Jesu Juva
“Welcome Home!”
Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Don’t skip over the first couple of verses in the Holy Gospel we heard today. It’s easy to do, to rush right to the parable. But don’t.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Let me rephrase that, and expand it a bit . . . The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled: This man is ruining our religion! He’s ruining our church. You can’t just let those people in. You can’t treat them the same as us. I mean, look at them! They’re a mess! If you do, we’re just going to be a religion of misfits and broken and hopeless people. And then what will good people, respectable people, think? They’re not going to come. No, they have to change. They have to get better. They have to clean themselves up first. Get their act together. Then, maybe . . . But c’mon Jesus! You can’t just welcome them with open arms and sit down at table with them. They stink! They’re not worthy.
So Jesus told them this parable . . .
Actually, Jesus told them three parables, this one today being the third. The first was about a shepherd who found his lost sheep. The second about a woman who found her lost coin. And maybe those make a little sense, since a sheep and a coin have some value . . . But then Jesus tells this parable, as the climax, what He wanted to tell them all along. Of a son who was worthless. And worse than useless - who hurt his father. Hurt him emotionally, by basically spitting in his face and cutting himself off from the family. Hurt him physically by losing his inheritance, which they weren’t going to get back. And hurt his reputation and standing in the community by treating him and shaming him like this. Three strikes and you’re out, right?
So when the father welcomes him back . . . and immediately restores him to full sonship . . . and rejoices over him . . . the father is not only forgiving him, but taking his sin and shame and absorbing it himself. He’ll take the hits, if it means having his son back. That’s all that matters to him. Not his stuff, not his honor - his son.
Now, though Luke does not record it, there was probably more grumbling at this point. That’s a stupid parable, Jesus! That would never happen.
Maybe not in this world, with earthly fathers. But it is exactly who our heavenly Father is, and what He does. So tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to [Jesus] . . . drug addled, sexually promiscuous, abusive, reckless, wasteful, and with the stink of the sin they’ve been rolling around in all over them . . . perfect! Welcome home! our Father says. I’ve been waiting for you. Let me take care of you and serve you and love you.
No! It can’t be that easy, right? (As if it was easy for the son to come home like that, with his tail between his legs!) No, there has to be a price to pay for the sin!
[Pause, while Pastor looks at and points to the crucifix . . .]
There was. A price. A heavy price to pay. More than you can imagine. The price Jesus came to pay. In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . . In Christ, God took our sin and shame upon Himself, that in Christ crucified, we be right with our Father again.
That’s why you’re here today. Because this week . . . well, you know what you did this week. The sin you rolled around in . . . how you lashed out at others or wallowed in self-pity . . . the sin you did, or how you sinned by what you didn’t do . . . how you excused your sin but criticized others for theirs . . . What if I had a nanny cam in your house, or got a look at your browser history, or if there was a Substack with all your thoughts and desires and words uttered this week? Did you make this son in the parable look good this week?
If so, welcome home! I, a called and ordained servant of the Word - which means the one God put here exactly to say these words to you - I forgive you all your sins, in His Name, in His stead, and by His command. He took your sin and shame for you. Let me serve you. There’s a meal here for you. Not a fatted calf, better - the Body and Blood of Jesus. Come, eat and drink. Your Father’s glad your here.
That’s good, right? Even if you’re not as bad as those people in the row in front of you. I mean, they’re a mess! Right pastor? Why can’t they get their act together? Why are they here anyway? Where have they been the past few weeks? And they can’t control their kids. They dress like they’re going for a hike, not coming to church! Oh, and I noticed they didn’t put anything into the offering plate! And even if they did, it probably wasn’t as much as me! And why don’t they do more? They just waltz in and waltz out and leave the work to the rest of us. We shouldn’t treat them the same, right? They need to change! Shape up! And try a little harder!
Um . . . I love you! the father says to His older son, who thought those things, who said those things. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m glad your faithful and dressed nice. You’re generous and hard working. I appreciate that. There’s just one thing . . . you’re not very joyful. Actually, you seem kind of grumpy that they’re here. Why is that? Because maybe they need more than you? Isn’t that especially why they should be here? Isn’t that why you and I both should especially welcome them? It probably wasn’t easy for them to come here today - shouldn’t we take their burden away, not add to it? I don’t love you less because I love them, too! Come, rejoice with me. That we’re all here, together, at My table.
This parable that we heard today has been dubbed the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And everyone assumes that the prodigal son was the younger son. And surely he was reckless and wasteful with his inheritance. But maybe the real prodigal son was the older son! Wasn’t he being reckless and wasteful with his father’s love and throwing away his brother? Or maybe we should rename this parable the Parable of the Prodigal Sons - plural. And which are you? Maybe both at times?
But maybe we should realize that the focus of this parable isn’t really the sons at all, but the Father. He’s the only one consistent in this parable. The only one you can count on. The one who treats both his sons the same. The Pharisees and scribes thought Jesus was being reckless and wasteful with His forgiveness and love, welcoming sinners and eating with them. But that’s what God has always done. There’s not a page in the Bible or a day in the history of the world when God hasn’t done that. His love and forgiveness are the one thing you can count on in this world where there ain’t much you can count on. Where people act one way one day and then change the next. Where promises are routinely broken. Where we ourselves struggle and stumble, where our pride causes us to excuse our sins while judging the very same sins in others, and then maybe beat ourselves up for who we are and what we do, and wonder if things will ever change?
And with you and I, who knows? A positive change in your life one day seem to be countered with a negative change the next. One step forward, two steps back. Old habits may die hard, but sinful natures are even more stubborn! Sinners are frustrating people, aren’t they? And chief among them are you and I.
But what doesn’t change and will not change and you never have to worry about changing is the love and forgiveness, the kindness and grace, the care and long suffering of your heavenly Father. That’s finally what the younger son realized, and what brought him back. He didn’t get it all the way, and so just wanted to be a servant. But who can? Who can fathom the love of a God who would give His Son for us? Who would take our sin and guilt and shame and filth upon Himself and pay for it so we wouldn’t have to? It would lead Paul to finally say: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33) Unsearchable, inscrutable, and wonderful!
Now maybe there are people who don’t like that. Jesus had to deal with the Pharisees and scribes. But people today, too, who don’t want a church filled with sinners. Don’t want a messy, smelly, church. Want a church with only good and respectable people. People who have their act together. People we want to be around. People who don’t demand too much of us.
Maybe. But a church filled with sinners, a messy, smelly, church, a church with misfits and rebels, a church with people who are struggling and suffering . . . that may not be a respectable church in the eyes of the world, but it is the only one worth having. A church where sinners are welcomed and loved and washed and fed and cared for. Where we are clothed with the best robe, the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Where God’s signet ring is given to us, that the riches and love and forgiveness we here receive we can go out and give. And with the shoes of sonship given to us, for we are not barefooted servants, but dearly loved sons of God.
That’s the household of your heavenly Father. A consistent Father who is lavish and abundant with His love and forgiveness and gifts for you. Not for you to go out and squander them, and not for you to stay in and horde them and begrudge them to others, but to rejoice in them. And in such a Father. Who wants you - you! - as His sons and daughters. No one else may want you. No one else may even give you pig’s pods. Everyone else may leave you when you aren’t of any use to them. But not your Father. He is always here for you. Waiting for younger sons. Calling to older sons. To welcome you home with open arms.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.