Come
to the Party
Luke
15:1-3, 11-32[1]
Tony Campolo is a
Baptist sociologist, pastor, author, and a well-known speaker in evangelical
circles. In a book entitled The Kingdom
of God is a Party, he recounts a story from a speaking trip he made to
Hawaii.[2] He
relates how he woke up hungry for breakfast at 3 am, so he found an all-night
greasy spoon diner. Much to his embarrassment, about 3:30 am several prostitutes
came in and sat all around him. To him, the talk was loud and crude.
Understandably, he was uncomfortable and wanted to make a quick exit. But just
as he was about to go, one of them said, “Tomorrow is my birthday, I’m going to
be 39.” As it turns out, this woman whose name was Agnes, had never had a
birthday party in her life.
So Tony decided
to wait until they left, and planned with Harry, the owner of the greasy spoon,
to throw her a birthday party the next night. As you can imagine, Agnes was
speechless. She actually asked to take the cake to her nearby home. As they
waited for her, Tony led the group in prayer. At that point, Harry said “Hey!
You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” Tony
recounts that it was “one of those moments when just the right words came,” and
he said “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for [prostitutes] at
3:30 in the morning.”
If you’re like me
and you find yourself feeling a little uncomfortable with that sentiment, then
our Gospel lesson is meant for us. The whole reason for the parables in Luke
chapter 15 is that the religious people of his day found the company Jesus kept
to be offensive.[3] The
parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son are Jesus’ response
to their complaint. In Tony Campolo’s words, Jesus answered them essentially by
saying that the Kingdom of God is like a party![4]
What we may not
catch at first glance is that the religious people of Jesus’ day were
complaining because Jesus shared meals with “unsavory” characters. In that day
and time, for Jesus to share a meal with “sinners” meant a great deal. It meant
that he not only accepted them, but as one who proclaimed the Kingdom of God,
it implied that God also accepted them.[5]
That simply didn’t compute for the religious people of Jesus’ day. In their
mind, either you were righteous, and God blessed you with his favor, or you were
a sinner subject to God’s punishment.
We may find it
surprising that Jesus’ parable of the “Prodigal Son” was intended to answer
that kind of mindset. We tend to think of it as a story of a dramatic
conversion on the part of one who had “hit bottom.” And it’s true that the
prodigal’s story is a striking example of conversion and the lavish grace of
the father who embraces and forgives his wayward child.[6]
But it’s also meant to illustrate the fact that the people who responded
positively to Jesus and his message were not the “respectable” type.
As it turns out,
the focus of the parable may actually not be on the “Prodigal Son” at all, but
rather on the “Elder Brother.” In the parable, the father’s welcome to his
wayward son is so extravagant, that he slaughters a calf and throws a party! In
other words, the whole town is invited to celebrate his return. When the “Elder
Brother” hears the noise at the house and finds out that his father has thrown
a party for that no-good wasteful younger son, he’s understandably angry. We
oldest children tend to be the “responsible” ones, the ones who try to follow
the rules, the ones who try to please their parents.
And that was how
the “Elder Brother” saw himself. As a result, he resented the fact that his
father was throwing a party for the prodigal. In this respect, he represents the
religious leaders who criticized Jesus for welcoming and embracing “sinners” in
his offer of God’s grace. But this is where the parable demonstrates the true
depth of God’s grace. Not only does the father embrace the penitent son who
returned, he also goes out to embrace the resentful brother who refused to come
to the party.[7] He says
to him, “we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was
dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found” (Lk. 15:32). In
reality, the father was inviting him come to the party and join in the
celebration.[8]
Unfortunately,
those of us who try to live our lives seeking to follow God’s ways can develop
a fairly unfriendly attitude toward those we deem offensive.[9] In
the story about the party for Agnes, Tony Campolo goes on to say that Harry responded
to his statement about belonging to a church that throws birthday parties for outcasts
by saying, “There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it.” I’d have
to say that Harry’s assessment of the church is probably pretty realistic.
That’s where
Jesus’ parable comes in. In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus said that “there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:7). The parable of the
prodigal son and the resentful brother portrays that celebration in real-life
terms. The father extends the same grace to the resentful brother as he does to
the prodigal son, inviting him to come to the party. But the parable is
open-ended: we’re not told whether he accepts that invitation or not. In this
respect, I think this story may be more for us than people like Agnes and
Harry. As we keep our distance from the “outcasts” of our day, God invites us
to come to the party and join the celebration of new life.
[1] ©2016
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 3/6/2016 at Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] See
Anthony Campolo, The Kingdom of God is a
Party: God’s Radical Plan for His Family, 3-9.
[3] “Sinners”
did not necessarily mean that they engaged in immoral behavior. Cf. R. Alan
Culpepper, “The Gospel According to Luke,” New
Interpreters Bible IX: 295: “Those designated as ‘sinners’ by the Pharisees
would have included not only persons who broke the moral laws but also those
who did not maintain the ritual purity practiced by the Pharisees.” Cf. also Jürgen
Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ,112-113:
“In the stories about Jesus the term ‘sinner’ is not yet defined theologically
and universally as in Paul (Rom. 3.23). It is meant socially, as we can see
from the paired concepts: well — sick, righteous — sinners, Pharisees — tax
collectors. In the eyes of ‘the scribes and Pharisees’, ‘sinners’ are Jews who
are not able or willing to keep the Torah and to follow the path of
righteousness.”
[4] Cf. Culpepper,
“Gospel According to Luke,” NIB IX:127:
“Eating together, and not fasting, became the way in which the church
remembered Jesus and declared the coming of the kingdom.” Cf. also Philip
Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?,
154 where he says that the point of the story of the Prodigal Son is that “those
judged undesirable by everyone else are infinitely desirable to God, and when
one of them turns to God, a party breaks out.”
[5] Cf. Fred
B. Craddock, Luke, 186, where he
observes that because the parable is so familiar many of us “have not felt the
full impact of the offence of grace that it dramatically conveys.” Cf. also Culpepper,
“Gospel According to Luke,” NIB
IX:128: “By eating with toll collectors, they were making themselves unclean,
but further they were showing their acceptance of the toll collectors. The
Pharisees would have had no problem with Jesus for calling sinners to
repentance. Had he called all the toll collectors to repentance, the Pharisees
would have made him a national hero. The offense was that Jesus was
demonstrating God’s grace by not requiring repentance before he would eat with
toll collectors and sinners.” Cf. further Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 579: “As persons who respond positively to his
message, toll collectors and sinners are represented in the parable as those
whose (re)turn to God constitutes a restoration that calls for celebration. In
welcoming such persons to the table Jesus is only giving expression to the
magnitude and consistency of the grace of God.”
[6] It is
easy to make the mistake of thinking that the Father’s compassion is a response
to the son’s repentance. But that is not the image of the parable. This is
demonstrated dramatically by the fact that the son isn’t even allowed to finish
his rehearsed speech because of the Father’s joy over the simple fact of his
return. Cf. Culpepper, “Gospel According to Luke,” NIB IX:305: “The picture is one of sheer grace. No penance is
required; it is enough that the son has come home.” Cf. also Green, Gospel of
Luke, 582: “it is the younger son’s return, and not his confession, that
makes reconciliation possible.” Cf. similarly, Paul Tillich, “To Whom Much is
Forgiven …” in The New Being, 9: “God’s
forgiveness is independent of anything we do, even of self-accusation and
self-humiliation.”
[7] Cf.
Craddock, Luke, 189: “The father not
only had two sons but loved two sons, went out to two sons …, and was generous
to two sons … . … God’s love is both/and, not either/or. The embrace of the
younger son did not mean the rejection of the older; the love of tax collectors
and sinners does not at all negate love of Pharisees and scribes. Such is God’s
love, but we find it difficult not to be offended by God’s grace toward
another, especially if we have serious questions about that person’s conduct
and character.”
[8] See Green, Gospel of Luke, 579, where he says that
Jesus “issues an invitation to the Pharisees and legal experts who have
responded to such a celebration, like the elder brother, with indignation. Will
they align themselves with the divine economy and, having done so, join the
celebration at the table with the lost who have been restored?” Cf. also Culpepper,
“Gospel According to Luke,” NIB IX:295-96:
“The scandal was that Jesus received such outcasts, shared table fellowship
with them, and even played host to them. The God who showed mercy to the
apostate Israelites in the wilderness rejoices over the salvation of every lost
person like a shepherd who rejoices over the recovery of a lost sheep or a
woman who rejoices over the finding of a lost coin. The question posed by the
parables is whether we will join in the celebration—but to celebrate with God
one must also share in God’s mercy.”
[9] Cf. Culpepper,
“Gospel According to Luke,” NIB IX:305:
“The elder brother represents all of us who think we can make it on our own,
all of us who might be proud of the kind of lives we live. Here is the contrast
between those who want to live by justice and merit and those who must ask for
grace. The parable shows that those who would live by merit can never know the
joy of grace. We cannot share in the Father’s grace if we demand that he deal
with us according to what we deserve. Sharing in God’s grace requires that we
join in the celebration when others are recipients of that grace also.” Cf.
also Tillich, “To Whom Much is Forgiven …” in The New Being, 13: “The righteousness of the righteous ones is hard
and self-assured. They, too, want forgiveness, but they believe that they do
not need much of it.”
