Jody's Devotionals

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”        Luke 15:1-2 (WEB)

Tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, and Scribes… and the disciples. What a group! These are the people that Jesus was directing His teaching through the stories of the lost sheep, lost coin, and prodigal son and family. Jesus had an important message. Did the listeners hear? Did they hear His truth or what they wanted to hear? Did they accept what Jesus had to say? Those are questions I should be asking myself every time I read God’s Word and hear His teaching.

– Do I welcome sinners or just sit with the ‘good’ ‘clean’ people? No matter what my age, am I following Jesus’ command to make (or mentor) disciples for Him? Do I invest my prayers, time, and talents to build His Kingdom?

– Do I support missions/ministries/outreach/evangelism or do I just want the church to serve me? Do I rejoice at the lost sheep that come home? Does my support include Bible study, new believer friendly worship, and compassion in the pew as well as on the street?

– Do I come close to hear Jesus? Do I come to worship expecting to meet with Jesus? Do I come to Sabbath worship with Bible, pen, and paper because I expect to hear words to study and impact the week ahead? Do I encourage those who bring that word, whether ordained or laity? Do I enter into worship with my focus on the One I worship or do I care more about who sees me worship?

… ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”      Luke 15:31-32 (WEB)

God desires, wants to give me all that He has. May I celebrate all that He has for me to receive! I was lost – Now I am found.

He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them…

But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. Luke             15:11-12, 20 (WEB)

I remember the first time I read this story in 1980-something. My first Bible was The Living Bible. (Remember that green edition?) I have always been grateful that I was given that version. On a first read I would not have made it through the KJV or the RSV. TLB reads like a novel. As I read about this young son, I thought, in speaking to the father, “Are you nuts?!!” Yes, sometimes God will give me what I ask – even when it is not the best for me.

The father gave the young son what he wanted. He could have said “no” but would the son have stopped asking? He gave no indication that this was negotiable in his “I-want-it-now” mind. In giving the son what he wanted, the father seems to be losing the son. He allows the son to try it his way. Has God ever done that in your life? He has in mine. It is a good lesson that I do not want to learn again! God gave me what I wanted and it was disastrous. It has taken a few years to dig out of the hole! My prayers now are: “Not my will but Yours, Father.”

The father did not just give the son his inheritance then dust off his hands and slam the home gate shut, and write off the boy! The father never, never stopped believing that the son would come home. That is the way our Heavenly Father watches for me. For most of my life, over 40 years, the Father watched and watched for me. He hoped that in all the difficult days of my life that I would turn to Him and allow Him to show me the best path for my life. And when I did He didn’t say, “What took you so long?” or “Why didn’t you come to Me sooner?” or “Because you waited so long, I don’t have time for you!”. The Father did not keep me waiting at the gate like a stranger or unwelcome guest. He ran to me. The Father wrapped me in His arms and kissed me. Even though I was stinky and still dirty in my sin, He kissed me with the gift of forgiveness before I could get the prepared speech past my lips.

Forgiveness is a hard concept of Jesus’ discipleship. In His parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20), Jesus tells me that whether the ‘worker’ comes into the vineyard early or at the last minute, his wage will be the same. Fair? That is not the question. The owner of the the vineyard sets the payment, not the workers. God’s forgiveness extends to my mother who walked with Him all of her life and it includes the serial killer on death row who accepts his need for the Savior minutes before his execution.

“‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”      Luke 15:6-7 (WEB)

“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’”     Luke 15:25-30 (WEB)

Have you ever done something in your life that you regret? Forgiving yourself is difficult. Most of us hold ourselves to a higher standard than we do anyone else. We spend more time thinking about the reasons we shouldn’t be forgiven instead of thinking about and accepting the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. Self-forgiveness comes slowly because we continue to backslide as those who are closest to us remind us of who we used to be. Our ‘sins’ may not be forgiven by others.

The eldest son saw himself as an obedient, toe-the-line, make-dad-proud, kind of guy. He did the ‘right thing’ from his flesh, not from his heart. When obedience comes from my heart, the reward is in my heart in knowing that God is pleased. Obedience from my flesh is about what ‘it can get me’. I begin to think of my spiritual life as check marks on a ledger that I can trade in for prayers to be answered.

This is where the older son lived. He, too, had left his father because his heart wasn’t there. He was angry before his brother came home. He was angry because his father had not publicly rejected his ne’er-do-well brother and was, in fact, welcoming him home as if nothing had happened. “What about ME?!”

What is your concept of heaven? Are there going to be gold door knobs and diamond windows for the ‘good’ people and small shacks for those who ‘barely squeezed in’? And if there are, who is going to decide who lives where? It’s God’s House so He decides.

“He [the father] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”    Luke 15:31-32 (WEB)

Do you have any time in your worship service for sharing? Do you share concerns and thanksgiving? I hope you do because I believe that is a vital witness in the Body of Christ. What was the reaction of the group the last time someone shared that they had made the choice to change and commit to follow Jesus Christ. I have been in a group when there was no reaction. Nothing! No applause. Nothing. It was like, “OK. Next.” Jesus said that angels rejoice when someone repents. Repentance. Turning from death and taking a direction into Life!. It is worth rejoicing!

“When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”    Luke 15:5-7 (WEB)

I hope you took some time to read Luke 15. When looking at Jesus’ story of the ‘prodigal son’ having read the verses before it in Chapter 15, it brings another perspective to the story.

The younger son is like so many of our own sons and daughters. He is like me when I was a teen. The son is rebellious. He wants what he wants. And he wants it now. He lives in the moment and his desires are not tempered by consequences that may come. The son is disrespectful of his father. He feels his father owes him the inheritance and he owes the father nothing in return. The son abandons the ‘family values’. Now there is a modern, often cliché phrase that has numerous interpretations.

I grew up in a middle-class family in the Midwest. I lived in a small town where you could walk downtown on a summer evening for an ice cream or walk home from the municipal pool without worry that you would be harmed. Children went to ball games with their parents and freely played behind the stands, never to check in with them until the 7^th inning stretch when they would meet at the concession stand. My family values were about mutual respect of others no matter their color or income. We all went to school together. We all worshiped in church together. I was taught that a job was a commitment and you did it to the best of your ability. Government support was given to those who were too ill to work, and that meant a major disability not a fake one. To go against these ‘values’ was not just a disgraceful reflection on my parents. It was totally un-cool for me!

When I went off to college in another state, I suspect that my mother’s prayer life increased a great deal. I encountered people and opportunities in that big city that I never imagined. I ran along the edge of many of life’s cliffs with my mother hanging on through prayer, asking God to keep me from going over the edge.

The younger son, too, walked away from love and safety of his home and ran toward the cliffs that seemed so deliciously dangerous and tempting. He quickly found that the safety net he had taken for granted was gone and consequences were rapid and destructive. He found himself among the pigs of the world. When he found himself lower than he could think would ever happen, he finally turned back to One he knew would still be there. The son did not think he would be forgiven or even allowed back into the home as a son. Once again, he was wrong.

“…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.” …

He [Jesus] said, “A certain man had two sons…”     Luke 15:1-2, 11 (WEB)

And so begins the parable we know as The Prodigal Son. What is the parable all about? Is it about the youngest son? Is it about the oldest son? Is it about the father? What about the observers in the story?

Jesus had three years to give His messages. I had the same amount of time to prepare to be an RN. I was arrogant enough to think that I was ready after three years until I sat down to take my state board exams; until I watched the nurse from the previous shift walk out the door and left me in charge of 35 patients and their care for the next eight hours. Three years is not a very long time. Jesus’ words were never careless. Each word, each parable has a reason and a purpose.

Jesus was speaking to all God’s people. He had a message for the tax collectors and sinners. He also had a message for the Scribes and Pharisees. I am not always clear with which group I stand. Fortunately, Jesus does have a message either way! The question was, and still is, do I hear Him and accept the message? I can read or hear His words all my life and not take them in and live them.

Today’s devotion is pretty brief but that is because I am going to spend time reading Luke 15, the whole chapter, several times. What is several? As many times as I should. That will be based on how many I need to read it and what God shows me through His Spirit. Maybe three – maybe more. I hope you will also take the time to read Luke 15. Over the next three days, we will look at the chapter from the view of each son, the father, and the observers.

But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.     2 Timothy 3:14-16 (WEB)