Friday, October 23, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 38 of 78

TEXT: "But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry" (Luke 15:22-24).

IDEA: The offense in the story of the prodigal son is not that he was restored; the offense is that the father threw a party for the boy.

PURPOSE: To help the listener feel the outlandish goodness of God’s grace.

Listen to the reception that the father gave his returning son in Luke 15:22-24:

"But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry".

What had this young man done before he came home?

What did this young man deserve when he decided to return?

Luke 15:22-24 tells us what the boy actually received from his father:

He received the “fattened calf.” The calf was kept for a feast day and for special celebrations. It was an honor for the son to be feasted by the slaughter of a large animal.

A calf was slaughtered for the marriage of an eldest son, or the visit of a governor of a province. It was special.

The size of the animal would require a feast of over a hundred people to attend, to eat the meat. The entire town would be invited to attend.

“The calf means at least a joy so great that it must be celebrated with the grandest banquet imaginable. The purpose of such a banquet includes a desire to reconcile the boy to the whole community.” (Kenneth Bailey, Poet and Peasant, p. 187)

If we had lived next door, would we have felt comfortable attending that party? Would we have felt it was a wise thing for the father to do? After all, the elder son was upset when he heard the “music and the dancing.”

Years ago a movie was made of this story. It was called “The Prodigal.” Although the Bible version doesn’t mention any women, a star of the movie was Lana Turner. In an article that appeared at the time of the movie, a reporter quoted her: “It’s a spectacle built around juvenile delinquency,” she said. “The prodigal brother carouses all over Damascus, goes home after wasting his money and his father throws a big party for him. The good brother gets nothing.” The reporter replied that he had spent part of the morning reading the biblical version, and observed that the moral of the story made no sense to him. Lana Turner agreed. The title over the story was “Carousing Pays Off?”

Most people would not object to the younger brother being allowed to return home, but where do you come off with a banquet with music and dancing for him?

Let the prodigal return if he has learned his lesson,
but to bread and water and limited rations, not a fatted calf;
in sackcloth, not the finest robe;
wearing ashes, not sporting a new ring;
in tears, not in merriment;
kneeling, not dancing.

The party seems to cancel out the seriousness of sin and repentance.

Isn’t it possible to make salvation too easy?