Lent 4                            March 30, 2025
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32        Pastor Wolfe

“The Father loves his children
1. Love for the obvious sinner
2. Love for the oblivious sinner

God loves all people. That’s the basic truth behind our whole worship series about God’s open door to heaven. But there’s always a voice in our head questioning that, isn’t there? Wouldn’t God love those who faithfully serve him and keep his laws a little more? Wouldn’t he love the really “bad” sinners less? You know, the murderers, the pedophiles, the prostitutes. That’s what the Pharisees of Jesus’ day figured. We know this parable of the prodigal son so well, but we miss the point if we forget the questions that prompted Jesus to tell it. The Pharisees sneered at Jesus when he ate with tax collectors and other obvious sinners. The Pharisees considered themselves better. They were the ones God should love more. The point of this parable is to show us who God loves. And we find two answers. God loves the obvious sinner and runs to welcome him back. But God also loves the oblivious sinner, the one who doesn’t even know how sinful he is until someone points it out to him. Our heavenly Father loves both and wants both to repent and enter heaven through his open doors.

The Parable of the Prodigal, or Lost, Son is not difficult. There was a father who had two sons. The younger one didn’t like living at home and made his feelings clear by demanding part of the inheritance while his dad was still alive (as if it was something his father owed him). The son might as well have said, “Dad, I wish you would just die.” In spite of his son’s poor attitude, the father gave him his inheritance, and with this newfound wealth the son ran away. “The farther the better” he must have thought, “that way I can live how I want and not the way dad made me live all these years.” And of course, as it usually does, that meant wild and obvious sinful living.

It’s not difficult to see that the younger son in the parable represents the tax collectors and other “obvious” sinners Jesus was spending time with. Just as the younger son left his father’s house to live life on his terms, the tax collectors had abandoned God’s commandments. They stole from their neighbors by charging more tax than was necessary. And having that extra cash often led tax collectors into a life of overindulgence. For that the tax collectors were reviled by most people and considered among the worst “sinners” around. But does Jesus revile them? No, he offers them hope.

But first, through this parable he shows them the emptiness of life apart from God. The first few months away from home may have been exciting for the runaway son but he soon found out that the pleasures of the world don’t last. First he runs out of money. Then the country where he’s living is hit with a famine. His situation is so dire that he has to find work feeding pigs. Think of how shameful that must have been for a Jewish boy. It was bad enough that he had to beg a Gentile (a non-Jew) for work but to have to handle pigs – animals that were unclean for the Jews – humiliating! But even that wasn’t rock bottom. Even with the job the young man was so hungry he was tempted to fill his stomach with the slop being fed to the pigs! It’s not Jesus’ main point, but we see here that running away from God’s commands to live life on our terms may seem like a fun thing to do, but it so often leaves us empty, hungry, and alone. God’s law is not a fence of burden, but a fence of blessing.

As this younger son thought about his predicament he finally comes to his senses. He realized the foolishness of running away from his loving father’s house. He also believed that if he went back to his father, he would find a better life again. Even though he had forfeited his right to be treated like a son, wouldn’t his father at least receive him back as a servant? The son then started for home intent on making this confession: “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 servants.”

Here Jesus teaches us repentance. It’s what our midweek focus in worship has been. Repentance is not feeling sorry for yourself because of what your sin has done to you; it’s being sorry that you have disobeyed God. A penitent person knows that he has only himself to blame for his sin. The younger son did not say it was his father’s fault for being so oppressive that he had run away. He didn’t blame society for leading him astray. He blamed himself. And note, a repentant person also knows that he can’t go on living in sin. The son’s plan was not to call up his father, make his confession, and then ask his father to wire him some money so he could keep partying. No, he left behind the sin when he set out for his father’s house.

Have you already made the connection to your life and your sin? No one is to blame for our sin but ourselves. Maybe your parents’ example wasn’t that great. Maybe your friends do tempt you and make it difficult. Maybe your church isn’t perfect in helping. But you are responsible for yourself. And when your sin becomes known to you, by hitting rock bottom on your own or by a fellow believer calling you out on it, the only one that you can blame is yourself. That’s the example of the lost son and his obvious sin. And so we pray that God would bring us to turn from our sins in the same humility and bring sus back to him.

Because in this parable even more impressive than the son’s repentance is the father’s forgiveness. While the son was still a long way off, the father saw him and came running to meet him. How tempting would it be for a dad to sit back and say, “Oh, this ought to be good. He had to learn the hard way and now I’m going to get to hear those wonderful words, “you were right Dad.”

That’s not what this good father did at all. He not only went running to meet his son, he came to him with kisses and mercy, not lectures. Before the son could even finish his prepared request to be a servant, the father called for a rich garment, a ring to put on his finger, sandals for his feet, and for the servants to kill the fattened calf. Instead of judgment and a cold shoulder, the father gave his son a party! That’s grace and mercy, giving us love instead of the judgment we deserve.

And we know that our heavenly Father does exactly this for us. Before we could ever come to him, God runs to us, wraps us in faith, and showers us with forgiveness. Instead of making us prove our love to him, he proves his love to us by giving us the robe of Christ’s righteousness and the signet ring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism. He gives us a blessed banquet in the Lord’s Supper to assure us of his love and forgiveness. Friends, if you have been running from God in some way, know that God wants you back. No matter how obvious or great your sin. His love never stopped, even if your love and obedience did. God loves you, no matter what.

In the parable, the joyous return of the runaway son was dampened by the attitude of the older son. When he found out that Dad was throwing a party for his younger brother, he refused to come in and share the joy. The father could have just ignored the older son and let him pout, but because he loved him too the father he went to plead with this son to come in. But the older son retorted, “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!”

In that complaint we find that the older sin is just as lost as the younger. Maybe more. The younger son had been lost in wild living, but the older son was lost in pride and self-righteousness. The prideful believer does good with the expectation of getting something back, without recognizing how much we already have. It must have broken the father’s heart to hear that the only reason the older son had stayed at home was because he expected to get something for his service, not because he loved his father. These words sure make it sound like his obedience came from duty, not love.

I think those of us who regularly go to church and serve our Lord in so many different and wonderful ways can sympathize more with, and learn just as much from, the older son. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing the Lord’s work hoping that others will notice. And when they don’t we get upset. Can we say then that our work for the Lord was truly for his glory? Or was it more for our pride? I’ve seen pastors fall into this trap to great harm. I feel it in myself at times. And I know Satan is tempting you in this too. We can be like the older son when we judge others unfairly for not being here with us or doing as much as we do. We can be like the older brother when we point out others’ sins not to save them but to puff ourselves up. God wants us to serve him and worship him, but from humility, not pride like this older brother.

So I say to you today: God loves this sinner too. The oblivious one who gets caught up in our life and our service and forgets that we’re all sinners together, equally needing a Savior from heaven. The father in the parable told this son, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” Remember God blesses us most not in worldly recognition but in heavenly redemption. It’s his service to us that matters, not our service to him. And so God today expresses his love for both sinners. All sinners. Us. As our worship theme states, God give us grace instead of condemnation. This is the Father of love we worship. The Father who welcomes sinners just like us. Praise him for every blessing. Amen.