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Food for Thought: Remove the Jelly From Your Face

March 25 , 2007

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Luke 15:25-32

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other's business.  If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival.  One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, "I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich?  You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy.  Do you wish to live a long and healthy life?  You can, but his life will be longer and healthier.  What is your desire?"  The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!"  One sign of jealousy is when it's easier to show sympathy and "weep with those who weep" than it is to exhibit joy and "rejoice with those who rejoice.”  Thomas Lindberg

This morning we conclude the Parable of the Lost or Prodigal Son-and by the way, this has been called the greatest short story in the world.  The return of the younger brother brought with it a mixed bag of emotions.  You have a son returning because he is starving to death and what is primary in his mind is his belly not the relationship with his father.  You have a father who lovingly welcomes his returning son and is willing to pay the price of shame by running to meet the son and spare him from walking the gauntlet to his home. You have villagers who would like to take off the head of the returning son because they are angry at what he has done to his father and to them.  And you have an older brother who is so jealous with jelly on his face it just oozes.  So let’s look at the ending of our parable.

First, there is a party going on.  Have you ever been to a party that you know that there are some uninvited guests?  They have somehow “crashed” the party and there is tension in the air? 

Well, in our parable there is a party going on and there is a familiar face who some time before thumbed his nose at his father, his family and the community.  Verse 25 says, “Now the elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.”   What there probably was is a band of singers and dancers and in the village it would have been the men.  And so there is this great crowd that has gathered, maybe a little dumbfounded that the father has been so welcoming and loving to this son who asked for and was granted his share of the inheritance and he goes to a far country and he blows his wad and now, because he is hungry and can’t make it, returns home.  There is laughing and clapping and women breaking out in a Middle Eastern shrilly “joy cry” that sounds something like… and everyone is having a good, old time. 

So big brother has been out in the field and as he approaches the house there is a gang of young boys outside the house, the same youth who would have made life miserable for his younger brother had not the father run to meet him and welcome him home.   Big brother asks what’s up and the young boy tells him “little brother is back”, and not only that, verse 27 says, “your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.”  And how does big brother respond?  Is he glad little brother has found his way, is he glad he is back in one piece, is he glad his little brother has seen the light and come home?  Verse 28 says, “Then he became angry and refused to go in.”  And the father, who is inside the house celebrating and rejoicing gets wind of the older son’s refusal to come in and welcome his brother home, verse 28 says, His father came out and began to plead with him.” 

Let’s talk about the older brother.  He is ticked off.  What is in that house is legally his.  Yes, the father still maintains authority, but the property is his.  He has possession and when Daddy dies he gets the right of disposition.  So the calf that has been butchered is his. 

OK Dad, you could have at least asked me if it was all right to butcher the calf. 

But let me tell you something else about the customs in the Middle East that I was unaware of- at banquets it is the father who entertains the guests by sitting with them.  It is the older son who is expected to runaround and serve all the guests throughout the meal as, well, the “head waiter.”  The only difference between the older son and the other servants is that he can enter into the conversations with the guests.  The older son knows what is expected but look who is the honored guest.  No way was he going to serve this scoundrel of a brother who turned his back on his family and friends, took all his money and wasted it, and now comes home and a party is given in his honor.  No way is he going to have any part of this party. 

Now let’s try something- put yourself in the shoes of the older brother.  Wouldn’t you be ticked that Dad has welcomed him back after all he said and did, and there isn’t even a penalty? 

He has disgraced the family’s name in the village; he has humiliated them all.  If Dad wants to make a fool of himself in front of the community that is one thing, the older brother isn’t buying in to the new program.  By not going into the house the older son has made a huge statement.  The male members of a family must come and shake the hands of their guests even if they don’t hang around and visit.  To not greet your guests would be a personal insult to the guests and, and, he would be insulting his father publicly.  This older brother just can’t win- he is darned if he does and darned if he doesn’t. So now the talk of the party has shifted from the younger brother being welcomed home by this loving father to the older brother who refuses to come into the party.  The poor father- he had a rebellious son at the front of this parable and he has a rebellious son near the end of the parable- the father just can’t win, or can he?  So we have seen how Daddy handled the younger son, how is he going to handle number 1 son?  Will he be punished in front of the guests or will he get it when the party’s over- and “getting it” means a proper beating? 

Let’s talk about the Dad.  This Father is unbelievable.  Twice in one day he shows that he is willing to take on the shame, the humiliation, he is willing to empty himself for the sake of one thing.  What is it?  RECONCILIATION.  Verse 28 says the father “pleaded” with the older son.  He doesn’t go out to punish his son, to yell at him and say, “get your act together and get in there,” but the father pleaded, or as the Greek for “plead” means, appeal to, entreat or try to conciliate.  What the father does is calls his older son to “stand alongside” him, to invite the son to look at the world from his perspective.  This loving father has exemplified unconditional love and has paid the price not once but twice with each of his sons.  He did it with the prodigal son to reconcile himself to the son and he did it with the older son.  In both cases he could have, he had the right to beat both of his boys, but what would have been the end result other than alienation and estrangement.  The father could have turned his head as if nothing had happened and then lost face as a father and the next situation could have been worse.  So he goes to both of his sons.   Isn’t that the way the love of God is?  He comes to us in Jesus Christ, He meets us in Christ, right where we are and he offers reconciliation.  He offers us a new start, a new beginning.  Do any of us need a new start with God, to wipe the slate clean and start over, afresh with God?

Let’s return to the older brother.  The father is out in the courtyard pleading with the older son to come in and start anew.  And rest assured, there are people outside, watching everything that is going on, hearing everything that is said.  So the older son throws his loyalty to following the law and what is expected when he says in verse 29-30, “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. 

But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property [and I might add, mine] with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”  Do I detect some jelly on the face?  Let’s stop right here- how would I, how would you have responded to your father if you had been the older brother?  There would have been jelly dripping off of my face everywhere.  Where is justice?  Where is getting serious about sin and repentance?  And besides, there has to be a winner and there has to be a looser-we can’t both win, Dad.  And another thing, let me ask you- if you had been a next door neighbor, knowing what you know about the younger son would you have even attended the party?

Back to the winners and losers- our society seems to be set up that way- there is older son and younger son, there are Jews and Gentiles, sinners and saints, poor and rich.  But God’s love is a both/and and not an either/or.  Just because the younger son is received back and loved did not in any way show rejection to the older son.  And because there was love for tax collectors and sinners did not show rejection to the scribes and Pharisees.  That is the beauty of God’s love. 

Look at the father’s response.  Verses 31-32, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  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.” 

Let me ask this, in this parable whom do you identify with the most?  The father, the younger son, the older son?  Try this one on- we are the younger son, we are the older son, we are called to become the father who exhibits unconditional love.  There are parts in all of us like the younger son that needs converted, there are parts in all of us like the older son that needs converted.  There is a father in all of us that needs to be realized that can welcome the younger son and the older son who returns to us every day. 

How does this parable end up?  We are left hanging, are we not?  Did Jesus do this on purpose?  Well….  Let’s go back to who this parable is shared with- verse 2 tells us it was the Pharisees and scribes.  So Jesus is talking to the people, the religious people of the day who would be most responsible for his cross, that was yet to come.  Jesus is, in essence, giving them another chance to return to God, to put aside all the religious mumbo-jumbo and get right with God through Him.  These religious leaders could either embrace the love of God in Christ Jesus or reject His love and increase His suffering.  Maybe Jesus intended to leave the end of the story open-ended with an older brother with jelly on his face so that we wonder if the older son, in anger, began beating his father.  Isn’t the end of the story that dark Friday called Good Friday and the story ends with the cross? Who of us needs to come home?  Who do we know that is lost that we need to reach out to and invite them home? 

The good news is that the end of the story is an empty cross, an empty grave, a risen Savior who loves us and wants us all to come home.  Amen. 

Key Points

Introduction: Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals…

The ending or our parable

        First, there is a party going on               vs. 25

                 How does the older brother respond?

         Let’s talk about the older brother

                    Customs at a Middle Eastern banquet- the older son is

                Expected to serve as the _______ waiter

                 Put yourself in the older brother’s shoes

         Let’s talk about the dad

                   Twice in one day the father is willing to empty himself for

                the sake of one thing- _______________

         Let’s return to the older brother

                   Question- knowing what you know about the younger son

                would you have attended the party? 

          The father’s response                             vs. 31-32

        Whom do you identify with the most?

                We are the ________ son, we are the ______ son,

                   we are called to become the _______ who exhibits

                   unconditional love

How does the parable end up?

Conclusion: The good news is that the end of the story is an empty cross, an empty grave, a risen Savior who loves us and wants us to come home.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)