Title: Amazing Grace

Scripture: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

3/21/04 Fourth Sunday in Lent

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

The story which Clint read to us from the Gospel of Luke this morning is perhaps one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. It is such a fun story to move around in with all its relationship issues and its message of forgiveness. I want to walk around in the story today in order that we might see the skill of Jesus, the storyteller and perhaps receive something from the parable that we had not noticed before.

At the beginning of chapter 15 we find Jesus surrounded by tax collectors and sinners, most likely a catch all phrase for Gentiles and others considered unclean. The Pharisees and scribes were nearby as well and were grumbling at Jesus for spending time with “riff-raff.”

In response to their complaints he told three stories. The first one was about the shepherd that leaves behind the 99 sheep in order to find the one that was lost. The second one was the story of the woman that turned her whole house upside down to search for a lost coin, and the third one is the one we heard today. The theme of something being lost and then found runs through all three of them – but there is something else in all three of them as well. There is someone that deeply cares for that which is lost: The shepherd, the woman and the father.

The author of Luke has carefully placed these three stories in the gospel as a response to the grumbling of the religious leaders. Each story gives us a hint into how Jesus understood his mission and how Jesus understood God.

For as long as I can remember today’s scripture has been called the story of the Prodigal Son. Our Newly Revised Standard Version of the Bible now calls it “The Story of the Prodigal and His Brother”, but I believe that the true title is found within the first words Jesus says at the beginning of the story: “There was a man who had two sons.” Because the brothers are so interesting – it is easy to forget the father and thus miss one of the greatest gifts of this wonderful parable.

It is good to know some Jewish custom as we enter the story. A younger son in a family would receive one third of the inheritance which was usually received at the father’s death. Asking for it early was not only an act of disobedience, but in a way, acting as if the father were already dead. In the Middle East, the father was the head of the household and a child was to be reverent to him, asking for one’s inheritance before death would be a grievous act of rebelliousness. To eat with swine, as the younger son did, was to become a Gentile and outside of the Jewish covenant and community. The pods referred to were the long pods of the carob tree, eaten by animals and, at times, by the extremely poor.

Knowing this, one sees how without saying it directly, Jesus is setting up a story that breaks from some of the most significant Mosaic laws – reverence and obedience to the father and strict food laws that set a Jewish person apart from the broader community.

Jesus is telling us something about God in this story. God’s love surpasses all human religious systems and redefines all standards of righteousness. All the laws, values and morals we humans set up to provide order, safety and right behavior – go out the window, for God, when someone is lost.

This idea would be considered terribly offensive to the Pharisees that were listening to this story. It is offensive to most of us as well because it offends our own sense of fairness. Most of us are thinking, “It is fine that the younger son was able to come home, but he needs to come back on his hands and knees, in sackcloth and ashes – not home to a party!” I bet if we lived next door we would even refuse to come to the party; what kind of a father is this man anyway?!

Has the party canceled the seriousness of sin and repentance?

I don’t think so.

Jesus is telling us, that for God, the first issue is not what the son did, or what the son needs to do to make up for what he did – those are the kinds of things we humans get all worked up about. The most important issue for God is that the son was lost, and now he is found.

Fred Craddock writes: “There is a condition worse than death, to be lost; there is a condition better than life, to be found.”

Something far greater than distributive justice or fairness is at stake in God’s eyes. If someone is lost from God, then the relationship itself is threatened – and according to Jesus, this is of utmost importance to God.

The father’s gift of grace is no different for the older son who is angry and does not want to join the party. God does not love the older son because he has played by all the rules and worked his fingers to the bone – he loves him because he is his son. In his refusal to join the party, we come to see that though he did not travel to distant lands, he is also lost in his misunderstanding of what it means to be in relationship with God. (We are not meant to be “slaves” for God). And it remains a question as to whether he will allow himself to be found.

The father had two sons, he loved his two sons, he went out to his two sons, he was generous to his two sons. Quoting Craddock again, “Perhaps it is the competitive rather than cooperative spirit of our society, but the common thought is that there must be losers if there are winners. Hence, even in religion, it is very difficult not to think Jews or Gentiles, poor or rich, saint or sinner, publican or Pharisee, older son or younger son. But God’s love is both/and, not either/or. The embrace of the younger son did not mean the rejection of the older; the love of tax collectors and sinners does not at all negate love of Pharisees and scribes.” For God, the question of deserving love or not, is simply irrelevant. As humans, I believe that this is incredibly difficult to fully understand – yet it is, I believe one of the most important spiritual truths reflected within our scriptures.

Last night a friend expressed to me a concern over how polarized we seem to be over a variety of issues in our country. Another friend mentioned that she believed that perhaps we polarize first, before we can slowly move to a more middle ground. The knowledge that God’s love knows no sides, has a way of grounding me in these times.

God’s grace/mercy/love offends our sense of fairness, deservedness, order and even security – that is why we call it AMAZING.