Portraits of our Father - Luke 15 - Part Five

 One of the greatest chapters in the Bible (Luke 15) ends with quite a turn.  If the opening and middle of this chapter have not been hurdles high enough for these Jews to topple, this last one causes them to simply stop and go home.

While Jesus is telling these stories on the heels of them grumbling that He "receives sinners and eats with them," now He is telling them His Father is the one who not only receives sinners but rejects the pious religious people.

As the story of the younger son is ending with dancing, shouting, and eating the fatted calf; his older brother hears the noise of the party and begins to enquire about what is going on.  Which tells me the party was a "quick turnaround" for the elder son most likely left home that morning to work having never heard from his younger brother only to return in the evening to hear the brother has returned and his father is doing a party in his honor.

The older son is "angry and would not go in." (Luke 15: 28) The Message reads, "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in."

Angry over good news?  Yes, but only to those who believe someone who acted so wrongly and shamefully, like his younger brother, should never be celebrated, AND no one has ever celebrated you for your hard work.  Plus, you never done anything like this to the family name.  The elder son even celebrated himself by saying "These many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time..."

Religious blindness and pride stinks in the nostrils of the Father even worse than the stench of pigs.  And while boys wallowing with pigs can be washed up and restored; seldom do those with religious pride ever have their eyes open to be washed from their filthliness.

This boy sat at the father's table every morning and night, talked with him throughout the week, and obeyed all his father had ever asked.  But sadly never understood the heart of the father.  He never saw the heartbreak of his heart and the desire for a relationship not based on work.

All these Jewish leaders Jesus is talking to are represented by the older son.

Our Father rejects a status based on the good we think we are and how much we have done for Him.  His heart beats for a relationship based on grace and not works. 

If you would like to read all nine sermons I preached from Luke 15 in 2016, simply click here.