The Prodigal Gospel Pt. 2

Amazing Grace

Last week I shared the first of three posts called The Prodigal Gospel, based on the parable Jesus tells in Luke 15:11-32. In this text, Jesus tells a story about a father who loves his two sons even though they both have problems. So the story Jesus tells reveals a truth regarding the grace of God.¹

As you read the text and the rest of this post, I hope this word about the grace of God will encourage you. After all, we all have our issues and we all need an encounter with the grace of God. So hear is the text of Luke 15:11-32

Jesus continued: “There was 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 fattened 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 the 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 and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. 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.’”²

Ms. Mildred isn’t her real name but I met Ms. Mildred when she was an elderly Christian woman. She wasn’t in the best of health anymore but Ms. Mildred regularly attended the little country church in Arkansas that I preached for when I was a student at Harding University.

Ms. Mildred would always say in a light-hearted manner, “Preacher, I sewed a lot of wild oats when I was young and I’ve been praying for crop failure ever since.” And I always responded in a light-hearted manner, saying something like “I’m sure all of us need to pray for some crop failure at times.” And we do! But then one Sunday, Ms. Mildred seemed upset. Troubled, we might say. I knew that her heart doctor had recently told her that, with her congestive heart failure, she probably would not live much longer. So after worship I asked Ms Mildred how she was doing and Ms. Mildred was unable to speak as she began to cry.

So we sat down and she began to tell me about her days as a young woman running with the moon-shining crowd, working in what was then called a speakeasy—an illegal tavern—where all kinds of untoward deeds took place. Ms. Mildred even told me about becoming pregnant out of wedlock and ending her pregnancy, a burden of guilt and shame along with even grief that was still with her all these years later.

As Ms. Mildred continued to talk, she said, “I know I’m a sinner and I’m scared.” So I asked her why she was scared and with tears in her eyes she said, “I’m afraid God’s going to send me to hell for the things I’ve done.”

Listening to Ms. Mildred brings to mind the great hymn Amazing Grace sang in nearly every church. To this day I can see the smiles on the faces in that little country as they sang, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Yet there’s a lot of irony in knowing that a church sings Amazing Grace while at least one Christian still carries the guilt and shame of sin, living with the fear of God’s judgment.

“Why so?” we might ask. Did this little country church lack an understanding of God’s grace, as has been the case in some Churches of Christ? Was the church just plagued by that old heresy known as pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? Or could it be that even though grace is talked about and even sung about, it’s just too difficult to imagine in cultures where we’re often judged by appearance and merit—the good and bad choices that one makes?

Whatever the reason, here was a Christian lady—Ms. Mildred—who had yet to know God’s grace. And I’ve often wondered since then how many other Ms. Mildreds there are in church.

But it should not come as a surprise that a church might not understand the grace of God. Even some of the religious experts, like the Pharisees and teachers of the Jewish Law, struggled with grace. At the beginning of Luke 15, we are told that the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear Jesus but the religious experts were muttering, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Something’s wrong with this scenario. Either Jesus is holding company with the wrong people or the religious experts have misunderstood God and his kingdom.

But Jesus, never missing an opportunity to teach, tells three parables. The first parable is about a lost sheep, the second one is about a lost coin, and finally, the last parable involves a lost son. However, this last parable tells a story about a father and his two sons, neither of which understand the grace of God.

The younger son demands his inheritance and leaves home once his father gives it to him. So the younger son goes to a far-off place where he “squandered his wealth in wild living.” Once famine strikes, he’s left with nothing and must hire himself out as a citizen of another country, where he would gladly eat pig food.³ Not surprisingly though, the young son realizes he has made a foolish mess of his life and wants to come home. As the text tells us, before this younger son even made it back home, “his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.”

I doubt the religious experts were thinking about compassion or any other expression of grace. But Jesus was. Yet the notion of grace is so difficult to grasp, let alone receive and extend.

In the parable, neither the younger son nor the older son can conceive of any grace. The younger son comes home only because he has nowhere else to go but he can’t imagine any sort of mercy. The younger son believes his only hope is to bargain with his father. So along the way home, he plotted how he would say to his 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.”

Such a bargain is not grace. Grace is an unmerited favor, whereas a bargain seeks a favor by offering some form or payment in exchange for the favor—meritocracy. Grace is inconceivable. As far as the younger son knows, his best hope seems to be offering himself as a hired hand. Perhaps if he works hard enough, then his father might eventually forgive him. But surprise, surprise! After the father gives his son a big hug and a kiss, he calls for a big celebration. “Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

Absent from the father's response is any rebuke, shaming, condemnation, and certainly acceptance of a bargain where his son can work as a hired servant to atone for his sins. Instead, the father calls for a celebration.⁴ Does that surprise us? I ask because I doubt the religious experts muttering at Jesus could understand the grace of God that Jesus is revealing. Or perhaps another way is to say that the prominent church-going folks of Jesus’ day couldn’t understand the grace of God.

But the parable Jesus is telling isn’t finished. The party is underway. The feast is happening, with music and dancing. As the party is in full bloom, the older son shows up and hears all the ruckus taking place. The text tells us, “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.” When his father comes out to meet him, the older brother complains to his father, arguing how he has been an obedient child all his life but has never even received a single goat to celebrate. Yet, when the rebellious younger brother comes, a big party is thrown.

The older son believes in meritocracy too. But again, absent from the father’s response is any rebuke, shaming, condemnation, and certainly any concession to the older son’s meritocracy. Instead, the father looks at his older son and says, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

One of the aspects of grace that makes it so amazing is that grace is for everyone. There’s grace for both brothers, as both are free to share in life with their father. Another aspect of grace that makes it so amazing is that grace is freely given. Grace is not conditioned on anyone’s merit. Both sons have always had a place in their father’s house. The older son has always lived in that grace and when the younger son returns home, he is allowed to live in that grace too. Jesus tells this parable because the grace of God that makes salvation possible is and will always be an unmerited favor that is freely given.

This parable about a father and his two sons is really about God and his relationship to both the Jews and Gentiles. Can we imagine how the grace of God is for both Israel and the Gentiles? If we can then perhaps we can imagine how the grace of God is for both the religious do-gooders and the sinners, the church and the unchurched or dechurched, Christians and those who have yet to become Christians. Then it makes all the sense in the world why Jesus would sit at the tables of sinners. After all, the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God—is the grace of God at hand.⁵ Jesus is eating with sinners because in and through Jesus, God is extending gracious hospitality to all. Ultimately, Jesus will give his life on the cross, dying and then being raised from death and exalted as Lord, so that no amount of sin nor any other evil power will be a barrier between God and us.

Now can we grasp why the grace of God is truly amazing?

1. With a few slight alterations, this post was originally the manuscript for a sermon titled Prodigal Love that I preached to the Newark Church of Christ on Sunday, June 16, 2024.

2. Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

3. C. F. Evans, Saint Luke, TPI New Testament Commentaries (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990), 592, the mention of pigs is regarded as the “extreme of degradation for a Jew.”

4. Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 159, explains that confession wasn’t necessary because “the relationship did not rest on moral performance and therefore could not be destroyed by immoral acts. The son’s return from ‘the distant country’ and the father’s refusal to let the son out of his heart sufficed.”

5. Matthew W. Bates, Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2019), 123, points out that the gospel is grace (χάρις) because it is a gift from God with the saving power for both Jews and Gentiles (cf. Rom 1:16).