Fourth Sunday in Lent

The evidence cannot be denied. We trust in our feelings instead of God’s Word. We honor our appetites instead of God’s holy law. We place our selfish desires above our neighbor’s needs. Yes, and we stand in judgment of others. All of this is but outward confirmation of the radical sin that lies deep within us and bubbles up into every form of idolatry. That’s the nature of fallen, sinful, humanity.

The parables in Luke 15 all focus on the one searching for that which was lost. All three of the Luke 15 parables go together. They teach that repentance comes by God’s grace. They teach that repentance is necessary. They teach that heaven rejoices when a single sinner repents. But most of all, they teach us about The Father’s love.

The Father’s Love

And God loves all people. He loves sinners. But they are lost. They are alienated from God. They don’t know God. They don’t love God. They don’t worship God or serve him. They are unbelievers. They believe in something; but it isn’t the truth. It is a form of idolatry. They are always searching but never finding the truth. Only God can show them the truth.

In the gospel reading today the Pharisees object to how Jesus treated lost sinners.

He was kind and gracious to them. He taught them. He treated them with value and care. His teaching is what led them to repentance.

The lost sheep and the lost coin represent lost sinners. When the lost sheep and the lost coin are found by the one searching for them, this is referring to when a lost sinner repents of his sin and believes the gospel. He is found.

Christ seeks out the lost and finds them. He is the man with a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one who was lost until he finds it. He is the woman with the ten coins who searches the house looking for the one that was lost until she finds it.

In the gospel reading this morning neither of the two sons celebrated their father’s love.

The younger son fled his father’s love, pursuing worldly pleasures.

He squandered the resources his father had graciously given him. The result was impoverishment, degradation and despair.

The older son forsook his father’s love because he was more concerned with his own priorities: his pride, his estate, his status, his self-righteousness. These kept him from celebrating his father’s love and the restoration of his brother.

We can be either son, rejecting our heavenly Father’s love. Jesus directed the parable to both the tax collectors and sinners, and also to the Pharisees and scribes.

Many things tempt us to forsake the Father’s love

Take the younger son: adolescent rebellion (which may last well into adulthood); mid-life crises; the quest for romance and excitement. All of us are susceptible. The result is spiritual impoverishment, degradation, and despair. The ultimate result is spiritual death.

Many things can tempt us to forsake the Father’s love like the older son: preoccupation with status, possessions, wealth, work, family; jealousy of other people’s blessings; self-righteousness and pride because we avoided riotous living. The result is spiritual estrangement, bitterness, and spiritual death.

The Father’s Love is Boundless

Malady: Cares of the world draw us away from what is most important: our relationship with God. Money and property, position and status, riotous living and promiscuity, or self-righteousness and jealousy can become more important to us. We fail to accept, grasp, or consider God’s boundless love for us and for all, and so we do not return that love to God or show it to one another.

The younger son, the prodigal, knew of his father’s love even though he had forsaken it.

By God’s grace, he came to himself. He rehearsed his confession, and in so doing he repented.

The father seeing his son a long way off, runs down the road to received him back with open arms and kisses.

Totally impoverished, the father lavished his son—who was dead, but is now alive—with the best robe, sandals, a ring, and the fattened calf.

The father showered his love upon the older son as well.

He begged him to join the celebration. Firmly but lovingly, he set this son straight regarding his relationship to his brother and to his father.

He reminded the older son what his major concern in life should be: the restoration of those who are lost and dead.

Through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the heavenly Father lavishes his love upon us.

Whichever son we happen to be, the Father calls us back to himself. He sends the Holy Spirit, working through his Word of Law and Gospel, calling us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

The Sinner Celebrates the Father’s Love

Means: God’s persistent overwhelming love continues to reach out to us—embracing, kissing, imploring us to come back to him. He has provided the way through his Son, Jesus Christ, who was the great substitute for us—whichever lost son we happen to be. He sends his Spirit to us, working through his Word and sacraments, showering us with his love, calling us back to him, empowering us to share that love with others, and enabling us to make his priority our own.

Returning children celebrate the Father’s love.

Like the younger son, we celebrate the Father’s love through contrition and faith, trusting solely in Jesus Christ for our salvation.

Like the younger son, we continue the celebration through ongoing worship and praise.

We actively participate in the Divine Service

We actively hear the Word of our Father

We actively partake of the lavish meal He has prepared for us.

Unlike the older son, we celebrate our Father’s love by serving him joyfully with grateful hearts, and rejoicing in the blessings he gives others.

Unlike the older son, we celebrate the Father’s love by adopting his priority as our own: seeking the salvation of those who are lost and dead.

Finally, Christ Jesus is the father in this parable, and He is to teach Christian fathers how to be fathers. we must listen to this story, paying close attention to the father’s behavior. As we do, we learn three things that God would have us know about godly patriarchy.

Being a Christian Father

First, the father doesn’t excuse the prodigal son’s sins. Neither should we.

It isn’t fatherly love to excuse our children’s sins and to redefine sin so that our children will no longer be guilty of it. Nowhere in this parable do you see a hint of the father condoning the younger son’s sinful conduct.

In fact, he said that this boy was dead. He was lost. That’s the father’s view of sin.

Second, the most important authority of the father is the authority of the gospel.

How was the prodigal restored as a son? If he had had his way, he wouldn’t have been a son, but only a servant.

He was restored by the grace of the father. The father covered up the son’s sins, not by excusing them, but by forgiving them. He forgave without requiring any payment.

The Christian father looks to Jesus and sees him pay the payment for sin on the cross. He shares that forgiveness with his family. He insists that that forgiveness is the final word.

This brings us to the third lesson this story teaches us about Christian fatherhood.

Christian fathers teach their children to love each other. We regard one another, not as servants under trial, or sinners to be judged, but as saints.

We were walking the walk to death and damnation. Left to our own devises, we would be bound in the chains of sin and death.

But God saw our misery, had mercy on us, forgave us, drew us back to him, converted us, and honored us. He put the best robe on us: the robe of Christ’s blood-bought righteousness. This is how we treat one another.

A son or daughter of God is a brother and a sister to you and me. Jesus says that what we do for one of the least of these, we do for him.

This is the Father’s love. If you are the sinner who has seen his own wretchedness, the depth of his guilt, and his utter unworthiness, this love is the most wonderful thing in the world. You offended and despised your father. You dismissed his law and scorned his teaching. You traded off his love for selfish pleasures. All you can offer him is your guilt and unworthiness. What does he do? He receives you back. He doesn’t scold you. He doesn’t put you on trial. He doesn’t make you prove yourself worthy. What a wonder! Who can understand such a love?

God’s love for us is boundless. He calls us to celebrate that love by sharing his concern for the salvation of the lost. This parable ends with an open question, but our lives will reveal our answer to our Father’s plea. By his grace, we will continue the celebration!