Sunday, July 10, 2016
In last week’s sermon, we focused on
the Biblical commands “weep with those
who weep” and “do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” These
brilliant words come from the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12. It’s a message we Christ followers needed the
Sunday after a week of tragic shootings in the United States.
Of course there is no relief to the
violence. Evil keeps finding new ways to
break the human spirit as the tragedy in Nice, France on Thursday showed. In the wake of such horror, some preachers
are given to sermons of doom and gloom and judgment and wrath. And somehow, these are the preachers CNN
always tracks down as examples of what Christians think.
We do not offer doom and gloom this
morning. However, we cannot ignore that
the Bible does speak of God’s wrath. In
fact this comes up in the passage from last week, Romans 12:19. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but
leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” That
verse certainly portrays a God with serious wrath in Him.
Is that the God
we worship and love and proclaim? Is
wrath a defining characteristic of God?
I think Jesus told parables to show us God’s character. In the swirl of hate, anger, rhetoric, and
reaction happening in the world now, in the face of the violence of this summer,
I believe that because of God’s character, we can take refuge in the Holy
Spirit. So, we will look at one of
Jesus’ parables – the Prodigal Son – to see God’s character, the quality of God
that makes God so inviting to people in pain.
11 Then Jesus[a] said, “There was a man who had
two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share
of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between
them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled
to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he
had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and
he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that
country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would
gladly have filled himself with[b] the pods that the pigs were
eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when
he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread
enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will
get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of
your hired hands.”’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far
off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms
around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[c] 22 But the
father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it
on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get
the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this
son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they
began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and
approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called
one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He
replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf,
because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he
became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with
him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘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!’ 31 Then the
father[d] said to him, ‘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.’”
On the cross, God puts Jesus forward as a
sacrifice of atonement. The cross is a
brutal instrument of a torturous death designed to show Rome’s absolute
power. Based on the passage from Romans
and many other passages, we believe God subverts that Roman torture device by
willingly sending his son to die on it in our place. In this act, our sin is removed and God is
satisfied. This is salvation.
However, as Jesus bleeds out on the cross, has
justice been served? Why was it
necessary to happen that way? I know
Romans mentions God’s wrath, but why? Is
God violent by nature, and is that why a cruel, bloody death like crucifixion
was necessary for atonement? Is there
any justice on that cross where Jesus suffers and dies for sins he did not
commit?
Someone who did commit sins was the
younger son in Jesus’ story of a man with two sons. In requesting his inheritance, he declared
his father dead to him. It was a lot of
money for his father was wealthy enough to have a lot of land and many
servants. This son who turned his back
on his dad and his family, took the money his father had earned through hard
work and then generously given him in spite of the outrageous audacity of the
request, and he squandered that money through gambling and drinking and wild
parties.
Than a famine came. No more gambling. No more parties. Friends made when we buy the drinks disappear
when we run out of money. During a
famine, neighbors might help each other, but he had no neighbors and no friends
and no money. So he hired himself out to
a pig farmer, an unthinkable job for a good Jewish man. But was it really a job? He did not make enough money to feed
himself. He would have, it says, gladly filled himself with the pods the
pigs ate. It sounds like he had become a
slave.
That’s where sin leads. It’s nasty.
It’s desperate. It’s lonely. It’s pathetic. And it is deadly. He was where he was because of his own
choices. Could he call God a bloodthirsty sadist who delights in the way his
wrath obliterates sinners? Is there
something in God that demanded the awfulness of the cross and was thus
satisfied to see Jesus hang on it?
In this parable, the father represents
God. Was it the Father’s fault that the
younger son was starving as he lived as a slave in a pig pen and literally
dreamt of eating pig slop? Did the
father condemn him to that fate? Not at
all. The Father gave the son what he
requested – his share of the inheritance.
He let the son go. And then,
every day, he watched the horizon, hoping the son would return.
That’s God!
He watches for us. We’ve wandered
off, chasing our epicurean appetites. He allows us to choose that. God allows us to live with the destruction
that comes with our sins. But, just
because God allows our sin to come to its natural conclusion doesn’t mean God
has abandoned us. He is watching,
waiting, ready to welcome us with arms of love when we turn back to Him. God sounds merciful.
Earlier in this same chapter, Luke 15, Jesus describes
God as a shepherd who leaves the flock in safety and ventures into the dangers
of the wilderness in order to find one lost sheep. In the Prodigal Son story, God allows the
sinner to suffer the fate of his own bad choices but constantly watches for the
sinner to return. In the lost sheep
story, God diligently searches for the lost.
When Jesus thought of God he thought of love,
mercy, and grace. He didn’t think of
wrath. Jesus knew the cross was
coming. He knew his task was to
die. He knew how horrible it would
be. That’s why in the Garden of Gethsemane
he desperately begged God to find another way.
God did not grant that request. But
Jesus never imagined that God put him on the cross. He never presented the drama as God’s active
punishment. As it says in the Old
Testament, God gave humanity over to sin.
When Jesus is hanging on the cross, it is the
ultimate and final judgment on sin. Sin
leads to a cross where God allows us to live with the results of our sinful
choices: pain, abandonment, and death.
Except, on the cross, we
aren’t living with where our sin leads, God is.
On the cross, God the Father does not punish
God the Son in place of sinners who should be the ones hanging there. Rather, God the Son affirms that sin leads to
death. But, even though justice is to
let us suffer for our sins, God the Son takes our place. In His love, God the Son determines to spare
us by the taking the cross himself. God
the Father honors God the Son’s choice.
What about that Gethsemane prayer where Jesus
begs for another way? Jesus was fully
God and fully human. As a human being,
knowing what was coming, Jesus was scared.
Even though he knew the necessity of it, in his fear, he sought an
alternative. Luke write that his prayer
was so intense he sweat drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Mark writes that as he died on the cross, “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34)? In these moments of doubt and despair, Jesus,
a human being, carries the Hell of being separated from God and lost in sin
that belongs to all people in history.
It all rests on Jesus and even as God the Son goes through it all
willingly as an act of love, Jesus the man expresses the utter desolation
humans face when headed to eternity separated from God.
If we go by our sense of what’s right and
what’s fair, this is unjust. Jesus
should not suffer for me or for you. The
younger brother who has gambled away the grace his father gave should not be
lovingly welcomed home. That’s not fair
and the older brother expresses this quite forcefully as he confronts his
father.
“Listen,” the older brother barks at the
father, “for all these years, I have been working like a slave for you.” Working
like a slave. The father tells him
“All that is mine is yours.” From the
Father’s perspective, God’s perspective, this older son shares the life of the
Father. Their hearts are linked. The Older Son cannot see this because his
ultimate standard is the rule book. In
his mind, the rules determine his life.
The ultimate standard should be the relationship he has with his
father. But he’s gotten it confused.
In the Prodigal Son story, the Older Brother
represents those Pharisees and legalists who constantly clashed with
Jesus. The Law of the Old Testament was
a gift God gave to help people live in relationship with God. The relationship is what is ultimate and God
is the arbiter. If God decides to
override the law, God has the right do that.
When Jesus violated the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath, he was claiming
the right to do so, a right only God has.
When Jesus forgave sins, he was claiming the authority to do so, an
authority only God has. In these
actions, Jesus announced, I can do what only God can do.[i]
The legalists who challenged him felt that
God, like human beings, is subject to the law.
They lost sight the fact that because God is the giver of the law, God
can supersede the law. They thought the
law was ultimate. God is ultimate and
God’s heart of love leads God to one purpose – relationship with his
creation. We – humans – are the height
of God’s creation and the ones most suited to a lasting relationship with
God. The law is to serve God’s purpose. The law is to help us live in relationship
with God. When it fails to do that, God
will do what’s necessary to open the way for us to be in relationship with Him.
The Older Brother, locked in legalism,
couldn’t receive the love. The Older
Brother couldn’t see the Father’s ultimate purpose either for himself or for
his younger, prodigal brother. The Older
Brother was as far from the Father’s heart as the younger one. His estrangement came in a different form but
the union with the Father was just as broken.
In the end, we can look at the cross and say,
“Justice is served,” because God chose it to be this way and God is the source
of justice. Jesus is on it in order to
unite with us in our suffering. Jesus
embraces it so He can be where we are.
By our standards, the cross of Jesus is not just, is not fair. But we don’t go by our standards, not when we
have chosen to repent of sin and follow Jesus.
Look once more at the parable. The younger son tries to set his own
identity. “Father, I am no longer worthy
to be called your son.” But we don’t set
our identity. God sets our
identity. God runs to the younger son,
tackles him in an embrace, puts a ring on his finger, a robe on his shoulders,
and throws a party.
The older son tries to set his own
identity. “All these years, I have been
working like a slave for you.” A
slave? No, we don’t set our own
identity, not when we give ourselves to Jesus.
He sets our identity. A
slave? The Father said to him, “Son, you
are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”
God is welcoming and loving and grace-giving
by nature. What comes between you and
God? What lies are you believing about yourself this morning? Do you see yourself as unworthy? The Father God is running to you with arms
open wide. Do you see yourself as a
slave to rules? The Father God invites
you to His heart. Are you crushed under
the weight of sin? God the Son joins you
right where you are. In fact, he has
taken your burden to the cross. He has
lifted it off your shoulders. Receive
his gift of grace, his forgiveness, his love, his welcome. Is it too hard to imagine this could be
true? God the Holy Spirit is here now to
help each us understand this story of Him reaching to us. The Holy Spirit is here to guide us into the
arms of God.
However you see yourself, right now, come to
God. Let God determine who you are. He starts by calling you beloved. Come to Him.
AMEN
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