This past Sunday, we continued our series entitled, "Parable". Each week, we will be looking at a parable that Jesus taught. These parables had purpose. They were stories that could show something more.
Author Warren Wiersbe says that parables are a picture, a mirror, and a window. We get a glimpse of something through the picture that is presented to us. The mirror reflects who we are in the story. Lastly, the window gives us a way to look to the future of what could be.
Jesus never told us how to do church...but He did show us how TO BE the church. He focused His teaching on touching the hearts of the listener or reader today. But the reason these stories were so effective is because He was a master storyteller with a heavenly story.
I read this quote by author Donald Miller a while back. He says that "story is atomic. It's perpetual energy and can power a city. Story is the thing that can hold a human beings attention for hours." A good story is hard to look away from. It's the reason we can sit in a theater or at home for a couple of hours and not move while watching a movie.
This week's story focused on what the Kingdom of Heaven values. We find these references in Luke 15. In that chapter, Jesus tells three stories. He talks about the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Sons. I know many of us grew up hearing the last story called the Prodigal Son. But when we read it, we see it's actually a story about 2 sons.
So let's consider the first son...he is the guy we are all familiar with (Luke 15:11-24). He was the son that went to his dad and demanded to get his inheritance from him. He wanted what would be due to him at the time of his father's death, now. Basically, he wished his father was dead.
He got what would be his, and left home. Jesus tells us that he went off and lived recklessly. In the midst of his partying, the land he was in encountered a famine. He had spent it all and had no way to support himself. In the end, we see that he ends up feeding and living amongst pigs. This is not an accidental job that Jesus gave him. It was intentional. Because it would have made him ceremonially unclean.
While he is sitting wishing just to eat what the pigs were eating, he remembered that even the servants in his father's house were better cared for. He decided to return home and beg to just work for his father. What he didn't know was, the father was always searching for him. And when he saw the son coming towards home, he ran to him...as bad as he presented himself, threw arms around him, gave him the family ring once again, a nice robe and threw a party. Why? Why would the father react this way. Because the son everyone had counted out for dead, was now alive and well. It was a reason to celebrate.
Now most of the time, our understanding of this story stops here. But when we read the bible, you have to understand the context of why something is there. There are no accidents in what is in the bible. And if Jesus had wanted this to just be about the prodigal that come home, He would have stopped there...but He didn't.
You see in the beginning of Luke 15, we see the context of these 3 stories. He was telling these stories to the Pharisees and Scribes. Now it is easy to just look at these guys and write them off. But I do believe that they were zealous in following the laws of the Lord. The problem is that they put laws ahead of the relationship. They missed the connection to the Lord in their lives.
Jesus had people around Him that didn't look religious. They were sinners and tax collectors. Interesting, a tax collector is worse than a normal sinner! I mean, they did get their own category. I'm kidding of course. They were bad people of course. I encourage you to study on biblical tax collecting to see why.
These people were drawn to Jesus. The wanted to be around Him. But the religious just got judgmental. I heard someone describe these 2 groups as Rule Followers (Pharisees and scribes) and Rule Breakers (Sinners and Tax Collectors). I do believe that is a good way to describe them.
Rule breakers are rebels. They have a tendency to be the ones that everyone sees coming. The Rule Followers are the good kids (in public). They follow all the rules. They tell on the ones that don't. Jesus was talking to the ones that followed the rules. Because they missed the point of following the rules. They were doing it just to get reward, not because they loved the Lord.
The plight of the older son (Luke 15:25-32) is what Jesus was connecting through these three stories. He wanted to understand that what heaven valued was much different than what they valued. They thought that by living by the rules, they would get reward and be seen by God. But what they missed was the value of grace!
What is grace? Grace is the unearned, undeserved favor of the Lord. You can do nothing to earn it. It is given as a free gift, purchased by Jesus on the cross.
Jesus wants them to understand that grace is the key...not rule following. It doesn't mean that we discount every command of the bible and just live recklessly. It means that our motivation for following them should be different. You will not encounter a real relationship with God without encountering GRACE through Jesus! No one will spend an eternity with God that has not encountered Grace in their lives.
The older brother was too interested in comparing what he did versus what the other son had done. He was too busy pointing fingers because he was better in his eyes. He was actually motivated by things that had nothing to do with his love for the father.
So here are some questions for us to consider today to find out which end of the spectrum we are on.
Are you connecting with God's word without connecting to God?
That is the fault of the pharisees. They knew the law. They wore the law on their robes. But they didn't know the God behind the law.
My wife and I have rules in our house. We set these rules, not because we want our kids to always be in trouble, but because we want the best for their lives. We try to explain why we have the rules that we have to the kids, but sometimes we do a better job than others. But the truth is, all our rules are based in love. They are to protect them and to keep them.
The older son, came home to a party and he didn't get it. The bible says that he was angry and refused to go inside. He knew the rules and he followed them religiously. But he didn't understand what would cause a real celebration was not rule following.
It is possible to be a Christian (in name only) that connects to God's word and never connects to God. You can be faithful in your reading and prayer but never truly have a relationship with the Lord. Your routines are not holy because you complete them. They are holy because of connection.
2. Do you really understand how God operates?
The older brother had no clue what drove the father. He responded in a way that didn't celebration. If we are connected to the Father, we would love what he loves, mourn what he mourns and celebrate what he celebrates. His misunderstanding of the father leads to anger. (Luke 15:28-29)
The older brother and the religious tend to think they can manipulate the heart of God. If they do everything right, it will the please God so that they will get the reward they want. They tend to look down on those that didn't come into faith the way they did. The pharisees could understand why Jesus allowed the outcasts of religion to be around Him. They were mad.
They were only doing things to get what they wanted. These people (the rule breakers) were essentially getting access to Jesus with no preconditions.
3. What's in your heart?
These stories really should expose what is in your heart. The older brother had some bad things influencing his heart. He had anger, resentment, pride, and disrespect. Pride is fueled by comparison. You also see greed and selfishness.
What is in your heart is more important than what you show others. There are many people who look like they have it all together on the outside, while inside it's a mess. The pharisees were those people. Jesus confronted them in Matthew 23:27-28. He said that they were like whitewashed tombs. They were beautiful on the outside but inwardly, they held death.
Your heart is the biggest tell of what you really are...not what you present to others. You may the look the part on the outside, but inwardly never have experienced true grace. When we could do nothing, Jesus did it all for us.
You see in the case of both sons, the father came to them. He was the good shepherd looking for the lost sheep. He was the one that would turn a house upside down to find the coin. He invited the older son to come in to the celebration...but he refused. The story ends with the older son on the outside of the party...missing the celebration.
That leads us to the last question...have you received it?
Have you received grace. Because without it, you will never see the kingdom of heaven. You see the kingdom does not value your rule following as much as it does grace. It doesn't care how good a person you are as much as it does grace. You can do nothing to earn it, other just receive it and open the gift.
The choice is yours...
PJ