CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
May 7, 2006
PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers
Our students James and Leon in the Army
Our nation, military and leaders
EVENTS:
May 14 - Mother’s Day
May 20 - Travis and Rose wedding at Lake Houston church of Christ at 1:30 p.m.
LOST SHEEP, COINS AND SONS
(part 5)
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
We are looking at a situation Jesus faced with the attitude of the religious leaders toward “sinners.” Jesus would tell them a parable with three parts and a challenge. We have looked at the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son who has returned home in shame. What would happened? As we mentioned last, he would face both an angry father and a village that was extremely upset with him. He would have to beg for anything and face the wrath and mockery of those people for years. He knew the traditions of village life, having been raised in them and having seen them in action. The Pharisees and sinners would be expecting the final judgment to be pronounced on the prodigal.
But the unexpected happened! The father moves again in unexpected ways. What we see is a father looking. The son has probably been gone for a number of years but the father has kept watch on that road, waiting for him to return. The father’s love is seen in this action. Even though the relationship has been broken painfully, the father still looks. Then one day he sees his son though a long way off. Maybe he is on a village roof watching and waiting. Day after day people of the village see him their and wonder.
Then the father sees the prodigal and he runs to him. The word means raced. He took off and flew through the village. In order to do this he would have to take up the front edges of his robe and show his legs. All of this is humiliating; respected people of the village just did not do such things. And when he took off, his servants, wondering what was going on, followed. Of course, if he is running through the village in such humility, others would wonder and follow as well. By the time he gets to his son, he has a crowd following quickly behind him. What a sight! What did the son think when he saw this spectacle? In his compassion and at great cost to himself, he takes the initiative. Sound familiar?
The son begins to speak, after the father as kissed him, outside the village with a crowd gathered around, but not the way he expected. The son says, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The father commands servants to bring the best robe, a ring, and sandals. Then he ordered dinner to be prepared. This was not what happened in village life and the Pharisees knew that. What kind of father is this?
Compassion has its roots in “innards.” Someone might say “You’re cutting up my intestines.” The abdomen in Greek was the seat of violent emotions but in Hebrew it was the center of tender affections. When the father sees the son and before he reaches the village, the father runs through the village with his intestines all cut up with compassion. He will not let his son suffer the wrath of the village.
To kiss the son means that the father kissed him in a robust fashion again and again, an expression of deep compassion. This all was a costly demonstration of the father’s love for his son. The son cared nothing for the father when he left even though the father willingly gave him his inheritance. But now he sees the father’s costly love. It is here that repentance occurs by the statement of the son. “Words originally composed to manipulate are transformed into a speech of genuine repentance” (Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal, p. 70). The son thought he could work his way through this but the actions of the father show that that would not be the case. The son could not solve this on his own. He needed the actions of the father to take care of it, and only the father could do that. He now sees that.
The best robe is naturally the father’s robe. The ring represented the family name. Slaves went without sandals, not sons. What we see here is reconciliation and restoration to both the family and the village. The banquet further enhances this. The fatted calf is prime beef (for all you meat and potato people). And there is joy in the life of the father and the village! Only one relationship has not been restored which we will look at in the next part.
All this is unexpected to those listening to Jesus. Why does Jesus eat with sinners? If only He knew who they were. The Pharisees had been murmuring about this. In all three parts of the parable, the unexpected is done. The shepherd left the ninety nine to find the one, the woman swept the house looking for one coin, and the father behaved in ways that are not normal in the eyes of most. Jesus is trying to show them that this is how God is, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Unlike Jacob and Esau, God seeks reconciliation and it will be costly. We know that because we see the cross.
The father makes one final comment here. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” If that wasn’t the case, the son would not have made the request for his inheritance. Now he has come home and is reconciled. As such there is a celebration. In worship? Yes, in worship. We sometimes forget what God has done and the joy it brings Him. We might be too joyless in our seriousness when in reality, God is throwing a party. Then again, we might be more like the Pharisees than we like to think.
We like this part of the parable. We like to think that it is for us, and in a sense it is. We were lost and have come home. Our sins have been forgiven and we have been reconciled. But there is a conclusion that is a challenge for all of us. There is the sin of the law breaker. That is what we see in the young prodigal. But there is also the sin of the law keeper. That we will look at next.
George B. Mearns