Month: April 2009

A final thought …

This parable is the last of three parables that Jesus tells in response to the criticism of the Pharisees of him spending time with sinners.

In the first parable, a shepherd goes looking for a lost sheep and when he finds it, he calls his friends to celebrate with him. In the second parable, a woman looks for a lost coin and when she finds it, she calls her neigbours around to celebrate with her.

In the final parable, the younger son is lost but no one goes looking for him. This would have surprised the listeners as they would have been expecting someone to go. Who was supposed to go? The father? OR maybe the older brother? Cain (one of the first two brother stories in the Bible) had to learn that he was his 'brother's keeper'. This younger brother got a Pharisee for an older brother rather than a true older brother. Jesus was acting as the true older brother, spending time with younger brother types – going after them, loving and accepting them, and trying to help them to come to their senses and return to the father's house.

Will we be a true older brother, like Jesus, to the younger brothers of this world?

All three parables end with a feast – a party, a celebration. We all long to come 'home'. The gospel is 'good news' – for younger brothers and older brothers. We have a heavenly Father who loves us so much that he sent his only son to pay the price for our forgiveness and salvation. That's really good news … and worth spreading!

Two sons. Two ways of doing life.

Both were wrong. Both were lost. Both ways of living are dead ends.

Amazingly, both sons were loved. The father in the story went out to welcome the younger brother home AND the father went out to seek to bring the older brother in. God is not a Pharisee to the Pharisees.

Who needs to hear this good news of grace?

1. Young brothers types! They need to know the father's heart and the grace that is available to them. Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with a loving God.

2. Older brother types! Tim Keller notes that Jesus attracted younger brother types but seemed to repel or offend older brother types. Churches today tend to attract older brother types but young brother types tends to stay away. Why the difference? Is the church preaching the same message as Jesus? Or is the church filled with more older brothers that we'd like to admit. A challenging thought!

A few final thoughts tomorrow …

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, in his excellent book, The Prodigal God, shows how the two sons in this story are symbolic or representative of two types of people. They show us two ways that people try to find happiness and fulfillment in life.

Younger brother types represent those who choose the way of 'self discovery'. They choose to do their own thing, breaking free from the rules and traditions of society. These are the people who colour outside the lines and don't like boundaries imposed upon them. They look out for number 1.

This sort of living may work for a while but eventually there are consequences and in the end it can become quite destructive. When younger brother types come to their senses and turn around (repent), the Father God is pleased and is willing to offer them his grace and forgiveness … and a fresh start.

Older brother types represent those who choose the way of 'moral conformity'. They choose to keep the rules and traditions of society, because it is the right thing to do. They seek to be self-controlled and self-disciplined at all times. They are into ethical strictness.

What Jesus teaches, however, is that it is possible to always seek to do the right thing, to even be 'religious', and yet still be spiritually lost. Older brother types can easily tend towards being self-righteous, superior (looking down on others), and proud. When things don't go well for them, they tend to become angry, bitter, and resentful (after all, they deserve better). Towards others who are shown mercy or grace, they can be judgmental and unforgiving. Even their obedience to the rules can be out of mere duty ('I've been slaving for you all these years …'). Theirs is a fear-based joyless compliance. The Father God appreciates their obedience but questions their motives and whether they are on a self-salvation project or really engaged with the father's heart.

Which way do you lean? Yes, these are two extremes, but we all lean one way or the other. Sometimes we lean different directions at different seasons in our lives. A younger brother who is shown God's grace can gradually drift into an older brother attitude if he or she is not careful. An older brother whose life falls a part a bit can react and become like a younger brother.

More tommorow ..

In Luke 15:11-32, we have a record of the familiar parable that Jesus told which is often called ‘The Prodigal Son.’ A more accurate title is ‘The Parable of the Two Lost Sons’, because both were lost, or even more appropriately, ‘The Parable of the Forgiving Father’, because the father is the real hero of the story.

 

It is an amazing short story and through it Jesus teaches us about grace. In Act 1 we have the story of the lost younger brother who shames his father by asking for his inheritance right away and then goes and wastes it through wild living. Eventually, after he comes to his senses, he returns to his father who, surprisingly, runs towards him, shows great emotion and elevates him back to the full standing of a son. The father throws a huge costly celebration feast. There is music and dancing. What a story of grace – undeserved favour!

 

But the story doesn’t stop there. Act 2 is about the lost elder brother. Unaware of what has happened, he returns from a hard day’s work in the field. He hears the music and discovers that his brother has returned home. He is furious and disgraces his father by refusing to go in to the party.  His father comes outside and tenderly pleads with his son to come in. The listeners are on the edge of their seats. Will the older brother come in? Will the family be reunited? … and then the story ends! A bit like those old crime dramas – just when you’re about to find out who done it … it says ‘to be continued next week!’

 

To understand what Jesus is doing through this story we need to understand the historical context. In Luke 15:1-2, we learn that Jesus has tax collectors and sinners gathering around him. The Pharisees and religious people are upset about this because table fellowship implied acceptance in Middle Eastern culture. How can Jesus be hanging out with these people?

 

The startling message Jesus gives to the tax collectors and sinners (the younger brothers) is that God’s grace is amazing, along with his love and forgiveness towards those who come to their senses and return to father’s house, regardless of what they have done. This is good news!

 

The even more startling message to the Pharisees and religious people (the older brothers) is that you can live a moral life of full obedience (the older brother never once disobeyed his father) and yet still be lost and outside the father’s house. This is the great reversal of the story – the younger son who was outside the house is now inside while the older brother who was inside the house is now outside and we’re not sure whether he will come in. What a shock this must have been to the listeners who saw themselves as the ones who were IN and the sinners as the ones were OUT!

 

More tomorrow …

Another post from Nicole …

My wife, Nicole, just posted this on her Facebook page and I thought it was worth posting here too …

I have been a Christ follower for over 25 years now. Just a few minutes of reflection and I stand in awe again in recognising what tremendous Good News the Gospel is. Today, just like when I first encountered Christ, I rely completely on His grace. I am painfully aware of my sins, my shortcomings, my severe "limp", the recognition that the life I have in God is Him living in and through me. I guess that is why the "Ragamuffin Gospel" continues to be one of my favourite books – Brendan Manning's introduction resonates in every way – although focused on his book, I also read it in context of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good news – but maybe not for some?

"Not for muscular Christians who have made John Wayne, and not Jesus their hero.
It is not for academics who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis.
It is not for noisy, feel-good folks who manipulate Christianity into a naked appeal to emotion.
It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion.
It is not for Alleluia Christians who live only on the mountaintop and have never visited the valley of desolation.
It is not for the fearless and tearless.
It is not for red-hot zealots who boast with the rich young ruler of the Gospels, 'All these commandments I have kept from youth.'
It is not for the complacent who hoist over their shoulders a tote bag of honors, diplomas, and good works, actually believing they have it made.
It is not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules than run the risk of living in union with Jesus.

Rather the 'gospel' is for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out.
It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other.
It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.
It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker.
It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents.
It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay.
It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God.
It is for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags."

This book resonates with me – because in a hundred different ways I pray alongside the tax collector every day – "God have mercy on me a sinner."…. the Good News is He does 🙂

Here are a few great thoughts from the apostle Paul from his letter to the Galatians, with thanks to Eugene Peterson and his The Message translation …

"We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it — and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

[Galatians 2:15-21. Message Bible]