"Reconciliation for the People of God"
March 10, 2013
The 4th Sunday of the Christian Season of Lent
Joshua 5: 9 – 12/Psalm 34: 1 – 8/ 2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 21/Luke 15: 11 - 32
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
The fourth Sunday of Lent is a Season whereby God reveals Himself to us – His covenant and His heart with man. He prepares us so that we would be a people who are thankful, filled with serenity and joy in the greatness of His provision.
In the gospel today, we have a story that most of us are familiar with. Even though we know the story, its fact or its truth, in some cases, have not affected our lives. We can tell the story, but the reality of it has not truly been manifested in our lives. We still struggle and battle with our own ways. We take what we have, claiming it as our own. We use it for our benefits rather for that to which it was intended to bring forth.
The prodigal son demands of his father his part of his inheritance. He doesn’t want to wait until his father dies. He wants his inheritance so that he can do his own things. He wants to go his own way. He resents being under the covering of his father. Perhaps, in his own mind, he feels that his father is too restrictive and too old-fashioned. He wanted his inheritance, his own way, and what he wanted to be rather than being a part of the family.
When God created man, He created man in a family setting. There was something very special and sacred about the family. So sacred that when God sent His Son, He did not just sent a Son into the world, but He sent His Son into a family. The Son grew up in the family with the reverence and the respect with His parents preparing Him what God intended Him to be.
The prodigal son wants to be on his own. He wants to do what he wants and have a good time for himself. He takes his inheritance and leaves his father’s land and provision. He goes into a foreign land and squanders his estate with loose living. Loose living in our minds is seeing him doing things perverted or doing things he wasn’t supposed to do.
Loose living literally says that it is that which is set without a purpose and a goal and without something that will bring a result to us. It is just enjoying life. It is doing what one wants, gaining its benefits for oneself, thinking that as long as one is happy, as long as one is fulfilled in what one was doing, everything is fine.
There came a time when all that the prodigal son had ran out. He had given to his pleasures everything that he had. There came a time when nothing was coming back because all that he was doing was enjoying life. It does not indicate that he had a responsibility. He was obviously working to bring in something; he was living on what his father had given him. He was spoiled perhaps thinking that everything is owed to him and he can do what he wants.
This is the story of many lives today – wanting everything for oneself and spending all that we have for pleasures that are temporary. We know that that eventually, they will be gone.
The young man wanted his inheritance. God has given to each of us an inheritance. The question that would come to us: what are we doing with what God has given to us? Are we squandering it in loose living? Or are we literally implanting it in the kingdom of God that we have a future, we have that which could not pass away?
As this young man ran out of money, he had nothing to do and there was a great famine in the land where he was abiding. He connects himself to one of the local citizens who gives him a task of taking care of the swine. Obviously, he is not paid for this task, but he lives with the swine. He says that there is a time even when he thinks of eating the food that the swine had which is garbage.
The young man comes to his senses and realizes that even in his father’s house, the servants eats more bread than he does. He was the son of the father and yet the servants have more than he does. He makes up his mind and says to himself, “I have sinned against heaven.” His response was he does not immediately say he sinned against his father; he recognizes the fact that if he lives his own way, the sin is against heaven because God set the pattern for life.
When we think that we can go our own way, when we think that we can enjoy squandering what God has given to us, our sin is against God, not man. God established the family. God established the family with respect for each other. God established the family with the principle of raising the children to be an asset to society – to build and to be strengthened and to fulfill the task and the responsibility.
The son recognizes that he failed. He went off on his own. He wanted to take care of his own. He was not concerned with the family at all. He was not concerned for the responsibilities with his father. He was going to do what he wanted to do. He said to himself, “I am no longer worthy to be called a son. I have violated my relationship with my father and I don’t deserve to be a son. If only he would make me one of his hired men, at least I will not die. I will not be without food. I will have something to eat.”
The young man comes to his senses and begins his journey back to his father. When the father sees him from a distance, the father runs to his son. According to the tradition of the day, an older man was not supposed to run; it was below him. He need not be in a hurry. He need not be excited and anxious because everything was on his side. He was in control. His emotions were in control. He was able to maintain himself. The father runs to his son. As soon as the father and the son are together, the son says to his father, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.”
The wording is very interesting. The son does not say that he sinned to his father. His sin was against heaven in his father’s sight. He violated the very principle of God which is what is in our society today. We have set the principles of God far away from our thoughts, minds, and lifestyle. We think we can just do what we want rather than following what God has given to us.
I repeat what the son said to the father, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.” The sin was against God because he did not follow the pattern, the righteousness, and the sacredness of the family. He did not follow the principles that God established; a husband and wife becoming one, bringing forth children and preparing these children to rise up and preparing the children to have reverence and respect to the parents and following the guidelines of the father.
The father, hearing what the son says, “I am not worthy to be a son, but just let me be a servant,” calls for his servants. The servants followed the father when he went down the road to meet his son, for they were fearful and anxious that the old man might have a heart attack and be in a situation that may not be pleasing. They came after him. He turned to his servants and said, “Quickly, the best robe. “
This best robe was not just a common ordinary robe that was in the house. This was the father’s robe, the best robe. Not his every day wearing but that which had a special meaning and purpose in it. Probably, when he had a special meeting with the king or whatever it may be, he would wear this special robe. It identified who he was. It identified his position in society. Even before the son had an opportunity to take a bath, to clean up from being in the swine’s pen. He takes the best robe and puts it on his son.
Scriptures tells us that God places a robe of righteousness upon us. He cleanses us in His own clothing. He does not necessarily wait for us to clean the mess that we have been involved in. When we come to Him, and when our attitude and our heart is one of repentance, confession, acknowledging our wrong, our self-centeredness and our rebellion, He clothes us with this robe of righteousness.
The story says, “Quickly.” The father wasn’t going to wait. He wasn’t going to take an opportunity that the son would be delayed or put to shame. No, he wanted his son to know how much he loved him. It was quite obvious that the son understood the love of the father. Probably if he knew that the father would reject him, he would not have returned home. He had lived in the love that the father had given from his birth – in his father’s provision, his care and his compassion. He comes back to that love. He comes back hoping not to be received as a son, but just a servant. He was dying of hunger and he did not have anything to eat. He did not have anything for comfort. He knew that even the servants of the father were better off than he was.
When he comes back and confesses to his father, the father says, “Quickly, bring the best robe. Put it on him. Don’t just bring it but put it on him and put a ring on his hand.” The ring was the symbol of a family member. He belongs to the family. He may have gone away; he may have wasted away his inheritance, but the father puts a ring on his finger which identified him as, “My son.” He was brought back to the family and put sandals on his feet. The sandals were meant so that he could walk in dignity. He could walk with respect. He could walk in the forgiveness in the family position as a son before the whole community.
Then the father gives a command to the servants, “Prepare a calf. We are going to have a big party, a banquet.” He wanted the whole community to know that his son has returned. He was filled with joy and satisfaction. He wanted everyone to know, “My son has returned to me.” He was not counting the wrong against the son. He was forgiving the son and was restoring him not to be a servant, but to be a son.
We have the story of God’s favor to us. When we come to Him confessing our self-centeredness, our rebellion, our sin is against heaven, not man. When we do not live out what God has given to us, when we do not live out that plan of order that God has established, the sin is rebellion against God. “I want to do my own thing. I want to have my own way.”
Many of the young people today have this attitude. They don’t want to pay attention to their parents. They don’t want their parents to tell them what to do. They don’t want their parents to have something to do with their lives. “This is my life. I will do what I want.” The rebellion is not against the parent, but against God. This is not the way God created us. He created us with respect and honor. He created us to be committed, to care, and to love. This is His attitude and His provision as His people.
When the older son came home, he heard the party, the noise of the music, the laughing. He heard all these things that were going on. He calls a servant aside, “What is going on?” The servant tells the son, “Your brother has come home and your father is throwing a party for him.”
The older son is angry, perhaps, more accurately we will say that he was jealous. “Why would my father do this? The son has gone away and wasted his inheritance. He has rebelled against my father. He has not done his work. He has not carried his part in the responsibility. He hasn’t help take care of the flocks. He hasn’t help take care of the grain in the field. He hasn’t done any work toward the family at all. Now, my father is throwing a party for him? How unfair! It just makes me angry that my father would do this.”
The father comes out and talks to his son and says, “My child, you have always been with me. All that is mine is yours.” The younger son had already gotten his inheritance and wasted it. But the father is telling the older son, “All that I have now belongs to you.”
The division had already taken place. The younger son had wasted his inheritance but was brought back to the family as a son. But the older son who has remained there has all that the father had. The father says, “We have to be merry and to rejoice because this brother of yours has been dead and has become alive. He was lost and has been found. “
This is the joy of the father receiving back a son that was involved in a rebellion; a son that had rebelled the very order of the family. He is restored back and the father is rejoicing because his son has come home. Would it not be that the father would be filled with joy, that the parents would be happy for that one who was lost, rebelled, has confessed and came home? The young son was received with honor – the ring on his finger, a robe on his shoulders, and sandals on his feet.
It is a story of a relationship with God. It is a story of how God has redeemed us. How that He has given to us new life and provision so that in our own lives, even though we have failed, He has wiped away the failure. He doesn’t count the sin against us, but instead he puts a robe of righteousness on our shoulders. We have to wake up in the joy that comes to the heart of the Father knowing that we have returned to Him.
2Corinthians 5 is something that we have quoted many times. Perhaps, the reality of it has not sunk deep in to us. Verse 17, “Therefore, (the things that has been shared to us prior to this verse are all based on what this verse says,)if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Do we accept this in our lives? Do we see this newness, this ability of God’s gift to us? He covers the old. The prodigal son did not have a time to take a bath. He did not have a time get the smell off of him. The father immediately and quickly put a robe on him. He covered the sin; he covered the rebellion; so that the son could stand in pride and thanksgiving because of what the father had done.
“The old things passed away.” Our greed, our lust, our impatience – all of these things are gone. In our own lives, even if we still hold on to them, they have no roots in us any longer because Christ has redeemed us. When we begin to walk in the steps that He has given us, these old things will pass away. They will no longer have a part of our lives. Our judgments of others; our unforgiveness; our quick temper; our sadness; our sorrow. These things are gone because Christ has given us the joy of His love, the joy of His redemption – of all that He is. There should be within us a confidence.
This is what Easter is all about. This is the preparation that we go through to prepare ourselves to receive His redemption – the sins wiped away. “The old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now, all of these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
Everything that the prodigal son got is from his father. The father reconciled him to himself. He received him back as son. There were others who did not enjoy and disliked it. The older son was rebellious; he was jealous of the younger son. The father said, “This is my son. I am not going to let him be lost. I am not going to let him pass away. I am going to redeem him.”
Verse 18, “All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself, through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” What God has done for us, also comes responsibility. As we have been reconciled, so we also are given the ministry of reconciliation. It is finding that place of peace with one another, that place of forgiveness and restoration.
Verse 19, “Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” He is not counting our sins against us. Our friends remember. The older son remembered what the younger son did. He couldn’t forgive the younger brother but the father, because this was his son, was willing to forgive. The father was willing to restore because he says, “This is my son!”
We are sons of the living God. He wants us restored back into His fold, His family. He is willing to put the robe of righteousness on our shoulders, a ring on our finger and say, “You are My son. You belong to My family.” He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Much the same as to what He has said to us about others. If you forgive, you will be forgiven. If you love, you will be loved. He is giving to us reconciliation and He is saying to us, “Now, this ministry is also yours. As your have been restored, make it your work, your ministry to restore others. Find a place where others can come back into the family of God, into that which is of fullness of God.”
Verse 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”Here is a cry that comes to all, for the church of Corinth, “Be reconciled to God. Don’t maintain your stubbornness. Don’t maintain your rebellion. Don’t maintain your self-centeredness and your separation. Come back into the fold of God. Come back into that redemption.”
This is why we celebrate the Eucharist every week. It is to remind us of God’s redemption that He has brought us back to His family; that He has wiped away our sin and our iniquity so that we go out with freedom, without the sadness, the embarrassment of our failure. He forgives us. He wipes away our failures. He does not hold it against us. He sent Christ to redeem us. We couldn’t do it; He did it for us.
Verse 21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” Christ could not be sin, but He could take our sin. He took our sin. He became that for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
What a joy this is for us. It should bring joy and happiness. It should bring peace and thanksgiving. It should bring excitement into our lives. In our flesh, we are weak. In our fleshly life, we fail and make mistakes, but God wipes away our failure. When we come to Him as the prodigal son and say, “I have sinned against heaven,” He restores us and wipes away the failure. He brings into our lives newness in life.
In the Old Testament reading about Israel, the children of Israel coming out of Egypt would not listen to God. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They were not thankful for the deliverance, the freedom, and the new life that they have been given. They murmured and complained and God said, “None of them would enter the Promise land.”
Their children, who were not part of all of these, were taken to the Promised Land. As they came in the Promised Land, they were circumcised and went through the Passover to remember the deliverance from Egypt, the deliverance from sin, the deliverance from bondage and slavery. They remembered it and after they remembered it, they were circumcised. They made a covenant with God. God ceased feeding them with manna and said, “Now, you can eat of the milk and the honey of the Promise Land.” They came into a covenant. They confessed the failures of their parents and they made a covenant with God.
In our lives, this is what God is waiting for us. He has already done the work. The benefit, the fullness of that is ours when we confess to Him our weakness and our failure. He wipes away the wrong and He gives to us new life.
This is Lent. He wants us to understand the hope that we have. He wants us to understand that we are not in bondage and in slavery. No matter what is in the world, the darkness, it does not need to hold us down and to bear it as a burden upon our shoulders. He lifts us up. Even in the midst of the darkness, we can be a light. Even in the midst of failure, we can be successful. Even in the midst of our rebellion, He forgives and restores us.
What a message for us today. What a provision of God in our behalf that He would forgive and restore us even though we have failed. We can’t forget it easily, but He wipes it away. He gives us the robe of righteousness. He puts upon our finger a ring and says to the world, “This is My son in whom I am well pleased.” Can you hear His voice? Can you hear His cry to us? It is not because of what we have done, but it is what Christ has done in our behalf.
May we prepare ourselves to walk in this newness of life. May we set aside the fears and the anxieties. May we set aside the things that have held us so tightly as failures. May we put our faith and trust in God. May we put our hand in His and walk with Him.
As Psalm 23 says, may we be led beside the still waters, in the green pastures. May we come to the banquet table and may we feast in the midst of our enemies. While they are struggling and suffering, God has forgiven us. Our task is not to gloat in what Christ has done for us but to take what He has given and reconcile others to Him also. This is our responsibility and our privilege to be that part of the kingdom of God and to bring that provision and joy into the hearts of mankind.
Prepare ourselves to walk in that new freedom. Setting aside the old; putting on the new. Taking off the rugged clothes and putting on the robe of righteousness not because we deserve it, but because of God, God has chosen the bless us and to bring us to His family.
The prodigal son will remember his rebellion, his time with the swine. He will remember the wasting of his money. As far as the father is concerned, he has been forgiven. The father does not look at this at all. The father looks at the fact that the son has return home. This is what he is waiting for.
For each of us, the failure and defeat does not count. What counts is our relationship with Him. Come and join Him. Come and receive of Him. Acknowledge our failure and our fault and let Him bring the robe of righteousness; put the ring on our finger and the sandals on our feet that we can walk in the news of life in Him.
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