The Feast of Forgiveness :: Luke 15:11-32
Of all the parables Jesus told, the one about the prodigals might be the most exciting. Emotion abounds in these 25 verses from our gospel reading by Saint Luke. This isn’t just a trip to Disney World or a national park. It has sibling rivalries and involves human feelings. It’s full of family and fights; we experience homecomings, singing, and dancing; we go from wallowing in the mud to walking on red carpets; we descend from life to death, and then ascend to everlasting life. This text is ...
Amazing Grace: How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me /
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
That always makes for a good story ... because it’s our story. But there is something about this story that makes it far better than just any story. Did you hear what happened? Our Father has come running to embrace us. Our father has come running to deliver to us heavenly gifts.
Now I don’t know about you, but even though I am an oldest son, I can connect with the younger son a lot. Some of us have had too many wild nights in our lives that we are ashamed of. Some of us have cut too many corners and exposed ourselves to too many temptations. The Devil has haunted too many of us with our past licentiousness. And some of us, after eating slop, have come crawling back home, broken by our sinful life, broken and hurting, broken and longing for a savior, longing for the heavenly feasts our Father provides.
If you feel like that younger son, join the club, and hear the words of our Blessed Father ...
WELCOME HOME: IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF FORGIVENESS
But many more of us have been the older son, the loyal son, the one who says he didn’t live it up, the one who has been working so very hard for so very long to protect the father’s sanctuary. As the oldest son, some of us have always been more mature, more settled down. We are proud of what we have built for ourselves. As the oldest, we’ve taken pride in being faithful to our community. And this delights our Father, who urges us to celebrate at the feast of forgiveness!
Yes, brothers and sisters of Trinity Lutheran Church, you have been more faithful than any congregation I’ve ever been associated with. Look at all of you, here again this week. But now your wayward, good for nothing, cursed brother or sister, son or daughter, friend or neighbor, has come home. He cursed your father before he left. Yet your father has done something downright shocking. He is forgiving him ... with a feast of forgiveness no less!
And that has you steaming!
Today’s parable is the third in rapid succession that Jesus told to express how heaven rejoices when the lost are found and the blind receive their sight. It is also the second week in a row from our lectionary that prominently features the Lord’s Supper and the joys of receiving this gift from God each and every Lord’s Day. The Lord longs to deliver these gifts to you every week! All the angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven laud and magnify our Lord’s glorious name when our good shepherd brings one lost lamb home. They strike up the band as the Lord of Hosts slaughters the fatted calf and breaks out the finest well-aged wine for the feast of forgiveness. Meanwhile, we tend to just get annoyed at the thought.
Won’t all these celebrations lose their meaning? In a word, No.
By sharing this parable, Jesus has perfectly illustrated the self-centeredness of man. These sons are thinking of no one but themselves. They’ve both been slaves to works, rebels without a cause. They’ve both been concerned only with the bottom line and what might happen tomorrow. Neither of them are interested in sharing the peace with each other. They aren’t interested in receiving the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation every day, let alone every week.
It didn’t take long for the young son to figure out how much he missed that. He sank so low he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. This is what we all experience when we separate ourselves from God’s Word for even one day; when don’t do home devotions; when we stop studying and meditating on the Christological nature of scripture; and especially when we deny ourselves the sacraments: those divine gifts that deliver the forgiveness of sins ... baptism, absolution, the Lord’s Supper. In giving himself over to the realm of lustful passion, the youngest gave himself over to the kingdom of darkness and death. In throwing the feast of forgiveness, the Father brought his youngest back to light and life for your justification.
And that really irritated his older brother, the other prodigal in this parable.
Father, how could you throw a feast of forgiveness today, he’s saying!
There are far too many people who think the same way, declaring to one another: Look, Father, these many years I’ve been serving you, and I never disobeyed your command, but you never gave me even a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours arrived after wasting your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!
The anger and behavior of the oldest son is arrogant. It betrays the Father’s invitation. It’s spiteful to accuse the Father of never throwing a feast of forgiveness for him. It’s deceitful to declare that he didn’t need the forgiveness of sins; that he alone was faithful, that he deserved praise for all his service over the years.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is recounting these parables ... last week the Parable of the Great Invitation ... and this week the Parable of the Prodigals ... for people around him who have problems accepting, receiving, and sharing the forgiveness of sins.
Are you still having problems with it too? Insistent you can have it too often? That you don’t need it? Like Paul, we need to declare I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, that I have ignored our Lutheran Confessions that declare we celebrate the full Divine Service every Lord’s Day. Our Lord provides the feast of forgiveness for all those among us who are weak and weary of sin and who need a savior who unites himself with us. This is exactly why the Lord provides us with the Feast of Forgiveness. Jesus came to be one with us, to unite himself with all of us who are just like Paul: murderous, insolent, persecuting blasphemers, who silently hide in our own closets, thinking we don’t have any sins worth confessing, that we don’t need absolution daily!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the name of Jesus: Repent for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near to wash us clean, to deliver his absolution, and to allow the Father to finish his Divine Service to us with a feast of forgiveness!
Son, you are always with me, the Father says, and all that is mine is yours. It is fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.
Even when we are a long way off, far from the feast, our heavenly father sees us and feels compassion for us, and he runs and embraces us, long before all of us good-for-nothings take even one step into the church, long before we even opened our mouths to confess to God and yes, to each other, our sins. Our heavenly Father delivers life and salvation to all who embrace his promises. He says Come to the feast!
Yes, who is like our God, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He has cast all of our sins onto our Lord Jesus. We have received mercy for this reason, that in me ... Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Thank God, we aren’t judged by our older brother. If we were, none of us would be saved. We would never have the feast of forgiveness! Thank God, we are instead judged by the righteousness of Christ, who through baptism is in us, and we in him. Jesus has taken our sinfulness from us. He has made us a holy nation, a holy people, a holy temple. He has taken the burden of sin from us, and redeemed us. He has liberated us from death, and given us the living hope through his resurrection. And now the feast of forgiveness awaits! Our Lord gave us his Supper for this very reason ... to bring forgiveness to us.
Thank the Lord and sing the praise of the Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, who tells his pastors, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him ... and all of them ... put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate (v.20, 22-23). It’s time for the feast of forgiveness!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Father is merciful above all comprehension. He enables us to turn back toward Him. He who meets us where we are. He is eager to deliver the fullness of God’s love toward sinners in the feast of forgiveness. The cross is now behind us, and the feast is in front of us. So let us rejoice every week that a prodigal returns and seeks admission to the Lord’s Table. Let us give thanks too when our older brothers join us.
The invitation is still yours: You who were lost and now are found.
Come join us in the feast to end all feasts, the feast of forgiveness.
The Lord’s Supper is about to begin.