Sermon -- 4th Sunday in Lent (March 30, 2025)

This sermon was intended to be preached for the 4th Sunday in Lent.  An infection had me fever-stricken and reduced to bed rest instead of being at church to preach it.  This is a draft which would have been edited were it not for the infection, so it could stand some improvement.  Then again, I would say that about every sermon manuscript I prepare.  I would edit until Judgment Day if I did not have a deadline to preach it.

LUKE 15:1-3,11b-32

THE FATHER LAVISHES LOVE ON THE LOST.

In the name + of Jesus.

     The parable of the Prodigal Son is endearing to us because we all enjoy a happy ending.  We think that it is wonderful that a father would welcome home his wayward son and receive him with a warm embrace.  It warms our hearts to hear that the past has been forgotten and that all the blessings and benefits of sonship have been restored.  It is a wonderful story, but it is a story that we do not fully appreciate because it is mostly theory for us.  It is also because we tend to see ourselves in the wrong brother.

     Let’s rework this parable for just a moment.  Say you had a brother who complained about your family.  He hated the rules of the house and boasted all the time how he would do things better.  He does not want to be like your parents because they are too rigid, too controlling, and too boring.  There’s life to live, and they don’t get it.  So, he asks your father to cash in whatever money was saved up for his college education.  Stocks were sold and an IRA was cashed in with early withdrawal penalties and all.  Then he takes the family car and off he goes to live it up. 

     After another day on your father’s farm, sweating out in the field, you come home to see your brother’s posts on Instagram.  He is holding up his beer with bikini-clad women surrounding him.  Hashtag: ThisIsTheGoodLife.  It does not take long before he blows his money on booze and gambling.  He also totaled the car.  You aren’t surprised.  Your little brother never took life seriously, and it finally came back to bite him.  He found himself homeless and penniless.  Eventually, he decided to hitchhike back home.

     After another long day of labor, you head home and are greeted by the smell of barbeque and the sound of a DJ.  Then you learn that this is for your little brother.  Not only was he welcomed back home, but he was being celebrated.  There was no lecture, no punishment, nothing.  He was even given a new car to replace the one he totaled.  Would you join in the party?  Could you look at your brother without any feelings of resentment?  Would you give him a hug?  And what would you think of your father who, apparently, had no problems with your little brother’s debauchery and defiance?

     I think you can understand the older brother’s outrage—outrage toward the brother who dishonored his father and flaunted it; outrage toward the father who not only received little brother back but even celebrated his return.  Where is the justice?  Why does the greedy, perverted drunkard have the father’s favor when you have been diligently bearing the cross and laboring with no fanfare whatsoever? 

     The older brother has a point, doesn’t he?  Who could disagree with him?  Those who live obediently, morally, and decently should be rewarded and honored, right?  Those who are brazen sinners should be told that they made their choices and should suffer the consequences for them.  Would anyone take the employee that embezzles from the company and make him the vice president of operations?  And if it did happen, would you be happy for that man? 

     Jesus’ parables prove that we are not like the heavenly Father.  The Father lavishes his love on the lost.  The father certainly could have crushed his son in harsh judgment, and we would not have blamed him.  Even his own son would not have blamed him.  He discovered that a life of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll did not satisfy him.  “But,” you protest, “what if is money had not run out?  Wouldn’t he have found happiness in the life he had chosen for himself?”  The answer?  Even if he had continued to live in hedonism, gluttony, and drunkenness, what would he have gained from it?  What was his purpose in life—just to get his next drink?  Who did he have that loved him?  As long as he was buying, he probably had lots of friends.  So, why didn’t anyone take him in when he ran out of money?  What woman stuck by his side when times got tough?  The young man had squandered all his blessings.  He knew it, and confessed it to be so: “I will get up, go to my father, and tell him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Make me like one of your hired servants”’ (Luke 15:18-19).  The younger son finally recognized that in his father’s house he had provision, protection, life, hope, and a noble purpose.  Separated from his father’s house, he was dying, hopeless, and helpless.

     The younger son had abandoned the father’s house and all its blessings.  We would expect him to get what he deserves.  But we are not like the heavenly Father.  “His father saw him and was filled with compassion.  He ran, hugged his son, and kissed him….  The father said to his servants, ‘Quick, bring out 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 us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.  He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:20-24).  The Father lavishes love on the lost.

     We are not like the heavenly Father.  We think in terms of fairness and consequences.  Good people go to heaven; that’s fair.  Bad people go to hell; those are the consequences.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  Not to the Father.  He lavishes love on the lost. 

     Well, it sure did not make sense to the older brother.  When he heard how graciously the father had taken back his younger brother, he was upset.  When he learned that the father did not hold little brother responsible for his actions, he was incensed.  The older brother had been the good son.  He protested to his father, “Look, these many years I’ve been serving you, and I never disobeyed your command” (Luke 15:29).  He was convinced that he had earned better treatment.  Once again, that seems fair, doesn’t it?

     Dear Christian friends, repent!  You may credit yourself with obedience to the Father because you have not been guilty of the brazen sins of others.  You are no criminals.  And you may take pride in the way you have served your Father in heaven.  You have done good works, and others have benefited from them.  But you and I fail to understand this: We are not the natural-born children of God.  Our place in his family has not been earned, and it is not deserved.  As St. Paul reminds us, “We carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts.  Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).  

     The older brother forgot his place in the father’s house.  He was not there because he had worked his way into it.  He did nothing to belong to the father’s house, except be born into it, which is an act of grace.  We often think of people who have been born into families of affluence.  They are often vilified as people who have won life’s lottery, as if they filled out the right forms or paid off the right people to be born into that family.  The rich kid is in the rich family because of God’s doing.  While the rich kid benefits from his father’s wealth, he really owns nothing.  It is all the father’s possession, and he shares it with his children.

     This is the case with the older brother.  The father even told him so.  Trying to appease him, “The father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours’” (Luke 15:31).  Whatever the son had was his by grace.  All the goods and the blessings belonged to the father who graciously bestowed them on his son.  And he was not stingy.  All that the father had belonged to the son as well.  The father’s lavish love was given to him, too.

     The Father lavishes his love on the lost.  This grace is even more evident when it comes to the family of God.  For, no one is automatically in God’s family.  We are by nature sinful, objects of wrath, and outside of God’s kingdom.  All are lost.  And yet, God has been pleased to bring us into his family.  He gives us new birth to a new life.  This was done for us through Jesus Christ.

     Jesus is the son who left the mansions of heaven to go to this world where he associated with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners.  He squandered all he had on these sinners, including you and me.  Jesus poured out his life, his breath, his body, and his blood for the sake of sinners.  The payment he made for your sins and mine and for the sins of the whole world is the life of the Son of God.  It is this reckless love that sent Jesus to the cross where he was forsaken by his Father because of our sins.  Cut off from his Father, there was only death and damnation for Jesus.  This is the ransom price for you.  This is Jesus’ reckless spending which purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.  This is his lavish love for you.

     Then the Son, who squandered all things to redeem you, rose from the dead.  He ascended to heaven where his Father received him back with joy and celebrating.  Jesus of Nazareth was given all majesty, power, and glory.  He has been given all authority to rule over heaven and earth and to forgive sins.  In both cases, he lavishes his love on the lost.  And he continues to squander his grace upon all people.  When he covered your debts and paid for all your past sins, he did not say, “Okay, your debt has been covered.  But now we are done.  Rather, he continues to apply the ransom price for the sins you still commit.  He has even spent himself on the sins of people who prefer a life apart from the Father’s house.  Since they continue in stubborn unbelief, they receive no benefit from Jesus’ payment, but the payment was made for them.  And he does not regard this grace as a waste.  This lavish love is for all the lost.

     The Father lavishes his love on the lost.  He sent his Son to ensure that you would not be left outside of the Father’s house.  Outside of the Father’s house is only death, hopelessness, and helplessness.  Inside the Father’s house is all that you need for body and life, for time and eternity.  Jesus has poured out his life, his breath, his body, and his blood to win it for you.  And now he bestows on you new life.  He breathes his Holy Spirit into you.  He gives you his body and blood for your forgiveness.  All this so that you would be his.

     The apostle John promises us, “To all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).  And if you are God’s children, then all that is the Father’s is yours.  His love is yours.  His mercy is yours.  His kingdom is yours.  And thanks to Jesus’ reckless spending and lavish love, you are his forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.