Home (1): Lost and Found Luke 15:11-32

Transcription

1 Home (1): Lost and Found Luke 15:11-32 Today we begin a new morning series which will take us, God willing, through May and June. Today is an introduction to the series and we will begin with that wonderful story in Luke 15 which many people know as the parable of the prodigal son. It is one of the best known of Jesus stories and rightly so and we will look at it in some detail in a moment. But first why home? Well home means something to everyone. Most of us I hope think of home in positive terms though in our increasingly broken society there are many broken homes and people from broken homes and even abusive homes and that shapes our understanding of home in our minds. It colours the idea of home in a bad way. But for most of us I hope that home is a positive thought. One of the major themes that runs through the Bible is that of home. The Israelites were homed by God in time of Abraham the promised land of Canaan though there was a time when they were away from that land in Egypt. They were re-homed in Canaan after a time of escape from Egypt and wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Through their unbelief and idolatry they were removed from their home again and taken captive by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Eventually they returned home again under Cyrus of Persia. For the Jew modern day Israel is home and they have a special affinity with Jerusalem and a yearning for that home it has special connotations. Jesus in the NT speaks in terms of his disciples going to be with the Father and that God is preparing a home for those who love him and die in him (Jn 14). He often taught in homes and was entertained in homes. He and his family knew what it was to be refugees form home. At one point he himself says that he had nowhere to call home and nowhere to lay his head. At the end of the Bible we find that God makes his home with us as God comes down to be with us in a recreated heaven and earth. So the theme of home runs like a golden thread through the big picture story of God and His people. So we will touch into some of that grander theme but we will also touch on aspects of ordinary home life and if you like key pieces of furniture in our homes which can speak of spiritual truths. We will explore ideas of being lost and away from home, home as being the place where we are loved for who we are; home as the place of friendship and fellowship; home as the place where we have a special relationship of love; home as the place where we are part of the family and have an identity; home as the place where we are rested and refreshed. We will find some pieces of furniture appear on the platform to symbolise aspects of home we will be dealing with. Home is important. We hear of some animals that have strong homing instincts like pigeons and salmon. But it is with us to as humans. We all have an attachment to the place where we were brought up. Home is a special place for us. Sometimes people after they have 1

2 spent a lifetime working in various places return close to the place where they were born they have a special affinity with it. It can go even further back in our genes we were in Scotland at Easter and every time I am in Scotland I feel deep in my bones a sense of part of me is here as a scottish Cameron. So in this story Jesus tells he speaks about a home with a Father and two sons. A mother is not mentioned though we can maybe assume there was one somewhere but the focus is on the father and his relationship with the two sons. There are two things to say about the context of the parable. First it is one of three parables together on the theme of lost things. So we have a story about a lost sheep, a lost coin and then a lost son or perhaps more accurately two lost sons. So the overall theme is lost-ness, the idea in this particular parable is that we have moved away from home, from where we should be; from a good relationship. You see we often focus on the younger son who moves out and we see a broken and hurtful relationship as he effectively says to the dad I wish you were dead; give me my inheritance now. The listeners to this knew that when someone died or was near death and if he had two sons the elder would get 2/3rds and the younger would get 1/3 rd, but not until death or near death. They would have expected the father to say no, but he said yes. He divides up the estate. In v.12 it says he divided his property but in the Greek the word is stronger and means his life-holdings. He divides up his life. So he gives up portion of his estate to the younger son. This is a picture of God and us right here we rebel against home and God allows us. He does not constrain the younger son, he lets him go, he does not deny form the younger son what he wants he lets him have it. There is a saying be careful what you wish for. When it comes to our spiritual health and our relationship with God be careful what you wish for for so often our opinions and attitudes are wrong and twisted and selfish and actually lead us not only away from God but into trouble. The younger son is a picture of so many of us who think we know better than God. It goes right back to Adam and Eve and the desire to disobey God, encouraged by satan of course. You know as we grow older it is good to be independent but we can be too independent when it comes to God. There is a paradox at the heart of life physical and emotional maturity requires us to be more independent, but it has limits and sometimes we do need others. The same spiritually we need to be able to feed ourselves spiritually and take responsibility for our lives but aligned with that spiritual maturity also leads to an increasing dependence on God and His Spirit. In John 15 Jesus says something very shocking and profound he says using an agricultural image - I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. So you may think that spiritual maturity involves increasing independence from God when actually we become more dependently linked in to him through prayer and seeking his will for our lives. The younger son represents a large number of people who say give me my inheritance God; give me what is mine. Give me the gifts but I want no relationship with the 2

3 giver. Give me all the good things you have made food and drink, friendships and sport, music and culture, work and family, money and sex, possessions and cars and houses, holidays and experiences. God give me all those things and I will do with them what I want and don t you tell me how to use them. That s for me to decide because I know best and we move away from home. In a few sentences Jesus sums up the human predicament. We say I m moving out; and God lets us. The Father lets us go. And we think we have found ourselves, and we think we are the bees knees, and we think there is no-one like us and we think we are going to realise our full potential now and actually we are lost as lost can be. The French philosopher and atheist Jean Paul Sartre once said That God does not exist I cannot doubt, but that my whole being cries out for God I cannot deny. He speaks for so many modern men and women. The Bible puts it this way in Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women. Something of God is upon every one of us, it is in our genes. We are made in his image and we cannot shake off that image-ness that calls us home to be with him and to have a relationship with him. Someone else put it this way we are restless until we find our rest in thee. God calls us home into relationship with him. We have cut ourselves off from our Father in heaven who created us for relationship with Him, and loves us deeply and knows what is best for us. This is the story of half the human race. But we do not end there for there is the story of the elder son also. To go back to the context of why Jesus told this story it was because the Pharisees, the teachers of the law (in other words the religious types) were complaining that Jesus was spending too much time with the tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners. So Jesus tells a story about lost people and in effect is saying these sinners are lost, they are away from home, they have got themselves into trouble because they think they knew better than God and I need to spend time with them and get them back home. They need to repent, to turn around like the younger son and head back home. That is what repentance means to turn around and head back home. A lot of people whose lives are messed up don t need to be told their lives are a mess. They seem to know that. What they need help with is how to get back home, how to get back to the Father who loves them. As he said elsewhere when you are sick you need the Dr. The people who know they are sick look for the Dr. The problem is the self-righteous religious people are actually also sick and don t realise it. They are in the house physically, they are at home and yet they are also lost and not in a good relationship with the Father. And that is why the story has not only a younger son but an older son. And both are lost. One realises it and turns around, the other does not and at the end of the story the younger son is in the home and the older son is outside the home (v.28) and in a sulk. If many of us are like the younger son and lost in our selfishness and sin there is another group of us lost in our self-righteousness and in trying to earn our way into the Father s 3

4 heart. We can be physically in the home but relationally in a bad place. We can be depending on our good acts rather than on God s grace and so when we see other unworthies, wasters and ragamuffins getting into the kingdom of God having wasted their lives there is some pride and resentment that builds. This is what was happening with the religious people, they could not cope with Jesus and his ragtag of followers. These were peasants and fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes for goodness sake and they were holy men, with religious degrees, and a lifetime of service in the temple and synagogue and careful following of rules and regulations. The older son points to his dutiful, slaving for his father all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders and I got no party. The elder son and we can view God in the wrong light he can be seen as a scorekeeper, as a tyrant, as a rule-keeper, as a taskmaster. No, he is none of these things rather he is a loving Father who wants the best for us and does not want us to be wandering lost but to find out true home in him and with him. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, when speaking about his background and before coming to real faith said I had the religion of a servant and not that of a son. When we are in Christ we are sons and daughters of God and all his riches are ours to enjoy here and hereafter. We should live with generous hearts; happy when people find their way back home; happy when they are warmly received by our heavenly Father no matter how many years they have been away or squandered their inheritance. How we have been treated in our upbringing can feed into wrong attitudes about God. If we have been abused or mistreated especially by our earthly father that can have massive repercussions as to how we view our heavenly father. Many of us grow up with father issues and that can act as obstacle to how we relate to our heavenly Father who is for us and wants his best for us. He calls us home. There was a third son who does not get a mention in the parable, but he is the teller of the parable. He is Jesus, the Son of God and Son of man. Jesus was at home in eternity with the Father and he left home on a mission. He did not leave home in a sulk like the elder son, he did not leave home to get away from his Father like the younger son no he left the home to please his Father to and to bring younger sons and elder sons back to their senses and back to intimate relationship with the God who loves them. Jesus came and died outside the city wall, he was spat upon and jeered and excluded from the inner religious circles of power; he was hung on a cross and felt the sense of alienation that many people feel today from home and from God. He even cries out at one point My God my God why have you forsaken me. In a song we sometimes sing The Father turns his face away as the Son takes on the just punishment for sin that should be ours. The younger son deserved punishment but received grace but the son not mentioned in the parable has taken the punishment. And so when we repent and return to God, as we all must do, for we 4

5 are either like the younger or older sons no exceptions, we find his arms are open wide. Indeed he is running towards us. In the middle east fathers never ran it was too undignified but in his story Jesus has the Father running towards the returning son. He has the Father going outside to plead and reason with the elder son. This is the God we worship, he is a Father who runs to us, he is the Father who reasons with us. But ultimately he always gives us the dignity of choice. But he says come let us reason together though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Come to the Father. His arms are open as wide as they were in his Son on the cross. What will you do with the Father s love for you. Will you return home where you are loved for who you are and where we find our truest and greatest potential? Hear the Father say - Welcome Home. Welcome Home. 5