The Lenten Restoration

Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you in God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is author Mitch Albom’s follow up to the highly successful Tuesdays with Morrie. In the book, the main character dies and goes to “heaven,” and as the title would suggest, meets five people. Some people appreciated the sentimentality of the story, but there are a ton of problems with the premise and the execution of the tale. Perhaps most concerning is that “heaven” was just a place that was special to the main character on earth, and the people he meets are simply for the purpose of rehashing events that happened while he was alive in order to assure him that everything from this life was ok.

I could make a list of five people that I’d like to meet in heaven, and I’m really sorry but none of you are going to make that list. I mean, I genuinely want to see you all there, but my list includes people I haven’t met yet. I wonder who’s on your list? I did a little informal poll this week, asking people who they’d like to meet in heaven, and I got responses such as Jesus (of course), Martin Luther (for sure), Abraham (both Lincoln and the much older one from the Bible), Moses, Elijah (who wouldn’t want to chat with the guy who made it to heaven without dying), and Paul (not me, but the other one you’ve probably heard of). Of course, any list that includes anyone who God has not explicitly said will be there is pure speculation. Only He knows the heart and the state of faith when that last breath was drawn. It’s still interesting to think about, but I don’t think I’ve ever asked that question and had anyone answer The Prodigal Son.

Obviously, the Prodigal Son is a character in a parable that Jesus uses to describe someone who has “squandered His Father’s property in reckless living,” and not an actual person that we’ll be able to meet. Bit in truth, the Prodigal Son is every one of us. He is every person of all time who has turned their back on God and taken His gracious gifts for granted. He’s every person who has ever thought that they could do it on their own. Thinking that apart from God’s loving embrace anything they did in their life would be rewarded. So, while we’re not going to meet the Prodigal Son in heaven, in truth everyone we meet in heaven, except for God, will be a prodigal son. Because, like that of the Prodigal Son in today’s parable,

OUR SALVATION, AND THE SALVAION OF ALL PEOPLE,

IS AN ACCOUNT OF RESTORATION.

          And we truly need to be restored into a right relationship with God. The kind of relationship that the younger son didn’t have during that time when he took his father’s gracious gifts and turned his back on the giver of those gifts. Some of you might be able to really relate to the Prodigal Son. We don’t do testimonies too much in our church body. Not like some other Christians might. But it’s powerful to hear when someone tells their story of great despair and distress, separated from God across a great divide that seems uncrossable. Squandering not only possessions, but relationships and opportunities in wanton selfishness. That’s not the powerful part. The powerful part is to hear of a right relationship with God being restored. And the story is almost always the same. God meets them in their darkest moment. In their deepest despair. At their lowest point. Maybe it’s the Word of God speaking into their life. Or perhaps one of God’s faithful servants who shows up at just the right time. Whatever the case, it’s the same story that’s been told forever. And it’s the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s the story of the man who simply couldn’t do it on his own. And more importantly it’s the story of our God who didn’t wait for him to come back, but saw him from a distance and ran to meet him to welcome him back into the fold.

Now, I hear you saying, “But I’m not the Prodigal Son. I never took God’s gifts and squandered them.” But you are. And you have. Maybe you identify to a greater degree with the Older Brother. I hear that. But the truth is that there’s not just one Lost Son in this parable. There are two. There’s a lot of good to be said about this Older Brother. He’s earnest. Loyal. A hard worker. Most of us would look at these two sons and identify to a greater degree with this one. For the most part we don’t have compelling testimonies of having been down and out, in great despair, and then being pulled out of it by what we might consider a dramatic action of God working in our lives. To quote the Older Brother, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command…” Really? The reason the Older Brother is just as lost as the prodigal is that he has deluded himself into thinking that his hard work and his loyalty to the father are enough to earn himself a seat at the table. He sees the dramatic action of his father toward his brother and he resents him for it instead of realizing that the father would, and has, done that very same dramatic action for him. Through Christ Jesus.

And God has done the same for you. Maybe to you it doesn’t look or feel the same as someone else who has the incredible testimony of God pulling them out of their pit of sin and despair. Maybe life doesn’t feel like you’re feasting on fattened calf when yesterday you were “longing to be fed with the pods the pigs ate.” But’s that’s exactly what has happened for you. Rejoice in the fact that God has always been there for you. That daily He pulls you out of the pig pen of your sin, wraps His loving arms around you, and welcomes you home. Rejoice mightily. Because that’s exactly what the inhabitants of heaven do each time one who is lost is found.

This whole chapter of Luke tells one story. The lost sheep is tracked down by the Good Shepherd and when He’s found Jesus says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” The woman finds her lost coin and Jesus says, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And the father welcomes home the prodigal son and says, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” And it doesn’t end there because these parables are about much more than a sheep, a coin, and a son. They’re about you. And the celebration that occurs in heaven each time you turn from sin and allow your heavenly Father to embrace you and welcome you home.

Some time ago, Billy Graham was asked the question, “Do you think it’s true that we’ll be surprised at some of the people that we’ll see in heaven?” His reply was an emphatic, “Yes, I believe that’s true.” And then he went on to say that we’ll also probably be surprised when we get to heaven to discover who isn’t there. The reason is that there’s a very simple but profound truth. And that is that our salvation doesn’t depend on us and our good works, but solely on God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ. Those who think the goodness of their life is their ticket to heaven will be unpleasantly surprised in the end. No matter how good we are, we’ll never be good enough to earn our own admission into heaven. God is absolutely pure and holy, and even one sin would be enough to separate us from Him. And that’s why even someone we think of as a good person may not end up in heaven after all.

But God, in His infinite mercy and grace, provided another way for us to be saved. That’s Jesus. That one sin, and every other one, that would keep us out of heaven was transferred to Him on the cross. And that’s why the Prodigal Son, who we think of as having this enormous debt of sin, and the Older Brother, who we think of as the good guy, are in the exact same boat. And we’re right in there rowing along with them. We’re all in need of the love and mercy and grace of the Father who gave everything, including His one and only Son, so that we would be able to spend eternity with Him. And that’s why He’s constantly waiting and watching for us to turn from our sin, to step out of it and realize that we can’t do it on our own. And as soon as we do, even before we can ask for a lowly place as His servant, He runs to us and embraces us. Fitting us with shoes and a ring, and even with the very best robe. The robe of Christ’s righteousness.

And not only that, but He prepares a feast for us so that we all might eat and celebrate. The same feast prepared for us today. The one that effects the forgiveness of sins won for us by Jesus. The one that reminds us that as good as it is here, it will be far better when we’re welcomed into His eternal presence where our restoration from sinner to saint will be complete. And where we’ll enjoy the opportunity to meet, and worship with, all the faithful people who have gone before us and who will be blessed to spend eternity with our God who spares nothing to show us His gracious love for all of us. You might not have made my top five list of people I’d like to meet in heaven. But, I do pray every single day that each of you, and many more who will hear of the great love of God in Christ Jesus, will be there in heaven enjoying the feast of victory that has no end. Receiving the reward set aside for all who have faith in the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And on that day we will celebrate with all the saints and angels at the restoration of all who were lost and have now been found. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and you minds in Christ Jesus.