Home Coming: Coming Home

Spring Branch 2023

What makes a home (Slide 2)… a home? Sticks and stones? A yard? Bricks, walls, bathrooms, living rooms, furniture, and a roof? There is a difference between a house and a home… isn’t there?

(Slide 3)A house can be just a structure, but a home consists of more. A home consists of people, a family, a household of people who love one another. Love makes a home, belonging, being accepted… make a home. (slide 4)

Some of us have this. Some of us want this. Some have lost this or have walked away from this. Today we are looking at one who walks away from this.

There is a son who belongs, who is accepted, who has all his needs met where he is… but it is not enough. Something has got to be better; the grass must be greener somewhere else. So, what does the young and the restless son do?

He does what is unheard of, and is disgraceful. For the younger son to ask for an early inheritance was like asking his father to die! He does not humbly request, but demands his inheritance here and now, so that he can cash in and take off down the road… away from his father, away from his home.

As a child, or as a child in our homes… we wonder: Was is the rules? Was it the order or structure? Was it the fact that the older brother was going to get more and he has bitterness towards him? What is it, that makes a man leave his home, to leave love behind? Did he believe that there was better or that he deserved more than what his father could give? We must wonder… What Makes us leave and Run Away (slide 5)

Nevertheless, he leaves, spends all, and or loses everything. Reckless living equals careless living; he did not take caution and was careless of the consequences. He was living it up, all up, until there was nothing left. Now he is broke.

On top of this… Famine, a widespread lack of food, happened. He can’t find food in the trash cans. Times are very hard, so hard that he goes to work for a Gentile farmer… and he farms something Jewish people find to be the most repugnant creature on the planet.

Jews are not going to do this… and then… the next picture is this man desiring to eat with the pigs… this is unheard of to Jesus’ audience. The crowds are listening to this and a Pharisee just vomited, the others are gagging and cringing.

(Get the context)Jesus has heard the Pharisees and the scribes grumbling about Jesus receiving sinners to himself… and then Jesus begins with the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and this story of the father and the son, which can be called the “parable of the prodigal son”, or or the “parable of the waiting father.”

Like sheep gone astray, some sinners are lost through their own stupidity, and the Shepherd goes after them; and, like coins, some are lost by the carelessness of others and we must search diligently for them. But the son, this son, was lost because of his own willfulness, and the father had to wait until his son’s will was broken and submissive.

The way I understand this story is this: The prodigal is the sinning child that rebels against his father and who experiences real repentance. The older child represents the Pharisees, their self-righteousness and their lack of mercy and grace. The father represents God and His response/attitude towards repentant sinners.

So, this person desires to be independent from God, seeks to be his own master, and to be without divine control or rules. Whether we would say that he represents a lost person or a backsliding Christian, do not miss the points: The child breaks his Heavenly Father’s heart, wants what the Father can give him without the Father, he believes that the Father owes him, and that there is a life that is so much better without his Father, the Father’s and without the Father’s Home.

And how much longer would he have stayed away… would he have come back home… if he would have never been hungry and poor. What a wonderful timing this is… is it coincidence? A famine, a hunger comes into his life after he is left impoverished. This is the hand of God, I believe.

The hard-headed fool that turns away from God to worship creation and to live for the lusts of the flesh… what will it take before we are handed over to a debased mind? What will break the mind and the heart of stone?

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst… For theirs is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are those whom the Lord pursues and breaks by His great love for them. Blessed are the ones whom the Lord never leaves alone… but will drive them all the way, all the way back home.

In was in this state, on his back, that he could look up. It was when he was finally in his poverty that he knew the wealth of his Home with his Father. It was now in his hunger and thirst… that he came to his senses… when? When he was bankrupt and starving… Then… He can to his senses.

What a tremendous grace and mercy from God, to bring such misery to turn a heart around, and to wake up a son so far away from home. This was his lowest depth—perishing unpitied, alone in the world, and ready to disappear from it unmissed! But this is just the blessed turning-point; this is the midnight before dawn of day…

There is the mid-night hour and the mid-night cry… When all is lost and there is poverty of soul… When the back is laying in a cesspool of depravity, the eye can be brought to focus upwards… Whatever it takes to get sinners here… Whatever it takes for them to come to their senses… and be delivered from darkness...

And the light comes on!

I can go home! There is a home! The son did not say, “I will go back to the house.” The son was not drawn to a house.. He was drawn to a Father, to a love of a Father, the love of a home, the support, help and blessing of a loving home with his father.

There is somewhere I can go. There is someone I can go to. There is one who will feed me and save me from destruction...

Oh, how we pray for the people of God to come to their senses, to be illuminated, to see the Father and the Father’s house… and to come back home. How we long to know that the father’s love be known, felt and experienced in every heart… that the deception of this world and the fleshly desires of humanity be revealed as it is, as vanity upon vanity.

And listen to his now humility that has grown into repentance… He began rehearsing his repentance speech, his prayer of confession and repentance: “Father, I have sinned… I am no longer worthy… I don’t deserve anything… I don’t deserve to be called a son… I will be your slave...”

Notice this change of attitude and heart. There is no no sense of pride and entitlement. He just wanted in, he desired mercy and grace… he was willing to beg for it.

So he began the journey home, and is walking and walking.

Now listen to the context; know the audience. If you were to ask Jesus’ audience, “Would you forgive the son? Would you let them back in? How would you have treated this person?”

Their reply: “The son is dead to me. It will be a cold day in Iran/Nevada/Death Valley before he would ever step back foot on my property… I don’t have a son...”

There are cultures today that would mirror that culture back then. There may be even a person here today who would treat their family the same way…But not this father, no.

This Father is waiting for him. This Father is looking for him. This Father is not going to be like the rest of you, He is going to be excited to see His son coming back to Him. He is going to be so excited, He is going to act undignified… He is going to pull up His robe of glory and run over to meet His repentant son… (slide 12)

Again: In those days, the family and the village could have had the son stoned… But they would have had to hit the Father! The Father is coming to cover the son, to fall on the son and protect him from all harm...

Get the picture: The son is rehearsing his repentant speech and the father tackles him with a loving force, hugs the son, kisses the son… the one who has hated the father, the one who has disgraced the father, the one that wanted things and not the father, the one that smelled to high heaven of pig pooh… the father probably smelled him coming… And the one one who was so far gone… found out that his father never moved… He was the same Father… It was the same Home.

It was as though the Father could see the repentant and humble heart of the son, before the son could even get out a word… The Father knew the inward reality and ran to him.

Confession/Repentance is coming out of the son’s mouth, and the robes are placed on the son… Take off what you are wearing and be clothed with the Father’s best. Take off what your are wearing and be clothed with robes of righteousness.

What is on your fingers… pig residue? No son, put my ring on your finger… the sign and symbol of my authority upon you… You belong to Me; My Name is on you.

Look at your feet… no, no… you are no slave here, slaves have no shoes… You shall have my best shoes and live as a free man with Me.

Oh, look at my son, so frail, so hungry… no goat sandwiches for you, no protein vegan goat milk shakes… Go kill the best cow, we are having the best steaks in the land! Let’s celebrate!

Oh, what a Home Coming! Coming Home to a Father, coming Home to a land where there is plenty, where there is safety, where there is peace, and satisfaction. Oh, what a Home Coming, when the dead comes to life and the wanderer comes to their senses and runs back home...

What a picture! What a story of love, forgiveness, and mercy. Oh, what a story and a picture of God’s love for sinners, for His children who are wandering far from home...

What a message to the Pharisees and scribes who are here listening with the rest of the crowd… And what a message for us today… Who may be so far from home...

What a message today, who feel so far away from home. What a message today for those who have messed up so much, who are ashamed and feel so guilty. What a message today for those who think they have gone too far away, for those who have done many bad things, who have turned their back on their Heavenly Father, and have lived for this world.

What a message and indictment for those who will not forgive others, who will not embrace repentant sinners, who will not witness to them, and show backsliding Christians the way back home...

Who needs reconciliation today? Who needs forgiveness? Who needs security, acceptance, and a sense of belonging? Who needs the love of a Father and a Father’s Home?

(Slide 13) There is a Father who hasn’t moved. There is a Father who is watching and waiting. There is a Father/God who will run after you today.

Remember the Father today. Remember the Goodness of God. He is a Good Good Father who is looking and waiting for you… And He will meet you where you are today and cloth you to be with Him forever.

If you desire to experience a great Homecoming, you first have to come Home. Wherever you are, no matter how far you’ve gone… Come Back Home and experience your Homecoming!

And there will be joy in heaven when you do.