A Tale of Two Sons (Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent: March 30, 2025)

Watch the sermon here. Listen to the sermon here.

Texts:   Isaiah 12:1-6

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

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

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for today is our Gospel reading, especially these words of the father in Jesus' parable: “The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:22-24). And again the father says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:31-32).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus,

The parable of the prodigal son is one that is extremely well known even outside of Christianity. It is a parable that Jesus tells that everyone loves to hear. But we tend to forget that it is not the tale of a single son. It is the tale of two sons. There isn't just one son who is the focus of this parable; there are two. There is one father who loves both sons equally. There are two sons. Why do we tend to skip over the second son? Because we like to see ourselves in the son who went astray and came back. But sometimes it's a little too painful to see ourselves as the son who grumbles when his brother comes back. But the fact of the matter is that throughout our lives, we are at times both sons. And what we learn in our Gospel reading for today is that the Father loves both of his sons so much that he gives them exactly what they need.

Let us pray: Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we at times like the prodigal son run away from you, trying to do things on our own. At other times we are like the faithful son who grumbles when we see others come in repentance back to the faith. Yet Your love is so great to us in both circumstances. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we may always have the sure and certain hope that no matter what, You as a loving Father love us and care for us and give us exactly what we need. It's through Your Son's name we pray. Amen.

A man has two sons. And the younger of them comes and says to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me” (Luke 15:12). What does that mean? How does one inherit? You don't get the inheritance until your parents are dead. The younger son is saying to his father, “Dad, you're dead to me. I want my share of the property.” If we were that dad, we’d probably slap him across the back of the head and tell him to fall in line and move on. Yet this father loves his son so much, he goes, “Okay”. He liquidates a third of his property. The younger son would have only gotten one third because the older would have gotten a double portion. The father liquidates one-third of his property, gives it to his younger son, and the son goes off and squanders it. The father knew his sons. He knew his younger son would do this with the his property, yet, out of love, he gives him a third of all he owns. And the younger sons goes out and spends his dad’s money on prostitutes, rich, luxurious living, all types of things sinful. And then once he's spent it all, a famine comes, and he's forced to work tending pigs. Now we all like bacon, but in the Bible, a good Jewish boy would never tend pigs. Pigs were unclean. Pigs were filthy. They made you ceremonially unclean. A good Jewish boy would never even go near pigs. So the fact that he is tending to pigs is outwardly showing the filth that inwardly corrupts his soul. Finally, he comes to a senses and he realizes that he should go back and acknowledges he's not worthy to be called a son, but at least serve as a servant in his father's house. But as he's headed back, the dad sees him. And as a loving father, goes out, runs out, and embraces his son. This loving father takes the filth of his son upon himself. He welcomes the son back. And he gives him fattened calf, gives him robes, gives him a ring, gives him shoes. He restores him to his sonship.

As the party is going on, the son who did not say to his dad, “Dad, you're dead to me”, comes in from the field and he's confused as to why a party is going on. And the servant informs him, and the older son is upset that his dad would dare to welcome back his younger son. His dad would give such a celebration for this sinner who had lived so contrary to how their dad had raised them. And the dad comes out. And the son says, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15:29-30). And how his father respond? Not with rebuke, but with love. “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:31-32).

So it is with us. Just to be clear, in this parable, we are never the father. I know that there are plenty who have had children walk away from the faith. I know that there are plenty who have had children maybe even walk away from their families for whatever reason. You raised your child, you brought them up in the faith. You did everything you could. And yet, for whatever reason, they have gone astray. For whatever reason, they have left the family of the church, maybe they've even cut off ties with your own family. And it hurts. Absolutely it hurts. But you're not the father. There have been plenty of people who have died and don't know in this life whether their children will come back to the faith or not. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. That's not the comfort that Jesus is giving here. The comfort there is the comfort of the Gospel that because Christ has won the victory, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Because Christ has won the victory over sin, death, and the devil, no matter what happens with your children, your loving God is going to take care of you and provide comfort for you both here in time and there in eternity.

But in this parable, what we must understand is that we are both of the sons. There are times that we, like the prodigal son in our sin, think that we know best. There are times that we, like the prodigal son in our sin, go, “Nope, I'm good. I'm walking away from you, God. I don't need what you have to offer.” And we go out into the sin-filled world and we get covered by stuff worse than pig filth. We get absolutely dirty with the sins of this world, not just outwardly but inwardly as well. And then, by the grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we come to our senses. By the grace of God, we come to our senses. And while we are still far off, our loving Heavenly Father comes and He runs to us and He embraces each and every one of us in our sin. He takes that filthiness of our sin. He places it on His Son who suffered and died on the cross to forgive our sins. In so doing, we are made clean. He restores us once again to sonship. He throws a feast celebrating. Heaven rejoices when a son who had gone astray comes back.

Likewise, we all have times when we are like the elder son. We see a sinner come back to the faith, or come to the faith maybe for the first time. and we know this person's sin. We know how much they have gone astray in their life. And we're not big fans of the fact that they've come to faith. And, like the older son, we like to grumble. “God, why did you save them? Why did you make them your son?” The early Christians had this problem with Paul. Paul had been someone who had murdered and arrested hundreds of Christians. And at the early church and Acts, when Paul comes to the faith, they're like, “Are you sure about this guy? Do you really want him as one of your sons?” Likewise, we often can be the same way. “Really, God? You want this sinner to be a son of yours?” And yet God says to us, “You have your inheritance. You are my child, made so through the waters of holy baptism. You're not losing anything by another sinner coming to be a son of mine. It is fitting to celebrate and be glad that another sinner has come back to the faith.”

With both sons, the father's love prevails. It prevailed for the son who had gone astray, and it prevailed for the son who also went astray through his trouble. And God's love prevails for you as well. You have been made God's son through the waters of holy baptism. That inheritance of eternal life is yours. If you are struggling because you feel like you are so deep in your sin that your father could never love you, God's love is so great that He will gladly come and embrace you and restore you, make you clean through the death of Christ Jesus, His Son who died for you. And if you're comfortable being a son of God, then pray and continue to pray that you may not turn hard-hearted like the son who remained faithful. And if you catch yourself there, God's love is for you too. It's a sure and certain comfort that there's plenty of God's grace to go around.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, today we see the abundance of God's grace. God's grace first won for us at the cross, which overflows to all people of all times, which overflows to you each and every week here in the Divine Service and overflows to you each and every day. So continue to return to your loving God. Come back to him as He runs to greet each and every one of you, as He comes to embrace each and every one of you, as He comes to celebrate each and every one of you. Until at last, with all the saints who have gone before us, with angels and archangels and with the whole company of heaven, we will all celebrate in the great feast on the last day. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.