Prone to Wander

Welcome

Well, good morning LP. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan and I serve here as the teaching pastor at the Worthington campus. I’m really grateful you’re here with us today,

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Introduction

Alright, let’s get started this morning.

We’re starting a brand new series at Lifepoint that I’m really excited about - it’s one that I’ve been slowly preparing in the background over the last 7 months - and I’ve found myself gripped by the topic.

One of the things I’ve grown to love about the Bible is that the more I’ve read from it, the more I’ve recognized how powerful the stories in it really are. Sure, we get in ruts where we feel like we’re reading the same thing year after year…and I understand why that happens. But I think we make a serious miscalculation if we keep the bible in the realm of a collection of theological propositions OR an anthology of simple moral stories (like Aesop’s Fables).

Actually, what it’s supposed to do is provoke us…it’s supposed to make us think deeply, reflect on our own lives and world around us critically…

And my hope in these series - aside form the topic we’re going be addressing - is that we walk away with a deeper affection for what the bible is…a renewed excitement for it in our own lives - some tools for how continue to read the bible in a fresh, though provoking way that doesn’t just check a box off the to-do list, but actually propels us to think about ourselves and our world differently.

Agatha Christie and the Bible

In the early 20th century, British Novelist Agatha Christie was the hot name in the literary world. She was famous for her murder mysteries and for the way she’d write out her stories.

In recent years, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime have all taken her stories and repurposed them as some of their best shows! Murder on the Orient Express…Knives Out, Glass Onion, were all directly taken from her style in which she would tell the same story from the perspective of the different characters - and with each perspective, new details would emerge, color aded, depth, mystery, and the plot would thicken, with twists and turns that makes for a gripping story!

Why am I telling you this?

Because as we move through this series over the next few weeks, we’re taking a cue from Agatha Christie…looking at a story, probably the most referenced story from the New Testament in our culture today, and looking at it from the perspectives of all the characters…finding ourselves right in the middle of what Jesus is talking about. This is a story about the full journey of following Jesus and everything that comes along with it…from joy and celebration, rejection, resentment, disappointment, forgiveness and redemption. It’s a story about leaving, longing for, and returning home AND how we are all somewhere in that process.

So, if you have a bible with you open up to the New Testament book of Luke. We’ll be in chapter 15. If you don’t have a bible with you, I’ll have the passage on the screen.

Let me read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get going.

Luke 15:11–24 ESV

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

PRAY

Retell the Story

Alright, let’s get started.

Like I said, we’re going Agatha Christie style with this - each week will focus on one specific character in the story.

And we actually meet all three in v. 11.

Jesus starts off by saying, “There was a man who had two sons.”

So we have a father, a younger son and an older son. Today, we’re going to focus in on the younger.

There are a couple of key details we need to pick up on as we look at this story.

The Younger Son’s Wish

First of all, look at the first thing the younger son says to his father in v. 12.

Luke 15:12 (ESV)

12‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’

What’s he asking for?

He’s asking for his inheritance. At this point in time, there were a few norms around how this would work. The first-born son would get the majority of the inheritance. the others would split the remaining among themselves. But the key is that the one giving the inheritance would need to be dead.

That’s kind of a big part of this, right?

To say that he wants the inheritance…the land…the money…the possessions now is at the same time for him to say to his dad, “I want nothing more to do with you. I want to go on with my life, not only separated from you, but go about my life as if you are non-existent. Dead. Gone.”

Part of the shocking piece of the story is that the father gives it to him. More on that later…

The Younger Son’s Lifestyle

And v. 13 makes it super clear he can’t wait to get out of there. As soon the deal is done, he’s got his money, he moves to a far country.

This, by the way, is where we get title of the story - The Prodigal Son - because we’re talking about one who gets up and leaves home. “Prodigal” actually means something like a “wanderer”…someone who wanders away from home.

I love how author Henri Nouwen describes this,

When Luke writes, “and left for a distant country,” he indicates much more than the desire of a young man to see more of the world. He speaks about a drastic cutting loose from the way of living, thinking, and acting that has been handed down to him from generation to generation as a sacred legacy.

In other words, this is a rejection of everything he has known. No relationship with family. No relationship with what he’s been handed down from generations past. He’s done with all of it and he’s walking away.

And right at then of v. 13, there’s this line that I’ve been really intrigued by in the story.

Luke 15:13 (ESV)

13 and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

Something sticks out to me here. He’s using his money on “reckless living.” It’s an interesting word to me…in the original language it’s rare…doesn’t really show up anywhere else in the ancient greek speaking world in the documents we have…it’s like Jesus makes up a word…combing the negative prefix before the word for salvation…so it actually means something like unsavable living.

In other words, Jesus is trying to get across that his lifestyle is at the lowest of the low…he doesn’t go into what exactly that is…I think he intentionally leaves room for us to imagine what that might be…but the point is he’s turned his life around, running as fast as he can in the other direction! His dad has laid out a way of life for him, and he’s doing the opposite.

The Younger Son’s Wake-up Call

Until something pulls the rug out…

Now, I want you to remember he’s got his inheritance from his father….he’s not the first born so it’s much less than half of what he could have gotten…and even with that, he’s been able to enjoy a life of extravagance for a while…all that tells us that he certainly comes from a very well off background…which is what makes what happens next all the more humiliating.

After he’s burned through the inheritance, a famine hits the land and he is forced in to abject poverty…even the pigs eat better than him.

We have no idea how long he lived this way…it could have been days…it could have been years. But eventually there is a moment in time…you can imagine him at rock bottom with nothing…there there is a moment when Jesus says, He came to himself.

And it’s more than just a realization that he actually had it better at this father’s house…he has a crushing realization of all of what he’s done!

He get’s up, staggering home. And you can imagine him rehearsing the speech the whole way back…look at the end of v. 18.

Luke 15:18–19 (ESV)

18 “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’

And as I read this, I think this is him coming to grips with all of what’s happened…saying, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son…”

I’ve done too much. There is too much damage. There is so much guilt and shame. He believes he’s unsavable. No longer worthy to be a son.

Look at v. 20. Luke 15:20

Luke 15:20 ESV

20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

To be continued…

Who is the “Wanderer”

There’s something incredibly powerful about this story, isn’t there? Jesus is a master story teller. But why is he telling this story in the first place?

Well, if you were to zoom out for a moment and look at the larger context of this story, one of the things you’d find is Jesus is in the middle of a conversation with the religious leaders who are frustrated with him. He’s drawing the wrong kinds of people around him. They use the word, “sinners” and what they mean by that is the kinds of people who don’t live the way God has created us to live.

And so Jesus launches into this story to show how God actually wants people who are far from Him. And in telling the story to everyone listening, he’s inviting them all to find themselves in this story.

And there are a few different ways we can think about the Wanderer as Jesus talks bout him in this story.

First of all, when you look at the whole story of the bible, you’ll find this story in Luke 15 actually represents the story of humanity. After all, biblically, we would say God is the creator of ALL people…in that sense He is the Father to all…but we also see that in our natural state, we are in conflict with God…there is a brokenness in the relationship.

Paul says it this way in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV)

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Or in Romans.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

In this sense all of us are like the younger son. We have all “left home” and left to ourselves, we are in “the far country.” This is the human story.

And this is why so many people have found this story to be a metaphor for their own lives in relationship with God.

Because as they’ve looked through the details of their own stories, they have seen over and over again the parallels between themselves and younger son…or at least can resonate with the impulse of the younger son to want to leave…to break off from any kind of “religious” connection and find their own way forward in life.

You may be thinking about specific people you know who have walked away from a relationship with God.

Friends you used to be so close too… Maybe it’s your spouse… Maybe it’s one of your children…who for whatever the reason might be, has walked away from or rejected a relationship with God. [EXPAND]

[EXAMPLE] Personal fear of my own kids walking away and what I would do right now if I could ensure they had a lifelong relationship with Jesus…

You may be thinking right now of specific moments in your own life when you have wandered away from a relationship with God. You may be thinking about a season you’re in right now—and while you’re physically here today…that’s about it.

Maybe it’s because there are big questions about God and faith that have just been unanswered or ignored…or you have felt they were off limits…so you’re agnostic to the whole thing. Maybe it’s because you’ve walked through a season when, for you could tell, God didn’t go with you…didn’t protect you…did stop something from happening too you…so you’re angry.

Maybe there’s something you’ve seen in your interactions with Christians or the church that you just cannot reconcile with the idea of a loving God…so you’re disillusioned.

Whatever it is, much like the younger son, you’ve looked at the Father and said, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m done.”

Continual Story

You see, at the end of the day, Jesus intends for us to look at this story and see, that in both mundane and extraordinary ways, we are often FAR MORE like the younger son than we’d like to admit. And more than just in the resolution of this story…but that we are like the younger son when he genuinely wants to wander.

One of the things that frustrates me about the way we typically talk about Christianity is that we imagine this fantastic upward trajectory from the moment we become a Christian to the end…that we are getting better and better.

The problem is, it’s just not honest. It flattens out the full experience of following Jesus. We don’t find that every aspect of our lives is instantly better and fixed…that we are perfect and get it all right…

Case in point, how many of you would say that the moment you became a follower of Jesus is also the last time you experienced temptation.

None of us! It’s still there…and it’s still real!

There’s an old Hymn called, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and it has one profound line in it that I think sums up this point well.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”

This is us.

I am prone to wander. We are prone to wander.

It’s not a question of if we will wander away again. But why we wander off…and How to come back home.

Why do we wander?

So…that brings us to an important question. If we are like the younger son, why do we wander? Why do we want to wander?

Let me say this first…as we work through these series, we’ll actually see that there are ways in which we are like all of the characters in this story. Some of us will be more like one than the others. Or you will have seasons were you are more like one than the other.

This is not like one of those personality tests like all: INTJs and ENFPs are Youngers Sons - or if you’re 5-8 on the Enneagram, you’re an Older Brother. If anything, if you take those tests, you might be a pagan.

But the question is, when we are like the Younger Son…why do we wander? Why do we want to wander off?

You’ve heard the old saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side”?

What interesting about this phrase is that in most cultures, there is some cultural proverb warning about this.

And I think what that tells us is there something about being human that is very attracted to the other side…we’re intrigued by what might be over there…and more than just being intrigued, we’re actually afraid that it might be better than what we have here.

In fact, I think we have to see that, all day, every day, we hear some whisper about something else that might be better than what we have right now. It’s that whisper says, “If you have me, then you will be fulfilled.”

Call it a quarter or midlife crisis - but I know that voice so well…it usually sounds like my own (which I easily confuse for Gods…) and it subtly suggests I might be missing out on some real grand adventure in life if I wasn’t saddled with the current situation I’m in right now. I’m happily married…I love my kids…I LOVE my wife…but it’s the voice that says, “what if?”…and I know we all know it!

Isn’t this the voice you hear when you sit down with your phone and start scrolling? You come across and image and think…wouldn’t that be nice? This is the allure of pornography for so many people…it’s promising something to you that you feel you need but don’t have…and every image and video is more affirmation that you get the satisfaction so long as you take one more step down the rabbit trail.

Talking this voice, author Henri Nouwen says,

Those same voices are not unfamiliar to me. THey are always there and, always, they reach into those inner places where I question my own goodness and doubt my self-worth. They suggest that I am not going to be loved without my having earned it through determined efforts and hard work. They want me to prove to myself and others that I am worth being loved, and they keep pushing me to do everything possible to gain acceptance. They deny loudly that love is a totally free gift. I [wander] every time I lose faith in the Voice that calls me the Beloved and follow the voices that offer a great variety of ways to win the love I so much desire.

We wander because we are desperately looking for fulfillment…for meaning…purpose…value…and at the risk of sounding desperately cheesy, are ALL looking for the assurance that we are loved.

How do we come back home?

And this is what I love about the Father’s response to the younger son.

Look again at v. 20.

The son is coming home - rehearsing his speech…at rock bottom…he’s not even going over every detail of what’s happened…he probably can’t remember every detail! Instead, he’s fixated on the sum total effect, “I am no long worthy to be called your son.”

V. 20 (Luke 15:20)

Luke 15:20 ESV

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Pastor and author Timothy Keller often said,

“Our deepest desire is to be fully known and fully loved. But our greatest fear is to be fully known and rejected.”

But, if Jesus really did intend for this story to show us what God is like…and what He thinks about those who are far from Him…what a powerful way to confront our greatest fear! You see, the father’s response is so powerful because He knows the sting of rejection. He’s the one who has ultimately been betrayed and sinned against by the younger son. He knows all of it! On top of that, He has every right to reject the son. In fact, this is how all the religious leaders would have expected the story to end…that the younger son would get what he deserves…

But look again at verse 20! “While he was still a long way off…he SAW him…felt COMPASSION…RAN and EMBRACED and KISSED him!”

This is a father who fully knows AND fully loves!

In fact, it’s love that is so strong that the son can’t even finish his speech!

So what changed for the younger son? How did he come back home? More importantly, if we are like him, how do we come back home?

“Come to your senses” moment

We need need a come to our senses moment.

Usually, I think, it’s though hardship…it’s through suffering.

(Pray for this for your loved one)

We need to organize our lives in such a way that we are hearing the voice of the one who fully knows and fully loves us. What voice are you listening to most? Which is the loudest your life?