Sermon Hymn 410: Our Father, Who from Heaven Above
Tune: Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, Der Du: 88 88 88
1. Our Father, who from heav'n above Bids all of us to live in love
As members of one family And pray to you in unity,
Teach us no thoughtless words to say, But from our inmost hearts to pray.
2. Your name be hallowed. Help us, Lord, In purity to keep your Word,
That to the glory of your name We walk before you free from blame.
Let no false doctrine us pervert; All poor, deluded souls convert.
Dear friends in Christ.
A story has long been told about two monks who were discussing the Lord’s Prayer and their ability to pray it completely while concentrating on it fully. The first monk said with sorrow and frustration, “I can’t do it! I try and I try, but invariably somewhere in the middle of the prayer my mind wanders and I start thinking about other things.” “Really,” said the second monk. “I have no problem praying the Lord’s Prayer or concentrating on what I am saying.” The first monk looked quizzically at the second and said, “I don’t believe you! I’ll bet you my horse that you cannot say the Lord’s Prayer without being distracted and thinking about something else.” So the second monk took the bet. He took a deep breath to help clear his mind and focus his thoughts. He folded his hands, closed his eyes, bowed his head, and began praying. But before he even reached the petition asking that the Lord’s will be done on heaven and on earth, he stopped, looked at the first monk and said, “I guess you were right. Everything was going fine. I was focused and concentrating on what I was saying, and then I suddenly wondered if the saddle would come with the horse.”
How often doesn’t the same thing happen to us? How often don’t we begin speaking the words of the Lord’s Prayer when suddenly three or four different thoughts crowd their way into our minds and we simply stop paying attention to the words we are speaking? How often doesn’t it happen that we hear the Pastor say something like, “We join to pray the prayer that Jesus taught, and the next thing we realize is that we are saying, “Amen” and we are continuing on with the Communion liturgy or sitting down to sing the next hymn? How often haven’t we simply taken the Lord’s Prayer for granted? How often haven’t we simply prayed it without considering what we are praying for? How often haven’t we been upset because we were in a church that used that other version of the Lord’s Prayer, the one with which we are not so familiar, and we had to open our hymnals and read it, and think about the words we were saying; instead of simply reciting it verbatim without a care in the world? We’ve all done this! We have all failed to focus on what we were praying as we fervently prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It is for this very reason that we want to take a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer today so that we might grow in our understanding of what we are praying, and so that we might be better able to focus our attention on what we are so fervently praying to the Lord with these words.
To our text! Take a look at Matthew 6:9” “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’” (Matthew 6:9, NIV). With these words, Jesus himself is inviting us to believe that God is our one true Father in heaven and that through faith in him and his Son Jesus, we are his true children. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can pray to the Lord God our heavenly Father as boldly and confidently as children speak to their parents here on earth. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can bring any problem, hardship, frustration, concern, item of joy or praise to our heavenly Father at any time and he will hear us, he will listen, and he will answer our prayer as we fervently pray to him and ask that his name be kept holy.
Now, if you think about it, God’s name is already holy in itself, even without our asking. But when we are praying that the Lord’s name be hallowed, we are asking that we too might keep it holy. We are asking for his help and his blessing in keeping his name holy, because God’s Name is hallowed, when his Word is taught in its truth and purity. God’s Name is hallowed when we, as God’s children, live holy lives according to his Word, and as we pray that his name be kept holy, we are asking our Father in heaven to help us do that very thing so that through our lives others might see our faith and have the opportunity to learn about their Savior through the message of the Gospel. This is God’s will for our lives that his kingdom comes to us and many others through the message of his Word. Join me in singing about his kingdom and his will in stanza’s 3 and 4 of hymn 410:
3. Your kingdom come, we humbly pray, That Christ may rule in us today
And that your Holy Spirit bring Still more to worship Christ as King.
Break Satan's pow'r, defeat his rage; Preserve your Church from age to age.
4. Your gracious will on earth be done Just as in heav'n around your throne,
That patiently we may obey Throughout our lives all that you say.
Curb sinful flesh and ev'ry ill That sets itself against your will.
Such beautiful words the hymnist uses to expound what we are praying in those two very beautiful petitions form Matthew 6:10: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, NIV). How strange it is that we as Christians should be praying such a petition as, “your kingdom come.” After all, we know that God’s kingdom will certainly come even without our asking, but when we speak these words, we are asking that God’s kingdom would come to us and to many others through the Holy Spirit whom the Father sends into our hearts through his Word and Sacraments. We are asking our heavenly Father to send his Holy Spirit into our hearts and the hearts of many others so that we all might believe his Word and lead a holy and godly life here on earth, through faith, and forever in heaven by God’s grace. This is God’s good and gracious will for our lives!
Again, God’s will would certainly be done without our prayer! Yet, whenever we pray, “Thy will be done;” we are praying that the Lord our God would break down and defeat every evil plan and purpose of the devil, this sin-filled world, and even our own sinful flesh. We are asking the Lord to strengthen us and keep us strong in our faith and firm in his word so that we might keep his name holy with our lives and his kingdom might come to others through our words and actions. That is God’s good and gracious will for our lives, that satan would be defeated, that the Lord would use us to spread his word to the nations, and that he would call many others to faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
This is our fervent prayer to the Lord as we speak the words which our Savior has given. Though the petitions, to this point, have been rather straight forward and easy for us to speak, as we come to the Fourth and Fifth Petitions, we find ourselves in a little more difficult territory. Though these words roll off the tongue so easily without a thought, when we stop to consider their meaning, they become that much more difficult for us to speak. Join me in singing these petitions from stanzas 5 and 6 of hymn 410:
5. Give us today our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed.
From hardship, war, and earthly strife, From sickness, famine, spare our life.
Let selfishness and worry cease That we may live in godly peace.
6. Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore, That they may trouble us no more;
We, too, will gladly those forgive Who hurt us by the way they live.
Help us in our community To serve each other willingly.
So how did you feel as you sung the words of these two stanzas? Did you find these words easy to sing or did you find them a little more difficult than you expected as they so clearly expounded on what Jesus tells us in verse 11 and 12 of Matthew 6: “Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:11-12, NIV). But why is it that these petitions are so difficult for us? The answer is quite simple; because we are asking our God not only to teach us to rely on him for all things, but to live in love and forgiveness for each other. In fact, just think about what we are saying when we ask our God to give us our daily bread. We are asking him to provide everything that we need for our body and life on a daily basis. We are asking him to help us realize that he graciously gives us all these things and more, even without our asking, even to those who are wicked. But we are asking him to help us realize that all our blessings come from him and that he will provide all that we need, which is something that so few of us do because it is so contrary to our human nature. All we have to do is look at our budget and calculate how much we are paying in credit card interest and other deferred payments for things that we may not have needed but simply felt that we couldn’t live without in order to find our level of trust in the Lord’s ability to know what we need and provide all that we need every day.
Yet even as we have sinned against the Lord by not trusting him, we are asking him to forgive us. Yet this is also where it becomes difficult for us. Though it is easy to pray that the Lord would forgive our debts, our sins; it is not as easy to pray, as we have forgiven our debtors—those who have sinned against us. This, too, goes completely against our human nature. We long to hold on to our grudges and remember what this person or that person did against us. We see it as a source of pride to withhold forgiveness from someone who sinned against us. Yet we fervently pray for our God to forgive us, we are asking him for the strength to forgive others as well. We are praying that the Lord would neither look upon our sins, nor deny our prayers because of our sins, even though we sin on a daily basis and deserve only his wrath and punishment. Yet, as we approach our heavenly Father, we ask him to act in mercy because of our Savior, forgive us of all our sins, and help us to do the same for those who have sinned against us. We ask him to help us reflect the love our Savior has for us by forgiven others, even as Jesus has already forgiven all of us.
This is the forgiveness in which we all live; the forgiveness that is ours through faith in Jesus, who poured out his blood and took back his life to save us. This is the forgiveness that now moves us to live in his love, love our neighbor as our selves, and forgive those who sin against us. This is the forgiveness that no moves us to pray that the Lord deliver us from temptation and all evil, just as we sing in stanzas 7 and 8 of hymn 410:
7. Into temptation lead us not. When evil foes against us plot
And vex our souls on ev'ry hand, Oh, give us strength that we may stand
Firm in the faith, a mighty host, Through comfort of the Holy Ghost.
8. From evil, Lord, deliver us; The times and days are perilous.
Redeem us from eternal death, And, when we yield our dying breath,
Console us, grant us calm release, And take our souls to you in peace.
Just as we sang so beautifully in our hymn we pray so fervently with those words from verse 13 of Matthew 6: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13, NIV) Though we know that God does not lead anyone into sin or even tempt them to sin, with these words we fervently pray that the Lord our God would guard us and keep us so that satan, this sinful world, and our traitorous-sinful flesh would not deceive us, or lead us into false belief, despair, or any other sins for that matter. Instead, with these words, we fervently pray that with God’s help we may overcome these and other temptations and win the victory over them as God himself delivers us from the evil one—our enemy, the devil.
This, too, is our fervent prayer that God our Father would deliver us from every evil that would threaten our body and soul, even our property and reputation. Not only that, but we also pray that when our time comes, the Lord would grant us a blessed end by calling us out of this life to his side forever in heaven. This is our fervent prayer to the Lord our God who promises to hear us, answer us, forgive us, provide for us, and deliver us from every form of evil.
Thus, we come to the end of the Lord’s prayer as recorded in the Bible. Though it was a little different in the account in Luke than it is in Matthew, there is no place where the doxology is recorded in the Scriptures. So I cannot point to you any specific passage in the Bible where you can read, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” But even though they may not appear in any specific passage of Scripture, they undoubtedly echo many of the praises found in the Scriptures which describe how the Lord’s kingdom, power and glory shall endure forever. Interestingly enough, these very words were included with the Lord’s prayer in the Didache, which was essentially the Catechism for Christians back in about 100 AD. They were the words that we sang in response to the reading of the Lord’s Prayer during the communion service back when we used The Lutheran Hymnal, and they are words that have stuck. They are words of praise and glory that we proclaim before we say Amen, which is our statement of confidence that the Lord will hear and answer our prayer. Thus we say Amen at the end of our prayer, for this simple word declares, “Yes, it shall be so.” Yes, it shall be so thus declares our confidence in approaching our heavenly Father in this way, for not only has he commanded us to pray and promised to hear us, but these are the very words that Jesus has given us to pray.
So now, as we continue fervently praying the Lord’s Prayer, each and every week, I pray that this brief explanation will help you more thoroughly concentrate on what you are saying as you speak those familiar words that our Savior gave us. Thus, as we bring this sermon to a close, let us join our hearts and voices in singing the Amen from stanza 9 of hymn 410:
9. Amen, that is, it shall be so. Make strong our faith that we may know
That we may doubt not but believe What here we ask we shall receive.
Thus in your name and at your Word We say, "Amen. Oh, hear us, Lord!"
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Showing posts with label Hidden Sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hidden Sin. Show all posts
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
How Great Is the Love the Father Has Lavished Upon Us! (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)
Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 March 14, 2010
Theme: How great is the Love the Father Lavished upon us!
Dear friends in Christ.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity. He was writing to assure Christians who were suffering under false teachers who were constantly claiming that Jesus wasn’t really the Christ, the Son of God, or the Savior of the Word. He was writing to Christians to assure them of the love that their heavenly Father had poured out on them by sending Jesus to be the Savior of the Word and give his life so that by his death and resurrection, all our sins, be they open and rebellious or hidden and even self-righteous sins, be forgiven. Though these words, which the Apostle John wrote at the turn of the first century are not the words of our text today, they do serve as a wonderful theme for the message of our Father’s love that Jesus conveys in his parable today! As Luke tells us, “Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1–3, NIV)
Now, when all this took place, Jesus was the East side of the Jordan River, a good day’s journey away from Jerusalem. He was teaching the people in the area known as Perea, which was where the tribes of Gad and Ruben had staked their claim to their inheritance. He was teaching the people who had gathered there all about the love that their heavenly Father had lavished upon them by sending him as the Messiah, the Savior, who would shortly give his life as a ransom for all people, when the Pharisees and teachers of the law once again reared their ugly head. They were the ones who didn’t believe that Jesus could possibly be the Messiah because he wasn’t righteous enough. They were the ones who believed that when the Messiah came he would be a righteous judge who would punish and destroy all the open sinners while he hung around with them and praised them for their righteousness. But Jesus did none of these things so they did what any jealous and disgruntled person would do. They complained about him and his association with the riff-raff and in doing so, they sought to shake the faith of those whom they saw as tax collectors and open sinners.
But Jesus knew exactly what they were up to so he began to tell them this parable: “Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “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. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:11–24, NIV)
With these beautiful words, Jesus spoke directly to the heart of those whom the Pharisees called the tax collectors and sinners as he revealed to them the lavish love that their heavenly Father had bestowed upon them by forgiving all their open and rebellious sins. For even though they were like the son who had gathered up all he had and left their Father’s house to go out and squander all his blessings in open and rebellious sins, these were the very people whom the Lord Jesus, their Savior, who had called them to faith, and assured them of their forgiveness through their faith in him. These were the very people whom the Father waited for as he stood at the end of his drive way looking longingly down the road for the day when they would return to him. These were the people for whom the Angels in heaven rejoiced because they had come to faith and repented of their sins and through that faith had received the full measure of the Father’s love, because they had trusted in Jesus as their Lord, Savior, and Messiah.
Well, these same people whom Jesus spoke to with his parable are no different than you or me! For the truth is how many of us haven’t done the very same thing? How many of us haven’t taken our share of the inheritance and then wandered away from the Word of God? How many of us haven’t faced difficult and troubling times, like the young man in the parable did, and we came back to ourselves, repented of our sins and then returned to our Father’s home where we might grow in faith through the means of grace, which is the gospel in the word and in the sacraments? In fact, just think about it, how many times haven’t you wandered away from the Lord and watched your spiritual life fall apart as you kept yourself separated from him? How many times hasn’t it happened that you continued on in your sinful ways until finally you hit rock bottom, finally coming to your senses, and returning to the Lord for his forgiveness? How many times hasn’t it happened that even as you repented of your sins your heavenly Father ran to you, threw his arms around you, kissed you and welcomed you back as a son or daughter of his family? How many times hasn’t your heavenly father lavished his love upon you as, through faith in Jesus, he forgave each and every one of your open and rebellious sins against him? How many times haven’t you been the one for whom the angels in heaven rejoiced because you repented and returned to the Lord?
That was the very message of the Father’s love that Jesus proclaimed to the tax collectors and sinners who were gathered around him as he told them how the Lord God their heavenly father had forgiven each and every one of their sins. Yet the Lord Jesus did not stop his lesson of the Father’s great love there, rather, as he continued the lesson he began to speak of the great love the Father longed to lavish upon even the self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the Law, if only they would throw off their self-righteous ideas and turn to him, their Savior, in sorrow and repentance. As Jesus continued in his parable, he said: “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV)
With such a simple transition, Jesus begins to speak to the Pharisees about the very love that the Father longs to lavish upon them, if only they would turn from their hidden and self-righteous sins! For with these words, it is very clear that Jesus is speaking to the very people who had been with him and had lived in his house. They were the Son who had stayed at home and served their Father, but sadly, as the years went by they began to rely more on what they were doing for their Father rather than what he would do for them. They began to put their faith and their trust in their own actions and their own righteousness and they no longer saw their own need for a Savior! Thus, when they saw the Love that their Father was lavishing on these tax collectors and sinners, they as angry as the brother in the parable, because their Father did not punish or even annihilate these sinners, nor did he recognize their great efforts to be holy and righteous in the Father’s eyes by their own works. They felt that they deserved so much more because they had been so faithful as they slaved away for their Father and refused the temptations to go off and indulge in open sin, while all the time they continued to condemn others for the very sins that were hidden in their hearts, as they sought to live an outwardly righteous life!
But before we speak too harshly against the Pharisees and teaches of the Law, perhaps we should take a look at our own lives and ask ourselves the question, “How often haven’t we acted exactly like they did?” How often haven’t we been upset when someone who has been away from worship for months or even years, suddenly begins to come back and is welcomed home without any questions asked? How often haven’t we felt that we were so much better than they, because while they were out indulging in whatever sins they were, we were safely at home serving our Father in his home and living under his roof? Or how often haven’t we acted so offended when we heard about the sins that so and so has been engaging in and then hurried to self-righteously pass on this juicy piece of gossip to the next person on the grape vine? Or how often haven’t we spoken extra harshly about this sin or that sin so that no one suspects that it is the very sin which we have hidden away in our own hearts? How often haven’t we acted just like the older son in the parable and just like the Pharisees who spoke against Jesus?
That is why Jesus ends his parable with an open question for both the Pharisees to contemplate as well as you and me, for as he says, “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV) What he is asking is simply this; “Will you rejoice with the angels in heaven, with my Father and even with me over those who repent? Will you turn away from your own hidden sins and self-righteous behavior, repent of your sins, and live? Will you place your faith in me as your Savior and through that faith receive the great love your Father wishes to lavish upon you as he forgives even your hidden sins and self-righteous behavior?”
As I look at you today, I know that this is the very thing you have already done! As I look at you today, I see a congregation of Christians who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have been lavished with the Father’s love and been washed clean of every spot and satin of sin. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have given their lives to the Lord and through faith in Jesus and through that faith are striving to remain in that love on a daily basis as you continually go to the Lord in repentance and receive the assurance of his love in the forgiveness of all of your sins.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity, and we are using them today to remind us of the great forgiveness our heavenly Father has poured out upon us! For through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we have the great assurance that each and every one of our sins has been washed away. Through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we know that our heavenly Father has lavished his great love upon us. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we know that we have been forgiven of our open and rebellious sins as well as our hidden and self-righteous sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we now strive to live in that love as we live our lives in service to the Savior. May the Lord God, your heavenly Father, continue to assure you of his love as you daily grow in your faith and your trust of Jesus Christ your Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Theme: How great is the Love the Father Lavished upon us!
Dear friends in Christ.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity. He was writing to assure Christians who were suffering under false teachers who were constantly claiming that Jesus wasn’t really the Christ, the Son of God, or the Savior of the Word. He was writing to Christians to assure them of the love that their heavenly Father had poured out on them by sending Jesus to be the Savior of the Word and give his life so that by his death and resurrection, all our sins, be they open and rebellious or hidden and even self-righteous sins, be forgiven. Though these words, which the Apostle John wrote at the turn of the first century are not the words of our text today, they do serve as a wonderful theme for the message of our Father’s love that Jesus conveys in his parable today! As Luke tells us, “Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1–3, NIV)
Now, when all this took place, Jesus was the East side of the Jordan River, a good day’s journey away from Jerusalem. He was teaching the people in the area known as Perea, which was where the tribes of Gad and Ruben had staked their claim to their inheritance. He was teaching the people who had gathered there all about the love that their heavenly Father had lavished upon them by sending him as the Messiah, the Savior, who would shortly give his life as a ransom for all people, when the Pharisees and teachers of the law once again reared their ugly head. They were the ones who didn’t believe that Jesus could possibly be the Messiah because he wasn’t righteous enough. They were the ones who believed that when the Messiah came he would be a righteous judge who would punish and destroy all the open sinners while he hung around with them and praised them for their righteousness. But Jesus did none of these things so they did what any jealous and disgruntled person would do. They complained about him and his association with the riff-raff and in doing so, they sought to shake the faith of those whom they saw as tax collectors and open sinners.
But Jesus knew exactly what they were up to so he began to tell them this parable: “Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “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. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:11–24, NIV)
With these beautiful words, Jesus spoke directly to the heart of those whom the Pharisees called the tax collectors and sinners as he revealed to them the lavish love that their heavenly Father had bestowed upon them by forgiving all their open and rebellious sins. For even though they were like the son who had gathered up all he had and left their Father’s house to go out and squander all his blessings in open and rebellious sins, these were the very people whom the Lord Jesus, their Savior, who had called them to faith, and assured them of their forgiveness through their faith in him. These were the very people whom the Father waited for as he stood at the end of his drive way looking longingly down the road for the day when they would return to him. These were the people for whom the Angels in heaven rejoiced because they had come to faith and repented of their sins and through that faith had received the full measure of the Father’s love, because they had trusted in Jesus as their Lord, Savior, and Messiah.
Well, these same people whom Jesus spoke to with his parable are no different than you or me! For the truth is how many of us haven’t done the very same thing? How many of us haven’t taken our share of the inheritance and then wandered away from the Word of God? How many of us haven’t faced difficult and troubling times, like the young man in the parable did, and we came back to ourselves, repented of our sins and then returned to our Father’s home where we might grow in faith through the means of grace, which is the gospel in the word and in the sacraments? In fact, just think about it, how many times haven’t you wandered away from the Lord and watched your spiritual life fall apart as you kept yourself separated from him? How many times hasn’t it happened that you continued on in your sinful ways until finally you hit rock bottom, finally coming to your senses, and returning to the Lord for his forgiveness? How many times hasn’t it happened that even as you repented of your sins your heavenly Father ran to you, threw his arms around you, kissed you and welcomed you back as a son or daughter of his family? How many times hasn’t your heavenly father lavished his love upon you as, through faith in Jesus, he forgave each and every one of your open and rebellious sins against him? How many times haven’t you been the one for whom the angels in heaven rejoiced because you repented and returned to the Lord?
That was the very message of the Father’s love that Jesus proclaimed to the tax collectors and sinners who were gathered around him as he told them how the Lord God their heavenly father had forgiven each and every one of their sins. Yet the Lord Jesus did not stop his lesson of the Father’s great love there, rather, as he continued the lesson he began to speak of the great love the Father longed to lavish upon even the self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the Law, if only they would throw off their self-righteous ideas and turn to him, their Savior, in sorrow and repentance. As Jesus continued in his parable, he said: “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV)
With such a simple transition, Jesus begins to speak to the Pharisees about the very love that the Father longs to lavish upon them, if only they would turn from their hidden and self-righteous sins! For with these words, it is very clear that Jesus is speaking to the very people who had been with him and had lived in his house. They were the Son who had stayed at home and served their Father, but sadly, as the years went by they began to rely more on what they were doing for their Father rather than what he would do for them. They began to put their faith and their trust in their own actions and their own righteousness and they no longer saw their own need for a Savior! Thus, when they saw the Love that their Father was lavishing on these tax collectors and sinners, they as angry as the brother in the parable, because their Father did not punish or even annihilate these sinners, nor did he recognize their great efforts to be holy and righteous in the Father’s eyes by their own works. They felt that they deserved so much more because they had been so faithful as they slaved away for their Father and refused the temptations to go off and indulge in open sin, while all the time they continued to condemn others for the very sins that were hidden in their hearts, as they sought to live an outwardly righteous life!
But before we speak too harshly against the Pharisees and teaches of the Law, perhaps we should take a look at our own lives and ask ourselves the question, “How often haven’t we acted exactly like they did?” How often haven’t we been upset when someone who has been away from worship for months or even years, suddenly begins to come back and is welcomed home without any questions asked? How often haven’t we felt that we were so much better than they, because while they were out indulging in whatever sins they were, we were safely at home serving our Father in his home and living under his roof? Or how often haven’t we acted so offended when we heard about the sins that so and so has been engaging in and then hurried to self-righteously pass on this juicy piece of gossip to the next person on the grape vine? Or how often haven’t we spoken extra harshly about this sin or that sin so that no one suspects that it is the very sin which we have hidden away in our own hearts? How often haven’t we acted just like the older son in the parable and just like the Pharisees who spoke against Jesus?
That is why Jesus ends his parable with an open question for both the Pharisees to contemplate as well as you and me, for as he says, “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV) What he is asking is simply this; “Will you rejoice with the angels in heaven, with my Father and even with me over those who repent? Will you turn away from your own hidden sins and self-righteous behavior, repent of your sins, and live? Will you place your faith in me as your Savior and through that faith receive the great love your Father wishes to lavish upon you as he forgives even your hidden sins and self-righteous behavior?”
As I look at you today, I know that this is the very thing you have already done! As I look at you today, I see a congregation of Christians who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have been lavished with the Father’s love and been washed clean of every spot and satin of sin. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have given their lives to the Lord and through faith in Jesus and through that faith are striving to remain in that love on a daily basis as you continually go to the Lord in repentance and receive the assurance of his love in the forgiveness of all of your sins.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity, and we are using them today to remind us of the great forgiveness our heavenly Father has poured out upon us! For through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we have the great assurance that each and every one of our sins has been washed away. Through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we know that our heavenly Father has lavished his great love upon us. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we know that we have been forgiven of our open and rebellious sins as well as our hidden and self-righteous sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we now strive to live in that love as we live our lives in service to the Savior. May the Lord God, your heavenly Father, continue to assure you of his love as you daily grow in your faith and your trust of Jesus Christ your Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
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