The Prodigal God: The Feast of the Father

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, March 28, 2010

This morning, we finish up our series of messages looking at Luke 15 and the three parables that Jesus told in response to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Something we would note, one last thing is Luke 15 begins with eating and it ends with eating.

It begins with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttering against Jesus because He would dare eat with sinners and tax collectors and it ends with a feast and the celebration as the father welcomes home his wayward son. A closer look at scripture reveals to us that this whole idea of a meal and celebration is somatic throughout all of scripture. In the Old Testament, when a covenant was certified, it was celebrated with a meal. When a victory was won, you celebrated with a feast and a meal. Many, many of the religious ceremonies of the Old Testament involved a meal. In fact, the most important events in the salvation history up until Jesus were celebrated with a meal, the Passover meal.

The Passover meal, in which the people would recall each and every year how God had delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians and took them into the Promise Land, the meal that Jesus enters into Jerusalem on this day that we celebrate.  He comes with His disciples to celebrate the feast, the pinnacle of which would happen on Thursday as He and His disciples would celebrate the Passover meal, to recall God’s history of salvation.

Throughout all of those meals of the Old Testament, what God was doing was foreshadowing the great feast that was to come. It was a foretaste, if you will, of the great meal we would enjoy in heaven one day because that’s how He pictures heaven, as this huge banquet. Listen to the prophet, Isaiah. In Chapter 25, he says, “On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all the peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from all faces.” The picture we get here of heaven is to be in the presence of God at a grand banquet, at this huge feast. So all the foreshadowing, all of the meals of the Old Testament, leading up to this Thursday when Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples. He then leaves a meal for us. We call it the Lord’s Supper, our communion. But in the Lord’s Supper, we have a foretaste of the meal which is to come. As it signifies what God has promised for us as we would eat that in the presence of our Father in heaven.

It’s the same message Jesus was giving in the parable of the two lost sons. Both sons are estranged from their father, and the father invites both of them into the feast to enjoy the celebration with him. It is the feast of salvation, for the father in the parable is God Himself. The two sons, that’s you and I. We’ve been alienated and separated from our Father, but He invites us into the feast, the feast of salvation.

Today, we’ll see the parallels between the feast that the father threw for his son and the feast that Jesus has left for us. Both are the feasts of salvation, and they are enjoyed in four very distinct ways. You see, the feast of salvation is experiential by nature. The son returns to his father expecting, at best, he could be a slave or a hired hand. The father runs out to the son, welcomes him back into the family. The son hears the words of the father, the father declaring his love for him and bringing him back into the family, declaring him to have full rights as son once again. It’s one thing to hear the words, but the father doesn’t stop there. The father now goes on to have a grand celebration and a party for his son. Now the son not only hears the love of his father, but he experiences the love of his father. As the fattened calf is butchered and it is roasted and as he smells the roasting fattened calf with each breath that he takes in, he takes in the love of the father because he knows of the extravagance to which the father would go to celebrate his return. As he hears the laughter and the community coming together, joyfully celebrating, again he hears the love of the father, as the father wants to share his joy with all of his friends and all of his family. It’s one thing to hear of his father’s love. It’s another thing to experience his father’s love.

Someone once said it’s the difference between knowing that honey is sweet and experiencing it’s sweetness. So it is with the supper that Jesus leaves behind for us. It’s important for us to know of God’s love. It’s important for us to understand the Jesus is the true elder brother who came in search for us, the true elder brother who was willing to pay the ultimate price for our salvation. It’s important for us to know that we are the wayward son and we’re the elder son as well, that we are estranged from our father. At times, we’ve turned our back on him and, through our sinful activity, we are very, very far from Him. It’s important to know that Jesus, our older brother, came and He searched and He brought us back to the Father. And though you and I were deserving death, He died in our place and, through His blood, our sins have been washed away.

It’s important to read in scripture that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It’s important for us to understand that God declares you righteous because of what Jesus has done for you. But it’s something all together different to experience that love. We can hear the love of God, but Jesus gives us a meal in which we can experience that love.

As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, as you recall all that Jesus has done for us, we come and we smell the wine and, with each breath that we take, we know the love God has for us. And we taste the bread and we hear the music and sing and we experience God’s love. It’s not just a ritual that we go through. It’s not just the motions that we follow through on. But instead, it’s an opportunity for us to not only hear the word of God but to experience the word of God. The feast of salvation is experiential.

But the feast of salvation is also material. It has substance to it, substance which strengthens us and it empowers us. Think of the son as he returns to his father. The last that we have heard from him, he is looking longingly at the pods that the pigs are eating. I imagine as he walks up to his father, he’s skin and bones. His cheeks are sunken in because he’s malnourished. And so now the father throws a feast for his son. Not only does he experience the father’s love, but he is strengthened by the father’s love. As he eats the fattened calf, as he enjoys all of the delicacy, all of a sudden, strength returns to his body and he is renewed by his father’s love.

When we come to the Lord’s table, when we partake of the feast which He has left for us, we are renewed and we are strengthened. You see, our God is a God who is concerned both for us body and soul. In Jesus’ ministry, He preached about the coming kingdom, but the blind could see and the lame could walk and the deaf could hear because God created us as physical beings and He promised us a new body and a new earth and a new heaven. So God comes to us in both body and in spirit. So when we come to the sacrament, we know that in, with and under the bread and the wine is the very body and blood of Jesus. The sacrifice that He gave for us, we have the assurance of the forgiveness of our sins and our faith is strengthened. It’s renewed. And our faith being strengthened and renewed actually has a physical effect upon us, as we also are strengthened and renewed.

Once again, we go to the prophet Isaiah this time in Chapter 40, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.” Those who trust in the Lord, those who have their faith in the Lord, their strength is renewed and they are fortified. So it is when we come to the supper, there is a substance there. It’s tangible. It’s real. We can see it. We can touch it. We can feel it. And God renews us and He strengthens us. The feast of salvation, it’s material.

The feast of salvation is individual. The son knew that the celebration was for him. It wasn’t for anybody else. Remember the older brother complains about the fact that the father is throwing a party for the younger son. Although there may have been hundreds of people there from the community, the centerpiece of the whole thing was the son and the son had no doubt of his father’s love for him. It was a personal testimony of the father to the love that he had for the son. One can almost imagine the father going throughout the celebration of the party, patting people on the back, family members, community members and pointing over saying, “That’s my son. He was lost, but now I have him back. I thought he was dead, but now he’s alive.” And each time that he heard that, he would know of his father’s love, his father’s love speaking to him.

In the supper that Jesus leaves behind for us, it’s personal by nature. It’s individual as Jesus comes to you, one on one. When He instituted the supper with his 12 disciples, it says that He broke bread and He gave it to them and He says, “This is given for you.” Individual. Singular. Not plural you, singular you. When He took the cup and He said, “This is the blood of the New Testament. It’s shed for you,” He uses the singular. “For the forgiveness of your sins,” singular. As if He was speaking to each one of His disciples, “Matthew, this is given for you.” “Thomas, this is given for you.” “John, this is given for you.” “Bartholomew, this is shed for you.” And so also for us, as we approach the Lord’s table, you hear Jesus’ words spoken to you, to you as an individual. You see, the God who knows the number of hairs on top of your head says that He came for you and He died for you. And so when you hear Jesus’ words, He’s speaking to you. He says, “This is my body given for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. This is forgiveness which is given to you.” It’s your moment, your moment one on one with your Savior, an individual communion between you and your God. The feast of salvation is individual.

But the feast of salvation is communal as well. You can’t have a party with just one person. You can’t have a celebration if the only person there is the son. The whole community comes and turns out for the feast that the father is throwing for his son. And each one of them brings a unique dimension to that celebration. Each family member brings another facet to the celebration so that together, together it makes the party. It makes the feast what it is.

Our faith isn’t to be lived out in a vacuum. When we come to the supper, yes, God is coming to you individually but we are coming to God as a family of believers. As the body of Christ corporately, we celebrate the meal together. We’re coming to the family table, if you will. And each one of us brings a unique facet and a unique dimension to our celebration so that our faith is renewed, our faith is strengthened with one another but through one another. As we come together as the body of Christ, we corporately are renewed and strengthened as we gather around the table because the feast of salvation is meant to be shared. It’s meant for all of us. It’s our family table.

You see, the feast really is a foretaste of what’s to come. It’s a foretaste of the eternity in which you and I will spend with our Father in heaven. Because our elder brother paid the ultimate price for us and reunited us back with our Father, we’ve been invited into the ultimate feast and we’ll be able to sit in the presence of our God for an eternity. And the feast and celebration to end all celebrations will be yours.

In the meantime, as we anxiously look forward to that but we live this side of heaven, we have a foretaste, we have the privilege to come to the table this morning. And as you come, experience God’s love. Not only know God’s love. Don’t just go through the motions as you come to the rail but experience His love. Take in the smell of the wine, the taste of the bread, the hearing of the singing. Be strengthened and fortified in your faith as God comes to you, as Jesus speaks to you one on one and He says that He gave His body for you and He spilled His blood for you.

But then we celebrate as a family, as a community of believers coming together centered around the family table. As Psalm 34 says, “Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.” Amen.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church