Lost Sons and Lost Daughters
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Lost Sons and Lost Daughters
Coming Home for Lent
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.
Lent
Lent should not be considered as a time when we make things right with the Lord through self-denial. Rather, it is a time for me to reflect on how the Lord Jesus made things right for me on my behalf and is calling me to fully enjoy the blessings of the life he has given.
As Tim Keller wisely remarked:
There are, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done?
Lent invites each of us to make a deep inquiry into our hearts, and to discern for who and what we are living our lives? Is it for the Lord and his glory? Or are we giving ourselves to fleeting and worldly pursuits? Where are we laying up our treasure?
Lent provides a wonderful vantage point through which our confidence in Christ alone can deepen. Through this forty-day season, we continue to learn that it is not so much about what we are going to give up as it is about listening to the way God is already leading us to loosen our grip on those things and people that have gotten in the way of our pursuit of Him and the Kingdom.
It is right and beneficial to take a season of the year to reevaluate, re-calibrate, and have the values of our hearts clarified once again. Lent is such a season. As we approach Holy Week, where we remember the sacrifice, suffering, and resurrection of our Savior,
Lent is about remembering the suffering and sacrifice of the Savior. Lent is about confessing our ongoing battle with sin.
Lent is about fasting, and not just from food; we willingly and joyfully let go of things in this world that have too much of a hold on us.
And Lent is about giving ourselves in a more focused way to prayer, crying out for the help that we desperately need from the only one who is able to give it.
That moves us to a beautiful parable that Jesus tells that we find in Luke 15. This is a parable that illustrates beautifully and powerfully for us our God and Father who greets us, embraces us, and loves us as we come home to him.
Luke 15 is about the love of God coming into our world to find lost sons and daughters. It’s about the identity of Jesus Christ and the meaning of his mission in the world— then and now.
“The point of preaching the prodigal son is not that you and I would be like Jesus?” I would say, My first aim is that you would see Jesus. Jesus did not end the parable with “go and do likewise.” And Luke did not end this chapter with: “Go and imitate Jesus.”
The first point is: Look at Jesus. Consider Jesus. Know Jesus. Learn what kind of person it is you say you trust and love and worship. Soak in the shadow of Jesus. Saturate your soul with the ways of Jesus. Watch him. Listen to him. Stand in awe of him. Let him overwhelm you with the way he is.
That’s my first aim. If I could succeed at that, we would be so permeated with the beauty of this risky, painful, sacrificial, loving way of life, we could not but pursue it.
The Lost Son
1. The Misery of Lostness
2. The nature of the son’s repentance
3. The lavish enthusiasm and welcome of the father
1. The Misery of Lostness
Running away from God and living without God starts by feeling free and ends in utter misery — either in this life or the one to come, or both.
Look at this in verse 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.
The word “loose” (asōtōs) means a “wild, abandoned, reckless” manner. This always feels free for a season — like sky-jumping feels free — until you realize you don’t have a parachute. So running from God at first feels free.
And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in need.
Easy come, easy go. And then reality. A famine. Where do you think that came from? What might be the design in that?
Verse 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.
And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
When you break our attachment with God, you will end up attached to another, and that attachment will be slavery, not sonship. It may be drugs or alcohol or illicit sex or an employer or a spouse or a sport or a hobby or a television or a lake cabin or a computer or books. The attachment may be crude or it may be refined. If we break loose from God, we will be attached to another. And in the end (whether crude or refined) this alien attachment will send us to the swine troughs — either in this life or the one to come.[1]
And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
You and I were made to be filled with God.
And if we run from him, if we take our little earthly inheritance of time and money and energy and use it to attach ourselves to other things than God, it won’t matter what we are worth— our future will be swine food for all eternity. That’s the misery Jesus describes when we run from the Father’s house.
2. The Nature of the Son’s Repentance
Then he describes the nature of the son’s repentance.Verse 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!
Three elements of The Son’s Repentance.
“When you are alienated from God, you are always alienated from yourself.”
First, he comes to himself
When you are alienated from God, you are always alienated from yourself. You can’t know yourself or relate properly to yourself if you are running from the one who made yourself for himself.
You were made by God in the image of God for God.
There are three main things about your identity as a human being; you are made by God, like God, for God. Therefore, conversion is “coming to yourself” as well as coming to God. It is discovering where you came from and who you are and why you exist. Running from God is always a running from ourselves. Repentance is waking up to this truth.
The second part of repentance is humble brokenness and a deep sense of unworthiness before God (Verse 18).
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
Lostness is not something we can make excuses for. We are guilty. We are rebels (Isaiah 53:6). We have known our Father’s will, and have rejected it. Repentance is a deep sense of how horribly offensive this is to God, and that we have no rights before him at all.
The third part of repentance is that we cast ourselves on God’s free, merciful, bountiful provision of grace.
“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!
Now notice something very carefully here. At this point, many people make a terrible mistake in the way they try to come home to God. The lost son is willing to come home as a servant rather than a son. Does that mean he wants to relate to God as a hired hand who earns things from God and thus turns a generous father into a wage-paying employer? I don’t think so. Is that what God wants?
The son is saying is: Look at how rich and generous my father is. Even the servants eat well. You might say: even the crumbs that fall from the father’s table would satisfy me more than what the world has to offer. The focus here is not on the service that he can supply to the father, which the father then would be obliged to compensate.
The focus is on the incredible bounty and generosity that he has so foolishly traded for the fleeting pleasures of sin. Repentance is believing that God is so great and so good that the smallest enjoyments of his house are better than ten thousand worlds without him. With that changed heart, the boy heads home. John Piper
First, there was the misery of lostness; second,there was the nature of repentance;
3. The lavish enthusiasm of the father when the boy comes home.
What will you find when you turn home to God through Jesus Christ? What did you find? Are you enjoying what you found? Here’s what you will find. See it in six photographs of God’s welcoming his son.
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.
Verse 20: The son “got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.” God is not so busy with other things that he is not concerned about his alienated children. All his affairs are in order, and well taken care of. He is free to be concerned about his children. Before anyone else sees, God sees. He sees every twitch of your soul.
“Before anyone else sees, God sees. He sees every twitch of your soul.”
God’s compassion is exceptional. The father is so full of joy that he drapes himself around his lost son’s neck and welcomes him back with hugs and kisses of affection.[2]
When he saw him far off, “he felt compassion for him.” There is something in Almighty God like this. Some of you fathers know what it is like to have a child run away from home. Then there’s the phone call, a rendezvous, and the flood of emotion and longing and love when you see him walking toward you. That’s the way it is with God when you head home.
Verse 20: “And he ran.” Now here is a middle-aged man, the owner of a significant estate, with servants at his beck and call. There is a certain decorum to maintain. There is a dignity. Such people do not run. Unless they have thrown all middle-aged decorum to the wind and given themselves over to the utter joy of their hearts. That’s the way God is about your coming home.
Verse 20: “And he embraced him and kissed him.”
Can you imagine that one person in your life that you want to come home — home from sin, home from alienation, home from unbelief, home from hard-heartedness — and what it would be like to see brokenness in their face and to reach out and embrace them and kiss them.
You need to know that God is this way. God is pure and God is physical. He does not hold you at arms length. Jesus did not have to include these vivid, emotion-laden details. He wants you to feel something here about the way God welcomes you home.
The son makes his confession.
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.
4. The Celebration
The best robe. The robe of sonship, not slavery. The robe of full, lavish, enthusiastic, unrestrained restoration to the family. That is the way the Father is when you come home.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
God is very glad when you come home. When Jesus receives tax-gatherers and sinners and eats with them, it is the gladness of the Father gathering in his lost children.
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
The gospel is almost too good to be true. But what do you hear when the Father says, “This son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found”? This parable is preeminently about God the Father, revealing his character as compassionate and forgiving. But God seeks a relationship that is consciously entered into by his children.[3]
The Lenten season is about the sin that was the reason for the suffering and sacrifice of the Savior. It is about taking time to reflect on why we all needed such a radical move of redemption, to confess the hold that sin still has on us, and to focus on opening our hands, in confession and submission, and letting go of sin once again.
Do we believe that God embraces those who turn to him? This text calls us to see that he does and then to rest in the encouragement that such love and grace generates.[4]
[1]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999). Desiring God.
[2]Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 413). Zondervan Publishing House.
[3]Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 414). Zondervan Publishing House.
[4]Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 416). Zondervan Publishing House.