Repentance Changes a Man

Repentance Changes a Man

Luke 15:1-32 T Trinity 3

Lord, your grace is so vast and our sins so great. Teach us repentance always. Show us mercy always. Change us, that we may rejoice with heaven.

INI

Would you recognize the kingdom of God if you saw it? If it drew near to you, would run to it? Do you think you’d understand it? A separate but related question, how well do you understand repentance?

Today’s Gospel reading teaches us the essence and joy of the Christian life. This morning we read 3 different parables that teach us about one thing: heaven rejoices when the lost are found. The first parable – the lost sheep. The shepherd who has 100 sheep, loses one and leaves the 99 to go find the one. He finds it, carries it home on his shoulders, and calls all his family and friends to come celebrate in community with him – because that one lost sheep was important. The second parable – the lost coin. A woman loses a coin, and searches her house all over until she finds it. Out of exorbitant joy, she calls her family and friends to come celebrate with her! Because the lost coin was important. The third parable – the lost son. Also known as the Prodigal Son. The son asks for his inheritance from the father. He squanders it. He hit rock bottom and returned back to his father’s house. The father’s son once lost, is now found – so they celebrate!  

Now all this is good – it shows God’s grace! But here’s the truth of the matter: God’s grace scandalizes the self-righteous. The Christian church should rejoice and celebrate with sinners when they’re found! We should eat and celebrate with them! We shouldn’t stand to the side and sort of keep to ourselves and make sly comments about others while the party happens! That’s not the Christian way! That’s not the way of mercy: that’s the way of self-righteousness.

That epitomizes the older brother of the prodigal son. He wanted a celebration too. He wanted to be recognized for the good son that he was. He never left the house. He always busted his butt for his father. Yet, his rebellious brother gets the celebration and attention? Things didn’t add up for the older brother – his father’s love and joy seemed a little over the top for the rebellious son, and no joy was shown by the father to him. The rebellious son gets the feast, but the faithful son doesn’t. The grace and reaction of the father didn’t seem fair.

But that’s because grace is never fair. And this is precisely the problem with the older brother. The Pharisees are just like him. And we are too. The grace of Jesus scandalizes the self-righteous. Because the grace of Jesus is unfathomable. It’s really inconceivable. It goes against every human notion of “earning your keep” because everything is given just so freely!

If you notice in the first 2 verses of the Gospel, the Pharisees had a hard time comprehending the riches of this grace. Luke wrote, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”  At the end of the previous chapter, Jesus taught “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The Pharisees looked the kingdom of God right in the face and disassociated with it. They heard his preaching, but ignored it. They saw the joyous feast happening where the lost sinners were found by God! The tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus! This isn’t an occasion to scoff and discredit Jesus, the host! It’s an occasion to rejoice! For God is seeking the lost sheep! He is seeking for the lost coin! He is running out to embrace the lost son! The kingdom of God was there on earth in their midst in the person of Jesus!

How could they have been so angry when all this good stuff was happening? I think it’s because they never really understood repentance. And perhaps as Christians, we can get angry too. Especially when we see the world’s actions. Perhaps that anger is justifiable at times – God’s created order and design is dismissed for a man-made one. The church is shrinking, and immorality is on the rise. The influence of true Christianity shrinks and is sort of told to play quietly in the corner. We’ve adopted a “huddle together to survive” instinct – and perhaps that’s led us to be insular. As a result, our witness to other diminishes. We look to external actions to prove repentance – that you’re one of us, that you’re worth my time. We mandate repentance to look like step 1, step 2, step 3 so that I can see if it’s genuine. I’m certainly guilty of such thoughts – I want the church and her people to look like THIS or THAT, instead of trusting that the Lord will change their heart. But here’s the fundamental fact of what these parables teach us, and why the Pharisees miss out on the celebration of God’s kingdom, and why they don’t really understand repentance, and it’s something I have to constantly remind myself: the man doesn’t have to change for repentance. Rather, repentance changes the man.

Said a different way, you cannot separate sins from sinners by teaching them to avoid sin. The man doesn’t have to change himself to repent and receive Jesus. To believe that is to believe in salvation by works, not grace. Change comes by the work of Jesus. Only HE can separate sins from sinners. And that’s the joyous occasion of Jesus being with the tax collectors and sinners – he’s not sitting down being buddies with them and affirming bad behaviors. The sinners are the ones who leave changed, not Jesus! Yet, to find the lost, Jesus sat down with them. He was teaching them! He was showing them a better way! He showed them the way of life that comes only through HIM! This is a reason to rejoice and praise God! For Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and sinners submit themselves to the Savior! But the Pharisees, like the older brother, grumble at the Lord’s grace – because that’s what self-righteous people do. They don’t understand repentance.

Actually, the Pharisees and Scribes could pat the back of the prodigal son – because he tried to save himself. Initially, the son didn’t want the father’s grace. He wanted to be a slave in his father’s house – he wanted to earn his keep – because that was better than living with the pigs. In this way, the prodigal son’s reaction was one to be expected and applauded by the Pharisees – a deep sense of sorrow followed by an act to make amends for that sin. Perhaps we see repentance similarly – it’s incomplete until we give something in return. If the parable carried out this way, and the father accepted the sons offer to be a slave in his house, the Pharisees’ expectations about repentance would’ve been confirmed. Because they believed one must first show through their deeds that they deserved to be readmitted into the community of Israel. 

So, the prodigal son’s behavior was predictable for them. But the unpredictable character in the parable is the father! Because He accepts his son back into his house as a son, not a slave! And He does it with joy! Jesus’ description of the father’s actions is a portrait of complete and total grace and unconditional love. The compassion of the father comes first before the confession of the son – he runs out and accepts his son even before the son could get to the part of making amends for his rebellion! In the prodigal son’s confession to the father, he leaves out the rehearsed part about being a slave in the father’s house because he’s completely overwhelmed by grace! But the important part is that he left out the amends for his ways. In that way, his repentance is true, and not conditional on his actions. The change comes after repentance, not before.

This parable describes you. It describes all the family of faith here. And here’s the good news, the lost sinners are found! But the lost are not found because of things they do, or the amends for sins they make. Rather, they’re found because they’ve been changed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, who hosts a table before us now! Here He eats and drinks with sinners, that is, you! He gives Himself as the sacrificial meal, His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. So, let us come together with God and each other to celebrate that God has found us, and restores us back to His house as sons and daughters.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston