Sleeping
With The Pigs
A
Sunday School teacher once asked her class
which of the Lord's parables they liked
the best.
One of the pupils replied,
"The one about the multitude that
loafs and fishes."
I like that one, too, don't you?
This
morning, I want us to look at one of our
Lord's parables; The Parable of the
Prodigal Son.
·
Others call this story the Parable of The Lost Son,
·
God's Love for the Lost,
·
The Waiting Father, and
·
The Parable of the Loving Father.
I
believe the last title to be the one that
is actually most fitting.
The true hero of the parable is not
either of the two sons, but rather the
father. The ultimate theme is, again, not
the wayward boys, but the gracious and
love-filled dad.
Who
of us here is not well acquainted with the
23rd Psalm or John 3:16? These are special
passages that present the Lord in such
beauty, such grace. This story, found in
Luke 15, falls in that same category. It
has been called both "the Gospel
within the Gospel" and "the
crown and pearl of all parables."
Charles Dickens said that it is "the
finest short story ever written."
Regardless
of what one calls it, the parable
nonetheless cries aloud that God's
fundamental purpose is to recover men and
women from the guilt and power of
sin--regardless of how far they have
fallen. All of Biblical history, all of
the Psalms, all of the prophets, all of
the New Testament must be studied in the
light of this great dominating purpose.
We are often reminded
that Jesus was a great teacher, and so he was; but the
Apostles, interestingly enough, never
gloried in that fact.
We understand correctly
that Jesus was a wonderful reformer, and again, he was. Peter,
James, John, though seemed to be
altogether blind to that truth.
We are delighted to
realize that our Lord was a very
benevolent individual.
He was socially aware. He truly cared
about the needs of body, family, and the
like. But once more, this was not the
central theme of his life.
We know that he was a
prophet without equal but, again, this wasn't the over-riding focus of
the Biblical writers.
The
Bible refused to enroll Him among the
teachers, reformers, do-gooders, or
prophets of our race. Rather, according to
Scripture, Jesus was and is first and
foremost the world's redeemer.
“He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world.”
“He came to seek and to save that which was
lost.”
Or,
as the Apostle Paul noted,
“Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am
chief.” That was His reason for being. That is the message found in
this powerful parable!
Before
I continue on with the parable, let's
notice something very important here:
·
The younger son
is a type, a biblical representation of
those who are lost--the publicans and
sinners. He pictures fallen mankind in
disgrace.
·
The other son,
the elder brother, presents to us the
self-righteous Jews; the scribes and the
Pharisees.
·
The father
then is a type for God. He symbolizes the
Almighty, everlasting loving Father who is
patiently waiting to receive the sinner
back home.
Luke 15:11-12 introduces
the account
“Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two
sons. The younger one said to his father,
‘Father, give me my share of the
estate.’ So he divided his property
between them.’”
In
passing, please note that verse 11
mentions two sons, neither of whom is
called the prodigal. Although the term
means wasteful, and it certainly fits the
younger son, the Word of God does not use
it. Man has added the word.
I
find it interesting that the first spoken
words in the story are the words of the
younger son. Did you catch what he said? “Father,
give me….”
According
to Old Testament Law, the father was free
to divide up his estate while he was yet
alive. The portions that each son
received, however, were not left to the
discretion of the dad. Deuteronomy 21:17
declared that the older son was to get 2/3
of the inheritance while the younger son
was to get the remaining 1/3. Regardless,
it appears as if the Prodigal received a
large amount of money.
Without
meaning to read too much into this, I
detect an attitude. How about you? There
was a certain callousness in the request.
“Give me - now!”
·
There was little waiting with him.
·
He was into instant gratification.
·
In essence he was saying, “I want to be free. I'm sick
and tired of all the rules – the don't
do this, don't do that kind of stuff. It
is time for me to spread my wings and
fly”
It
was as if the lad had this awful fear that
life was going to pass him by before he
had opportunity to taste it to the full.
Thus, "let me loose." "I
need a break." "Allow me to make
my own way, to do my own thing, to be my
own person." “Give
me....”
Someone
has said that sin is essentially selfism.
It is putting self on the throne; putting
self in God's place. Thus sin manifests
itself in four ways:
·
Self-sufficiency instead of faith;
·
Self-will instead of submission;
·
Self-seeking instead of seeking after the good of others;
·
Self-righteousness instead of humility and respect for
God.
The
Prodigal erred in each of these four
areas. He sinned due to his selfishness.
Please
return with me to Luke 15:13-16. Listen,
“Not long after that, the younger son
got together all he had, set off for a
distant country and there squandered his
wealth in wild living. After he had spent
everything, there was a severe famine in
that whole country, and he began to be in
need. So he went and hired himself out to
a citizen of that country, who sent him to
his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill
his stomach with the pods that the pigs
were eating, but no-one gave him
anything.”
This passage gives us a
thumbnail sketch of the downward
progression of sin. Please notice:
1.
The lad sets off for “a distant
country.” He wanted to get away - far away - from father and home.
The grass was greener in the distant
country, or so he thought. When one
backslides, it's always AWAY - FAR AWAY -
from God and His house. Someplace else
always holds greater attraction; offers
greater freedom to the soul on the run
from God.
2.
Next, he wastes his inheritance.
Money goes fast in the distant
country.
Wine, women, and song quickly act
to empty the young man’s pocketbook.
·
The Scripture uses the term “wild living.”
·
Phillips Translation
notes that this fellow wasted his money “like
a fool.”
·
Proverbs 23:21 confirms, “For drunkards and gluttons become poor.”
·
Proverbs 29:3 then adds, “A companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.”
Does anyone here remember
the name “Barney Williams?” He used to be a famous
songwriter. His compositions include the
million-seller, "The Duke of
Earl" as well as other hits such as
"A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and
"Baby, It's You." For a while he
was a partner with Dimension Records which
produced the trend-setting song,
"Locomotion." This gentleman was
at the top of the game, the head of the
class. And yet, he lost it all -
everything - money, health, family, fame,
all due to alcohol. He had known the Lord
at one time, but, like the Prodigal, he
wandered away and wasted his inheritance
on "wild living." Barney is now
saved. The last account that I had of him
is that he was serving as a receptionist
at a rehab center in New York for
alcoholics and junkies. The center is run
by the Salvation Army. It was there, on
skid row, at the very bottom, that Barney
finally came to his senses and returned to
the Father. Sin is such a waste!
Awhile
back, the Detroit Zoo lost their prize
ostrich. Her name was Susie. When she
died, they performed an autopsy and found
$3.85 in pennies, dimes, and quarters
inside that beautiful bird. The animal was
killed by money.
Barney,
the Prodigal, and millions of other people
have or almost have met a similar fate.
3.
Due to his sinful waste, the
Prodigal becomes needy. He no longer seeks excess, wild extravagance, or a
higher rung on the ladder of success.
Rather, he now hungers for food, a job,
drink, and a place to lay his head. These
are the things that he had in abundance
before he demanded his share of his
inheritance and left! This is a tragic
picture of sin. There is always a famine
in a heart that moves away from God.
4.
He ends up in the pig pen. To survive, the lad – the Jewish lad -- hired
himself out to a pig farmer. He literally
begged for a job. Please understand this
young man may well have been the son of a
Jewish nobleman. Yet, the story shows him
tending pigs. There could not have been a
worse job for such a person. This was it.
The fellow was literally at the bottom of
the barrel. He was experiencing total
debasement.
Those
of Israel who heard Jesus tell the story
must have literally shuddered at such a
predicament! For a young Jewish noble to
be reduced to such a position was almost
unimaginable! Swine were looked on with
such loathing and abhorrence that the Jews
would not even mention their name. rather,
they spoke of a pig as “that other
thing!” In fact, the Old Testament law
declares “Cursed
is he who feeds swine.”
To
make matters worse, he then desires even
to eat what the pigs ate! Having lived
like an animal, he was willing to feed
upon the very garbage that the animals
ate!
5.
he winds up alone. The Bible notes here, “but no one gave him anything.” This, too, is significant for it
points out that even his friends were now
all gone. They had obviously forsaken him.
They didn't care if he starved or not! He
was totally alone and forsaken.
·
Sin promises freedom, but brings slavery.
·
Sin promises success, but brings failure.
·
Sin promises friends, but brings loneliness.
·
Sin promises life, but brings death.
The
Prodigal thought in leaving that he could
go out and find himself, but he only wound
up lost.
With that thought in mind, I want to share with you a
portion of a chapter from Max Lacado’s
outstanding book, In the Grip of Grace: “You know what disturbs me
most about Jeffery Dahmer? What disturbs
me most are not his acts though they are
disgusting. Dahmer was convicted of
seventeen murders. Eleven corpses were
found in his apartment. He cut off arms.
He ate body parts. My thesaurus has 204
synonyms for vile, but each falls short of
describing a man who kept skulls in his
refrigerator and hoarded a human heart.
He redefined the boundary for
brutality. The Milwaukee monster dangled
from the lowest rung of human conduct and
then dropped.
But that’s not what troubles me
most.
Can
I tell you what troubles me most about
Jeffery Dahmer? Not his trial, as
disturbing as it was, with all those
pictures of him sitting serenely in court,
face frozen, motionless.
No sign of remorse, no hint of
regret. Remember his steely eyes and
impassive face?
But I don’t speak of him because
of his trial. There is another reason.
Can
I tell you what really troubles me about
Jeffery Dahmer? Not his punishment, though
life without parole is hardly an exchange
for his actions. How many years would
satisfy justice? A lifetime in jail for
every life he took? But that’s another matter, and that’s not what troubles me most about
Jeffery Dahmer.
May I tell you what does?
His
conversion. Months before an inmate
murdered him, Jeffery Dahmer became a
Christian. Said he repented. Was sorry for
what he did.
Profoundly sorry. Said he put his
faith in Christ.
Was baptized. Started life over.
Began reading Christian books and
attending chapel.
That
troubles me. It shouldn’t, but it does.
Grace for a cannibal? Maybe you have the
same reservations. If not about Dahmer
perhaps about someone else. Have you ever
wrestled with the deathbed conversion of a
rapist or the eleventh-hour conversion of
a child molester?
We’ve sentenced them, maybe not
in court, but in our hearts. We’ve put
them behind bars and locked the door. They
are forever imprisoned by our disgust. And
then, the impossible happens, They
repent.”
Grace
is hard to understand. Do we not reason
within our hearts that there ought to be a
line where grace will reach and save
someone good, middle or upper class, who
is Protestant, and not reach out and down
to a Dahmer, a Timothy McVeigh or a
Hitler, or to a some other poor wretch who
doesn’t look, act, smell, or believe
like us? Do we not believe in grace with
limits and mercy with certain
qualifications? Maybe we do but God
doesn’t. His grace is truly amazing and
His mercy is to all generations.
Luke
15:20 now adds, “So
he (the Prodigal Son) got up and went to
his father. ‘But while he was still a
long way off, his father saw him and was
filled with compassion for him; he ran to
his son, threw his arms around him and
kissed him.’”
Thus
far, we have focused our attention on the
wasteful son. I want us to now look at the
actions of the faithful father
1.
He was expectant. He believed that
his son would eventually RETURN home
We
can’t be absolutely sure, but many think
that the old man scanned the horizon in
hope, in faith, and in love faithfully day
after day.
·
He trusted in his God.
·
He believed in the power of prayer.
·
He knew that eventually the money would run out, the
party would have to come to end, the
Prodigal would return to his senses and
come home.
2.
Next, verse 20 declares, the
“father RAN to his son....”
One
day, as he looked down the road, he saw
the lad trudging toward home:
·
No doubt his head hung low.
·
The shoulders were slumped.
·
The eyes were teary,
·
The steps were slow and unsure.
Nonetheless,
the Prodigal was back.
When
the father saw the boy, again the Bible
says, he ran.
·
The righteous father -- ran!
·
The father that had been generous and loving -- ran!
·
The patient and faithful father -- ran!
The
clear message here is, the father -- not
the son -- the father took the initiative!
According
to the customs of that day, old men did
not run; yet this father runs. Why? The
son had absolutely nothing to offer. The
wayward boy had brought nothing but
disgrace to the family and village.
Nonetheless, the father ran to meet him.
·
For one reason, it is obvious that the father loved his
boy.
·
Next, Jesus paints for us a beautiful picture of grace.
The dad gave the son that which he did not
deserve nor had any right to expect.
·
But there is another reason some feel the father ran to
meet his son. The lad, according to the
Old Testament Law, had committed a capital
offense. The people of the village could
have put him to death -- really! Listen to
these words found in Deuteronomy 21:18-21,
(The
Contemporary English Version) “A
father and a mother may have a stubborn
and rebellious son who refuses to obey
them even after he has been punished. If a
son is like that, his parents must drag
him to the town gate, where the leaders of
the town hold their meetings. The parents
will tell the leaders, ‘This son of ours
is stubborn and never obeys. He spends all
his time drinking and partying.’ The men
of the town will stone that son to death,
because they must get rid of the evil he
brought into the community. Everyone in
Israel will be afraid when they hear how
he was punished.”
And yet, again, Luke 15:20 cries out that the father RAN
and threw his arms around his boy. Some
commentators think that he did this so as
to protect the Prodigal with his own life
just in case the neighbors or villagers
wanted to take the law into their own
hands. I can almost hear the father say,
“If you get to the lad, you will have to
go through me first!”
In
truth, the story of the Prodigal is our
story. It is a moving picture of how God
receives sinful men. Psalms 103:10-13 fits
so well here, “He
does not treat us as our sins deserve or
repay us according to our iniquities. For
as high as the heavens are above the
earth, so great is his love for those who
fear him; as far as the east is from the
west, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us. As a father has
compassion on his children, so the LORD
has compassion on those who fear
him....”
Certain
things are missing here:
·
There is not even a hint of anger on the part of the
father.
·
There is not a sign of condemnation either.
·
There is no mention of revenge.
·
There is no signal of malice.
The
Bible gives us no record of the father
ever saying, “See, I was right! I said
that you would be back! I told you so, I
told you so!”
No,
none of that is pictured here.
On the contrary, the Greek word
Jesus uses in the story speaks of the
father yearning
with pity, feeling compassion all
the way down to his bowels -- for back
then the bowels were thought to be the
seat of human love and pity. The dad is
seen as actually looking at his son and
feeling the son's pain!
True
compassion, you see, demands action,
involvement; it is crying with
as well as for the one who has erred!
3.
the third thing that jesus notes
here is that the father kisses the son
·
The
New Century New Testament notes that the father “tenderly kissed him again
and again.”
·
Wuest's
Expanded Translation says, “fondly
kisses him.”
·
The
Contemporary English Version adds, “hugged and kissed...”
·
While Darby’s
Translation simply shares that the
father “fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses....”
Guests
in the Holy Land expect to be kissed as
they enter a home. In America we simply
shake hands as a common form of greetings.
There they place their right hand on their
friend’s left shoulder and kiss his
right cheek, and then reversing the
action, they place their left hand on the
friend’s right shoulder and kiss the
left cheek.
·
Jacob kissed his father.
·
Esau kissed Jacob.
·
Joseph kissed his brothers.
·
Jacob kissed his grandsons.
·
Aaron kissed Moses.
·
Moses kissed Jethro.
·
Judas kissed Jesus.
There
are several other examples that I could
use. The father in our story though,
covered his son with kisses. His was not
just a kiss of greeting, his was a kiss of
love and a wonderful display of
forgiveness!
Up
to this point, it appears as if the lad
has been silent. However in verse 21 he
says, “Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against
you. I am no longer worthy to be called
your son.”
This nobleman’s son was willing
to be a slave if only his father would
accept him. He had learned the hard way
that one cannot enjoy the things money can
buy if he ignores the things money cannot
buy!
The
son's speech of repentance, though, is
interrupted by the father. The father
takes immediate steps to restore back to
the Prodigal everything that he had lost.
Verses 22-24 continues, “But
the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!
Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put
a ring on his finger and sandals on his
feet.
Bring the fattened calf and kill
it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.
For this son of mine was dead and
is alive again; he was lost and is
found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
4.
now the father calls for a robe,
“THE BEST ROBE,” the FIRST ROBE.
Away with the foul-smelling, awful looking
rags! This new robe was an open
declaration to one and all that the son
had been reinstated to his original
position and rights. Oh, what an honor!
Imagine the joy when the boy put on his
ROBE!
5.
next, the father says to the
waiting servant, “Put a ring on the
boy’s finger....”
The ring stood as the owner’s
personal signature. It was, in effect, the
father's power of attorney.
6.
Then, the former prodigal was given
shoes for his feet. Shoes
stood for son-ship and freedom therefore,
slaves had to go barefoot.
Perhaps you remember hearing the old black spiritual, All God’s
chillun got Shoes. The story behind
the song heralds back to Mary and her sons
– Tom, sixteen, and Joe, fourteen –
all plantation field hands. Their story is
recounted in a 1937 collection by composer
William Grant Still and Ruby Berkley
Goodwin. It goes something like this:
As far back as Tom and Joe could remember, Mary's blessing at the table
had been, "Good Lawd, bless de
victuals. Bless dese two boys an dey
pappy. Keep me an de chillun togedder.
Bless all God's chillun. Amen."
Tom had been wondering, and one day he asked hesitantly, "Mammy,
who is God's chillun?"
"Why, we is, boy," she answered.
"But, Mammy, Uncle Jordan say dat God's chillun is blessed. He say
dat God had ebberthin'. Sholy if we was
His chillun He'd giv us somethin'. We jes'
work, work, all de time. We don' nebcr hab
nothin'. We ain't got no clo'es, ain't
even got no shoes. Feet git pow'ful cold,
an' de ground so hard."
"Wese God's chillun, too," his mammy answered him. "You
wouldn't go on so ef you knowed what de
good Lawd got fo' us."
"He got any shoes?" Tom was eager to know.
"Sho He got shoes. He got plenty shoes."
"When we gonna git 'em?"
"When we git t' Heab'n," Mary answered with finality.
"Mammy, reckon ole head boss gwine to Heab'n?"
Slowly Mary said, "Everybody talkin' 'bout Heab'n ain't goin' dah.
"Ali got shoes an' you got shoes. We all got shoes," Tom and
Joe said happily. "All God's chillun
got shoes."
In
the fields that day, Tom and Joe jested
with the other hands. Soon the whole
plantation was ringing with melody. As the
song went down the field, Sis Carrie,
"a singin' 'oman for true," as
the people described her, took up the
humble little song of joy and hope.
"Ali got a robe," she sang.
"Ali got a crown, you got a crown.
All o' God's chillun got a crown. Ali got
wings, you got wings. . . ."
Joe had never thought of that‑with wings one could fly like a
bird, like an eagle, like an
angel‑away up!
Joe was soaring when the commanding voice of the overseer brought him
back to reality, but it was with a freed
soul. And the best part of all was, "Ev'rybody
talkin' 'bout Heab'n ain't goin' dah.
Heab'n, Heab'n, gonna shout all ovah God's
Heab'n." Still singing, Joe added,
"Gonna fly all ovah God's Heab'n...”
The Prodigal Son got shoes!
7.
finally, the father called for the
special calf -- the fatted calf -- the one that had been reserved for
a special celebration. The calf was
immediately killed and a feast was
prepared. This particular animal was kept
back for when an honored guest would
arrive at the house.
A
Sunday school teacher was sharing with her
class the story of the Prodigal Son. As
she was nearing the end of the parable she
said, “But in the midst of all this joy
and excitement there was one to whom the
Prodigal’s return brought no happiness;
one to whom the feast meant not good times
and laughter, but bitterness; one who
hated the thought of attending the
feast.” She then looked around the room
and said, “Can one of you tell me who
this was?” A sad little voice in the
back of the room suggested, “The fatted
calf?” No doubt she was right.
The
Prodigal thought the far country was where
it was at but in the end, everything he
sought for and wanted was to be found at
home -- with father. It had been there all
along.
I
want to now draw for you some applications
from this story
The
Parable of the Prodigal Son is a word
picture of God’s steadfast love for the
sinner. However, it is important to note
that Jesus is not describing just any
sinner.
·
He is not talking about the so-called good sinner, the
self-congratulating sinner, the religious
sinner.
·
No! Jesus is talking about the worst of sinners. He is
purposely drawing a picture of a
down-and-out, no-count, low-down, skid-row
type, worthless sinner.
Having
said that, may I remind you again of how
the Jews hated pigs? I also want to remind
you once again that the law pronounced a
curse on anyone who even fed swine.
·
When the lad returned home, he looked like a pig.
·
He smelled like a pig.
·
He may have even grunted like a pig.
·
I believe that he may have had some pig slop stuck to his
lips for, as you may remember, his last
meal may well have been with the pigs!
Do
you get the picture? The lad was a dirty,
stinking, repulsive mess! And yet, the
father watched and waited for him, was
filled with compassion, ran to him, threw
his arms around him, and covered
the boy with kisses!
Jesus
used the picture of the pigs on purpose,
for he wanted to make the lad look as
vile, hopeless, debased as possible.
Remember, He was telling this story to the
Jews.
Last
week I watched a portion of a TV show that
was focusing on street people in Los
Angeles. Many of the people were teenage
runaways. These young people lived in
boxes or tents in the alleys, on
sidewalks, or under bridges. They were on
drugs and prostituted themselves to anyone
who would pay for their services,
regardless of gender. They drank cheap
wine and got their food out of the
neighborhood dumpsters. It was obvious
that they preferred some dumpsters over
others. One young man who was interviewed
was proud of the fact that it had been
five months since he had last bathed. The
reporter said that she could tell. These
teens were without morals, conscience,
faith, self-respect, or ambition. They had
sunk so low that many dogs lived better
than they did. If I were Jesus and I were
to describe the Prodigal in today’s
terms, I would paint him as one of these
runaways. Think bad; real bad.
This
was the Prodigal; this was the kind of
person that the father gladly received.
An
atheist once asked Billy Graham, "If
Hitler had received Christ on his
deathbed, would he have gone to heaven,
while someone who lived a good life but
rejected Christ would go to hell?" It
was a trick question. It was asked in such
a way so as to make the gospel appear
ridiculous. But, nonetheless, the answer
Graham gave to the question was YES. If
Hitler had accepted Jesus, God would have
forgiven him completely.
·
God ACCEPTS our Lord's death on the Cross to be sacrifice
enough -- period.
·
God LOVES man so that He will receive ANY and
all who call unto Him in sincere
repentance -- including Hitler, and as I
noted earlier, Jeffery Dahmer.
·
God's GRACE is such that it allows us to picture the
worst sin imaginable -- maybe it would be
hateful sinful man nailing the holy and
innocent Son of God to the Cross -- and
realizing that Jesus died for that sin
just as much as He died for any other sin,
for those men just as much as He died for
any other men.
That
is why He is able to promise in 1 John
1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.”
When
Jesus cried “It
is finished,” from the Cross, He was
saying that the penalty for our sins --
all of our sins -- had been PAID IN FULL!
That
is what the story of the Prodigal is all
about. Even a wasteful, rebellious,
ungrateful, woman-chasing,
