3^rd Sunday after Trinity – June 16^th, 2024

Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas

Rev. Joshua Woelmer

Text: Luke 15:11–32

“The Fatherhood of God”

Theme: The Father shows his mercy to his sons by welcoming them to his feast.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.        

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is misnamed. It’s not about the younger son—or at least only about the younger son. The other half of this parable is about an older son who is equally sinful in his rejection of the father’s invitation to come to the feast. Nonetheless, this parable is primarily about the merciful father. And, of course, this father stands for God himself.

Before we get further into this parable, though, the first thing that I want to mention is that many of Jesus’ parables do not work according to human reason. There is something plainly wrong in how the main character for God works. No human would ever act in such a manner—but God does.

No farmer would ever sow seed onto rocky ground or into thornbushes. No vineyard owner would ever send his own son to confront treasonous hirelings. No master of a great feast would open up his doors to the poor, cripples, lame, and strangers from the highways and byways. But God does. God does not work according to human reason. We need to notice that and appreciate that.

The thing is, this parable does not initially give us an extraordinary circumstance. In fact, it’s not uncommon even today for a young man to disdain his parents. We can all think of various instances where this is the case. A Christian father can try to raise his children rightly, according to God’s law, but parents cannot control how their child will react. Sometimes even the best parents have rebellious children. The fault lies on the child for not heeding his parents’ discipline.

So this is how our parable begins. A younger son wants his share of the inheritance. Basically, he’s telling his father that he wants him dead. He doesn’t want to work for himself. He can’t even wait until his father has died to get his stuff. He wants it now.

Now, at this point, Jesus’ hearers would have been expecting something bad to happen. Deuteronomy 21 allowed the parents of rebellious sons to take them before the elders of the city for judgment and stoning. But this often wasn’t the case, even in the OT. Why? Because the oldest son was expected to intercede for the younger son. He was expected to be the mediator. He should have gone to his younger brother and shaken him up a bit. He should have gone to the father then and pleaded for his brother’s life, saying that he was young and impetuous and didn’t mean what he said.

But he doesn’t. The older brother sits back like Adam watching Eve talk with the snake. I wonder what will happen. Maybe, if he is stoned, I get the full inheritance instead of just a portion of it.

And then, the father does the unimaginable. He divides his property between his sons. No father has ever been so generous. No father has ever given his children so much. Even though he knows that his younger son will likely squander his wealth, he still does it.

Now, remember that some things do not change. In farming communities then and now, wealth is often tied up in the land rather than in money. Can you imagine a younger son running to his father’s neighboring farmers trying to sell the family land that he had been given? His father had hoped that he would till it and plant it and harvest it. But he sells it for a bargain. He wants cash.

Then he squanders it in reckless living.

Before we go on with the story though, we should recognize that while we may not have gone to the depths of depravity that this younger son went to, nonetheless we too have been given so much by our heavenly Father. And yet we all know times when we have squandered those blessings. Perhaps at times we have run away from God in anger or shame.

Nonetheless, this younger son comes to his senses while he is in a pigsty, doing the most detestable job for anyone, let alone a Jew. A famine hits, and he beings to come to his senses.

What does he say? This is key. He has three things that he wants to say to his father: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (18–19). The first two are unbelievable words of repentance. They are what we day before every Divine Service. They lay everything out and don’t claim anything for oneself.

But the last one is just terrible. He wants to be a servant. He wants to live under the law of his father as atonement for his sin. He wants to work off his sin. Even as the law is convicting him of his sin, he still wants to do the law to get from out of it. This is our natural condition. When we’ve done something wrong, we want to make it up. We want to do something to make amends. This might be good advice if you’ve broken someone else’s equipment or hit a ball through a neighbor’s window, but it’s terrible advice before God.

God does not want this. He does not want your works for himself. He wants his child back. And so, as the younger son is making his way back, his father recognizes him from a distance and runs towards him. He runs! When’s the last time you saw an elderly man run? Truly sprint? It was disgraceful for an older man to run in Jesus’ day, but this father does so. He wants to welcome his son before anyone else in the town has the opportunity to chase him away.

And then, the son gets his chance to confess. You can tell that he’s been practicing. It’s almost like he’s been repeating these three things to himself over and over again. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (18–19).

But what happens? He stops before the last one. He doesn’t ask to be his father’s servant. Why? Because the Father has interrupted him. He doesn’t want to hear his son ask to do anything. The apology is enough. His father has a son back and is ready to celebrate. Everything that follows is full of meaning. A robe of righteousness is put on this son, who had been covered with pig manure. A ring is put on the fingers that fed hogs. Shoes on the feet that went where no Jew would ever go.

The fattened calf is killed, and there is a feast. His son is alive.

Dearly beloved, because of what Jesus did by His death and resurrection, you are received back to your heavenly Father unconditionally and purely by grace and not by works. In your baptism, God put the robe of Christ’s righteousness upon you. You were once dead in trespasses and in sin, but God made you alive in Christ Jesus. You were lost in sin, but your Good Shepherd found you and brought you back to His fold.

You have returned home—here in God’s house. Here you experience a merciful and forgiving Father, who is slow to anger and abounding in love. Here He welcomes you back into His arms, not as a slave, but as His own child. Here you confess your sins and you receive absolution, that is, the forgiveness of sins. Your life is now changed. You live according to God’s Word with all joy.

But back in the story, while one son is alive, the other son, though, is not. Spiritually, at least. This parable is about the father’s TWO lost sons. The older son cannot stand what his father is doing. He had succeeded in casting out his younger son, but now his father has welcomed him back. He says, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends” (29). This is fascinating. He too is consumed by the law. He sees all of his work as obligations to earn something from his father.

One thing that really touched me was this phrase by the Father: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (31). First, this older son doesn’t recognize that everything has been his the whole time! The property had already been divided between them, and he received his inheritance. But something that’s even greater than any inheritance is being with your Father—farming, working, and doing everything together. He too despised that.

Jesus speaks this against the Pharisees. While he was eating with tax collectors and sinners and bringing them to repentance, the Pharisees rejected him for doing so. Nonetheless, just as the father reached out to his older son with care and concern, Jesus was doing the same for the Pharisees. Again, we see from the father no judgment, no criticism, and no rejection, but only an outpouring of love.

This is where our parable ends, interestingly enough. There is an open question for those whose hearts are closed to God’s mercy. Will they, like the younger brother, come to their senses and repent and join the feast? Or will they reject God’s mercy and stay outside in the darkness?

And so, I’m not sure this parable should be named after the prodigal son. After all, he is the one who repents and whose prodigality is forgiven. Nor should this parable be named after the obstinate son. This parable should be named after the father who is loving and merciful beyond all reason.

On this day we give thanks for earthly fathers. They protect the family. They provide for the welfare and needs of the family. They support, love, and care for the family. They reflect the Fatherhood of God as they interact with their children. May God bless all earthly fathers.

Earthly fathers are not perfect. But you have a Father in heaven who is perfect. He loves you and cares for you. He gives you your daily bread. He protects you from the devil and He has opened heaven for you on account of His Son.

Let us rejoice that we were once dead, but are now alive in Christ Jesus; that we were once lost, but are now brought into God’s fold. Let us pray that God’s Word may bear fruit in our own lives and that it may also bear fruit in the lives of those who do not yet know Him. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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