"Don't Miss the Party!" Luke 15:25-32

A sermon preached at Hebron Baptist Church, Denham Springs, LA on Sunday, November 29, 2009 by Pastor Joe Alain.

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him” (Luke 15:28)

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:25-32
The older brother. On the outside he was everything a father could want in a son. But on the inside he was sour and hollow. Overcome by jealousy. Consumed by anger. Blinded by bitterness. He is the real prodigal son. And yet who would ever have known it? He looked so right. He played by the rules and paid all his dues. He kept his room straight. He kept his nose clean, he was the loyal and dutiful son. While his brother was sowing his wild oats, he stayed home and sowed the crops.

The younger son had broken his father’s heart. He had squandered his inheritance in prodigal (wasteful) living. But he came to his senses (v.17) and he came back home where his father welcomed him with open arms. The father threw a thanksgiving feast, one to remember (v.23).

But the older brother was not all too happy that his little brother was welcomed back by dad with open arms and given a homecoming party, a thanksgiving feast. The older brother meticulously followed his father’s rules. He never ran away from home. He never blatantly asked his father for his share of the future inheritance. He never squandered the family farm on sinful living. By all appearances he was the model son. However, appearances can be deceivingly deadly. The older son never left his father’s house but his heart had.

Remember, the Pharisees (religious rulers) are hearing Jesus tell this story (Lk. 15:1). The older brother, like the religious rulers, is religious but lost, meticulously observant but joyless, outwardly churchgoing but inwardly a hypocrite. The religious people of Jesus’ day, like today, thought that they could make themselves righteous before God. They majored on the external matters of religion but their hearts were cold and indifferent. Jesus said about the Pharisees and Scribes that they “honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:8). What a shock it was to them when Jesus said that tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom (being saved) while they were shutting themselves out (Matt. 21:31).

The real prodigal of the story is the older brother. There is more hope for a prodigal son or daughter who knows that they have sinned and need God’s forgiveness than there is for the self-righteous religious person who has never sensed their sin, guilt, and helpless estate before God (Lk. 15:7; Mk. 2:17; Matt. 9:10-13). You have to know that you’re lost before you can be found – saved! The younger son knew that he was lost, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (v.18). Because he repented of his sin, he was restored by the father – he was found. However, his older brother never saw how his heart was filled with anger, bitterness, self-righteousness, pride, and a loveless and legalistic spirit.

Let’s be honest, from a human standpoint, it’s not to difficult for us to understand why the older brother was angry (v.28). We can easily identify with him. “So this is how a son gets recognition in this family! Get drunk and squander all of the family money and you get a party!” The older brother is furious and refuses to participate in the homecoming thanksgiving feast, so he sits outside and pouts and misses the party.

We are told that the day the younger son came home, the older brother had been working out in the fields. When he came home that evening “he heard music and dancing” (v.25). It was obvious that a party was going on and he didn’t know anything about it. He had to ask one of the servants “what was going on” (v.26). This story intimates the distance between the older son and his father. The older son was in the father’s house, but he didn’t know the longing of his father. He didn’t have the father’s heart. The older son was a son but a son from a distance.

You can be a Christian like that. In the Father’s house, having access to Him and all that He has, and yet knowing Him from an impersonal distance. Not really knowing Him, not knowing His longings – His will. Not really knowing His heart. How can this be? Because like the older son our relationship with our Father can be superficial at best or non-existent at worst. In the Father’s house, but not knowing the Father. Serving the Father out of duty rather than delight. Obedient but not joyful. Proper but not pure. Religious but having no relationship.

The younger brother did not deserve the Father’s love. He did not merit a party! What he deserved was punishment for his waywardness. What he deserved was a stern rebuke from his father. He deserved naked shame not a robe; he deserved a whip not a ring; he deserved bread and water not a fatted calf; he deserved probation not restoration.

The younger son did not get one thing that he deserved! And of course that’s the whole point of grace. You do not get what you deserve, but you do get what you need! It appears that both sons spent some time in the hog pen. One in the pen of rebellion – the other in the pen of self-pity. The younger brother has come home, the older brother is still in the far country. He’s bitter and he’s pouting and he’s shouting inside “It’s not fair!”

How inviting are the self-made dungeons of bitterness. The call from the dark caves beckon us daily to enter. The truth is, we have all had enough hurt to be bitter. We have all had enough trials to turn us away from God. We have all had enough disappointments to detour us from walking with God. We have all had enough people to hurt us to become angry and bitter. Bitterness often comes from the various trials that we all experience simply because of our humanity. “Why me Lord?” “Why did my loved one have to die?” “Why my child, Lord?” “What went wrong in my family?” “God, why do you not answer me?” “Lord, do you even care?” “Lord, will things ever be normal again?”

Bitterness often sets in because of our imperfect human relationships. Others let us down, betray our trust. People do not always meet our expectations, we become hurt.

The older son is a prisoner, a prisoner of his mind. Bitterness and broken dreams hold him captive. He has the key but he’s not free. His father pleaded with him to come out of his dungeon and to join the party – but bitterness keeps you from enjoying God’s party of grace. Bitterness says “I have a right to be mad. I am going to just sit here and sulk. I’ll throw my own party – a pity party and the guest list will be me, my and I.”

What is the cure for this curse of bitterness? It has everything to do with what we are celebrating today. In the Lord’s Supper we are celebrating the sweetness of God’s grace demonstrated to us in the cross of Jesus Christ. This is what we celebrate today in the Lord’s Supper. The cross of Christ makes the bitter sweet again! The cross of Christ has the power to redeem us from our self-imposed prisons of sin and bitterness and make us free.

There is an interesting account in Exodus 15:23-25. The people of God have been freed from Egypt but they are not yet in the promised land. They have traveled for three days without finding water (v.22). They eventually came to some water but they could not drink it because it was bitter, this is why the place was called Marah which means bitter (v.23). God gave Moses some unusual instructions, to place a tree branch into the bitter waters. When he did the water became sweet and pleasant (v.25). The cross of Jesus Christ plunged into the pool of sinful humanity makes the bitter sweet.

God’s grace is able to wash away a life of bitterness (“many years,” v.29). The tragedy of bitterness is that bitter people forget what they have. Instead they focus on what they do not have or what they lost. The father reminded the older son that he had everything he’d always wanted. He had his job, his place, his name, his inheritance – he had it all. Bitterness makes you remember things you should forget and forget the things you should remember.

Today, God says remember what you should remember and forget that which you should forget. Today is a day of celebration of God’s grace. It’s a time to remember what God has done in Christ and rejoice. And God says to you, “Don’t Miss the Party! You are invited.” God invites you to bring Him your hurts, your anger, your bitterness, your sins. When you do that, the cross of Christ sweetens the bitter soul. Why continue to drink the waters of bitterness when you can be refreshed today by God’s sweet grace?

God invites you to join the celebration, to experience His grace in a meaningful way today. As you take of the bread and of the cup, remember the cross of Christ, remember the price that was paid, remember God’s amazing grace in your life. If you’ve never experienced God’s saving grace, God invites you to the cross, the cross which transforms our bitter lives into works of amazing grace.

For His Glory!
Pastor Joe