Third Sunday after Trinity – July 6, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text for today is the Holy Gospel regarding the parable of the prodigal son.

The younger brother and the older brother in our parable for today seem to be

different, but they have several things in common.

First of all, they are both sinners, sinful by nature.

The younger son broke the first commandment by making money his idol god.

He wanted his inheritance now.

He also broke the fourth commandment by not respecting his father.

He couldn't wait until his father died to receive the inheritance.

He wanted it now.

And he also broke the sixth commandment by being involved in sexual immorality and wasting his money.

The older brother broke the fifth commandment by becoming angry at his brother and his father.

He also broke the fourth commandment by not respecting his father.

He accused his father of not giving him a party. And so, both of them are sinners.

The second thing that they have in common is they both believe that they must

earn their father's favor by what they do.

The younger son thought that he should earn his father's favor by being a hired servant.

And the older brother thought that he must earn his father's favor by his working

for his father all these many years.

We are like the brothers.

We are by nature poor, miserable sinners.

The first commandment is broken by making money in idle God.

The fourth commandment is broken by not respecting parents and other authorities.

The fifth commandment is broken by having an anger toward others.

And the Sixth Commandment is broken when there is lust in the heart,

when the eye looks at bad pictures on the internet, and by being involved in sexual immorality.

And finally, there is a sin when we think that we must earn our Heavenly Father's

favor by the work and obedience that we must do.

We will learn today that we should repent of our sins,

receive the forgiveness of sins, and trust in Christ,

who earned our Heavenly Father's favor by his sacrifice upon the cross,

we are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ and not by works.

The parable begins with the younger son demanding his share of the inheritance.

Well, after he got his money, he traveled to a far country, and there he wasted

his possessions while living.

As long as he had money, he had friends, but when he had no money, he had no friends.

He found himself in a desperate situation. The only job he could find is feeding

swine, taking care of swine. And that's not bad enough.

He was so desperate for food that he longed for eating pig food,

the food that the pig's swine ate.

The younger son hit bottom

You might say that he was At the

bottom rung of the ladder Our text

says Then our text says He came

to himself In other words He had a change of heart He recognized his desperate

situation And determined to change his condition He recognized his sin And he

knew where salvation was found,

back at his father's place.

So he plans to return to his father, and he planned to say these words.

Quote, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

Now, there's a great deal of repentance here. He's crushed.

He realizes that he has sinned both against his father and against God,

and he's no longer worthy to be called his son.

This sounds good, but he thinks that he has to earn his father's love by being a hired servant.

Yet he does see the good thing is he does see his father as having grace and

mercy because if his father was legalistic and mean then the son would probably

have never gone back home.

As the younger son was coming closer to home it was the father that recognized

him. Now, the father didn't wait for the son to arrive and to scold him.

The father didn't wait for the son to come and lecture him at length about his behavior.

Instead, it was the father that took the initiative and ran to his son.

The father had compassion on his son. And so it was the father that put his

arms around his son and kissed him. And this is a portrait of unconditional love.

The father expresses his reconciliation and his acceptance of his son by these actions.

Now, the father did all of this before the son ever proceeded with his repentance,

before the son said anything.

The prodigal is clearly shocked by how his father has received him.

He expected to be rejected.

He expected that his father would put him in the servant's quarters as a servant and not a son.

But the father has received him back unconditionally without earning it.

Now, please don't misunderstand. understand those who

are not sorry for their sin and who refuse

to repent are not to be

given a false message of the gospel we do

not say to the unrepentant do whatever

you want sin as much as you like god

loves you and he will forgive you no we don't say that rather the law should

be proclaimed to those who are not sorry for their sin so that they see their

sin and yearn for forgiveness.

And so in the parable for today, the law has already done its work on the prodigal.

He makes his confession saying, Father, I've sinned against you and before heaven.

I sinned against heaven and against you, and no longer were he to be called

your son, and he leaves off the part,

make me like one of your hired servants, because the Father has already received

him back as a son and not as a servant.

The Father has already received him purely by grace and not by works.

Now the father demonstrates his unconditional love and his acceptance for the

son by putting a robe on his son, a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet.

And the father then kills the fatted calf and throws a party.

The father thought that his son was once physically dead, never to see him again.

But now he is physically alive.

The father knew that his son was spiritually dead by the way his son treated

him, the father, but now the son is repentant and spiritually alive.

He is home, healthy, both physically and spiritually.

Earlier, I mentioned that we are poor and miserable sinners.

Who will reconcile us with our

Heavenly Father? Who will make the payment for sin that we cannot make?

Jesus came down from heaven, and he reconciled us with our Heavenly Father.

Jesus took the sins of the tax collectors and the sinners of his day.

He bore them, and he bore our sins. and our sins were also nailed to the cross as well.

Jesus died so that we may live.

And Jesus' resurrection proves that there is reconciliation with the Father.

There is now peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dearly beloved of the Lord, because of what Jesus did by his death and the resurrection,

your sins are paid for by the blood of Christ.

You are received back to

your heavenly father unconditionally by

grace purely by grace and not by

works in your baptism you were given the robe of christ's righteousness you

were once dead in trespasses but god made you alive in christ jesus you were

lost in sin but jesus your good shepherd found you and brought you back to his fold.

You have returned home, and here is God's house, a brother and sister together as a family.

Here you experience a merciful and forgiving father who is slow to anger and

abounding in steadfast love.

Here he welcomes you back into his arms, not as a slave, but as a child.

Here you confess your sins and you receive the absolution, the forgiveness of sins.

Your life is now changed for the better. You live according to God's word with all joy.

You love the neighbor out of thankfulness for all that God and Christ Jesus has done for you.

You avoid the temptation in the world and you walk the way according to God's word.

You reflect the light of Christ to others.

Jesus was often criticized for receiving sinners and eating with them.

Today, around this table, Jesus receives us for sinners and eats with us.

He is the host and he is the meal, giving us his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

The second part of the parable is about the older brother.

While the older brother was in the field, he heard the sound of music and dancing,

and a servant said to him, Your brother has come home, and your father has killed

the padded calf because he has him both back safe and sound.

Then the older brother became angry and would not go into the feast.

And so the father, out of love, came out to his older son.

And what angered the older brother was the feast.

It was the feast. Listen closely. He says, quote,

All these years I have been working like a slave for you and have never disobeyed

a command of yours, but you never gave me a little goat to celebrate with my friends.

You see, the older brother thought that he earned his father's love by what

he did, by his works and by his obedience.

He also failed to really to see his own sin.

But still, the father reaches out to his son, his older son, with love and concern.

He assures his older son that his place in the house is well and that his inheritance

is secure and all that the father has is his.

Again, we see from the father no judgment, no criticism, no rejection.

But an outpouring of unconditional love. The father tells his older son that

it was necessary to have a feast because, quote, this brother of yours was dead

and he's come alive. He was lost and is now found.

It was also necessary today that God's word goes out to our neighborhood,

to family, to friends, so that they too may hear the word of God,

repent, believe in Christ as their Savior, and receive God's grace and mercy in Christ.

There are times when we are like the older son. We think that God owes us for

all the good things that we've done.

We judge other people because they are not as sanctified as we are.

We live by the law. We resent God's mercy upon the so-called sinners of our day.

And when bad things happen, we get angry with God.

The younger brother represents all who are repentant, All who have faith in

Jesus, all who trust in God's grace and mercy in Christ, and all who are changed for the better.

You are the younger brother. You repent of your sin with faith in the forgiveness

of sins on account of Christ.

You freely love one another out of thankfulness for all that God has done for you in Christ.

Instead of money as an idol, by God's grace you fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Now, the older brother represents all who live, who are unrepentant, and who live by the law,

who are legalistic, who try to earn God's favor by their work,

who hate God, and all who resent God's mercy.

Instead of anger, by God's grace, love your family and neighbors.

Instead of breaking the fourth commandment, honor your parents and other authorities.

The Father in our parable represents our Heavenly Father.

Just as the Father loved both of His sons, so also our Heavenly Father loves

you and He loves all whom He created.

His love especially is seen in the sending of His only begotten Son to be our

Savior for us and for our salvation.

We are saved purely by God's grace through faith in Christ and not by works.

Dearly beloved of the Lord, if we think that we are saved by works,

then this is an insult to Jesus and what he has done.

If we think that we are saved by works, then Jesus' sacrifice on the cross we

think was not sufficient, and we have to add to it.

Rather, Christ earned salvation for you by his righteous sacrifice upon the cross.

And from the cross, Jesus said, it is finished.

There's no other work to do. Therefore, God's love toward you in Christ is unconditional.

You're saved by God's grace through faith in Christ.

You were dead in trespasses and

sins but in your baptism God made

you alive in Christ Jesus you were

lost in sin but God sought you

washed you clean and brought

you back into his fold therefore be joyful because your heavenly father has

received you into his family not as a slave but as his own child Thanks be to God. Amen.