LENT 4, C – March 14, 2010

SCRIPTURES – Isaiah 12:1-6; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32; Ps. 51 

I heard something the other day that was quite surprising. You know, I’m sure, that Tiger Woods spent a number of weeks at a sex addiction clinic, trying to get over his “problem” which led him away from his wife Elin to carouse with a bunch of other women. Well, he is out now. I heard that when he returned home, Elin ran out of the house and, with tears streaming down her face, threw her arms around him and kissed him profusely! Hmpf. I had more respect for her when she ran out to him with a golf club in her hands and fire in her eyes! What, is she now going to play the role of the dutiful wife, like the wife of Eliot Spitzer, who stood at his side when he resigned? Ridiculous!

 

I’ve just told you a parable, an illustration. It illustrates how the people of Jesus’ day would have heard his story, which we know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s an outrageous story, an offensive story! Hmpf! No Jewish father with a son who had so abused and disgraced him would do as did the father in Jesus’ story, who ran to his son and, before the son had apologized and worked hard to make up for what he had done, embraced him and greeted him with the kiss of peace that said, “All is well.” Ridiculous!

 

Do you know why Jesus’ parable sounded so outrageous? Because He was telling us how God sees things; how He sees us. With His story of the Prodigal Son He is especially telling us how God sees and considers our repentance.

 

Do you realize what your sin is, what you have done, what you are like? I’m not asking how you feel about yourself or what you think of your sins. What does God think? How does He look upon you? That is what really matters, because He is the One who will ultimately decide whether you will be freed from your sins forever in heaven or cursed by them forever in hell.

 

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of repentance. Repentance; the word literally means, turning. Repentance is turning 180°. It is looking upon your sin and hating it, hating yourself, and so turning to your God for forgiveness and looking upon Him and His will as good, as your life.

 

Do we see such repentance in the younger son? Not at first. Sure, he decided to turn from his wild life and return home. But, this was not because he hated what he had done and despised himself for it. No, he turned only because he saw no other choice.
 

“How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’ ”
 

He was scheming. He would say the words his father would expect to hear: “I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But then, he would go on to demand to be hired by his father so that he could earn his own way with the pay he received! He still did not look upon his father as he was, a good and loving father. He didn’t love his father. This son only wanted an employer who would pay him and let him live his own life. His father was still dead to him!

 

Our repentance must be more than just words. Just because you say, “I am sinful and what I’m doing is wrong,” you’re not honoring God as your good Father if you really have no desire, and are making little effort, to change and follow His will. Not even we accept such repentance!

‡       How many accepted Tiger’s scripted and rehearsed confession, which he made on camera weeks after the news of his adultery came out?

True repentance is saying, “I have sinned against You, Father, and done what is evil in your sight.” What I have done is not just a mistake, an error, a wrong. It is evil, because it is against a Father who is good and whose commands are good. Such is the confession we speak in church week after week: “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment.” I hope these are not just words you repeat. I hope you live them during the week. If not, punishment in this life and afterward in eternity is what you will receive.

 

Did you notice the difference in the confession the younger son actually makes? “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He does not ask to be hired. Why not? Because he is not worthy of being hired. He is not worthy of being a son. He is worthless.

 

But, this sinful son hangs onto one very important thing: he still has an incredibly good and loving father. Even though he knows that he is unworthy to be called his son, he still begins his confession by saying, “Father.” How can he call the man he had so despised and rejected father? Because his father ran to him and embraced him with the kiss of peace. Because his father showed himself to still be his father, despite all that his son had done. He saw the incredibly good and loving father that his sin had kept him from seeing before, and he then confessed his sin against him.

 

And then, his father’s incredible love for him went on. After his son confessed, he did not even mention what his son had done or rebuke him at all. He treated him as if he had no sin! He also acted to make sure no one else would mention his sin. He had the best robe – his own robe – put on his son. By covering him with his own clothing he covered his sin with his impeccable reputation. Then, he threw a great feast for his son, treating him as if he was good, honorable, and a joy to have with him.

 

Here in the parable Jesus is speaking of Himself, and of the new and blessed position we have in His Father’s house in Him. The apostle Paul puts it this way:

“God was reconciling the world to himself [in Christ], not counting their trespasses against them… God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And so, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Look upon the incredible love of your Savior for you! He sees our sin and knows far better than we do how evil and vile it is. He has run to us, however, and gladly taken our sin upon Himself. He was despised and rejected, and endured the death of a despicable criminal, to spare us such punishment for our sins. Taking us to Himself in Baptism, He has covered us with His robe of righteousness, so that our sin is seen by God no more. He has taken us, wretched sinners though we are, to be His own beloved children! And now He spreads His feast of love before us and gives us, not a fattened calf, but His holy flesh and blood. It is a foretaste of the great feast we will enjoy forever in heaven!

 

Look and see: this is the God you have, a Father who loves you and embraces you in His Son. How can we sin against such a Father? See your Father, and you will see the evil of your sin. Let us repent, continually turn from any and every sin to love Him and live in His good household! Above all, let us look upon Him and behold a Father who sees, not our sin, but His beloved Son. In Him we who were dead are alive again! We are no longer lost but are found!