The Feast of the Father

Pastor Craig Barnes tells a very personal story. He says, “[My father] left us when I was sixteen, and once he left, he never stopped running. Every time we tried to find him, he would only leave and disappear again. He died alone in a raggedy trailer park somewhere in the middle of Florida. A neighboring pastor, who did not know him, spent two days trying to find his family even though he did not know our names. My dad missed all of the important events in his sons' lives: graduations, weddings, birth of children, our two ordinations, and both of our Ph.D. ceremonies. He missed all of it. I prayed and prayed that he would return to us. I used to yearn for the day that he would show up in a congregation where I was preaching. My longing was for him to come through the line at the end of worship, take my hand and say, 'Good job, son' But he never came."

The story we have been studying for the past five weeks is a story, not about a father who didn’t come, but a God who ran to His prodigal son.

This story is the result of a group of people gathering around to listen to Jesus. Luke tells us in Luke 15:1-2: “Now the tax collectors and 'sinners' were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"

The tax gatherers and the sinners loved to gather around and listen to Jesus. Andy Stanley wrote, in his book, The Grace of God, the ones who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. Then in verse two, we are told that the Pharisees and teachers of the law gathered around again began to murmur among themselves. People who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. So out of their murmuring, Jesus tells these stories that reveal the heart of God.

The third of these stories begins with a father and two sons. Jesus understood birth order long before modern child psychology began to talk about it. The older brother is a behaver. He did everything right. He tried to find fulfillment in life by obeying all the rules. The younger brother is a misbehaver. He wants to find fulfillment by sowing his wild oats, by searching for everything fun and living life to its fullest.

But the reality of this story told by Jesus, is that the story isn’t really about a rebellious younger son, or a self-righteous older son. It is really a story about the Father. The rebellion of the younger son, resulting in it’s ultimate degradation of the pigpen didn’t shock the Pharisees and teachers. Sin always has a gotcha. And the religious people of Jesus’ day understood this. They were shocked that the prodigal ended up in the pigpen. The self-righteous behavior of the older brother, didn’t really shock the tax gatherers and sinners. For decades they have felt the condemnation and judgment of angry, bitter, religious people. You know some of them, don’t you? The tax collectors and sinners weren’t surprised that the older brother acted like this.

But the actions of the Father shocked both groups. This week, we are going to drill-down on the actions of the Father and see what Jesus is telling us about our Heavenly Father.

The Cost of Reconciliation

Verses 29-31 states: “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.”

What did it cost to bring the younger brother home? At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. There is no punishment, he is just taken in. The father opens his arms, puts new clothes on him, and that’s that. It’s free.

However, this is a great mistake. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is very costly for someone else. The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the family. He alludes to it when he says, “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But... you kill the fattened calf for him!” The elder brother is angry because of the cost of this reconciliation.

Remember, the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the 
inheritance. And it was all spent, all gone. Yet now the father is restoring him into the family. He has already put a robe on him, and  given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified contracts. The younger brother’s fair share of the wealth is all gone, but now he is back, and every robe, ring, fatted calf is coming out of someone else’s pocket.

Everything the father has, now is legally the elder brother’s. He is the only heir of all the father has left. So every robe, every ring, every fattened calf, every cent of the father’s, is ultimately the elder brother’s. When the father says to the elder brother, “everything I have is yours”  in verse 31, he is speaking the literal truth.

So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensive. Look at the feast. The father cannot forgive the younger brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. He is the one who must bear the cost of the reconciliation. Forgiveness is not free. It always costs someone something.

The True Elder Brother

At 1.25 pm on the 28th of April, 1988 a Boeing 737 jet, Flight 243, operated by Aloha Airlines took off from Hilo International Airport in Hawaii. The plane had undertaken a remarkable 89,090 take offs and landings. This was its 89,091 take-off.

The plane was carrying 90 passengers and 5 crew and quickly climbed to an altitude of 24,000 feet. 23 minutes after take- off there was an explosive noise in the roof of the fuselage which lead to a catastrophic explosion and decompression of the cabin that ripped away much of the roof in the front section of the plane. Miraculously and with great skill the pilots of the plane were able to land plane 10 minutes later in Maui. 65 passengers were injured and one flight attendant lost her life.

The picture with this blog was taken shortly after the plan landed. Air crash investigators immediately began their work. The cause of the catastrophic explosion was traced to metal fatigue caused by corrosion. There was a failure of the adhesive used to seal joins in the aluminum sheets of the fuselage that allowed water to seep in.

One small crack. One small crack in a plane that no one could see lead to a catastrophic failure. Everything looked good on the outside. There was no reason to doubt the plane’s air worthiness; it all looked good.

Jesus told a story of a Father and two sons. The ‘bad son’ – the younger son – rebels against his father and squanders a third of the family fortune on wild living in a far country. All the while his older brother stays home, faithfully sticking by dad and working hard. He is the good son. But after his younger brother returns, and after his Father welcomes him back with open arms into the family – the cracks that were always there start to appear and a catastrophic explosion eventuates.

In our study this week we are going to explore an often missed twist that Jesus tells in the story. The drill-down point of this story is this: "Reconciliation and salvation always costs someone something." As we will see this week, salvation really isn't free...it was very costly to the true older brother.

Appreciating God's Grace

How do we keep from giving in to the rebellion of the Prodigal or the self-righteousness of the Older Brother. Let me close this week's study by giving you two suggestions.

First, remember the uniqueness of the Gospel message. It is a resignation of our own attempts to find fulfillment in the far country or in our obedient behavior. Either attempt will leave us empty and lost. The uniqueness of grace is that we can never find our God-ordained destiny through either journey. The world will leave us empty. Self-righteousness will leave us deceived. Neither leads to fulfillment. Only the grace of  God can lead us to our destiny.

Secondly, remember the vulnerability of Jesus. Verses 1, 2 of Luke 15 tells us that the whole reason this story is told is because of the muttering of the Pharisees over Jesus having fellowship with people they considered to be unacceptable. They are Jesus' mortal enemies. They are out to, and eventually will, crucify Him. Yet, when Jesus tells of the Father going out to plead with the older brother to come in and celebrate, He is showing His remarkable love for even the Pharisees. For in essence, He is telling them, "I am here to plead with you...come in and enjoy the Father's celebration!" Even though they want to kill Him, He is reaching out in love to them.


This love toward His enemies made Him vulnerable and cost Him his life. On the cross, instead of cursing His enemies, He lovingly took the penalty of their sins on Himself.  Knowing what He has done for us will rid us of our self-righteousness. We were so sinful He had to die for us. But we were so loved that He was glad to die for us. That takes away both the pride and the fear that makes us elder brothers.

Signs of an Older-Brother Spirit

The older brother reveals his heart when he speaks after the Father welcomes the Prodigal home. In Luke 15:29-30, Jesus tells us that the older brother said, “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!” This passage reveals five things about an older-brother spirit.

But before we look at them, let me give you a warning. For those of us who try to follow Christ faithfully. It is easy to slip into the older-brother mindset. In fact, it is our default mode. When we begin to lose our passion for the Father, and begin to become more passionate about the Father's things, one or all of those five attitudes will surface.

1. A deep anger. Verse 28 says that "he became angry". Elder brothers believe their faithfulness should manipulate God's hand into giving His blessings to them. And if it doesn’t happen, they get angry.  
2. A joyless and mechanical obedience.  Verse 29 reveals the heart of the older brother when he said to the Father, “I’ve been slaving for you.” Older brothers find obedience a joyless, mechanical, slavery.
3. A coldness to younger brother-types. In verse 30, the older son does not even “own” his brother. He refers to him as "this son of yours". Christians who pride themselves on their doctrinal and moral purity, often feel superiority to those who have different views.
4. A lack of assurance of the father’s love. He doubted the Father's love when he said in verse 29, "You never killed a fatted calf for me!" Every time something goes wrong for older brothers, they wonder if it’s a punishment. They often wonder if they've repented deeply enough. prayers asking for things, but not sense his love.
5. An unforgiving, judgmental spirit. It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel as though you are beyond doing that vile of a sin. The older brother thought he would never be like the Prodigal, but the irony was, he was guilty of the same rebelliousness and motivated but the same sinful desires.