms.  Someone had to pay and the Father sacrificed his beloved son so that we can be welcomed. 

 

Slide - Jesus atonement leads to the Father’s attunement with us. 

 

We were designed for a secure attachment with the Father.  Jim Wilder studied together with Dallas Willard and they both kept wondering why some people practicing the spiritual disciplines grew exponentially while others plateaued.  They found that the people that grew were the ones who could see the Fathers face of joyful delight over them.  Happiness comes from what happens… joy comes through relationship.  Right brain is where joy is experienced.  Fast track - His hesed love is attachment and attunement love.  Our imaginations were not designed primarily for sci-fi movies but rather for relational connection with God and with others. 

 

Slide – Jesus says, “Love God and love others”…  Esther Perel says, “The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.” 

 

We need our imaginations awakened by the joyful delight of the Father.  My gospel imagination was awakened during another prayer session where God revealed that I was on the shoulders of the Father walking around.  He was delighting in me as his son with whom he is well pleased.   I struggled viewing God as a good shepherd and then I was reminded of the shepherd carrying the sheep on his shoulders.  The Father’s eyes of compassion are on me and I am growing in feeling his attunement which brings healing.

 

Slide – Pictures of silhouettes of being on the Father’s shoulders

 

In Luke 3:22 “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove; and a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  This is what every son or daughter aches to hear form their dad.  He is called the parakaleo in greek which means to come alongside.  This is what the Father did with the sons.  We see one accepts being found and the other is still outside of the banquet of love.  Where are you today?  He desires for all to come to repentance and for the family to be back together again.  He is inviting younger and older brothers, to repent and turn to the only Father whose joy satisfies.  There is a true elder brother who has been sacrificed for us so that we get an invitation to the Father’s lavish feast.  You know you have received it by how extravagant you begin to be with others.  We give what we receive.  The Father is looking upon his first born son (the true elder brother) as our substitute and is saying over you today “you are my son… you are my daughter, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.” 

 

For those of you who have never experienced the Father’s love today he is calling you in into his feast of love.  He is welcoming you in.  You simply have to acknowledge your dead heart and your lostness.  Through Jesus (the true elder brothers) sacrifice on the cross the Father celebrates you and welcomes you to his table of his generous and compassionate love.  Whether we are tax collectors or Pharisees (rule breakers or rule followers) we are exiled from the Fathers love and we need to receive this anew today.  The invitation stands and the only pre-requisite is that you have to acknowledge how dead and lost your heart is apart from the Fathers love.

 

There is only one Father who gives freely.  His arms are open this morning eager for you to run to him and he is full of compassion for you and wants to sing celebration over you repenting and returning home.  Repentance isn’t a one time act but an every day reality. Since the garden we have been exiled from his presence.  He is throwing a feast for us and wants to welcome us home.  Do you need to repent of self-righteousness this morning.  Return to your Father’s arms!  Do you need to repent of self-indulgence?  Return to your true Father’s arms! Can you hear the Father say over you… you are my son… you are my daughter with whom I am well pleased.  The only way that we will ever have the Fathers heart for our city is if we experience the Father’s heart for us.  (Joyful Journey by Jim Wilder that fuels our love for our neighbors)

 

We are going to take some time to engage our gospel imagination this morning.  I want you to envision the Father running to you full of compassion and joy.  Take some time to recognize how he can see you, He understands where you are, he is welcoming you into his embrace and he delights in you.  The one pre-requisite is that you need to bring your need, weakness and brokenness this morning.  Imagine the Father celebrating you and invite you into his banquet of love.  Putting his best robe on you and celebrating you.  Can you see his joyful face of delight over you? When we receive this joy from the Father we respond by eating and drinking with the lost this week!  The more your heart is overwhelmed with the Father’s love and joy the more will want to share this love with others.  Let’s pray.

 

Slide – For more on how to engage your gospel imagination read “Joyful Journey: Listening to Immanuel” by E. James Wilder

 

Let’s sing together in joyful response to his extravagant delight and joy over us as his children. 

 

Final blessing - The Father blesses you and longs to keep you in His close embrace.  The Father makes his face to shine upon you as he graciously rejoices over you.  The Father turns his face towards you to send you in peace.  May you have freedom from shame and delight in the Father’s presence this week.  May you invite your neighbors into the Family to experience the Father’s extravagant joy and delight. Amen.

  

Notice the contrast here between the father and the elder son.  Celebration and rejoicing is the opposite of condemnation.  The Fathers rejoices over sinners - “Let us eat and make merry” – “This man receives sinners and eats with them”  Lk. 15:2 – The Father joyfully welcomes sinners and delights in us at his table of love