Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : June 19, 2005

Theme: Your Father Forgives You

Church year occasion: Pentecost 5

William Smart, a veteran of the Civil War, and his wife were the parents of five small children. His wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. So Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington State. Years later one of their daughters realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. So she petitioned local government to observe the first Father's Day, which was observed on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington. Soon in various towns and cities across America, other people were beginning to celebrate a "father's day." In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father's Day.

William Smart's daughter didn't realize how good of a father she had when she was growing up. It wasn't until later that she finally saw how loving and selfless her father really was. The same is true of the son in the words Jesus spoke in Luke 15, known as Jesus' parable of the "Lost Son." Really, it could better be titled, the "Forgiving Father," or, "Your Father Forgives You" because it shows how loving our heavenly Father is to us even when we go astray.

Before we look at the actions of the unloving younger son in Jesus' parable, we have to look at the condition of the home he was living in. And if we want to find a good reason for the son's actions -- like an overbearing and abusive father -- we won't find it. It was just the opposite. The younger of the sons had a godly and loving father. And if we want to find deplorable conditions that gave him a reason to leave, we wouldn't find that either. Since the father had hired men, he wasn't hurting for money. Basically, the son had it all -- but he wasn't content with having it all -- he wanted more, or something else.

The same thing could happen to Christians. We have it all, don't we? We have Jesus as our Savior; we have eternal life; we have comfort in forgiveness; we have angels watching over us and guarding us -- body and soul. And we also have a mountain of physical blessings.

But there remains a very real danger for you -- you might want something more. Something better. It's always greener on the other side of the fence -- and we actually tend to think that -- until we get to the other side, that is. The ancient Greeks knew how deadly such an obsession could be, so they added to their mythology the idea of beautiful women luring sailors to their island with their enchanting songs. They were called Sirens. The sailors were tempted to go closer, until their ships were dashed to pieces on the rocks that surrounded the island, and the sailors were killed. And so we see that a Christian is always in danger of leaving Christ for something "better" -- wealth, fame, creature comforts, and so on. We can listen to the Siren song of this world. Like a wandering sheep, we see a nice tuft of grass away from the flock, so we go to it. When we get it, we see another tuft of grass a little farther on, so we go for it. Soon we find ourselves far from the loving protection of the shepherd.

That's what happened to the son in the parable. The son wanted to leave. So he said to his father, "Give me my share of the estate." That request would have been a slap across the face of the father. He is saying, in effect, "Father, you are as good as dead to me. All I care about is your money. Once I have that from you, I don't need you." Imagine such a son! What he needs is a good scolding, maybe even a trip behind the woodshed, as my grandfather used to say. But we don't see that. Instead, the father lets him leave. We might think this is a lack of discipline. But it isn't. The father knows exactly what he's doing so the son will come back.

When we show such an attitude to God as this son did to his father, when we follow the lusts of our hearts and go after the things of this world instead of him, what is the reaction of our God? Does he send a blue lightning bolt from heaven to wake us up if we have wandered from his Word, or treated it like it was of no consequence in our lives, either by not hearing it regularly or not putting it into practice in our daily lives? It's never happened to me when I thought I had better things to do. We might find ourselves in a situation as a teenager just trying to fit in at school so we'll do almost anything to accomplish that. We might find ourselves at work trying to fit in with the guys so we join in with the coarse and disgusting joking. We might find ourselves wanting to hear a little more about what happened to so-and-so -- the juicier the better -- so we can tell someone else. When we find ourselves in those situations, does God activate the invisible fence on us -- you know, like a dog with an electric shock collar that goes off if they get close to wandering across the boundary of the yard? No. Answer this -- Does God or doesn't he force us to obey him? He doesn't. Often, God actually gives us the desires of our hearts even when they are ungodly and lead away from him. Why? God allows us to see first-hand how empty and meaningless life is without him. That's what happened to Solomon. He had everything -- the greatest wisdom this world has ever seen, loving promises from a loving God, and every thing this world had to offer. But the things of this world led him astray from God. It was only at the end of his life that he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in which he said that going after the things of this world -- wine, women, wealth, whatever -- was like chasing after the wind. It was meaningless if you had everything but not a proper relationship with God. Jesus said the same thing: "What does a man profit if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?" We need to see that a life without a proper relationship with God is empty and meaningless.

That's finally what the son in Jesus' parable realized. The son hit rock bottom -- even the pigs were better fed than he was! After he spent all his money a famine came. God was controlling the weather to bring a wandering sheep home. God allowed this into his life, and he allows unpleasant things into our lives, to lead us to repentance. The son took the only job available -- feeding pigs. That would have been the ultimate insult for a Jew because they were unclean animals. He would have been reminded every day that he was as low as he could get, and he had only himself to blame.

At that lowest point, there was only one of two possible reactions for the son -- either turn to his father for help and swallow his pride, or turn completely away from his father. The same is true of anyone in that hopeless situation -- one of two possible reactions to an empty and meaningless life -- either turn to God, or turn away from God. Some choose to turn away from God. Some turn to the bottle or something else to escape. Some even end up taking their own lives. Thankfully the son decides to swallow his pride and go home to his father. Notice what he was ready to say: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." He realized that his sin wasn't just against his father, as great as that was, but his greatest sin was against God himself. The Psalmist speaks the same way in Psalm 51:4: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." But he also says in Psalm 32:5: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD' -- and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

The son realized that he wasn't worthy to be called his father's son anymore. He would have been content with any degree of mercy from his father. When we acknowledge our sin, especially one that has been tearing us up inside for weeks, or months or even years, we know we don't deserve anything from God. But we have to be careful. The devil will use that to get us to despair. He'll try to convince us that our sin is too great for God to forgive, so we can't go to him.

But Jesus dispels that idea once and for all with the reaction of the father to the return of his humbled and repentant son. Listen to what happened: "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.' "

What love the father had for the son, even the whole time he was astray. He wanted nothing more than for the son to return and receive his forgiveness. And so we see also our heavenly Father's joy: that a sinner repents and finds forgiveness. That is exactly what we find in the wounds of Jesus. He loved us so much that he gave himself unto death to save us forever. Our heavenly Father wants nothing more than to have us covered by the blood of his Son. And all our sins have been covered, even before we repent of them. But that forgiveness is only applied to us when the Lord turns our hearts in repentance to him and then our sins are not held against us.

A harried father, trying to meet a work deadline, was forced to take his 5-year-old son to the office with him one Saturday. Eventually, the boy tired of all the toys and amusements they'd packed and started pestering his dad for something to do. The father grabbed a magazine that had a large fold-out map of the world, used scissors to cut it into pieces and spread the pieces on a table. "See if you can put all these pieces together, and when you get finished, it'll be time to go."

The boy settled down and started matching pieces and the father, thinking he had at least a half-hour before another meltdown, went back into his office.

A few minutes later, the boy was back. "I put all the pieces together," he announced.

Amazed, the father went to look and sure enough, there was the world, every continent in place. "How did you do that so quickly?" he asked his son, marveling.

"It was simple," the boy replied. "On the back of the world was a picture of a man. When I put the man together, the whole world fell into place!"

As fathers, we have a very difficult job. We are here to teach our children about this world, what to strive for, what to avoid. It's so easy for us to let our children find their own way by looking at what this world has to offer and let them put it all together on their own. But there is one way and one way only that we will be good fathers -- by having our children see every facet of our loving Savior Jesus -- how he keeps us safe at night by sending his holy angels to guard us, how he gives us our food every day, how he gives us the ability to thank him in worship, how he never tires of hearing how our day went and what we need as we come to him in prayer. And especially, how he saved us from every sin we've ever committed. On this Father's Day, and as you live as fathers and mothers to your children, direct them to Jesus -- then everything else in this world will fall into its proper place. Amen.