Does God Really Care?
Notes
Transcript
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.
The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.
A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
I will get up and go to my father, and I will 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.” ’
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.
He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’
Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.
But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”
In 1988 the soulful voice of a young Tracy Chapman recorded and released what has become an award winning song titled “Fast Car.” The song that has remained relevant for nearly 4 decades recently received renewed interest when Country Artist Luke Combs released a cover that topped the charts and won a Country Music Award.
The song is about a young girl who has high hopes that her boyfriend’s fast car will allow them to escape the problems of their world. The main character’s father is an alcoholic whom she has submitted to care for, but is working on a plan to escape that life. As she progresses through her career, the hopes that she has turn to despair.
It seems that although that fast car got them away from home and her ambition has given them a new future, she’s still shackled to the same thing. Now her husband’s alcoholism. It’s a sobering reminder that even our greatest hopes can quickly or slowly turn into deep pits of despair.
Perhaps this is a story that resonates with you. Maybe you’re coming to a realization that things just haven’t turned out the way that you had hoped they would. Perhaps you’re not yet ready to come to terms with the fact that this world just isn’t the way you would have it — that the people in your life just aren’t living the way that you would have them live, or your living situation just isn’t the way you would have it if you called the shots.
If that’s you, then this message series is for you, and it’s titled “Hope and Despair.” Over the next 5 weeks we will be looking at how we deal with life when it feels like our hope is giving way to despair, and how we can turn to and trust in Jesus as the anchor that we can hold on to in the storms of despair that will help us find our way back to hope again.
Now there’s a lot of reasons that we find ourselves in despair. But today I just want to start this series off by talking about the number one problem in most of our lives. The number one issue that every single one of us shares in common. The one problem that none of us can escape no matter how hard we try.
Any guesses what problem I’m talking about?
Ok everyone make your pointing finger. Everyone got that. Ok now take that finger and just follow after me. We’re going to out the culprit. Point it right at yourself. That’s right. Now repeat after me. It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.
I just got you to sing Taylor Swift in church. Maybe I’m the problem.
Ok no but for real, all joking aside, we are the most consistent and pervasive source of our own despair in this world. And that is almost entirely because we put our hope in ourselves and our own ambition and drive. Just like Tracy Chapman’s protagonist, we expect that our efforts and our hard work and our drive and our whatever else is going to bring us into the future that WE WANT for ourselves. And then, at some point, that future comes crumbling down on us.
This is exactly what we find when we encounter Jesus’s teaching from Luke 15. This parable or story that Jesus tells is specifically being told to a group of Pharisees who are not really happy with the way that Jesus hangs out with, dines with, and generally loves on people who are considered sinners.
So Jesus tells them a few stories, in the presence of these tax collectors and sinners that the Pharisees are so angry that Jesus is hanging our with. And those stories are about people who lose something of value and then go out to find it. The third and final story that Jesus tells, the exclamation point if you will, is this story that has become quite famous. The story of the Prodigal Son.
Here’s the main deal right. The younger son of this clearly wealthy man asks his dad for something quite unreasonable. He asks for his inheritance. While Dad is still alive. And he wants it because he’s got a vision for his life. And that vision is not hanging out on the farm and doing whatever dear old dad has done with his life.
His vision for himself, his hope, is centered around splitting town and going to the city to explore the fast and dangerous lifestyle that I’m assuming was always out of reach for him. Considering the audience here, I’m just going to assume that Jesus’s listeners are tracking with what he’s saying. The Pharisees are like ok well that’s the type of living that is expressly taught against in our law. And the sinners and tax collectors are like yea… I’ve been there man. Everyone’s on the edge of their seat.
This young man has told his dad, You being alive is the thing that is standing in my way of living my life the way I want to live it. So do me a favor and just act as if you’re dead, give me my cash, and I’ll be on my way. Maybe you can relate. We can be pretty terrible to people when they stand in the way of our vision for ourselves.
And so he goes off. And what was his grand hope quickly devolves into utter despair. He squanders his money, the economy crashes, and he finds himself feeding and sleeping with pigs for a lifestyle that’s barely living.
This is really the most relatable part of this story for many of us, and it’s definitely relatable for these folks that Jesus is teaching to.
Tax Collectors and sinners is kind of this broad designation that is given for people that have really created a mess for themselves. This group of people are likely not just random folks, but rather are people who were once a part of the communal and religious life of the people of Israel. For whatever reason, they are attracted to the teachings of Jesus — a Jewish rabbi, and the people that are upset with Jesus’s association with them are the Jewish religious elite. If this group that Jesus was with was primarily made up of non-Jews like Greeks and Romans, the Pharisees wouldn’t have cared.
What really burns them is that these people are those who are considered to have willingly chosen to create the separation from their culture that they are experiencing.
Tax Collectors were people who turned their backs on the people of Israel and began to work for the Roman Government and were complicit in defrauding their fellow countrymen. They were seen as traitors and agents of oppression for choosing to work for Rome against their own kind.
And then sinners were people who willingly disobeyed the teachings of the Torah. This is a broad category but basically encompasses some of the same behaviors that we frown upon in society today — Prostitutes, their clients, alcoholics, thieves, etc.
To those observing — these folks made their own bed. And now they had to lie in it.
I wonder where you were when you felt this type of desperation. The desperation of the young man tending to pigs after losing his entire inheritance. When you felt the desperation of being scorned by your community and outcasted to the point that you are labeled unworthy of being seen with a religious type of person.
We’ve all taken that journey in some way or another. Come to the end of our best hopes and wishes for our lives. At the end of that relationship that was toxic and that we ignored every red flag to try to force some kind of fairytale love affair that just wasn’t meant to be.
At the end of whatever financial scheme that left us broke and broken. At the end of that last bottle or bag, or at the end of that career that we just tried for so long to squeeze some meaning and purpose for our lives out of.
It’s at this moment of despair and desperation, when the hope that we had placed in ourselves and our own desires and the hope that we placed in whatever vices made us feel ok runs out that we find the space for something new to happen.
Our guy is broke, broken, and hungry. Lets just read this part again:
But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
I will get up and go to my father, and I will 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.” ’
This is what we call a moment of clarity. He’s like I can’t go on like this any more. I must swallow my pride, humble myself, and go talk to my father. I’ll become his employee — his slave if I must.
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
I once heard that the most important long term goal of parenting is to provide our children with a soft place to land. No matter how hard we try, we don’t get to make the decisions that our children are bound to have to make for themselves.
I’m sure that looking back we all have a few decisions that we wish our parents or literally anyone else with some sense would have made for us to save us from the pain and despair that we felt in those lowest moments.
I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves, Does God Really Care? Does God really care that I’m feeling this low and broken? If God really cared about me would God have allowed me to make the mistakes that landed me here, in this place?
Well, what I have found time and time again is that yes. God really cares. And God is that soft place to land. Like a child running home to a parent and finding that soft and loving embrace, God wants to be the soft place that we all land when the hope that we have in ourselves and our plans run adrift and we are left with nothing but despair and wreckage.
In that soft place of God’s embrace, that’s where we find our hope once more. That’s where God reminds us of where our hope was meant to be all along.
Is there some pain and loss in this? You bet. In the final verse of “Fast Car” Tracy Chapman writes to the husband of her beloved protagonist, “so just take your fast car and keep on driving.” The agony and freedom in that pain are evident. But the song ends leaving us all wondering… what did the new future look like for her?
Jesus’s story leaves us wondering… what does the new life look like for this prodigal child? Well we know how it began. He was given a seat of honor and a party.
So if you’re at that place of despair, understand and know that returning into the hope, love, and embrace of God that is found in Jesus is a gift that has been offered to you — no strings attached. But you might have to tell your old hopes and dreams and chains and vices to take their fast cars and keep on driving. Because you’ve got a new hope and a new freedom that are calling your name and giving you a soft place to land.