Audio: http://redemption-clc.podomatic.com/entry/2016-03-07T14_21_20-08_00
Theme: Works Will Always Catch Up to You…Mercy Will Never Let You Go
The Word of God is sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of
joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Our portion of that powerful word comes from Luke 15:11-32, which was
read as our Gospel selection this morning.
In the name of our Savior, who has
reconciled us with the Father, dear fellow redeemed.
Those of you who are parents or have
been around young children know how exciting it is when they take their first
steps. A child’s first steps are one of those joyful milestones of life,
usually captured on camera or written down in the diary for remembrance. The
first steps are monumental because once they get started, they never stop. With
most kids, once they are able to walk, it doesn’t take long for them to go and
to go quickly. It seems that as soon as they hit the ground, they are gone.
I remember this happening with my kids.
Both of them, as soon as they could walk, couldn’t wait to get on their way. If
I would be holding them or helping them out of the crib, they’d start pumping
their little legs even before they hit the ground. It’s like the driver a
sports car holding down the break while red lining the engine; as soon as they
shift into gear, they are gone.
No parent is sad when their child takes
his or her first steps. But what we often don’t realize is that first moment is
only one highlight in a long line of events. Parents get to see their children
take their first steps in many more ways than just the literal. Every
achievement of life is little like learning how to walk. And just like those
first steps, children usually can’t wait to keep going. Soon the first day of
school arrives, then graduation from grade school, high school, and college.
New steps are taken when they start their own career and build their own
family. All along the way, they keep moving, faster and farther from those
first steps they took.
It’s at this point that our heart
strings are tugged a bit and feelings of sadness are mixed with those of joy.
We relate with the emotions in the story of our text for today, in large part
because many of us have experienced the same feelings. This parable is really
all about a child who just kept going once he learned to walk. But it’s also
about a father’s persistent love along the way. As we think of our own families
God would also have us think of Him, as our heavenly Father. He gives us such
an important message to remember as our legs begin to race and we can’t wait to
get out into the world and live life. He wants us to remember: Works Will Always Catch Up to You…Mercy
Will Never Let You Go.
We know the parable well and are
familiar with the many truths that God teaches us through it. But perhaps there
are also some things we don’t often consider. Before we get to the main
purpose, we should first ask why the son wanted to leave? Why did he request
his inheritance? Why didn’t he stay in his father’s house or even his country?
Surely, he had good things there. He would never lack for anything. He would
always have work and a family to love him. Why leave all that?
To understand God’s message through this
man’s example, it’s good for us to analyze why
he did what he did. In a word, I suppose we could say it was freedom that led
the young man to leave. He wanted to see the world. He wanted to try new
things. He wanted to live in independence. I don’t think we can say that the
young man intended to squander his inheritance. I don’t think he had bad
intentions from the start. He just wanted to live to the fullest extent under freedom
that he had.
Surely, we can relate to this as well.
I’m not talking about the freedom we have through finances or means, nor am I
looking at the freedom have as citizens of America. When we consider the
spiritual implications of this lesson it makes us think of the freedom we have
in the gospel. The amazing message of salvation is the most liberating thing in
the entire world. It frees us from the constraints of sin and the bondage of
death. It loosens us from the suffocation of God’s righteous law. It opens to
us a new realm of possibilities for us in life, especially in the ability to
serve and glorify God’s name.
But perhaps just as amazing as the
freedom of the gospel is the fact that God would choose to save us through such
a means. It seems to run contrary that to be a follower of God would loosen
restrictions, rather than add them. To human intuition it would seem impossible
for anyone to be saved by free grace, without work or effort. And it feels
counterintuitive that God would send His own Son to the cross and the grave to
win a victory that is so easily abused by mankind.
Yes, to have freedom means to have the
ability to abuse that freedom too, and sadly that happens all too often with
the gospel. Our sinful hearts are inclined to run in our freedom. We
are tempted to test the limits of this new found liberty that we have in
Christ. At times, we take it for granted. We misuse it by relying on it as an
excuse for sin. Like little children, we’re always looking to go, go, go. We’re
running before we even hit the ground and sadly we often put as much space
between ourselves and God as we can.
Part of basking in one’s freedom is
living without care or concern. We sense that in the disposition of the son as
he receives his inheritance and sets out from his father’s house. Everything is
ahead of him; he feels as if he can do anything. But it doesn’t take long for
the first lesson of the parable to ring true. Through foolish choices the young
man squandered his livelihood. Everything that his father earned for him had
now been wasted. His title is etched in history for all to remember, the
prodigal, literally wreckless, son. As hopeful and optimistic as he was at the
beginning of his freedom, he was now distressed and helpless. By his own fault,
he found himself on the wrong end of freedom – the results of making careless
decisions.
God reminds us through this to be wise
in our pursuits and in how we use our possessions, because eventually our works
will catch up to us. We are free to do what we please, but part of that means
accepting responsibility for our choices too. It’s easy to see ourselves in the
place of this first son, even if we don’t always like to admit it. There’s no
shortage of ways that we have wasted the precious gifts, both physical and
spiritual, which God has given us.
But the same warning of works applies
equally to the second son. He’s the one that’s often overlooked in this
parable. The first son may have been bolder; more apt to wear his emotions and
desires on his sleeve, for all to see. The second son was really only different
in appearances. He, too, had works that caught up to him, even though he kept
them hidden. He didn’t leave his father’s house. He didn’t waste his
inheritance. He was responsible and mature. But he still had a problem in his
heart, a problem based on his works that eventually came to the surface. He believed
that he was better than his brother and that he deserved better because of
things he did. His assurance of favor from his father became a matter of what
he did in comparison to his brother, rather than the fact that they were both
children in the family.
In both sons we see the same problem, an
over reliance on themselves. But in both cases we also see the same response
from the father. Rather than dwelling on his son’s mistakes as a determinant of
his favor for them; the father displayed mercy. His love for his children was
not works based, but rather truth based. They were his sons, his blood heirs.
That was the undeniable truth. No sorry lifestyle or arrogant attitude could
change that. And for that reason he loved his sons no matter what, and a
product of that love was patient correction that he showed them.
You see that the father’s mercy toward
his son’s went hand in hand with the freedom they had. If at any time, the
father relinquished his sons’ freedom, even to make mistakes, he would not have
been operating by mercy, but by compulsion. The fact that his son’s both failed
in their freedom gave the very backdrop that was needed to emphasize the
father’s mercy, and that’s the theme of the entire parable because it is so
greatly contrasted against the sins of both sons. With freedom still intact,
even in moments of weakness, we can say the second part of our theme with
complete certainty. Mercy will never let us go because we always live in
freedom.
Dear friends, I hope you can clearly see
the meaning of this parable for your lives. Yes, you know it speaks to you of
God’s mercy and love but how does it do that? In what ways does it touch your
life and affect your thoughts and actions, indeed your very relationship with
God?
We see here the confession of a
Christian, of someone who knew the truth ahead of time and lost it or severely
damaged it. This parable is not about conversion; it’s about those who have the
faith and squander it. It’s about us – the believers. We are the reckless and
careless sons and daughters who were given our great inheritance from God the
Father. We have tasted the beauty and joy of the gospel and therefore we know
of the freedom we have. But we are children. We have the innate desire to test
the limits of that freedom. We want to run as soon as we learn to walk. We want
to see what God allows as soon as we come to know that He loves and forgives
us.
Perhaps even more than the first, we see
ourselves in the second son. We judge based on works. We compare our merits
against others. We whine and complain that our father has not been as good to
us as He has to those who don’t deserve it, all the while forgetting everyone
is cut from the same cloth, all believers are from the same family. We get so
used to living under the shadow of our Father’s mercy that we forget it’s
there; we forget that it applies to the beggar, to the proud, to the rich, to
the immature, and to the foolish equally.
Our plea should continually be the same
as the first son, even though it takes great courage and faith to honesty
believe it: Father, I have sinned
against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your
son. We should believe the same thing each time we confess our sins. We
should make that statement with the same honesty. We do not deserve God’s
inheritance anymore. We do not deserve to be called His children. Is that what
you think of when you confess your sins? Or do you casually fall in line while
still hanging on to your pride in your heart?
Friends, it’s okay to be honest with
ourselves and with God. Honesty, though, is a lot more than having the right
words, or in our case as a church, having a solid confession based on the
Bible. True honesty is about the heart. What we really mean, regardless of the
words that come out of our mouth. And it’s okay to be brutally honest because
we are under our Father’s mercy, and that’s a gift that will never let us go. The
question is, have we starved enough to see it? Have we fed on the pods of the
world enough to recognize the difference? Do we hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness?
Or are we running from the truth? Remember: Your works will always catch up to you.
You can’t outrun them. The truth is the truth. You can’t change it. But just as
much as that applies to your sin and its consequences, it also applies to God’s
love. Your Father’s mercy will never let you go.
That’s right, God has you. You are his.
He holds you in His hand. To the skeptic that sounds like the opposite of
freedom. It sounds like oppression; like God has grabbed us up and keeps us in
the crib of His Word without letting us run on our own. But the miracle of
God’s mercy is that He has provided a way to pay for your sins that did not
demand giving up your freedom. Because He offered up His own Son in your place,
God holds the claim to your life. He owns it because He bought it back from the
dead on the cross. But He didn’t do that for you to be a slave. He did it for
you to be His child. Even after everything He went through for you, He still
gives you freedom. You can never get to a place where His mercy doesn’t have
claim to you, but you’re also never forced to trust it and to believe it.
As sons and daughters of our Father, who
get lost often in our lives, we remember the hope that we share with King
David, from Psalm 51:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do
not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart-- these, O God, You will not despise.
Whether you’ve strayed in body or in
soul, the time is now to come back home. If you think you can keep on running
in life and not worry about sin, don’t be foolish. Works will always catch up
to you and your works will never stand before God. But if you’re tired and
weary from running don’t despair. There’s no where you can go, in this life,
where God’s mercy does not exist. To those who are repentant, God will never
turn away. But this life is not forever. The time to believe is now. But be of
good cheer. You are free. Keep running, but not away from God, but for God. No
matter where you go, His mercy will never let you go.
Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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