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Food for Thought: Not Like I Expected

March 18 , 2007

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Luke 15:20-24

Do you like surprises?  For me, I guess it all depends on the surprise.  Do I like to be caught off guard with a crisis or problem?  I don’t know who does.  I guess I really like surprises that have happy endings.  Now that is probably something we can all agree on.  I think the biggest and best surprises I have ever experienced have been at the hands of this very church.  The first one was my 40th birthday.  I thought it was going to be a fun night at the church since an event was already planned and low and behold, it was a surprise 40th birthday party for little old me.  And people who attended were from my two previous churches, friends from college, family, it was a scream.  It literally took my breath away, as I was speechless.  And then there was the time, a year-and-a-half ago when you surprised me with a new college ring, as I lost the original one earlier that summer playing volleyball with Ashley in our side yard. 

And there was also a wonderful love purse that accompanied the new ring.  Again, I was totally taken off guard and flabbergasted.   Have you ever been totally surprised that it found you speechless? 

Today in our passage we find the younger son being totally surprised, totally blown away at the response of his father.  But there are other facts that play into this reunion.  Things take place that are totally radical, radically unorthodox from every perspective. 

Let me just recap the story if you haven’t been with us these past several weeks.  A younger son asks his father for his inheritance- in other words, the son, through this request is basically saying, “Drop dead dad.”  The father does the unthinkable and gives the son his inheritance.  The son goes to a distant country and squanders his inheritance.  There is a famine in that land.  He attaches himself to one of the citizens, maybe even being a nuisance and the citizen sends him off to the fields to feed that which was unclean for any Jew, the pigs. 

He comes to his senses and decides even his father’s hired hands have it better than he, and so he decides to go home and ask his father to let him start over at the bottom as a hired hand.  He is still a far way away from his home when his father sees him and does the unthinkable.  So he goes home expecting the worse but it doesn’t play out that way in the script.  The results make this younger son speechless and surprised beyond all measure. 

Let’s first talk about what should have happened between the father and son?  First, the father should make the son sweat it out.  What I mean is the father should allow the son to experience the disgrace that would come at the hands of the villagers.  So he should let him suffer the consequences and the disdain from the villagers and then let him sit outside the gate of his home and wait and wait and wait.  The doorman would answer the door and the father would let him wait. And then when he would be summoned he would receive his due punishment and the honor of the father would be preserved in the eyes of the villagers because of the discipline the father would inflict.  The son would have to apologize for everything. 

But this isn’t the way the script goes.  Let’s talk about the reaction of the father.  What does the father do? He does the unthinkable.  Verse 20 says, “But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arm around him and kissed him.”  The Greek word for run basically means, “he raced.”  Now we need to understand that this father did an undignified act by racing after his son.  No villager over the age of 30 ever runs.  And to do so mean that he would have to pull up his robe and if he did his underwear and legs would show.  And do you remember what I shared last week of my time in Egypt and the day in Alexandria I went running in my running shorts and the children threw stones at me because I was exposing my legs?  Well instead of the children of the streets taunting and going after his wayward son they would have been distracted by the actions of the father and would come to watch this old man shame himself in public.  The loving father takes upon himself what was due for his wayward son who is making his way home- the father took upon himself the son’s embarrassment and disgrace.

In this wonderful part of the parable we see a glimpse of what the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord must be like. The father, well, he represents God.  And when the father sees his son and leaves his home and runs after his son that father takes upon himself a humiliating role and he, in essence, becomes a symbol of God Incarnate.  Does he wait for the prodigal to come to him?  NO. He races to the one who is dead and lost. Let me take a theological jump to a verse from II Corinthians 5:19 that says something about God in Christ Jesus.  It says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”  The father, taking on this humiliating role was reconciling the prodigal to himself.”  And so when you think about God in Jesus Christ leaving His heavenly home and came to earth and exposed Himself to the world, just like the father exposed himself to the villagers in the street that day.  There is a hint, is there not of the meaning of the cross that Christ died on for my sins and for yours. 

The loving father is all about restoring his son not only to the family but the community, the village.  It is interesting to note that the Greek word for “compassion” has as its root the Greek word “innards.”  The Greeks and the Hebrews thought that the seat of emotions was in the person’s stomach.  The Greeks thought the abdomen was the seat of violent passions of anger and lust while the Hebrews saw it as the center of tender affections.  So that today in a Middle Eastern village when a person hears a moving story about suffering they will say, “You are cutting up my intestines.”  So, in our parable, the father, seeing his son in a distance, his intestines were all cut up in compassion for him.”  And so he races to him. 

Have any of you ever spent any time in the Middle East?  I know Dick McCord has, for a summer.  Well, over there it is not uncommon to see men who are friends holding hands or even kiss.  The father races to his son, puts his arms around him and kisses him.  The word in the Greek “kissed” can be translated to either “kiss again and again” or to “kiss tenderly.”  I believe here it means to kiss again and again as an expression of deep compassion and manly love. 

Can you imagine what must have been going through the mind of that son and he sees his father come running.  If it had been me upon coming face-to-face with the dad I would have covered up in case he started beating me.  But this father has been suffering ever since the son left.  And so when the father goes after his son to greet him his suffering is brought to a climax. 

Now let me jump to the cross and to Christ.  When you think of what happened at Calvary how Jesus suffered and died, what kind of suffering occurred there that day?  First, there was the physical torture but even more than that was the agony of rejected love. The prophet Isaiah said this about the Messiah in Isaiah 53:3, “he was despised and rejected by others.”  The father in our parable had to bear the agony of rejected love the day his son walked out of his life.  And, sure enough, the father could have disowned his son, even though that would have been painful.  But he could have moved on and forgot he ever had a son.  But the son would have never had a chance to return.  And so the father suffered and suffered and suffered.  I mean, what other options did the father have?  Either seek revenge or through suffering forgive?  What would we have done if we had been the father?

Let me ask you, do you think the younger son was ever affected by the suffering of the father?  I’m not sure he was even aware of what the father was going through.  I mean, what child, young person, even adult would understand.  Only the person going through the experience knows.  A few Monday nights ago there was a group of us meeting to discuss loss and we shared that when a person experiences the death of a friend, relative, whomever, for us to say we know what they are going through is not true.  Only the person in the midst of the loss knows what they are feeling.

I would suggest to you that it is only in the act of the father running to the son, the father embarrassing himself in front of the villagers and the putting of his arms around his son and the kiss, does the son visibly begin to witness the suffering the father has endured.  Without this action on the part of the father the only hope for this son was to return to his father’s house as a servant.

Notice the son’s first words to his father and the father’s immediate response.  The son, after the affectionate greeting says, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am not worthy to be called your son.”  The son is not even given the opportunity to tell his father he would be a hired servant.  He wasn’t given the chance to finish his speech, or was he finished?  Maybe the son was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of the father’s love that the light bulb came on and he came to grips with his sin- not the sin of loosing the money but rather the sin of wounding his father’s heart.  It wasn’t about the money but the heart.

And so the father’s longsuffering, and the father’s demonstration of his love break through that day and the son is restored with his father.  The relationship is mended and the father pulls out all the stops and has the slaves put on his father’s best robe and a ring and sandals.  He is being restored visibly, physically, spiritually.  And because of the father’s actions the villagers and elders will accept him back if only out of loyalty to the father.   But we will find out that there is still one who will not accept him- the older brother, the righteous brother, the heir apparent.

Think about this- God, in His wonderful mercy restores the broken person.  That person is accepted by others, except by, let’s just say, the righteous people, the religious people.  Do you know anyone who has ever drifted away and when they came back had a difficult time being accepted by certain people? 

When the person says they have turned their life around, knowledge of their past makes you a little timid to believe: 1) their sincerity and 2) will it last.  The Pharisees of the day complained that Jesus welcomed sinners and had the audacity to eat with them.  Never once does Jesus apologize for his actions or offer patronizing words like, “Well, it’s our religious duty as good Jews,” or “they are the down-and-outers of our society, you know.”  No, Jesus issues the religious leaders a challenge.  Jesus, not only welcomes them; He accepts them; He not only sits at table with them; He kills the fatted calf for them!

This is the great day of reconciliation for the father and his son.  His son who was once dead is alive again; his son who was once lost is found!  Do you know a prodigal?  Were you ever a prodigal?  God shines through the prodigal’s father, as His love knows no boundaries, His forgiveness knows no depth. 

Whom do we know who we need to be reconciled to?  Whom do we know who needs to know of the unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord?  The price has already been paid for us at Calvary.  We don’t have to do anything; we don’t have to jump through any hoops.  All we need to do is believe.  We just need to come home to Christ.

I want to close with a true story about a Christian singer who fell from grace and was a prodigal who came home.  His name, and maybe you have heard of him, his name is Michael English.  The night that Michael won his sixth Gospel Music Association Dove Awards should have been the greatest night of his career.  But as he stood on the stage of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium making his acceptance speeches, he knew he was hiding a secret that would soon bring his career- indeed, his whole life-crashing down around him.  Just days before, he learned that a woman with whom he had been having a sexual affair- a fellow Christian music artist- was pregnant.  That awards night, as he put it, “felt like a walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  The day after the awards show, English told his wife about the affair and the baby.  Within a few days, the rest of the world knew.  Reporters swarmed the mansion that would soon no longer be his home.  His record company dropped him.  Soon thereafter his marriage fell apart.  Broken, awash in self-pity, felling rejected by the Christian community, he sought solace in prescription drugs and a much-publicized lifestyle of prodigality.  He spiraled into major drug addiction and serious trouble with the law.  In his book The Prodigal Comes Home he tells his story.  He is honest and his lack of self-pity is a testimony to how far he has come.  He shares a very vivid account of what it is like to be in the clutches of serious addiction.  But he also gives an unforgettable account of grace- of a God who “refused to let a man destroy himself.”  Rock bottom turns out to be a good foundation on which to build.  He is now on the road again, playing churches, not huge auditoriums, telling a story of broken- ness and the mercy of God.  Dying to self and rising again to life.  It is possible when we turn to Him.  Who do you know who is lost that you can reach out to with the love of Christ?  Amen. 

Key Points

Introduction: Do you like surprises?

A recap of the story of the Lost Son

What should have happened between the father and son?

          First, the father should make the son ________ it out

          The reaction of the father                     vs. 20

                The Greek word for run means “he ______”

                The father took upon himself the son’s ____________ and

                ____________

                        The father becomes a symbol of God ___________

                                                                                      II Corinth. 5:19

                        The Greek word for “compassion” has as its root

                        the Greek word ___________

The cross and Christ- there was physical torture but even more was the agony of rejected love; the father suffered rejected love   Isa. 53:3

Only in the act of the father running to the son… does the son visibly begin to witness the suffering the father has endured

        It wasn’t about the money but the _________

Accepting people back

This is a great day of _________ for the father and son

Conclusion: Who do you know who is lost that you can reach out to with the love of Christ?

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)