Light Service Sermons for the Month

Overcoming Barriers to Relationships
Gaining freedom from Conformity
DATE:March 5, 2000
TEXT: Luke 15:11-31

DRAMA: The Other Prodigal Son

(Begin the skit but stop it before the optional ending)

The parable of the prodigal son is probably one of the best loved stories of Jesus in the Bible. It illustrates better than any of his other stories God's loving relationship to us.

The setting of this story is important. Jesus telling this story in the presence of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Luke 15: 1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." In other words, Jesus was talking to the most revered and religious people of the day. He tells them this story.

There is this young whipper-snapper who has a hankering to see the world. He asks his father for his inheritance and miraculously, generously, even before he is dead, dad gives it to him. The boy takes off, and, you guessed it, squanders the money in Vegas on gambling and loose company. Out of work and no money, he has no choice but to take a job slopping the pigs, a job no Jew with an ounce of self-respect would ever consider.

After a while realizing that he can no longer tolerate the smell--about the only strong suit this boy has--he heads home, his tail between his legs. When he confronts his dad, he asks his father to take him in which he does, even throwing him a party.

But the story does not end there. His older brother is fit to be tied. He is angry with his father for 1) his kindness to his brother, and 2) his jealousy that his dad had never thrown a party for him or his friends. The father responds, "Son you have always been with me and have enjoyed all these blessings. But son who was lost has been returned to us. Rejoice and be glad."

We have three principal characters in this story: The younger and older sons and the Father. And it is not difficult to figure out who represents whom.

The Younger Son represents the sinners and the tax collectors i.e. the outcasts of Jewish society. This group, this boy is not the smartest in the world. After all they have squandered their inheritance; they have left the fold; and they have lost their self-respect since they were willing to sink to the lowest job imaginable for a Jew. Nor do they have enough huzpah to get themselves back on their feet. Instead, the boy, at least finds his conscience only out of desperation, penitence only as a final option, and going home only when it was personally expedient for him to do so.

The Father--who is God--is amazing. First, He gives up half of his bequest even before he is dead. Now maybe he ought to share some of the blame for his son's stupidity, giving him that kind of cash with no strings attached? Maybe he should have withheld it until the boy had proved himself worthy? And why didn't he read the riot act to his boy before throwing him a party? Maybe it would have been better if he had treated the boy just like one of his hired servants like his son expected before welcoming him back. Would have served him right?

INSTEAD."Best robe! Gold ring; new shoes; kill the fatted calf. Celebrate.

Now put yourself in the place of the outcasts, the ne'er do wells who were in that audience listening to Jesus. This was good news. Jesus wanted them back in the fold, was willing to forgive them, to welcome them home. Notice Jesus did not exonerate them from their sins and stupidity. It is also obvious that he expects a change in their life.

But can't you just hear what those Pharisees were thinking at this point in the story? "Celebrate! Celebrate what!? The moral decline of these modern times? These young kids with their wild ideas and disregard of the family. Celebrate the diluted, compromising and seductive teachings of this rogue teacher named Jesus? And what about his old man's flagrant rejection of his older son's plea to stop the party? He was the responsible child. He was the "heir apparent," the "lieutenant adult" within the family. Obviously he was the only one who had the ability to prosecute all injustice; to prosecute especially irresponsibility.

(MY ADVICE TO YOU: Do not go to court facing the responsible child as your adversary. They will slice and dice you. And do it in the name of right, patriotism, justice, the constitution or whatever their cause.)

The older son was at work in the field (where you would expect to find him). His was a life conformed to responsibility and duty. He was the good son, the righteous son, the responsible son.

When he hears the music, the dancing, the laughter. When he learns the reason why, he is outraged. And he was offended! All this partying because of that worthless younger brother of his! He was the good son, the righteous son, the responsible son.

ANGRY!!! That boy was angry.

And he was justified. Hadn't he lived according to the rules and others' expectations. "Cause and effect; right and wrong; you get what you deserve. These were the elder son's creeds, his wisdom, giving him a sense of superiority and deserving when compared to his foolhardy, carefree younger brother. That was the way of the world. Those were the rules.

For this responsible child, the world is a grim, unfriendly, and severe place. A place where you have to understand the rules and live them if you ever hope to eke out a life! Work hard. Do the right thing. And you will get ahead. Luck and circumstances have nothing to do with it. If you are poor, its because you choose to be poor. If you are rich, it is because God loves you more.

IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD: this boy had been harboring anger toward his father for a good long time. Only now it was out in the open. His younger brother's return was a terrible affront to the elder son; but it was father's unconditional forgiveness that brought his anger to the surface.

"Dad does not recognize who I am, all that I do. I alone in the family devote my energies to meeting his expectations. Only I have consistently lived in a way to earn his approval. I've been the one keeping the family farm going; heaven knows what would have happened had my brother been in control."

This is why the Older Son refused to go in and join the party. "Why join a family that doesn't appreciate all I have done."

His father hears about it and true to his nature goes looking for his older son. "Come inside; join the family at this celebration."

But the boy replies, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!'

Once again put yourself in the position of those Pharisees and lawyers to whom Jesus is talking. I bet there was a fair amount of self-justification going on there as he told them this story. But I also have the feeling they were preparing for the other shoe to drop, for Jesus to read them the riot act for refusing to welcome back the sinners among them.

Instead, the father says, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

The group of whom Jesus was most concerned was the loyal, God-fearing, tending-to-be-judgmental church-goers in the crowd. In other words, us. Instead of calling us ingrates, hypocrites, Jesus tells us, his responsible children, to lighten up! Be not conformed to either this secular world with it destructive ways or to a set of rules designed to keep others distant from God, rules that God enforced them completely ironically would keep us away from him as well.

The Moral of the Story: The Prodigal Son can be reconciled; but can the responsible child be saved?

The answer for both is the same. Their salvation depends on both refusing to be conformed to this world but rather being liberated through the gift of our savior Jesus Christ.

AMEN