The Compassion of God

Okay, the sermon text reading for today is Luke chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, and 11 through 32.

Luke 15:1

You can find this passage in your sanctuary Bible on page 1591.

Please listen as I read God's word.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

Jesus continued, There is a man who had two sons.

The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate.

So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together, all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?

And here I am starving to death.

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fatted calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.

When he came near the house he heard music and dancing.

So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.

Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed a fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

The older brother became angry and refused to go in.

So his father went out to plead with him, but he answered his father, Look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you gave me even a 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.

My son, the father, said, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

Here ends the reading.

Good morning.

If I haven't had the chance to meet you yet, my name is Chad, and I get to serve as part of the elder team here at Elmwood Church, and it's a privilege to worship the Lord with you this morning.

Before I uh help us dive into God's word, would you pray with me?

Father in heaven, I thank you that you are always compassionate and gracious, especially when we repent of our sins and return to you.

Father, please teach us your compassion so that we can love one another as you have taught us in Jesus' name.

This morning I want to invite us to think back to a time when we needed to show compassion to someone else.

What I'm talking about is not an everyday compassion.

I'm talking about the kind of compassion that changes the trajectory of a person's entire life.

You see, we live in an increasingly divided world where wars and conflicts tear communities apart in places like Russia and Ukraine, in Gaza, in Iran, and in many other places.

Within our own country, we are seeing people divided over political preferences, over jobs and money, and over competing values.

We're seeing communities affected in terrible ways in conflicts between ICE agents and immigrants, between police officers who risk their lives to protect and serve their communities, and by communities who have been wronged by the police and don't trust them, and between people who fail to love one another.

We're seeing broken families, where parents and children have strained relationships.

We're seeing failed marriages, estranged friends, and people who are isolated and lonely.

There's a wide variety of contexts in which people have a need to be shown compassion.

And whether we've been wronged by someone else, or we ourselves have sinned and made mistakes in life, all of us, at one time or another, have made bad choices over a period of time that have led our lives or the lives of someone we love to go from bad to worse.

In all of these things that divide us, the hurt and the sins that others can cause in our lives can leave scars that leave hurts that go very, very deep.

And those hurts that we feel can make it extremely difficult for us to forgive one another and show compassion.

Especially when we feel like the other party who wronged us doesn't deserve our forgiveness.

And we feel like they don't deserve compassion.

Today we're going to look at how Jesus dealt with a divided community in his own day, and how he taught them to show compassion to one another, even when each group of feet people that he was speaking to felt that the other group doesn't deserve it.

You see, here at Elmwood, we are near the end of a sermon series called From the Heart, in which a number of guest preachers have been invited to speak to us about something that God has placed on their heart, to minister to others and to edify the body of Christ.

This morning, our text speaks to a topic that is near and dear to the heart of Jesus: the need for compassion.

Specifically, a compassion that fuels a forgiveness which allows us to be reconciled to both God and to one another.

But before we dive into this text, there's a few key concepts that we need to explore about the ancient world that are very, very different from our normal American way of life.

First, number one, I need to explain that ancient Israel was a patriarchal society.

And patriarchal society was built around the family unit, with the patriarch at the head of the family.

He calls all the shots.

And under the authority of God, and under the authority of the law of God, the patriarch is in charge of all of the affairs of the household, including all of his family members and the estate.

So the patriarch is the fatherly head of the home, and he is typically the oldest male leader in the clan.

Second, we need to discuss the idea of an inheritance in ancient Israel.

In the event of the patriarch's death, all of his possessions across the entire estate would be divided amongst the patriarchs next of kin, which typically included the patriarch's sons.

In other words, the patriarch's relatives receive his estate as an inheritance after the patriarch dies.

So if I were to make up a pretend example and say that I was the patriarch of a house, right, and I don't have children myself, but I go to my brother Dave Hammond and I say, Dave, I leave to you, after my death, they read it aloud and say, Here lies in the last will and testament of Chad.

And they say to Dave, I leave my house and my car.

And then to Brother Kevin, I leave all of my money and my stereo system and my$250,000 sports car and all the other stuff that comes with it.

It goes something like that.

But there are rules which govern how this the estate would be divided amongst the patriarch's sons.

The estate, including all of the money and possessions, would be subdivided into equally sized portions.

Now, third, I need to explain the concept of the birthright, which informs us of the rules for how the proceeds of an inheritance were to be distributed.

The oldest son typically held a title called the birthright.

And the birthright that the eldest son possesses as the heir of the estate comes with both privileges and responsibilities.

The oldest son with the birthright would inherit a double portion of the estate.

And as the heir of his father, he would also inherit the responsibilities and title as the new patriarch.

So in the case of the parable of the prodigal son, in our text today, the father has two sons.

And in the event of the patriarch's death, the oldest son stood to inherit two-thirds of the estate, and the younger son stood to inherit one-third of the estate.

The idea was that the eldest son, the one who received the double portion of the estate, would become the new patriarch and would take on the responsibility of caring for everyone in the family, including the women, the children, the siblings, the tent or house, all the livestock, and all of the affairs of the estate.

And so the eldest son received twice as much wealth, but it also came with the responsibility of being the patriarch who's in charge of feeding, protecting, and caring for all of the needs of the family.

It's with this understanding in mind that the eldest son was taught from little on how to handle all of this adult responsibility, so that when he becomes the new patriarch after his father's death, he would ideally be ready to take on all of this important responsibility and the job of protecting the clan.

Our text today is the story of how Jesus encountered a crowd of people who are having a hard time showing forgiveness and compassion to each other.

So as Jesus looks out and he's teaching the people, he recognizes that there's two groups of people that are estranged from each other in his audience.

Now, if you've seen me preach before, I'm usually one to involve audience participation on some level.

So I'm not picking on anybody in particular, but everybody's gonna be part of the illustration today.

So I'm gonna divide the congregation right down the middle in the center aisle right here.

And the first people that Jesus addresses in his speech is the people that I'm gonna assign to this side of the sanctuary.

All of you are gonna play the part of what he calls the tax collectors and sinners.

Okay?

And on this side, we have all of the people who are called the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Now, at the beginning of our text, Jesus identifies his audience and says, Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, Ugh, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

You see, the tax collectors and sinners are people that had made mistakes in their life.

They'd sinned in a way that made them the outcasts of Jewish society.

And they're mingling with people who were tax collectors among the Hebrews.

These are people who collected taxes on account of the occupying Romans and took money from their own people and often extorted them in order to pay the Romans their tax due.

Very unpopular people who were seen as traitors to their own people, the outcasts of society.

And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, in our reckoning, often get a bad reputation.

Because Jesus often criticizes them for their teaching.

But in this story, I want us to see that they're actually deemed the good guys.

These are the people who have lived a devoutly religious life.

And when they live a devoutly religious life, they're seeking to follow God and teaching other people to do the same.

So when they look down on them, and they look down on Jesus for saying he meets with sinners and eats with them, they may be trying to maintain ritual purity by doing that.

Nevertheless, Jesus is not impressed with their response.

And then Jesus tells them a parable of a shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep and goes and finds one lost sheep.

So picture this.

Jesus is on this side preaching to this crowd of people, the tax collectors and sinners, and he gives them good news.

He says, the good shepherd has a hundred sheep.

And he has 99 of them that are in the fold with him.

But one goes lost and astray.

And that good shepherd goes and finds that lost sheep, puts it on his shoulders, tells his community, Rejoice from thee, I have found my lost sheep that has come home and is found.

For a test collector and sinner, that's good news.

That's good news because Jesus was telling them a message of reconciliation and forgiveness and of hope.

And then he recognizes how divided his audience is and he tells them another parable.

So I need the three guys I talked to to come up here and help me with an illustration.

I need Luke and Andrew and Chris, if you guys would come up and help me for a minute.

When Jesus tells another parable, he divides you up in a couple different ways.

Okay.

So Chris, I'm gonna have you stand here.

Luke, I'm gonna have you stand here.

Andrew, I'm gonna have you stand over there.

Okay.

Now Chris, you're the father of your household.

Right?

You're the patriarch.

You're in charge.

Everything you do, other people have to obey.

Okay?

You're accountable to God and the law of God, but other than that, you call the shots.

And in some important ways, you represent God in the story.

Okay?

Now Andrew, you're the younger son.

You stand to inherit one-third of the estate.

Right?

And Luke, you're the older son.

You have the birthright.

You stand to inherit two-thirds of the estate and become the new patriarch after his death.

Everybody understand?

Now Jesus continued, There was a man who had two sons.

And the younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate.

Now let's stop right there.

This is an incredibly dishonoring thing for you to do to your father.

Okay?

When you ask him early for your share of the estate, let's not mistake the fact that you are treating your father as though he is dead.

And you are valuing the gifts of your father above your father, the gift giver.

And because your priorities are out of whack, you're not ready to steward that responsibility.

And shortly we're gonna see that leads to disaster in your life.

Now, you as a loving father, you give in to this demand.

And it says he divided his property between them.

Now your children have just treated you as though you have died.

And they're valuing your stuff over you.

They have radically dishonored you.

And for Jesus' audience, that has shock value.

Thank you.

I was hoping for a gasp.

But here's what you do you treat them with honor when they treat you with dishonor.

Okay?

And it says, so he divided his property between them.

Now there's nothing wrong with that translation.

It's a good translation.

Let me offer you an equally viable alternative.

What the text literally says in its original Greek is that he divided his life between them.

In other words, your life is about to be consumed with concern for your two sons.

They're treating you as though you're dead, and therefore to you he is dead.

After you do that, after you've shown so much dishonor, but you give them the share of the estate, you get one-third of the estate, and you get two-thirds of the estate.

Okay?

So often when we read this story, we think that just the younger son got a portion of the estate.

No, this father gives away everything he owns to his sons.

Now, if we continue in verse 13, it says, Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, and he set off for a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth and wild living.

And after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need.

So he went out and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to the field to feed pigs.

This is bad.

It's real bad.

Okay.

When it gets this bad, remember you're a Jewish person.

You're not allowed to eat pigs, you're not supposed to touch pigs, you're not supposed to have anything to do with pigs.

They're an unclean animal according to your law.

Okay?

But not only are you handling pigs, it says you are longing to fill your stomach with the pods that the pigs are eating.

And no one gives you anything.

You're about to hit rock bottom.

And when this younger son hits rock bottom, he remembers one very important thing.

One indisputable fact that changes his entire perspective and his life.

Verse 17 starts, when he came to his senses, there's nothing wrong with that translation, it's perfectly accurate.

Let me offer you an equally viable alternative translation to that phrase.

When you come to your senses, what it literally says is, when he came to himself, in other words, no matter what you've done, no matter how badly you've sinned and messed up your life, no matter how ugly it gets, the fact remains that you are still his son.

And that one fact changes your whole perspective.

And as you're kneeling over the trough, longing to eat what you're feeding to the pigs, and no one gives you anything, you come to that realization that you are your father's son.

And he comes to his senses and he says, How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death?

I will set out and go back to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

Let's make no mistake, this is an act.

Of repentance, right?

You're admitting your sin.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

When you do this, when you hit rock bottom, you have a whole speech worked out in your head of how you think this is going to go with your father.

That he's going to be justifiably angry with you, upset with you, disappointed with you, and that you're no longer worthy even to be called his son, even though you are.

So you want to make yourself a hired hand, and even that is better than where you are today.

So you arise and you go back to his father, and it says, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

Remember that word, we're going to come back to it.

And he ran to his son and threw his arms around him.

And he kissed him, totally unnecessary.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

So you're bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

You go back to your father and you start your speech.

Notice that the son doesn't get to finish his speech.

The father cuts him off halfway through.

And says, But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fatted calf and kill it.

Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

And so they begin to celebrate.

Now make no mistake, this is wedding language of giving forgiveness and dignity and celebration, which are completely undeserved by the younger son.

And every one of his gifts, the best robe, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, signifies a public rejection by the father of his son's proposal to become a hired hand, and firmly protects him from public shame and disgrace as an honored guest who is restored to the full rights of sonship, including status, including honor, and the ability to inherit an inheritance from his father when he dies.

You see, this son's shame had become public.

And so his restoration also had to become public.

The father refuses to let the village define the younger son by his sin and rebellion, so he throws a public party and instead compels the village to celebrate his son's full restoration.

It's gonna be rough.

Meanwhile, the older son, the one with the birthright, is in the field.

And when he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he called one of the servants and asked them what was going on.

And they said, Your brother has come, they replied, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back, safe and sound.

You've been an obedient son your entire life.

You never disobeyed your father.

In the beginning of the story, you didn't even ask for the inheritance early, he just gave it to you.

You've been obedient, you've been trained to become the new patriarch, you know what responsibility is, you know what sacrifice is.

You've lived a pure life of religious devotion.

And even after your younger brother wasted all of your father's possessions on wild, sinful living and prostitutes, you come back from working your butt off, and your father is giving your little brother the highest honor he can give.

That's the right response.

So the older brother becomes angry and refuses to go in.

So his father went out and pleads with him to come in.

But he answered his father, he said, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you.

Notice how he calls himself a slave, even though he's the son, and never disobeyed your orders.

You never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

He feels like his father is holding out on him from good things.

But when this when this son of yours, doesn't even call him his brother, has squandered your property with prostitutes and he comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him.

Now you represent the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who have lived a devoutly religious life.

Now remember, everything that's left of the father's estate has been given over to you.

It is yours.

So when he comes home, and your father has given him the best robe and a ring in his finger and sandals on his feet, and kills the fatted calf for him, he is giving him your stuff.

Listen to how the father responds to the older son, who represents the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

He doesn't criticize them in this instance.

He says, My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

That's literally true.

But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

You see, the earnest desire of the heart of Jesus in telling this story is to take the tax collectors and sinners, the outcasts of Israelite society, and bring them back into the fold through reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus.

And then the father turns to the older son, who looked on the younger son with self-righteous condescension and judgment, and entreats him as a son also, inviting him to be reconciled both to his father and to his brother.

Because this sinner who was spiritually dead is alive again.

He was lost and he is found.

And the point of application for us in this story is to recognize that in every last one of us, there's a bit of sinful behavior and the bit of sinful attitude of both the younger brother and the older brother.

And the invitation for us is to repent of both attitudes, both of our sin and shame for messing up our life and wild living, and in showing self-righteous condescension and contempt for sinners who repent, knowing that if we confess our sins and cover over the offenses of others, God will in turn cover over our offenses, so that together we can be reconciled to one another and to God in Christ Jesus.

Thank you, guys.

You can head back to your seat.

Now, in pursuing spiritual growth as believers, there is nothing that brings more healing, more comfort, more joy to our souls than to ask for and to receive genuine forgiveness.

In contrast, there is nothing more hindering to your walk with God, nothing more damaging to your spiritual growth in Christ than to carry around a burden of guilt and of unforgiveness, of resentment and shame.

Now, as we close out today, I want to take us a little bit deeper into the story by doing a brief word study.

A word study is a method for understanding the text of Scripture in a deeper way by looking at just one word in the original language from a given text and seeing how the meaning of that word in the original language of Scripture aids us in our understanding of God's word and therefore helps us to deepen our spiritual walk with God.

And the word I've chosen for this morning is the word compassion from verse 20.

The Father in the parable has his for his lost son in verse 20 a very rare word in the Greek New Testament.

It's used only twelve times.

Now let's see if we can't study for a minute and gain some insight into what this kind of compassion means.

This word that we translate as compassion, what it literally means is to be moved deeply in your inner being.

And when you act out of that being moved in your inner being, we translate that as compassion.

In all twelve uses of this term in the New Testament, this kind of compassion is practiced either by Jesus himself or by a character in one of Jesus' parables.

It is used once when a king in Jesus' parable forgives a servant for an enormous debt of 10,000 talents that he could never repay.

In another three instances, Jesus tells the story of compassion by providing miraculous healing, by healing a man who is blind so he could see, healing a man from leprosy so he is cleansed, and healing a man from demon possession to be in his right mind.

It's used once when the good Samaritan has compassion on a wounded traveler who is left naked and bleeding by the side of the road.

And this good Samaritan has compassion on him by clothing him and binding his wounds.

In four instances, this word is used by Jesus as he has compassion on the crowds who are following him because they haven't eaten in three days, and he is concerned that they're going to faint along the road.

So he blesses the food, trusts in God, and feeds the five thousand and the four thousand with loaves of fish, loaves of bread and fish.

He uses it once on a widow who is left all alone and restores her son back from the dead.

And in one instance, Jesus has compassion on the crowds by telling them the truth of their spiritual condition and their need for repentance and forgiveness.

But the last use of this term, compassion, occurs right here in our text about the prodigal son.

In this story, the father, when he shows compassion on his son, he doesn't do just one of those six actions, he does all of them.

Think with me for a minute.

This father forgave his son for a debt he could never repay after the younger son squandered his entire inheritance on wild, sinful living.

This father healed his son from a life of guilt and shame from sin, restoring him to a status of a beloved child with the full rights of sonship.

He clothed his son with the best robe and a ring and sandals with dignity.

This father not only fed his son, but through a public celebration where he killed the fatted calf for him.

And this father received his son as one back from the dead, who is now alive and home, safe and sound.

And when this father gathered the community together to celebrate having his son back, he provided a way of reconciliation with his estranged brother, reconciling them both to one another and to himself.

This is the picture that God paints for us when each one of us repents of our sins, covering over our offenses and giving us the right to become children of God.

And when we become children of God, the appropriate response is that God expects us also to cover over the offenses of others, so that God would cover over our offenses.

Recently I heard a Christian speak in the Middle East who describes how we as sinful people tend to be bold when we sin and ashamed when we repent.

And he says, God's desire for us is that we should do exactly the opposite, and we should be ashamed when we sin, and bold when we repent.

To not give in to the lie that God will somehow resent us or withhold forgiveness when we repent, but rather that he will embrace us, kiss us, restore us to a status of being a child of God, and treat us with celebration and honor.

That is how God treats every last one of us when we return to Him.

With that forgiveness and reconciliation with God, we have the chance to show compassion to one another and to celebrate and remember what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

Today we have the opportunity to celebrate all that has God has done for us in Christ by coming to the communion table, knowing that Jesus gave his body and blood to reconcile us to himself and to one another.

As I invite you to the communion table, please, let's all take a few moments of silent confession and reflection.