Grace Waits
Luke 15:11-32; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
Luke 15:11-32 (MSG)
11-12 Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ”˜Father, I want right now what”™s coming to me.”™
12-16 “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn”™t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
17-20 “That brought him to his senses. He said, ”˜All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I”™m going back to my father. I”™ll say to him, Father, I”™ve sinned against God, I”™ve sinned before you; I don”™t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.”™ He got right up and went home to his father.
20-21 “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ”˜Father, I”™ve sinned against God, I”™ve sinned before you; I don”™t deserve to be called your son ever again.”™
22-24 “But the father wasn”™t listening. He was calling to the servants, ”˜Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We”™re going to feast! We”™re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here””given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!”™ And they began to have a wonderful time.
25-27 “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day”™s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ”˜Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast””barbecued beef!””because he has him home safe and sound.”™
28-30 “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn”™t listen. The son said, ”˜Look how many years I”™ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!”™
31-32 “His father said, ”˜Son, you don”™t understand. You”™re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours””but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he”™s alive! He was lost, and he”™s found!”™”
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
David C. Fisher
The younger son grew weary of the boundaries that marked his life. His entire life pointed toward him and his brother taking over the family business when the time was right. The thought of life as a gentleman farmer in the same house he grew up in, on the same farm he”™d always tended, in the same boring county with the same old friends, became a burden to him. His older brother embraced that destiny ”“ older children seem to identify more easily with the values and dreams of their parents. But the younger brother was not nearly so conservative, dutiful, and diligent. Rebellion stirred his soul. Besides, the old time religion of his family and culture seemed needlessly restrictive. All the do”™s and don”™ts just created his hunger to be free, to determine his own fate, to make his own way in the world.
But the younger son, the rebellious one, did the unthinkable in his world.
When the boy had taken all of this stifling life he could stomach, he went to his father”™s office and, against all custom and common sense, demanded his inheritance in cash here and now. It was an unheard of breach of law and custom. He might as well have told his father he wished the old man was dead. The disrespect went even deeper. Jewish sons were obliged by the 5th commandment, “You shall honor your father and mother,” to care for their parents as long as they lived. The younger son was walking away from more than cultural expectations ”“ by abandoning his aging
parents, he was abandoning God and God”™s law. He broke his father and mother”™s hearts. Against all conventional wisdom and against his
own self-interest, the father gave his son the cash equivalent of his inheritance.
I”™ve often wondered”¦
WHY did the father do it?
The younger son was apparently an adult. And his father knew that treating him like a child would only make his resolve stronger.
The place where real relationships start is freedom. Because true, genuine relationships aren”™t forced or coerced or performance-driven. The best relationships exist and last because both parties sincerely and wholeheartedly want the relationship!
The father was essentially telling his son that he was free to choose to continue their relationship or free to leave it.
This father knew that it was far more important for his son”™s heart to be genuinely and authentically right in the long run, than for his behavior to be outwardly clean and socially acceptable in the short term. And he knew that he couldn”™t make his son”™s heart change”¦and so he let him go.
David C. Fisher
Both parents knew full well the boy was not ready for life in the real world. He”™d been sheltered his entire life and had no experience in the real world. They also knew that free of all restraint and with plenty of cash and opportunity to sow his wild oats, the story would not have a happy ending. But how would he ever learn otherwise? There”™s little, if
any, logic in rebellion. They watched their dearly loved child pack his suitcase and walk away from the security and love of a nurturing home that protected him into a world that did not love him, would gladly use him so long as he was worth something, and finally dispose of him when
he no longer was necessary. In that far country of his dreams, his worth would depend on what he could provide to others. So long as he had money, looks and a bit of class, he”™d have friends and plenty of good times. Perhaps, I suppose, like many parents, his mom and dad prayed every day that if the boy survived his foolish adventure, he would
not be too scarred by it. They spent countless evenings wondering where on earth he might be and what he was doing. Was he even alive?
The boy made his way quickly to the place his parents feared most: the godless world of the Gentiles. In that far country, the travel posters that had lined his bedroom walls became real. There he had plenty of money, time and opportunity to feed his every heart”™s desire. And he did. Dashing young man around town, fitted out in the finest of clothes, the boy attracted attractive friends with whom the good times rolled. “If only they could see me now,” he laughed to himself. But deep inside himself he
knew better. As we all discover, freedom from restrictions can quickly become bondage to our own desires. Young, rich and dashing, the young man bought a lifestyle he just had to have. He was trapped in a new world of his own making.
Helmut Thielicke
But he, the prodigal son, who sees his condition from the inside, knows differently. The world outside sees only the façade and what is put in the show window of this botched-up life. But he hears the rattle of the invisible chains in which he walks, and they are beginning to make him groan. But nobody helps him and nobody really knows him and no one really cares. Only the distant father, who watched him go away, he knows.
(The Waiting Father, p. 25)
David C. Fisher
Meanwhile back home, his parents never gave up on him. They patiently waited for him to come to his senses and come home. Their culture suggested otherwise. Those who fled family and faith back then were often treated as dead. They even held funeral services for such apostates. But not this father. He sat on the front porch peering intently into the distance, hoping against hope that his son would be the next figure on the horizon. Day after day, he waited and watched.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
This father COULD have gone in search of his son, tracked him down and tried to convince him of why he should come home”¦but he didn”™t.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
This father COULD have sent a whole posse of men to forcibly bring his son home.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
This father COULD have sent the older brother to try to reason with the young man.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
This father COULD have tried to bargain with his son on the front end and negotiated something to keep the young fella happy so that he wouldn”™t be embarrassed by the boy”™s rebellion and presumption.
But this father did none of that”¦for he loved his son too much. And he knew that you can”™t force relationship.
He knew that only the “unforced rhythms of grace” can forge a relationship strong enough to hold in the storms.
And so”¦the father waited”¦and waited”¦and waited.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
We”™re not told how long he waited. But if we assume that his portion of his father”™s wealth was, very conservatively, a year”™s worth of cash for regular living, then the young man would have been able to last at least 6 months riding on the party train. Perhaps the wait for this father was much longer”¦a year”¦maybe two”¦perhaps 5 years.
Whatever the case, it was far too long for this gracious father”¦and yet not long enough to change his heart towards his son.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
David C. Fisher
And one day he spotted that familiar figure far off. It was his son! The father leaped to his feet, lifted his robe, and ran to greet his son. Such undignified behavior in a patriarch was scandalous in the near east ”“ it still is. When he reached his son, undeterred by the stench of pigs and sweat, he embraced his son and kissed him. “Welcome home son. We missed you.” The son began his speech, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and”¦.” The father interrupted his speech telling the servants to fetch a clean robe, the family signet ring, and sandals for the boy. “No son of mine will be dressed in raggedy clothes and walk barefoot in the sand. You are my son.” Did you notice? No blame, no “I told you so,” or “Look what you”™ve done to your mother.” No probationary period after which, upon good behavior, he”™d be welcomed back. Instead, without conditions or recrimination, the father ordered the servants to prepare a banquet.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
David C. Fisher
God, like the father in the story, is a God of astonishing grace, patience, compassion and always eager to forgive. God is too busy preparing banquets and welcome home parties to make lists of unacceptable people.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (MSG)
14-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
16-20 Because of this decision we don”™t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don”™t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We”™re Christ”™s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God”™s work of making things right between them. We”™re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he”™s already a friend with you.
21 How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
Grace waits for us to humbly accept it”™s gifts.
May we be full of grace, ready to give acceptance and love and hope and relationship to others””just as God has given to us!