The Loving Father

Luke 15:17-24

Now as we look at this story, it demands careful attention.  I...I feel like I'm giving you a lot but cheating you at the same time because I can't get it all in.  This is so rich and so deep.  And on the surface a lot of it is lost to us because we live in the western world two-thousand years later and this is back in the time of Jesus in a Middle Eastern village and we don't have the unconscious sensibilities, the cultural insights and the attitudes that were a part of everybody's life and didn't need explanation.  So if you wonder why it only takes a little while to read it but so long to explain it, it's the difficulty of filling in the blanks.

The story divides itself into three parts that overlap.  The first part is about the younger son.  The second part is about the father.  The third part is about the older son.  It is dramatic and climactic as we go along.  Each of those parts overlaps.  As we're looking at the younger son, it overlaps into the father.  As we're looking at the father, it overlaps into the older son.  And so we're trying to sort it out and yet let it flow.

We looked last time at the first part, verses 11 to 16, about the younger son.  And we divided that into two parts, a shameless request, verse 11.  He said, "A man had two sons," from the beginning it is a tale of two sons.  "The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.'  So he divided his wealth between them."  This was an outrageous, shameless request, tantamount to wishing your father was dead because it was customary, it was acceptable only for a son to receive his inheritance after the death of his father.  The son is therefore saying, "I wish you were dead, I want what is mine.  I want it now."  This is shameless in its request.  And it allowed him to perpetrate not only a shameless request, but a shameless rebellion.  "Not many days later, after he had received his part of the estate, the younger son gathered everything together," that means he turned it all into cash, "went on a journey into a distant country.  There he squandered his estate with loose living."  Later in the story it is said that he engaged himself with harlots among other things.  He squandered his estate with loose living.  When he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country.  He began to be impoverished.  So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.  And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him.

A shameless request leads to a shameless rebellion.  And all of that, as I told you, pictures the irreligious, rebellious, immoral sinner, the very kind of person that Jesus was associating with.  The people who are treated badly by the culture, who were scorned and made outcasts by the society, they were as bad as bad can be.  This young man demonstrates someone who's gone as low as you can go, all the way to the bottom in a Gentile country, living in an outrageous and immoral way, ending up not only taking care of pigs but eating with pigs, becoming one of them.  This is as bad as it gets.  And he ends up destitute and helpless.

Now at this point, the father reenters the story...the father reenters in the mind of the son, first of all.  And we go from a shameless request and a shameless rebellion to a shameful repentance.  We see that in verse 17 as we begin to talk about the father.  Verse 17, "But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's...'" Stop there just long enough to say all of a sudden his father comes to mind.  I'm sure he had done everything he could to make sure he kept his father out of mind while he was indulging himself.  But now left with nothing, destitute, in a famine, dying of hunger, he comes to his senses...he comes to himself.  He has a conversation with himself.  And what he says in his soliloquy is, "How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger?"  And this is where repentance really begins, it begins with an accurate assessment of your condition.  It's really important for the profligate sinner, for the prodigal, for the wasteful irreligious outcast to come to an honest assessment of his own situation or her own situation.  He knows he is in a situation for which he has no resources to get out.  He knows he is dying of hunger and no one will give him anything and he's losing the battle with the pigs for what they can eat.  It's the end.  And all repentance begins with an honest assessment of one's condition of destitution, helplessness, no resources, and impending death.

And so, he thinks about his father and how many of his father's hired men have more than enough bread while he's dying of hunger.  Now that says a lot about the father.  This is where we start to learn about the father.  Let me tell you a little bit about what it was to be a hired man, a misthos.  A hired man was a day laborer.  Sometimes you see them around, don't you, standing on a corner waiting for somebody to come along and give them a job that day even today in our society and all around the world and all through history.  They are at the lowest level.  They are basically the poor, the poor who are willing to work who need to work.  And everybody who was poor in these days in biblical times had to work.  Day workers hoped somebody would come along and hire them.  They were, for the most part, unskilled although some of them may have developed some skilled craft that they would be hired to do.  But for the most part, they were just unskilled workers who were available to help in the harvest or to do something that was temporary and therefore earn a little money to survive.

Now he remembers that his father paid them more than enough.  That is to say he remembered that the hired men had more than enough bread which is to say their father was...what?...generous.  He remembered that his father gave them more than they generally needed to survive.  His father was loving, his father was good, his father was kind, his father was generous.  You see, hired men were even protected by the Old Testament law.  Leviticus chapter19 verse 13 says the wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.  If you hire somebody to do work and he eats on the basis of that work and that money sustains him and his family, you have to pay him the day he does the work.

Well the father was a man who not only did what the Old Testament law said, but he did more.  This comes into the mind of the son and it's very important that his father is not a hard man, his father is not an indifferent man.  His father is kind and generous and good and he knows his father well enough to know that he's a merciful man, that he's a generous man and that he is a forgiving man.  He has all of that knowledge because that has been revealed to him in the revelation of his father which he had when he was in the home.  He doesn't know anybody else like that.  He doesn't know anywhere to turn to.  And somebody might say, "Well wait a minute, I mean, he would expect that his father having been so totally disgraced and dishonored in the village by such a request from such an ungrateful and profligate son would have been in shame and embarrassed and dishonored to the point where you wouldn't want to go back to him at all.  But he knows his father better than that, he knows his father is not vengeful.  He knows his father is merciful and generous.

Now hired men were not slaves.  Slaves lived in the family.  They weren't necessarily paid wages, typically they were just supported.  They were part of the household.  So if you were a slave, you worked in a family, they gave you your food and your lodging and took care of all of your needs and maybe there was a little pocket money for discretionary things.  Hired men were lower than that.  They had nobody continually caring for them.  They were out on their own at the lowest of the low.  But they received wages and those wages, believe me, were given at the discretion of the man who hired them.  Do you remember when Jesus told the story about going into the marketplace in the gospel of Matthew to find some people to come and work in the harvest?  Then they first found some at six o'clock, and then some at nine, and some at twelve and some at three, took them out and they didn't negotiate at all what their wage would be, remember that?  The ones who came at six, nine, twelve, three all received...what?...one denarius, the same wage, and that was due to the generosity of the man.  They were not in a position to negotiate.  Day workers weren't.  They took what they could get to survive.  But this was a generous father.  All the people who heard Him tell the story would have processed all of that which I have to fill in for you.  But he's ready to go back to this man that he knows to be merciful and generous and compassionate and kind.  He is ready now because he doesn't have an alternative.  There's nowhere left to go.  All he can do is humble himself, face his shame, admit his terrible sin and disgrace.  Go back and try to be treated with the same kind of mercy and compassion and kindness that he knows his father treats poor people.  And maybe...maybe if he can work long enough, he can earn back what he lost and make restitution back to the family and then have a reconciliation with his father. 

He's thinking the way the people in Israel thought because that's the way Jesus wants him to think.  They would have all understood this.  They would have all said, "Yep, boy, if he's truly repentant he'll go back, he'll go back to his father, he'll confess, he'll repent, he'll be humbled, he'll be humiliated, he'll be scorned, he'll be shamed and that's just and that's fair and that's right because of what he's done to his father.  Very severe in an honor/shame culture, very important to protect the honor of the old man.  That's what he needs to do and he needs to go back and then he needs to receive from that father mercy and forgiveness based on work that he does.  He needs to do restitution.  So they would have been with him in this story up to now.  They would have been horrified at what the young man did.  They would have seen him as an absolute outcast.  And if there was any hope for coming back, he would have to come back, receive mercy and forgiveness and do the work to earn back his reconciliation.

Well, he's ready.  He's broken.  He's alone.  He's sad.  He's penitent.  He has nowhere to go.  And he believes in his father.  This is a picture of one whose repentance leads to salvation because, you see, not only repentance here but faith in his father.  He trusts in his father's goodness, compassion, generosity and mercy.  Repentance is linked to faith.  He knows the kind of man his father is and in spite of the horrible way he has blasphemed his father, dishonored his father, shamed his father, the horrible way he has treated his father, the terrible way he has lived his life, coming to the very bottom he knows his father is a forgiving man and penitently he trusts to go back and receive forgiveness and do whatever works he needs to do to make restitution and be reconciled.

So verse 18, "I'm not just going to stay here and die, I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Here's my plan, make me one of your hired men.'" That's all good.  They would...all the Pharisees and scribes would say that's it, that's exactly what he needs to do, that's sensible thinking, boy.  He came to his senses, he had a little dialogue with himself, he had a soliloquy, he understood, he had nowhere to go but home.  He understood something about the goodness of the father.  He's ready to place himself on the mercy of the father having repented of his sins.  He's going to go back and he's going to do what he needs to do by making himself a hired man at the lowest point on the totem pole in terms of socially, no intimacy with the father, not even a slave in the house let alone a son.  He has no right to the home, no right to deplete the family resources any further.  He's just going to work when they want to invest some money in something that's going to bring a dividend like anybody else will work.  He's ready. 

His sensible thinking then moves his will.  This is how repentance works.  First of all the sinner comes to himself, comes to his senses, begins to really look and assess where he is and where he's headed to the inevitable death and destruction and eternal damnation.  The sinner says I can't keep going this direction, there's only one to whom I can turn, that's the Father whom I have flaunted and dishonored.  I have to go back to Him.  I have to go back bearing my shame and full responsibility for my sin.  I have to cast myself on His mercy, forgiveness and love.  And I have to tell Him that I'm willing to work to do whatever I need to do to earn my way back.  Everybody would have understood that.

It's very humbling...very, very embarrassing, very shameful, but he says I'm going to do it.  And listen to how severe he...he is about his own self-indictment.  "I have sinned against heaven and in your sight."  Against heaven is actually eis tu ouranon.  I have sinned into heaven.  And it may well be that what he means by that is my sins pile up as high as heaven.  This may be a reflection of Ezra 9:6, "O, my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to Thee, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens."  He's not holding anything back.  He's genuinely penitent.  He is denying himself fully.  This is the stuff of real repentance.  He is saying, "My life has been a total disaster.  I am facing death and there's no one to blame but myself.  I rebelled, I disobeyed, I wasted my life, I dishonored my father.  My sins rise to the very presence of God they stack so high." This is true repentance, holding back nothing, no excuses, no blame anywhere but himself.  And so true penitence matched with true trust in a father's love and forgiveness starts the sinner back.

He has to go back to save himself from his sin.  Empty, alienated, headed for eternal destruction, every sinner whoever repents starts with powerful conviction of his own or her own condition, destitute, empty, headed for eternal death.  Every sinner who comes back takes full responsibility for that sin and sees it as an offense that rises as high as heaven.  Every sinner who comes back sets his course or her course toward God to come back.  And the Jews would have understood that when you come back, God will accept you if you do the work.  He had no rights, forfeited them all when he took his part of the estate and liquidated it and squandered it, no rights, no worthiness.  There never will be a son again, at least that's his view, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, just make me a hired man.  Just give me a job and over all the years that it takes I'm going to work to earn back everything I lost.  I have no rights, he says, I have no privileges, I lay no claim, I don't ever expect you to receive me on my terms.  Remember now, he's dead, they had a ceremony when he left, a funeral.  That's why he's referred to twice by the father as my son who was dead.  I don't expect to live in the home.  I don't expect to be a slave.  I don't even expect a relationship with you, father, I just want to work and I'll earn my way back.  Make me as one of your hired men.

You know, there's real faith here in God and there's real repentance.  This is the real stuff. And those Pharisees and Sadducees at this point would be applauding.  They would be...Yeah, this is right, that's what he's got to do.  Up to now they're generally affirming the story.  They didn't like the story at the beginning because dishonoring the father was distasteful to them.  They were horrified when the young man left and conducted his life in that way.  And even more horrified when he ended up with pigs who were considered, of course, utterly unclean.  But since then, they liked the idea that he came to his senses, they like the idea that he's coming back.  And they know there's no instant reconciliation, that's not how it's done.  He's penitent and he trusts his father but he's going to have to earn his way back.  That's pure Pharisaic theology, along with every other religion in the world.  He comes back and says I'll take my punishment, I'll take the exclusion from fellowship in the family.  I'll take the distance from my father.  I'll endure the humiliation of lowly work.  I'll take the pain of hard labor for years to restore what I lost.  I'll work my way back until I can be reconciled.

Oh he's filled with remorse for the past.  He's filled with pain in the present.  And he's looking forward to even more pain in the future as he works for years to earn his way back.  Everybody would get it because that was the way they thought it had to be done.  All the glitter is off the gold in the far country now, right?  All the free wheeling lifestyle has turned to a terrible crushing bondage.  All the dreams are nightmares, all the pleasure is pain, all the fun is sorrow, all the self-fulfillment is self-deprivation.  The party is over for good.  The laughs are silenced, the friends are gone.  It's as bad as it can get and he's about to die.  There's nowhere to go.

Well this is not say that every sinner who repents gets this bad.  That's not the point.  Not every sinner does get that bad.  Not every sinner is that wretched.  Not every sinner spends his money on harlots.  That's not the point.  The point is we want to know what this father is going to do to a sinner who is as bad as it can get because if he acts in grace toward the one who is as bad as possible, then there's hope for those who aren't.  But the case has to be extreme to make the point.  He's ready to humbly come to his father.  He's ready to confess his sin without excuse.  He's ready to do whatever work he needs to do to come back.

He reminds me of that person in the story Jesus told in Matthew 18 who, you remember, embezzled money and said to the ruler, "Let me work and I'll earn it all back?"  That was the typical way.  That's the typical religious way.  You get into God's family by your works.  His thoughts were of a dishonored father and he felt back.  His thoughts were on the horror of his own sin and he felt bad.  And he was willing to do whatever he was told to do to make restitution.  Boy, that...there's some real genuine repentance in that, no terms.

And so, shameful repentance, that comes to the fourth point in the flow, a shameful reception...a shameful reception.  And that in itself may seem a little bit startling to you but you'll see in a moment.  A shameless request, a shameless rebellion, and then a shameful repentance and a shameful reception, this is amazing, this is paradoxical and this is shocking.  Verse 20, "So he got up, 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."  At this point, if the Pharisees and scribes were standing on anything, they fell off.  This is way beyond their sensibilities.  In fact, this is a shameful reception by their assessment. 

It starts out simply by saying he got up and came to his father.  The son, the sinner, ready to face the shame he deserves.  He wants restoration, he wants a new start.  He needs his father.  He needs his father's resources.  His father can give him life instead of death.  He has hope in the goodness and kindness and forgiveness of his father.  He's truly penitent.  He doesn't even want to be a slave, he'll work as a hired man to be paid to earn his way back.  He doesn't want anything he doesn't deserve.  And he will work to earn it.

That's pretty much how people feel.  That's how the Jews felt.  And the Pharisees and scribes listening to Jesus, along with anybody else at that time who heard this story would say, "Yeah, that's right."  And you know what?  When he does come to his father they would know what the father would do.  First of all, the father would not be available.  He had been dishonored.  His respect had been tarnished in the community.  He had been shamed by such an outrageous and rebellious son, and he had brought shame upon himself in some ways by even allowing him to do that.  And here comes the son with another outrageous request after he has already cost a great portion of the family its fortune and the father his honor.  So the Jews would expect this, they would expect, and this would be what would be done in the Middle East then and perhaps even today in some places, the father would refuse to meet him.  The father would make him sit outside the gate of the home somewhere in that village for days in public view.  Nobody would take him in so that the whole town could heap scorn on him, so that the whole town could bring the retribution upon his head that he deserved for the way he dishonored his father.  Scorn and abuse and slander against him and people mocking him and perhaps even spitting on him.  And the son would expect it.  He would expect it, he knew it could come and he would sit there and take it.  The Pharisees and scribes would expect that he had to be justifiably shamed before everybody as part of the retribution for the shame he had brought upon his father.

And when the father did let him in after a certain period of time, it would be a very cool reception and he would be required to bow low and kiss the father's feet.  Then the father would tell him with a measure of indifference what works he would have to do and for how long he would have to work to demonstrate that his repentance was real.  And if he did work as long as he needed to and did all the reparations and all the restitution and paid back in full what he owed, then he could be reconciled and only then.  All the rabbis taught that.  All the rabbis taught that repentance was work a man does to earn God's favor when he feels sorry for his sin.  That's what repentance was, you feel sorry for your sin, you want to be restored to God so you do work and by that work you gain favor with God by making restitution.  Everybody knew that was the way it was done.  And the village would even after they had heaped scorn on him for long enough would let him work there with a measure of dignity.

But that is not what happened.  In fact, what happened could only be described as shameful, shameful.  What happened while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  Now I just got to take that apart a little bit.  While he was still a long way off...hadn't reached the entrance to the village, down some dusty road way out of town...a long way off, his father sees him which is an indication of the father seeking, isn't it?  Everybody would know that.  The father looking.  They would assume he had been looking a lot very often, that he knew the kind of life that his son was headed toward would end up the way it ended and that he hoped that he would survive it so that he could come back and the father bearing a private pain and a suffering love all alone in his own heart looking, and looking and looking and looking.

It's daylight, has to be daylight in the story because he sees him a long way off, which means the town is full of people, the town is crowded, the town is busy.  It's a hubbub, it's bustling with women and children and older people and everybody who's not out in the field.  That means it's a busy place.  And the father is looking and looking.

Why?  Very simple, he wants to reach his son before his son reaches the village.  He not only wants to initiate the reconciliation as the shepherd did when he found the sheep and the woman when she found the coin, but he wants not just to initiate the reconciliation, listen, he wants to get to his son before his son gets to the village.  Why?  He wants to protect him from the shame.  He wants to protect him from the scorn and the abuse and the slander.  He wants to bear the shame, take the abuse.  He's willing to have the people say, "What's he doing?  This man who has been dishonored now dishonors himself by embracing this wretched boy."  But he wants to protect the son from the scorn, the slander, the taunting which was expected, which was just, which was part of the culture, which was expected.

How does he do it?  How does he protect the boy?  He sees him, it says, when he's still a long way off from the village, it says he felt compassion.  Not just compassion for his past sin, not just compassion for his present filth, and he was in rags and smelled like a pig, but compassion for what he was about to experience.  And the word compassion is splanchnizomai, comes from a root that means your intestines, or your bowel or your abdomen.  He felt a sick feeling in his stomach when he saw the boy and knew he was headed toward this unleashing of scorn.  And so it says he ran.

Now I've got to tell you something, folks, Middle Eastern noblemen don't run.  That's just basic.  The word running here literally it says, "And running," is dromon(?), it is the Greek word that is a technical word for racing in a stadium.  He sprinted, is what he did.  It's almost as if he's impatient, he can't get there fast enough.  This word doesn't indicate a trot or a shuffle, or a middle-aged scoot.  He sprinted.  And this is beneath his dignity, folks.  O my, if you only knew.  I'll tell you.  Kenneth Bailey has made a study of life