4 Lent, Year C

“A LESSON IN THE LAW AND IN GRACE”
A sermon by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, March 14, 2010
Joshua 4:19–24, 5:9–12; Psalm 34; II Corinthians 5:17–21; Luke 15:11–32

(In its delivered form, this sermon was given using a foot long ruler as a prop to exemplify God’s standards of holiness, and our response to those standards.)

We have before us today the very familiar parable, which is usually known as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”.

But, if we look closely at the text, we notice that it could also be called the “Parable of the Faithful and Loving Father”, or perhaps the “Parable of the Proud, Older Son”.

In truth, all three characters are present in this parable, which is narrated to us only by Luke (following a string of gospel texts in recent weeks in which we hear accounts of Jesus’ ministry and teaching which are Luke’s alone to tell us).

Since this is such a familiar parable, let’s look at it from a different perspective, that of law and grace.

Jesus is telling us a truth about God (exemplified by the father in our parable), and about God’s dealings with us (seen through the actions and attitudes of the two sons).

So, we begin with this foot long ruler, which I am using as an illustration of the holiness and constancy of God, seen through the figure of the father in the parable.

We see an image of the father as being loving, as being generous, as being unshakable in his essential character and behavior.

Such an image as Jesus creates in the parable points toward the holiness, lovingkindness and faithfulness of God.

(Remember that a parable always points beyond its immediate images toward a spiritual or theological truth. Indeed, the very word “parable” comes from the Greek, where it means to “place something alongside”. So, in a parable, we have a common image, which is placed alongside a spiritual or theological truth, in order to illuminate the latter.)

Take this ruler as an example: The father’s characteristics are like this ruler, unchangeable in its dimension, constant in any circumstance. And so it is that Jesus paints a picture for us of the unchangeable nature of God the Father, whose love and generosity are as dependable as the measurement of this ruler.

But, it is the two sons who are the changeable ones in the narrative.

We begin with the more familiar, the prodigal son:

Here, we see that the younger son seems, at first, not to have any disregard for his father’s values. He simply wants to head off, and “do his own thing”. Only after the son has gone off to the foreign land, and has managed to squander his father’s legacy, do we see that the younger son has nearly no regard for his father’s values, love, or generosity. In the words of the older son, we learn that the younger son has squandered that legacy in cavorting with harlots. The father’s “rule of life” obviously has meant little to this younger son.

On the other hand, the older son holds the father’s values in high esteem. We hear him say to his father, “Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command…” (It’s worth noting that the older son not only claims to have met the standards, the full measure of them, but he claims to have met them for a very, very long time!)

Put another way, the older son is saying, “I’ve measured up, in every respect! I’ve earned my place and my rights!” The older son seems to be “tooting his own horn” (to use a phrase I used to hear my mother say oftentimes). “This is my effort, mine alone,” he seems to be saying.

Beyond the immediate focus of Jesus’ teaching lies a deeper meaning, a meaning which has everything to do with a new way of coming into relationship with God.

This new way of relating to God has everything to do with God’s standards of holiness, God’s standards of love, God’s standards of mercy. This new way of relating to God will be ushered in by Jesus Himself.

Seen against this backdrop, Jesus’ teaching has a lot to do with the immediate situation He encountered within the Judaism of His day.

An explanation is in order: The Judaism of Jesus’ day seemed to be squarely focused on meeting the holy standards of God. Of course, those standards were articulated in the Law of Moses (also know as the Torah). “Meet these standards, measure up in every respect, and you will be favored by God.” That seems to fairly summarize the attitude of many who lived in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. The interactions that Jesus had with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes and the Chief Priests seems to bear this impression out….Oftentimes, they claimed to be righteous in God’s sight because of something they themselves had done. “It’s our effort, ours alone,” they seem to say.

It bears repeating: “Something they had done.”

Sounds a whole lot like the older son in today’s parable, doesn’t it?

It seems as though Jesus is saying there’s going to be a new way to relate to God. In fact, like we said a moment ago, it will be a new way that He will bring into being.

This new way of relating to us human beings has two aspects: justification and sanctification. Before we proceed, however, we ought to define these two terms:

Justification: When we realize that we don’t measure up to God’s standards of holiness, and when we admit it, then God can receive us into an intimate, personal relationship with Him. God is able to do so by seeing to it that Jesus’ holiness makes up the distance between our diminished status and God’s standards. Put a slightly different way, when God looks at us, in essence He sees Jesus’ full measure of righteousness, which covers our lack of righteousness.

Sanctification: Once we enter into this relationship to God the Father through Jesus, His Son, then God can begin to work on us, to enable us to begin to grow into the full measure of God’s holiness, as seen in His Son. This is the process of becoming more and more the image of God, as we bear the image of Christ more fully, if we might modify our metaphor slightly.

So, let’s turn to the younger son, and see this new relationship which is about to come into being.

Here, we hear Jesus say that the younger son “came to himself.” And when he does, he begins to rehearse a speech which he intends to deliver to his father when he sees him. It begins, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you….” Put another way, and referring again to our prop, the ruler, in essence the younger son is saying, “I don’t measure up.”

Moreover, the younger son is also saying, “I’ve messed up so badly that I can’t measure up to your standards, not any more.” That must be why the younger son intends to ask to be taken back into the household, not as a son, but as a hired servant.

If that is the reality with this younger son, that he cannot, any longer, measure up to the father’s standards by virtue of the squandering of his father’s inheritance, then what makes it possible for the younger son to measure up?

The answer is: the father’s mercy.

The father’s mercy makes up the difference between the younger son’s lack of stature, when measured against the standard.

So, it is the father who does the work, not the son.

This is the process of justification at work. Repentance and a recognition that we cannot measure up to God’s standards serve as the beginning point for the process of justification to go forward.

That seems to be a central point that Jesus wants us to “get”. He also wanted the Judaism of His day to get it, too.

You see, oftentimes we think we can measure up to God’s standards, if only we would try a little harder, a little longer, just like the older son in today’s parable.

We think we can do it on our own.

This is not a new problem to Christianity: In the fourth and fifth centuries, a heresy known as Pelagianism maintained the same idea…. “You see,” they seemed to say, “You can pull yourselves up by your own spiritual bootstraps.” That seems to be a fair way to characterize the main point of the Pelagians (who were named for their founder, a priest named Pelagius).

The spirit of Pelagianism is alive-and-well today, too. We may be tempted to think that, if only we would try harder, and if we’ll do certain religious acts, and if we’ll keep the “do’s and the don’ts” in mind a little more, we’ll measure up.

But, the truth is: We have the same worm eating away at our spiritual insides as did the younger son in our parable. We will, when given the chance, delude ourselves into thinking that we can do it on our own. And when we do, failure will be the result. For, you see, if left to our own devices, we can easily fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t need anyone (let alone God) to help us measure up.

Here, we see the process of sanctification at work…the younger son, having admitted his shortcomings, is now restored to a full and intimate relationship with his father. From this point onward (we can safely suppose, I think – Jesus doesn’t explicitly say so in the parable), the younger son can live up to the father’s standards, for an ongoing relationship has now been re-established.

A word of caution is in order here: The process of sanctification holds God’s standards, God’s measure, in view at all times. We might be tempted to do what the younger son seems to have done: we might be tempted to lower the measuring stick (or ignore it altogether), so that we can believe that we do, indeed, measure up in every respect to being the person God wants us to be.

But God’s standards are unchangeable. His holiness is unchangeable, His love is unchangeable.

And it is in love that God the Father sent God the Son, not only to make up the difference for our spiritual and moral shortcomings, but to enable us, by His living within us, to grow into the full measure of God the Father’s holiness. So, it is Christ’s example of holiness, and Christ’s power, residing within us, that makes growth possible.

Today, we have a parable before us which has everything to do with God’s measure of holiness, God’s mercy in making up for our shortcomings, and God’s power in assisting us to meet the full measure of His expectations for us.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.