The Parable of the Father’s Table

Introduction

Father, thank you for Jonathan. Thank you for what you have been speaking to him this week about this story. Father, it is so exciting. I have seen the excitement on him this week as he has been talking about talking with you, leaning into the story. And Father, would you have our hearts, our ears open to hear what it is that you want to say? Would you speak through him? We just ask for you to have your way. You’ve already been working in the service. And we just want to say, Father, there’s space for you even now, even as we learn more about your heart and your love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

What a great morning already. Can we get the lights more up? Give people the opportunity to take notes and open their own Bibles and read along. I know you’re all waiting to do that. That’d be great. I also get to see you. I have old man eyes. It’s great.

The prodigal son story is my favorite parable. A while ago we came up with a speaking schedule, and Alf had an idea to go through some parables and talk about what Jesus was trying to say and the different ways the Father’s Heart message works into those. I was so excited about that and I wanted to jump on it, and then I thought maybe it was a little much to jump on the prodigal son story, because maybe somebody else wanted to take it. So I waited for a little bit, but not very long, and then I jumped on it. I was really excited to talk about the prodigal son story because I think it’s the most important parable, and as we get into this, you’ll understand why I think that. It’s my opinion.

I believe there’s a point where you come to faith in Christ, where you understand that Jesus died for our sins, that all are sinners, that all have fallen away from glory, that Jesus came to pay the price for that, to forgive us of our sins, and then we get to have a relationship with the Father. And then the very next thing I think you should learn is this parable, and what it means for relationship with God. Because I think it’s so important to start off on the right foot with understanding how we relate to God. So anyway, I’ll get into why I think that is, but that’s how important it is to me.

Renaming it the Father’s Table

Why is it called the parable of the prodigal son? Back in ancient Greek, when Luke 15 was written, they didn’t put titles on each of the passages. That’s something a translator did many years later, when they added titles and broke up stories based on what they thought it would be about. They titled it the parable of the prodigal son because their interpretation was, and this is how most of us heard the story the first time, that there was a good son who did good things consistently, and then there was a bad son who went and did bad things. He took half of the family inheritance and squandered it on bad things, made bad life choices, horrible investments, ended up poor, broke, and poverty-struck, and finally came to his senses and came back into the fold as a second good son, and they celebrated, and maybe the older son needed an attitude adjustment, and we move on, right? How many of you have heard the story more or less told that way?

The reality is that I believe that’s a really bad interpretation, and I want to revisit this story by going through some details on what the father and what Jesus was actually saying. I would like to call it the parable of the father’s table. Here we go. That’s what I would like to call the parable of the father’s table.

You see, in context, you have Pharisees who are talking to Jesus, and they’re upset with him because he’s sitting down with disreputable people, tax collectors and sinners and former prostitutes and others who have made bad choices with their lives, but here they’re sitting with Jesus. And the Pharisees come along and criticize him because of who he’s hanging out with. Jesus answers them with three stories. The first is the parable of the lost sheep, and we celebrate when a sheep is found. Short story. Then the parable of the lost coin, and we celebrate when the coin is found. Short story. And then he tells this long, detailed story. All three stories, to the same audience, for the same reason: that we celebrate when something comes back. I believe Jesus wanted to get this message across to the Pharisees, and he was actually hoping they would get the message that’s about to come. So in that context, we’re going to go through and understand this message.

In that context, Jesus has done a number of parables a number of times, and sometimes he likes to work his critics into the story. There’s a parable of tenant farmers, and at the end of it, the Pharisees were angry at God and wanted to stone Jesus, because they understood the parable was against them, that’s what the Bible says. You all remember that? Okay, so he likes to work his critics into the story if it makes sense.

I’m going to give you three questions to focus on as we go through this. Remember them, write them down, whatever works. Did Jesus reference the Pharisees in this story, and if so, which character or characters are the Pharisees? Pay attention to inheritance and provision, what do you think Jesus is trying to say about provision in this story? And number three, did the sons care about pleasing their father, and if so, what did each think would please him? Can you hold on to that?

Reading Luke 15: the request

Luke 15:11. To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, “I want my share of your estate now, before you die.” So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. It doesn’t seem like he’s upset about it. He’s not happy, not sad, not contrary to it, he just does it. He doesn’t seem too concerned about the inheritance.

Verse 13. A few days later, the younger son packed up his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all of his money on wild living. About that time, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into the fields to feed pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. So he’s a little bit concerned about provision now, he’s out of it. In father-son language, he’s living as an orphan. He’s not living under the provision of his father, he doesn’t have any more inheritance, he doesn’t have any supply, and he believes he’s responsible for whatever happens. He’s tried to solve the problem by getting himself a job, and it’s a bad job, it doesn’t pay very well, and he’s not doing well.

Verse 17. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.'” Again, he’s living as an orphan. He’s trying to solve his own problems, the first solution didn’t work, so he’s got a new one. I’m going to be responsible for how this plays out, I’m going to be responsible for my mistakes, I’m going to make this happen, I’m going to go and work for the father.

The father’s response

Verse 20. So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming, filled with love and compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, I’m no longer worthy of being called your son.” But his father said to the servants, “Quick, bring the finest robe,” some translations say the premier or the first robe, “and put it on him. Go get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet, and kill the fatted calf that we’ve been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and is now returned to life, he was lost, but he has now been found.” So a party began.

I just want to stop for a second and make a point of something. I like to read through the Bible on a regular basis, and a while ago I was excited about the concept of so-and-so being blessed because God was with him, so I went and highlighted every place it said anything about God being with someone. Interesting study, it happens a lot. This last time around, I’ve been really fascinated with God throwing dinner parties. There are a lot of them. God seems really interested in dinner parties, and God doesn’t need to eat. When the children of Israel were first establishing their initial covenant, when they were actually getting the Ten Commandments and establishing themselves as a nation for the first time, they’d just come out of Egypt, God called up forty elders from the tribe of Israel and made a banquet for them up on a mountain to eat with him. That’s so interesting. There’s got to be other ways to celebrate being with God, maybe a dance party, or karaoke. But he seems really interested in dinner parties. And you know why? Dinner parties represent stopping and slowing down and communication and relationship. It’s really hard to rush a dinner party, especially when fast food hasn’t been invented yet. You’ll read some of these stories in the Old Testament where somebody says, Abraham meets the Lord and the Lord’s telling him something, and he says, “Wait a second, I’m going to prepare you a meal.” He didn’t have a microwave. He didn’t run home and say, “Let me just throw some leftovers in, my enchiladas last week were great.” They actually had to go and butcher an animal, prepare it. Hours went by around a meal. You had to do a meal well, you had to stop and be with each other for a while. I think that’s what God is saying in all these dinner parties. So here we have a dinner scenario that is a celebratory thing God wants to happen. Anyway, I just wanted to make that point.

The older brother’s anger

Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. “Your brother is back,” he was told, “and the father has killed the fatted calf, we are celebrating because of his safe return.” The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in.

This is the point that always really got me when I first heard the parable of the prodigal son. The older son was angry. That doesn’t sound like the good son. The good son should represent good things and good attitudes and good responses so that we can copy him. But he’s angry. Okay, wait a second, let’s take a step back and look. Remember my first question, do the Pharisees show up? There’s a hint. You have Jesus sitting at a table with people who have turned back into relationship with him, and they’re sitting with him, celebrating in a happy environment. And you have Pharisees standing off to the side who are angry about it. So Jesus tells a story about a son who is sitting at a table having a good time, and a brother standing outside angry about it. Can you see the parallel? Do we want to be like the Pharisees? So it’s not a good son and a bad son.

The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him. But he replied, “All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing that you told me to, and in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf.” The father said to him, “Look, dear son, you have always stayed with me, and everything that I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life again, he was lost and is now found.”

That dead-and-alive language is kind of a weird thing to say. Has anybody heard the saying, like a dad says to his kid, “You’re dead to me”? That’s never in a good context, and it’s not good when a son says that to his family either, or brothers and sisters say it to each other. But here we have the father saying it in the opposite direction. I’ve shared before that Ephesians says that when we haven’t accepted Christ, spiritually speaking we are dead, God cannot interact with us, we are separated from him, and when we accept Christ, we become alive to him. We usually think about that from our own perspective, about how great it is that we get to go from death to life and have relationship with the Father. But look at it from God’s perspective. He created you, he loves you, he couldn’t interact with you, and now he can, and he wants to celebrate it, he’s excited about it. When we stand far off and don’t come close to the Father, we’re withholding the opportunity for him to have joy with us. That’s an interesting thing to have floating around in your head. So he was lost and dead, and Jesus is using that imagery. The Father in this is God, and he is celebrating, we’re talking about celebrating a lost coin, a lost sheep, and now a lost son.

Point one: sons who sit win

There are three points I want to make about this story. There’s so much here, I could do a whole other sermon on this entire topic and make three different points, and there’s so much about it that I love. Anyway, here are my three points.

Number one, the sons that sit at the Father’s table win. And that’s sons and daughters, in the kingdom of God we’re all equal. If you look at the emotions of the Father in the story, we’re presented with him in several different places. First, we have the father handing off the inheritance, and there’s no emotion really, it’s kind of neutral. Then maybe the next time we see him is when the son is coming back, and the father runs to him, maybe he was watching for him, longing for him to come back. Then he’s loving and compassionate, he falls on him and hugs him and kisses him, and then he’s really happy, there’s a party, celebration, music, dancing. Okay, that’s all good. Then we have the father begging the older brother to come in. Begging, and maybe a little frustrated. The celebration was in reference to the son who would go in, the frustration was in reference to the son who wouldn’t. Can you imagine the Father God coming and begging you to come and sit at a table with him, and you saying no? Can you imagine that? Begging those who aren’t sitting at the table yet to be sitting there. That’s how much God wants relationship with us.

Not only did the older brother not go in, but even when he felt owed provision, even a young goat, he wasn’t planning a meal with his father, he was planning a meal with his friends. Interesting. One of the most critical things Jesus ever said about the Pharisees was that they cared more about what man said than what God said. They had the truth presented to them, and some of them wanted to believe and wanted to follow Christ, but they were more concerned about what people would say about them. That’s a really close analogy. If you understand that Jesus is telling this story to people who are so close to this thing that they should be able to see themselves as the older brother, that even in this case they’re still not joining the Father at his table, they’re still trying to please the people around them, trying to be pleasers of men. Interesting.

Point two: your identity

Number two, the father cares about your identity. He really cares about your identity. The returning son judged himself as not worthy, and he thought, “I can slave like my brother.” He saw what the older brother was doing and thought the older brother was pleasing his father, so he figured, I’m going to go back and please my father, I’ll slave just like him. That’s the way a lot of people understand religion. Religion is, I’m going to do these things, I’m going to do all the good things, I’m going to follow all the rules, I have to volunteer. It’s very hurried and rushed, a lot of pressure and a lot of guilt and not a lot of grace. So you have this younger brother, basically out of the frying pan and into the fire, planning to follow the same blueprint he saw his brother doing, because he doesn’t understand yet.

I’m going to compare some verses. I’ll read verse 18 and 19, and then verse 21. Jesus didn’t have to show both the preparation for the speech and the actual speech with the father, but he included both to make a point, and we get to learn from it. Verse 18: “I will go home to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you.” And verse 21, where he’s actually saying it: “He said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you.” I’ve checked a dozen different Bible translations, they all represent it with exactly the same words. But verse 19 says, “And I am no longer worthy of being called your son, please take me on as a hired servant,” and verse 21 doesn’t have that last part. The father cut him off. He stopped him from saying the last piece. The son had this plan, this idea, that he was going to follow in the older son’s footsteps, but the father cut him off right at the point where he explained away his sonship, explained away his identity. “I’m no longer worthy of being called your son,” and the father stopped him and said, that’s not okay, that’s not part of our conversation, you are a worthy son, you do belong in this house. And he made that point with three very interesting gifts, and we always just gloss over this.

Point three: the inheritance

Point number three, the inheritance didn’t matter. The younger son is us. Everyone who has turned to God and embraced him as Father comes and sits at the table. We are the younger son, all of us. It’s not just the wayward person, the child living in sin that you’re praying to come back to faith, we should always pray for prodigal sons, that’s a great thing to do, but that’s not what this is about. This is about us, about how we can embrace God and be close in relationship with him.

So why did God show the inheritance the way he did in this story? Because the Pharisees still have it all, and we have none. Does that strike you as curious? Let’s break this down. The Pharisees believed they had an inheritance, they were children of Abraham, they had grown up under the teachings of Moses, they believed that made them righteous. Jesus addressed this numerous times throughout Scripture, where the Pharisees would say, “We have Abraham as our father, who’s your father?” And Jesus would say, “I could raise up children for Abraham from these very stones.” Your inheritance doesn’t matter. So Jesus put the younger son, us, in a place where that inheritance was no longer available as our supply, no longer the path to righteousness, no longer the path to the father’s table, it wasn’t here for us anymore. So now we have to have a new way of connecting with the Father.

He gave him a robe, the finest robe. In the Old Testament, that was collateral, there are actually rules about a poor person not being able to give their only coat as collateral. Coats were valuable, precious, unique to each family, you could buy property with a coat. The ring was a signature, access to the bank, access to all the family resources, the signature could get you anything, you were speaking as a representative of the family if you had the ring. And the sandals, sandals are used in oaths. Boaz redeemed Ruth, he had to buy a property and marry her, and there was somebody else in line who could have bought that property but didn’t want to marry Ruth, so he passed it by, and to seal that deal, he passed him a sandal. Sandals were oaths. These three things were access to everything the father had. As long as he was a son living in the house with those three things, he could live as a full representative of the father and never lack for anything. Amazing, right? The finest robe, the ring, the sandals, everything the father could want him to have. Now provision is covered, no problem.

Bonus point. There’s room at the father’s table for you. At no point did the door to the older brother get closed. I believe when Jesus told the story he was going out there to beg the older brother to come back in. Jesus was literally making the same plea to the Pharisees, to put down what you think is making you righteous and come and sit at the father’s table, to have that intimate, slow time that’s not rushed, not based on works, not based on performance, where you get to sit and be with the Father. Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.” What a strange promise. I’m going to write a book one day called God’s Obsession with Dinner Parties. God wants to sit in that communal space with you and connect with you and talk with you and share with you and provide for you. That is what relationship with God is supposed to feel like.

What this means for us

So what does this mean for us? Number one, I encourage you to go back and read the story with this new understanding, and just ask God to show you more, because there’s so much in here, it’s so interesting. Now you can see a little bit of why I think it’s my favorite parable, because it really explains the allegory of what being in relationship with the Father God should feel like. It should be celebratory, it should be light, it shouldn’t be based on judgment, there should be provision, there should be an intimate closeness, it should be life-giving. It’s not always for everyone. If you don’t see that in your relationship with God, or you think maybe you’re not as deep in it as you could be, I encourage you, first, stop judging yourself like the younger son. He judged himself as not worthy, said he wasn’t accepted, and Jesus wants to tell you today, no, I paid the price, you’re worthy, you’re accepted, come and sit at the Father’s table. If you’re accepting somebody else’s judgment, that’s like the older brother, who wanted to please his friends, who wanted to stay out, but that’s another reason you stay out too. Don’t love their praise more than you love God’s praise. Cast off their judgments of you and come and sit at the Father’s table. Maybe you’re angry at God, maybe a previous church hurt you, or something happened in your life that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, and you’re holding an account of that, and because of it you have a hard time drawing close to and connecting with God. That’s like the older brother who believed God owed him a goat. God doesn’t owe you a goat, he already saved you a seat, come and take it and sit at the Father’s table. I’m going to tell you something, you can’t have both. You can’t have the seat and the goat. But there’s more at the seat than there is with the goat. So come to the Father’s table.

And most importantly, whenever you have the opportunity, go in and sit with him. This is the crux of the Father’s heart message, that we get to be in relationship with God. We get to ask him every day, Father, what do you want to say to your son today? It doesn’t matter where you came from. The past story of the younger son didn’t matter. The fact that he was away from God is clear enough, and the fact that it was in sin, that’s an extreme picture, spending the money with harlots and wild living and everything else, that’s an extreme picture. But there are a lot of ways to be away from the Father. The table is the pulpit, and you’re way over here on the side, and you start to come back because you realize it’s empty and hungry over here, and you think, I’m going to come back and be close to the Father. Oh, wait a second, I’m not really worthy, I’m going to go over here and work really hard, I’m going to volunteer, I’m going to serve soup, I’m going to do all the things that have to happen, because maybe then God will approve of me, because I know there’s something lacking in me. And really, what God is saying is, just come in and sit at the table. And then you get to do some of those other things, but you do it out of relationship, you do it with the ring and the robe and the sandals, you do it as his representative, with all the family that comes behind it. And it’s so much more powerful.

So, number one, go back and read the story. Number two, put down all the reasons why you’re not coming close to God, and come and sit at the Father’s table. And number three, learn this story, learn this parable. Maybe this video makes it onto YouTube, maybe it’s a helpful resource for you to share with someone else. Learn how to tell this story to your kids, to your friends, to people you’re talking to about religion, because it cuts through some of the nonsense and it’s an amazing tool in our ability to share the Father’s heart message. And the reason that’s important is because the River Community Church has a unique place in the body of Christ in this area to hold and care for and curate the Father’s heart message. We want it to permeate every aspect, we want to have influence in this entire community and in the church abroad with understanding God in this way. I’ve heard people say it’s unique the way we understand the Father’s heart message, and I think that’s great, and also awful. Great because we get it, awful because I don’t understand God in any other way, I only understand him through the concept of knowing him as a Father and me as a son, and I think everybody should have that. And the only way that gets out there is if we as the River, who are holding and curating this message, share it with the people we come in contact with. It’s not about building numbers in here, it’s about having an impact. So learn this story and share it with people. Amen?

Altar call and closing prayer

I’m going to invite everyone to stand, and I’m going to invite the prayer team to come up, and we’re going to pray about this. You might find yourself in a place where you’re separated from the Father because you feel unworthy yourself, come and get that broken off and accept Christ, accept the Father for who he is. Maybe you’re still at a position where you haven’t turned to God and seen that yet, well, the door is open for you, behold, he’s standing at the door and knocking, you just have to see Christ as the one who paid the price for you so that you can have access to the Father, see him as your Lord, ask him into your heart, and you’re at the table.

If you’re in a place where you’re accepting judgment from somebody else, or you’re angry at God or a previous church or something else, and that’s causing a difficult time connecting close and having that meaningful relationship with the Father, that’s something you can come and get prayer for. And if your heart goes, yeah, I get that, when I talk about sharing this story with other people who don’t get this and you’re looking for a way to get better at that, come and ask God to give you an anointing to share the Father’s heart with your family and friends. Amen. Any of those things, you can start moving now.

Father, we thank you right now. We thank you that you’re a good Father, that you cared about the people you were sitting at that table with, but you also cared about the Pharisees who were asking the question, and you gave this story, this detailed story, to make it really clear what relationship with you was going to be like. Father, I just pray that you release that over this place, that this place becomes known as a catalyst for the Father’s heart message, that every one of us gets to embrace it to its full and share it with everyone we come in contact with. And I thank you for that in Jesus’ name. Amen.