Every one of us has experienced loss of some kind in life.  We know what it is to have something and then to lose it and later to find it again.

Jesus teaches about loss and failure in today’s scripture.  The point of the story is that when the lost is found, when the failure turns to success, the result is joy in the presence of God.  Turning human failure into a spiritual success is God’s goal.   

In today’s scripture, we didn’t just hear about how a shepherd failed to keep his 100 sheep together and lost one. We hear about joy when he regained his lost sheep.  He did not want to settle for 99.  He did not give up and say, “Well, maybe a wolf ate it.  It is just one sheep. Who cares?”  He went and looked until he found number 100.   

The story wasn’t just about a woman with ten coins who lost one.  She did not say, “Oh, well, I’ll find it someday when I clean house.”  It was a story about her frantically searching, rolling up the carpets, sweeping the floor until she found it, and then we hear about joy that caused her to go and tell her friends.

The story wasn’t about how happy a father was to have two sons, but how one son took his inheritance and the other stayed home.  The story is about a father, gathering up his robes, and running to meet his returning son.

In that culture, men of dignity did not run.  He didn’t care who saw his skinny legs.  He didn’t care if he had a heart attack trying; he had to get to his son.  He embraced him, and held his skinny, smelly body close to his own in unutterable joy. 

He does not ask for an explanation.  He does not ask for an apology.  He does not ask for restitution from the son to prove he is sorry.

Joy came to the father that caused him to go overboard in welcoming his younger son back home.  A great party happened.

Jesus is telling these stories in the presence of people who knew about loss.  Some considered themselves the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  They knew they strayed, they knew they had done wrong, and Jesus was offering them the possibility of being found, restored again to the flock of sheep, to the headband of coins, and to the family of the father.

Jesus was also talking to people who considered themselves to be the 99 sheep, the nine coins, and the son who never left his father.

People listening who had property and lost it or some of it identified with the shepherd who lost a sheep, and understood the joy with which he called his neighbors to help him celebrate finding the lost sheep.
 
Women who wore that chain of ten coins as a headband understood the story.  Those ten coins often were a gift from her family when she married, or a gift from her husband.  To lose one of those coins would have signaled to everyone either that she was careless or that poverty had forced her to use one.  The women listening to Jesus understood the joy the woman in the story had when she found her lost coin.

In the next story, Jesus touched on the nerve of everyone who had a parent-child relationship.  That included nearly all of them. 

“Once there was a man who had two sons,” he began.  Many of them had been there, one way or another.  Some of them, no doubt, had been the father who experienced the loss of a son wanting to leave and take his inheritance.  Tradition demanded respect for elders above all else.  For a son to ask for his inheritance early was like saying to the father, “I wish you were dead so I could have what is mine.”

This son insulted the father by demanding his inheritance.  One third of the family farm had to be sold, assets had to be liquidated.  Other farmers would have said, “What is going on in your household?”  

In that culture this would have been a great insult to the father.  The father had every right to chase the younger son off the property with nothing.  The father had no obligation to the son; the son had an obligation to the father. 

Nevertheless, the father endured it, permitted it, and even arranged for it to happen and allowed the younger son to go on his way.

It would have been very disrespectful.  When such a thing happened, the family no longer mentioned that son’s name.  It was as if he never lived or was ever a part of the family.

When Jesus told about how the younger son wasted his inheritance, a full third of his father’s assets, how he fell into sin and was at the point of starvation, everyone was saying, “See.  God always punishes those who abandon their father.  He lost and he got what he deserved.” 

They expected Jesus to end the story with, “The father was very happy with the son who stayed and got the other two-thirds of his father’s wealth.  The older son prospered, enjoyed his father’s inheritance, had many children, and lived to an old age as a wise and godly man.”  That would have been a great story!  That would have reinforced their tradition and served as a worthwhile lesson to everyone.

But this story of Jesus continued with the younger son repenting.  He lost all his inheritance and was not trained in any kind of trade with which he could get a job.  Reduced to feeding pigs, he soon found himself ready to be his father’s hired hand, just for room and board. 

The story turned and was no longer about a wayward son but was now about a merciful father who extravagantly welcomed his son home, restored him to his former status, bought him a new suit, gave him the family credit card, and planned a great banquet in celebration of his return.

Even though they all knew it was not proper, those listening to Jesus who had a child who strayed knew the feelings in that father’s heart.  They knew the longing he felt to see his child again and to know he was all right.  They understood the father’s merciful heart and the joy he had when he saw his son coming down the lane toward home.  
 
While the rigid tradition of casting out such a wayward son may have discouraged young people from leaving home, that same tradition also prevented fathers from showing mercy to the one who repented.
 
This story is often called the Prodigal Son.  We misdefine the term “prodigal.”  It does not mean wayward, disrespectful and wasteful.  It is really about the story of two brothers and their prodigal father.  Prodigal means extravagant and generous even to the point of recklessness.  The term is far more suited to the father in extending his mercy than to the son in spending his inheritance.

Then Jesus turns his attention to the party held in honor of the son who was now enjoying his father’s mercy.  It was time for the other son to come in from the fields.  In the distance he saw the house lit up, the servants hurrying around, and he heard loud music.

We can imagine how he felt when returned home, hot and sweaty, tired and hungry from the long day’s work.  Now he was required also to do even the work left behind by his worthless younger brother. 

He asked one of the servants, “What is going on?” 

The servant replied, “Guess who is back?  Your little brother!  This party is for him.  Your father has killed the prized calf and invited all his friends because he has his son back, safe and sound.”

Anger boiled inside the older brother.  This could not happen!  Yet he was only a son.  He had no real authority.  He could not stop it.  He could not kick his younger brother out.  This was not right!  This was not fair!

The father looked around and it was way past dark.  His other son should have been home by now.  The father went outside and saw his older son.  “Son, come on in.  There is great news!  Your brother has come home.”

“Father, how could you?  The prized calf?  You have got to be kidding me!
 
“You have never even provided a frozen pizza on paper plates for me to have a party with my friends, and now this son of yours returns after wasting his inheritance on willful sins and you kill the grand champion calf and provide a banquet?
 
“The house is filled with his friends.  You have hired his favorite band?  The house is filled with his music!
 
“How do you think that makes me feel?  I have worked for you year after year, doing anything you asked.  At the end of this 14-hour day, in our busiest season, doing the work of two men, I come home tired and sore all over from working in the fields and this is what I find?”

The father tried to reason with him.  “Look son, all I have belongs to you.  Even though I don’t always say it, I appreciate all your hard work.  I have always been able to depend on you.  You are always there when I need you.  This is not about what you have lost; it is about what has been found.  Your brother whom we thought was dead is alive.  At best we thought he was forever lost, but come, look, he has found his way home.”

Those who were listening to Jesus knew about what had been lost.  Some knew they were lost with no hope.   While Jesus was trying to help them understand God’s mercy was calling them back home, others believed that meant they were losing their exclusive place in God’s family.

If the lost returned and there was such a great celebration in heaven, the faithful would be only equals with the lost at best.  That gave them, in the older son’s place, no reason to celebrate at all!  They had always been faithful, had obeyed all God’s laws, and had kept themselves pure. 

They deserved—in fact, they had earned—their right to be called the children of God.

In this story Jesus was inviting the lost, who had willfully wasted their lives pursuing one sin after another, to be found?  That meant that those who had been faithful would have to share their status with sinners as children of one father.

There is no joy in the older brother’s relationship with the father.  He has no satisfaction in just being a son, living in relationship to his father, seeing his father happy.  Had the elder brother been motivated by his love for his father, he would have gone in to the party, just because it pleased his father. 
 
Well, here is when the story boils down to us.  Where are you?  Are you the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son? 

There is good news for you.  When you are ready and you sincerely want to be a part of God’s family—that means you are tired of spending yourself on yourself—God is ready to welcome you into the family.  That extravagant mercy is ready to greet you.

God wants more than anything to restore you to himself, giving you all the rights and privileges that come from having a relationship with God.  When you decide you have had enough of the pigpen, he welcomes you home.
 
Jesus said this creates “joy in heaven.”
 
Are you one of the 99 sheep, the nine coins, or an older brother who has been faithful for years and are you thinking that now that you have this fine record in your favor and God owes you?  God should do things your way?

Now your hard work should pay off with the rewards of the things you’ve always wanted?

Do you think your faithfulness has brought you the blessings you deserve?

So long as you are trying to earn your place in the father’s house, you can never be assured of it. 

If you are thinking you have gotten in by your high moral standards, what happens if you slip and fall off your self-made pedestal?  Are you assured of the father’s love even when it is obvious you no longer deserve it? 

When we are earning our place in God’s family, we can never be sure we have paid enough.  We can never delight in the assurance of God’s love.  We can never do enough or have enough good deeds in our credit column.

Every time something goes wrong in life, we get the feeling we haven’t done enough, or maybe we have done something wrong and this is God’s punishment. 

When criticism comes from someone else, we are devastated and devalued, and determined that the other person is out to deplete our reserve of righteousness.

Your prayer life tells the story of your relationship with God.  Is God there to bail you out of a tight spot?  Is God there to hear your confession so you can get on with getting what you think you deserve or what you want?

Or is God there to enjoy?  Your prayer time is not only frequent but you find that you can talk to God about anything, and such a relationship often causes you to spend most of your prayer time in praise and adoration for the delight  you have in living in the presence of God.

Both brothers were lost.  One brother was lost to his fascination for his obvious selfishness and self-indulgence.  The other brother was lost to his fascination with his own ability to do what needs to be done in order to get what he wanted. 

Neither son was motivated by his love for the father, although the father loved both extravagantly and unconditionally.

However, one son understood his utterly hopeless state apart from his father and returned.  The other son thought himself deserving of his place and one day he would have it all because he had earned it.

One son was lost in his sin and he preferred to be found by his father’s mercy.  The other son thought he had found his place by virtue of his faithfulness, which rendered him lost to his father’s mercy.

The Prodigal God comes out to each son, to the one who is lost.  The father runs out to meet him and the joy begins.  To the other, he comes out to invite him into his joyful celebration, but the son prefers to be lost.

Whichever son we identify with personally, our Extravagant, Merciful God comes out to meet us.  That is what God has done in Jesus Christ.  God knew we would never measure up to God’s standard of righteousness, so God decided to enter the human race in the form of Jesus.  God decided to run out to meet us and invite us into the joy of knowing him.
 
God extends his mercy, whether we have strayed and now we repent of our sin and come in need of forgiveness or we have been faithful but have depended on our own righteousness instead of God’s mercy.  We are invited into the joy of a restored relationship to God.

What a wonderful, Prodigal God we have, who loves both his sons.

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