Being in Need

​4th Sunday in Lent – C                                                                                    LSB #’s 435, 560, 611
Text – Luke 15:14
 
And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, & he began to be in need. 
 
BEING IN NEED
 
 
Do you remember back to your days of being in elementary school?  There would have been a time or two  when one of the students tried to play around with cutting in line.   Do you remember the disgust  with the unfairness of it?  “I have been patiently waiting in line; what gives you the right  to deem yourself better than me?” 
Our distaste for those who cut in line remains unchanged as we grow up.    Whether someone cuts to the front of the lunch line or the airport security check in,  we find ourselves dealing with the feeling  of being annoyed.  Our annoyance is not just about  being orderly & following the rules.  Instead, we rue the flouting of justice & fairness.  
And that is the powerful dynamic at play  as Jesus deals with the grumbling religious types of His day.  People who are deeply involved in the church are not immune from the temptations of Satan.  One of the devil’s tricks involves  stoking our instinctive belief  that salvation is about fairness. 
For example, the Pharisees had been patiently waiting in line for Messiah to bring God’s kingdom to earth.  Meanwhile, they took it upon themselves to determine who  would be in the kingdom  & who would not.  Two main categories of people had been ruled out – tax collectors & sinners.  Tax collectors were obviously rejected  since they were traitors to their nation. 
The category of sinners was not defined as you might guess.   The prevailing theory of the day was that anyone who was poor,  disabled,  lame or blind was in that condition  as direct punishment from God because they were sinning in some continuous way.   It was their misfortune that barred them from the kingdom of God.  The Jewish leaders did not consider this conclusion  to be up for debate.  Tax collectors & sinners cutting in line,  or even attempting to enter God’s kingdom, would not be fair  because they did not live pious lives.  To associate with them  brought their uncleanness upon you,  & Jesus  was associating with them. 
When chapter 14 ended, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  (14:35b ESV)   Opening chapter 15, Luke set the scene: “Now the tax collectors & sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus].  And the Pharisees & the scribes grumbled,  saying, ‘This man receives sinners & eats with them.’  So [Jesus] told them this parable.”  (15:1-3 ESV) 
It may sound like Jesus is lining up the Pharisees to get some of their own medicine,  & He is, but this parable addresses both sides of His audience.  The Son of God will speak words to encourage the tax collectors & sinners who’ve been treated as outcasts.  At the same time,  Jesus will challenge the Pharisees to see what extravagant love  God the Father has for His children. 
As we are born here on earth  we don’t respond well to God’s blessing.   As St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “…you were dead in your transgressions & sins.”  (2:1 NIV)  Dead people do not respond well to blessings,  & the younger son in the parable was certainly dead.  No godly son would even consider asking his father for the inheritance. 
That this younger son was truly dead is announced by the father at the end of the parable: “It was fitting to celebrate & be glad, for this your brother was dead,  & is alive…”  (15:32 ESV)  Asking for the inheritance was saying he’d rather have his father’s money  than his father.   This younger son was not responding well to either blessing – money  or father. 
He finally begins to respond appropriately once all  of his blessings run out.  He’d left behind his loving father,  & all the community to which he belonged,  when he took that journey to a far country.  Now, “…when he had spent everything,  a severe famine arose in that country, & he began to be in need.”  (Luke 15:14 ESV)   That’s when the son finally begins to think,   & Jesus highlights the severe state of his poverty by stating that the son hires himself out to feed pigs.  There is nothing lower that a Jewish man could do.   To Jesus’ original audience,  the son was now outside the covenant of God,  just like they believed the tax collectors & sinners were. 
At this point  the son comes to a crucial realization: “…How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread,  but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise & go to my father, & I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven & before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’  (Luke 15:17-19 ESV) 
The son had to reach the absolute end of all his blessings  before he began   even to recognize that he had them, let alone  to appreciate them.  At the very least, the son is physically returning to the father who loved him & showered those blessings upon him:
“But while he was still a long way off,  his father saw him & felt compassion, & ran & embraced him & kissed him.”  (Luke 15:20b ESV)   Note, that the father doesn’t wait to hear any sort of repentant speech from his son.  The moment he sees him,  he runs out to greet him.  That alone would have made the Pharisees & scribes livid. 
To their chagrin, the father would not only eat with this tax collector & sinner,  the father would make him the guest of honor  at the impromptu homecoming celebration.  Jesus then uses the older son to reflect the attitude of the Pharisees, as they see the tax collectors & sinners cutting in line ahead of them:
“Look, these many years I have served you, & I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!”  (Luke 15:29-30 ESV)   The Pharisees were refusing to celebrate with Jesus as the tax collectors & sinners drew near to hear the words of Jesus.  Yet, as reprehensible as his attitude is, the parable does not conclude with judgment upon the older son  who represents the Pharisees.  Luke leaves the resolution open ended that we might recognize ourselves in the parable. 
How am I like the younger son who wishes his father dead,  & how am I like the older son who wishes his brother dead?  The main point of the parable isn’t about either son.  It’s about the father: “And [Jesus] said, “There was a man who had two sons.”  (Luke 15:11 ESV)    The father represents Yahweh Himself who always welcomes us home  whenever we return. 
The point of the parable is that God in heaven loves you fiercely,  vulnerably,  foolishly, courageously & unendingly.   Whether you or I have wasted opportunity after opportunity  or have been quietly working  faithfully & wondering  if we’ll ever be noticed, God loves us.   As Isaiah wrote, “…the Lord God …has become [your] salvation.”  (12:2 ESV) 
Whether you have welcomed others who are down & out  or have judged others for not measuring up, God loves you!  Whether you’re in the church reluctantly or with joy,   whether you’ve had a lifelong relationship with God,  have just come to know Him,  or aren’t even sure God really exists,  yet  our Father in heaven loves you, truly, madly, & deeply. 
God’s salvation is never about fairness,   & that is a good thing.  Amen.
 
 
 
 
Thou knowest all my griefs & fears,  Thy grace abused,  my misspent years;  yet now to Thee  with contrite tears,  Christ crucified,  I come.     Wash me & take away each stain;  let nothing of my sin remain.   For cleansing,  though it be through pain,  Christ crucified,  I come.    And then for work  to do for Thee,  which shall so sweet a service be  that angels well might envy me,  Christ crucified,  I come.  Amen.  LSB 560:2-4.