Luke 15:1-3; 11-32
He welcomes sinners
Nunawading and Waverley, 18-3-07
Dear friends in Christ,
Jesus has inspired the world. Many stories find their genesis in him. Les Miserable, written by Victor Hugo, begins with an ex-convict called Jean Valjean who on his release from prison steals some silver-ware from the saintly bishop of Digne. The police capture him and bring him to the bishop saying that Valjean claimed that the silver was a gift. The bishop immediately takes in the situation before him and responds, “Yes it was but my friend left in such haste that he forgot to take the candle sticks with him. I hope he will use them well” His housekeeper is absolutely horrified that the last possessions of the bishop should go to this scoundrel. Jean Valjean leaves thinking what a fool the old man was but he cannot get out of his mind this act of kindness and the words to use well the money that was never his. The bishop’s act was a reflection of God’s redemption in Christ and it led to the criminal’s conversion to Jesus Christ and later to acts of sacrifice for others in desperate straits.
What a parable Jesus spoke and being a parent, especially of older children, how accurate this parable is to everyday life! While our attention is on this family drama we must remember Jesus was explaining to his enemies why he ‘welcomed sinners and ate with them’. Pious Jewish people, especially Pharisees, teachers of the law, Levites and priests, would shun those deemed to be living a sinful life such as those collecting taxes for the Gentile Romans, prostitutes and those engaged in occupations considered sinful, such as working with pigs, minding sheep, even bakers who had to deal with women. Jesus welcomed them all and his grace changed many who consequently turned away from adultery or extortion or whatever was controlling their lives.
I want to focus on the older son. Most of us are responsible, we are diligent in your work, we do not let jobs pile up, we are good planners and organised people, we are considerate of others, some are inventive, and some entrepreneurial, in short, we get on and make progress in our lives. If you live with people like yourself, you will not have many problems. If you do not, then like me, you are going to feel sometimes like the older son in the parable. The older son represents the Pharisees who were concerned about how people obeyed God’s laws and their own traditions. How people obey God. It seems right doesn’t it? But we might be overlooking grace, redemption.
Some times I ask rhetorical questions of God; why did I have to be so serious, and responsible, conscientious and hard working? Why couldn’t I be happy go lucky, take life as it comes, be spontaneous even if it lets other people down? And so it is inevitable that you who are like me, will ask, why should I give to someone who doesn’t manage her money well, or why should I help someone who will not get a job or who gets into a mess with the police, or who is addicted to drink or gambles? Why should I help those third world people when their country is a perennial basket case or those refugees who have entered our country illegally or David Hicks who was fighting for terrorists? Most of us, as painful as it is, will have to recognise the pride, the anger, our sense of injustice in the words of the older boy: ‘Look! All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
The grace of the Lord is the easiest thing to receive but it is the hardest thing, one, to give to others, and two, to recognise we so desperately need it ourselves. We have never messed up our lives, and I suppose that is our trouble. (Please do not rush out and find the nearest prostitute or squander your wealth so that you can understand the depth of God’s love for you.) Some time ago we came to that point when we realized we needed God’s salvation, but now being so dedicated to him it can be hard to tolerate those who are weak and we begin to nag or demand things of those who are inconsistent or unreliable.
Let us come back to the cross. May the Spirit open our eyes to see in the crucified figure God’s heart that beats for you and to what extent he will go to love you, to redeem you and demonstrate his desire to have you in his family. The parable is nothing else than Jesus telling you and me what is in his heart. The central character is the father who waits, who keeps the light burning in case his lost son comes home at night, and who stands at the end of his drive way wondering if today he might see his poor boy coming down the road. That is the image of God and the image that our Lord Jesus wants us to have of himself. Grace, love, redemption is so simple. Our follies, our self-justifications and superiorities come to Jesus and crush him in the judgement of the cross so that we might be free, loved, accepted with the new dress of perfection, with the ring of holiness, with the fattened calf of goodness and righteousness ours, as a free gift, offered to us in the way the old bishop hands over the candle sticks to the criminal whom he looked on as his friend. You are not judged. Could anything be harder to understand than God’s love? Not really unless we want to turn it into law, into behaviour, into doing the right thing, into simplistic notions about human decency. Let us ask the Spirit of God that he will help us to keep the gospel before us and to be ready to plunge into the dirt of the mixed up lives of others and bring them grace so that we can learn that we need to live by grace too.