00:00:00.000 - 00:00:34.000

Your message for the moment with Dr. Bruce W. Thielman, the pearl of parables. At the conclusion of side number one of this cassette, be sure to turn immediately to side number two for the remainder of the message. Let us give reverent attention to the reading of God's word as it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, the fifteenth chapter, beginning at the verse number eleven. And Jesus said, A certain man had two sons.

00:00:34.000 - 00:00:59.000

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

00:00:59.000 - 00:01:26.000

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger.

00:01:26.000 - 00:01:50.000

I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

00:01:50.000 - 00:02:17.000

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servant, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again. It was lost and is found, and they began to make merry.

00:02:17.000 - 00:02:39.000

Now his eldest son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in.

00:02:39.000 - 00:03:03.000

Therefore came his father out and entreated him, and he answering him said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friend. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured by living with Harlot, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

00:03:03.000 - 00:03:34.000

And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his holy word.

00:03:34.000 - 00:04:14.000

Let us pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is the deepest conviction of my mind that our Christian faith alone of all the religions of the world speaks to the great question which is at the heart of every man.

00:04:14.000 - 00:04:46.000

It is the deepest commitment of my heart that our Christian faith alone of all the faiths of mankind addresses itself meaningfully and perfectly to that query which is at the very center of every man's soul. Which way do I go? We are, you see, a strange dichotomy.

00:04:46.000 - 00:05:27.000

We know ourselves to be the children of God, but on the other hand we know ourselves to be the disobedient children of God. We know ourselves to have been made in the image of God, and at the same time we fully understand that we have twisted and perverted that image. We know ourselves to have been made free creatures, and simultaneously we understand ourselves to have sold ourselves into slavery in pursuit of what we thought was freedom.

00:05:27.000 - 00:06:19.000

We know ourselves to have been made alone of all the creatures of the earth able to reach the stars, and understand in our own hearts that alone of all the creatures of the earth we have reached the depths of degradation, of defamation, and of despair. We know ourselves to be able to pray, and we know too that our prayer must always be for forgiveness. I sit in a college dormitory and talk to fifteen young men, and one of them says to me,

00:06:19.000 - 00:06:46.000

"Sir, I guess when you get right down to it, I'm lost." And thirteen out of the fifteen men in the room agree with him. Christianity understands that. I walk with a pretty young girl on a hillside in the Pennsylvania campground during a retreat,

00:06:46.000 - 00:07:23.000

and she looks up to me and she says, "I not only don't know the pathway I'm on, I don't know the pathway I should be on." And our faith understands that. I sit in the doctor's office back east and he says to me, "Bruce, I am an educated, cultivated, sophisticated, moral wreck." And our Christian faith understands that.

00:07:23.000 - 00:07:59.000

Or a young mother sits with me in my study and says across the top of my desk, puking out all the uglinesses of her life, "I know I'm meant to be so much more than this, but I don't know which way to go." Christianity understands that. Indeed, the testimony of this book, if I understand the testimony of this book at all,

00:07:59.000 - 00:08:30.000

is simply the answer to this basic question at the heart of every man's soul and at the center of every man's spirit. Which way do I go? And page after page, chapter after chapter, verse after verse of this book, intolerably true is the solemn word, "Go home."

00:08:30.000 - 00:08:55.000

But perhaps the direction is never more clearly given than in those verses of Scripture we read a few moments ago. Some have described them as the most perfect short story ever written. Others have said, "This is the story of every man." The words are traditionally called "the parable of the prodigal son."

00:08:55.000 - 00:09:26.000

I've chosen to call them this morning, "the pearl of parables." And I want for a few minutes to hold this pearl up before all of us. And I'm asking you in the name of Jesus Christ to look very deeply at this pearl, to gaze upon all of its lustrous beauty, and perhaps to see in its shiny surface a reflection of someone you know,

00:09:26.000 - 00:09:49.000

of someone you know very well. I ask you to look for the reflection of yourself. A certain man has two sons. And his younger son comes to him and says, "Dad, I'd like my share of the inheritance."

00:09:49.000 - 00:10:08.000

Now if you translate that literally, what this boy is saying to his father is simply this, "Dad, I wish you were dead." The only way in which one could gain inheritance in those days was at the death of the father. And so what this boy is really saying to his father is simply and openly this,

00:10:08.000 - 00:10:31.000

"Dad, I wish you were out of the way so I could have what is to be mine." And if that sounds rather shocking to you, if in the midst of this society where the family as the basic unit of society is being torn asunder, if in the midst of this permissive age, in the midst of this age when children are not able to understand their parents

00:10:31.000 - 00:10:48.000

and parents are not interested in understanding their children, if in the midst of this kind of a time that sounds shocking, then contemplate for a moment how much more shocking it must have sounded in the day in which our Lord first told this story.

00:10:48.000 - 00:11:03.000

For that was a society in which the family was the unit of society. That was a family in which the father was honored. That was a family in which his word was law. That was a family in which his word was not disputed.

00:11:03.000 - 00:11:26.000

And he was loved and obeyed and held up for glory and praise. And it was in this kind of a family and in this kind of a situation that this younger son comes and says, "Dad, I wish you were out of the way so I could have what's coming to me." He wanted to be free.

00:11:26.000 - 00:11:49.000

He wanted to be away from the restraints of his father and all the prohibitions of the home. He wanted to shake off these attitudes that his older brother was constantly putting on. He wanted to separate himself from the rules and regulations which were a part of his everyday experience. He wanted to let that hot blood in his veins dance for a while.

00:11:49.000 - 00:12:05.000

That's what he wanted. So he puts his question. And his father gives him his one-third of the inheritance. There was a law, you see, which said that the oldest son would get two-thirds

00:12:05.000 - 00:12:21.000

and younger sons would devise the remaining third, and there were only two sons. So to this boy he gives the third. After all, what else could he do? He could have said no and required the boy to stay at home,

00:12:21.000 - 00:12:38.000

but the boy was filled with such bitterness and hatred and resentment and anger that he would have only spread that bitterness and hatred and anger in the fellowship of that home. What choice did the father have? Better let the boy go and get it out of his system.

00:12:38.000 - 00:12:52.000

Love cannot be legislated. Love cannot be commanded. Love must come springing freely from the heart. And so he gives him his third.

00:12:52.000 - 00:13:12.000

And a few days later, the boy converts all his assets into cash and goes off into a far country. And there, and I think the phrase of the King James Version very quaint, "He wasted his substance in riotous living."

00:13:12.000 - 00:13:25.000

That means he had a ball. Parties, presence, and prestige. The center of the social world. Of course, he never stopped to contemplate the truth

00:13:25.000 - 00:13:37.000

that all of these parties and all of these presents and all of this prestige was because of what his father had given to him. He had earned none of it. None of it was his by accomplishment.

00:13:37.000 - 00:13:53.000

None of it was his by achievement or by attainment. He could enjoy this ball of his. He could throw himself into the midst of this riot of pleasure which he was enjoying only because of what his father had given to him.

00:13:53.000 - 00:14:09.000

But he has a ball. And it was great as long as it lasted. And then a great famine comes on the land. And he begins to be in want.

00:14:09.000 - 00:14:17.000

But so what? There are ups and downs in every life. There are moments when you're a victor and there's moments when you're vanquished. And he'd be able to pull through.

00:14:17.000 - 00:14:32.000

He'd have to get a job. And so, and so he, and Jesus is very precise always with his words. And so he joined himself to a citizen of that country. And literally it means he pinned himself to that citizen.

00:14:32.000 - 00:14:54.000

The suggestion is the citizen was not interested in having this young Jew alien about, but the man literally became a kind of social parasite. He attached himself to this citizen of the far country. He became a kind of adolescent leech and sought to live off this man.

00:14:54.000 - 00:15:13.000

And the man resented it. And in contemplating a way to get rid of the boy, he decides that he will insist upon his doing the one thing which is the most detestable of all things to a Jew. The Jewish law reads, "Curse be he that feeds the swine."

00:15:13.000 - 00:15:28.000

So this man says, "Go and feed the swine." He was sent into the field, the word of Scripture. It's interesting, isn't it? This young boy who wanted freedom, this one boy who wanted no rules and no regulations,

00:15:28.000 - 00:15:48.000

this boy who wanted to be altogether free and independent, the master of his faith and the captain of his soul, he's sent into the field. And he goes. And no one, Jesus says, comes to him.

00:15:48.000 - 00:16:25.000

No parties, no presents, no prestige. And so this ball he is dancing, he suddenly is dancing all alone. And he's so hungry that he wants to fill his belly with the slop he feeds the hogs. And now, at this very dark point in the story, Jesus inserts a single phrase,

00:16:25.000 - 00:16:47.000

a phrase that's hauntingly beautiful, and the phrase which is at the very center of this first half of the narrative. Jesus says, "He came to himself." He suddenly recognizes that he doesn't have to be living like this.

00:16:47.000 - 00:17:03.000

It suddenly dawns upon him that in his father's house, he was more free than in the circumstance in which he now discovers himself. He suddenly discovers that all of the good things of yesterday, which he looked down upon then,

00:17:03.000 - 00:17:18.000

suddenly come to be to him the pathway of experience in which he wants to walk. And so he decides he will arise and he will go home to his father, and he prepares a speech of repentance. And in it there's no excuse.

00:17:18.000 - 00:17:37.000

In it there is no pleading of extenuating circumstances. In it there is complete and abject confession and repentance. And with that speech well rehearsed and ready, he heads home. And he comes to the edge of his village.

00:17:37.000 - 00:17:52.000

And just as today, so it was yesterday. When a man who is dishonored, his father, when a man who has dishonored his family, when a man who has dishonored his village,

00:17:52.000 - 00:18:04.000

returns to the primitive village in the Middle East today, all of society turns against him. And so they turned against him. And as he enters town, they throw mud at him and curses and spit upon him

00:18:04.000 - 00:18:14.000

and beat him with sticks. And his father hears the commotion and he goes to the window, to that same window from which he's looked so many times, hoping to see the sun.

00:18:14.000 - 00:18:28.000

And he sees the boy far off. It doesn't look like the same boy, so much thinner, his face so haggard. But the walk is the same, the pace is the same, the gait is the same. And so the father runs out of the house,

00:18:28.000 - 00:18:44.000

and in running to his son he has to move through the crowd. And the sticks fall on him, and the mud falls on him, and the rocks fall on him, and the spittle runs down his cheeks, and he throws his arms wide, like this,

00:18:44.000 - 00:19:00.000

and protects the boy from the beatings of the crowd. And kisses him. And he says, "Bring a robe to cover the marks of that far country, and put a ring on his finger to show that he's my son,

00:19:00.000 - 00:19:20.000

and put shoes on his feet to show that he's not a slave, that he's bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." And the speech that the boy had prepared, he never even has the opportunity to complete.

00:19:20.000 - 00:19:51.000

And they go home and begin to make money. Please turn your cassettes to the other side. I tell you, when the stars have faded away, and when man has mastered every mystery of the universe,

00:19:51.000 - 00:20:12.000

even then, men will still remember this story of a boy who remembered to go home, and who found his father ready to love him. It's really too bad that the story doesn't end there.

00:20:12.000 - 00:20:23.000

But it doesn't. For you see, there is an elder brother. He is very proper. He is very austere.

00:20:23.000 - 00:20:33.000

He is very thin-lipped. He is very pious. He returns from the fields, and he hears the party going on in the house,

00:20:33.000 - 00:20:44.000

and he says to his servant, "What's going on in there?" And the servant says, "Your brother's home! The one that we thought was dead, he's alive, and we're having a party. Come in!"

00:20:44.000 - 00:21:05.000

But he won't go. Instead, he stands in rigid unforgiveness outside the house. And so for the second time that day, the father goes out, this time to the elder brother,

00:21:05.000 - 00:21:22.000

and meets him on the porch. And the son turns to him, and what does he say? "I have never transgressed thy law."

00:21:22.000 - 00:21:38.000

A rather high opinion of himself, to say the least. He's never failed to obey his father. There has been no want of conformity to or transgression of the law of his father. "I have never transgressed thy law.

00:21:38.000 - 00:21:50.000

I stand perfect before you, and all these years I have served you." That was a lie. Remember when the inheritance was divided, two-thirds of it went to the elder brother.

00:21:50.000 - 00:21:58.000

He had all that was left. That boy hadn't been working for his father, he'd been working for himself. "But all these years I've served you.

00:21:58.000 - 00:22:09.000

But when did you ever kill a kid for me that I might invite my friends and make merry?" Is that what he wanted out of life? A party with his friends?

00:22:09.000 - 00:22:20.000

To kill a kid and make merry? Is that what he wanted? A ball too? Then what's the difference between the older brother and the younger brother? For that was all that the boy wanted.

00:22:20.000 - 00:22:35.000

"But now, when this, thy son, hath come home." And how that must have come. "Not my brother. Not my brother,

00:22:35.000 - 00:22:52.000

but thy son." That wound the heart of a parent? "But now, when this, thy son, hath come home, who's spent all his substance on Harlot."

00:22:52.000 - 00:23:09.000

There's not a thing in the earlier part of the story that says anything at all about the boy having anything to do with prostitutes. That's something the older brother just threw in for effect. This boy who spent his time with Harlot, when he comes home,

00:23:09.000 - 00:23:29.000

for him, for him, you kill a cat. And there he stays. Ungrateful. There was no gratitude in him. He could have been grateful to his father for all the blessings he'd known.

00:23:29.000 - 00:23:45.000

He could have been grateful to God for bringing the boy home. He could have been grateful that the same hot blood that ran in his brother's veins didn't run in his. That he was not subject to the temptations which his brother knew. The other night, one of our collegians asked me how I defeated temptation in my life.

00:23:45.000 - 00:24:00.000

I told him that I wish I knew enough about the defeat of temptation to impart to him some knowledge that was worthwhile. But I said something else as well. I said I thank God every day that I live out my life in the midst of a work,

00:24:00.000 - 00:24:16.000

in the life of the Church, which brings me into constant and repeated contact with those who've given their lives to Jesus Christ. I do not face the temptations that most of you know. I do not have to live out in the midst of the world with individuals who do not know Him

00:24:16.000 - 00:24:34.000

and who do not love Him. Instead, I am surrounded on every hand in the carrying out of my work with people who pray for me. It seems to me that some of that gratitude could have been in the elder brother, but there was none.

00:24:34.000 - 00:24:48.000

And there was almost insufferable self-righteous. "I do not transgress thy law." Here's the old guard of the kingdom of God, chosen not because of God's grace, but because of his worth.

00:24:48.000 - 00:25:16.000

Here's that one who stands and says, "The sins of the flesh are horrible." "But my sins of the spirit aren't so bad." "Oh no, ready to condemn passionately." "But oh yes, ready to forgive pride, arrogance, insufferable conceit."

00:25:16.000 - 00:25:33.000

"And above all, there is in him no love." He's of course out of contact with everybody. There's no love for his father. If there were love for his father, would he not have said when he heard about the party,

00:25:33.000 - 00:25:46.000

"Oh, the kid's home again." "Boy, that'll be a release to Dad." He's been bearing that burden on his heart all these days. And of course he was out of separation with his younger brother.

00:25:46.000 - 00:26:10.000

Wouldn't he have run in, work clothes and all, and say, "I'd like to knock your block off for what you did, but I'm so glad to see you home that all I can do is cry about it." And he was out of separation with God. Because someone filled with that kind of pride and that kind of ingratitude and that kind of love

00:26:10.000 - 00:26:36.000

can have no relationship with God. And so the father speaks to the elder brother. He says, it's a diminutive form, he says, "My dear little boy, my beloved son, this is your brother who's home again.

00:26:36.000 - 00:27:03.000

We thought he was dead, and he's alive. Come in and join the party, and the boy will not go." And that's where the story ends. With the younger prodigal inside, with the father in the midst of making merry,

00:27:03.000 - 00:27:42.000

and the older prodigal standing outside alone and in the dark. The sins of the flesh forgiven, the sins of the haughty spirit held onto. One man come home, one man lost in the night. And so when a pretty girl says to me on a pathway in a Pennsylvania hillside,

00:27:42.000 - 00:28:15.000

"I don't know which path to follow." And so when a doctor says to me in a recovery room, "I'm a cultivated moral wreck." And so when a college boy says to me and his fellows echo the words, "I'm lost." I tell them this story, and I say to them what Scripture says.

00:28:15.000 - 00:28:41.000

"Come home to the God who's waiting. You who even now are lost in a life that's filled with every sin of the flesh that I could name, or perhaps could not name." Think of that ad in the LA Times a few weeks ago in the personal column that said,

00:28:41.000 - 00:29:07.000

"Dean, come home, all is forgiven, dad." And realize that that's the kind of message God is addressing to you. And the elder prodigal, you who are here every time the doors are open, you who are so heavenly you are no earthly good,

00:29:07.000 - 00:29:21.000

you who have committed yourselves to lives of pride and haughtiness and look down on those subject to temptations you do not know, or who have lost battles you have won, you who've wrapped about yourselves the mantles of self-righteousness

00:29:21.000 - 00:29:50.000

and stand pure and proud before God and pray, "Oh Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men." God cries out for you and he says, "Come home." You hear? "Come home."

00:29:50.000 - 00:30:18.000

So just three years ago, a young teenager here in Southern California ran away from home. And about a year and a half after he was gone, he chanced to be in a little town not far from his parents' ranch. And by accident, if there is such a thing as accident in this world which belongs to God,

00:30:18.000 - 00:30:37.000

he meets a ranch hand from his father's ranch. And the ranch hand on seeing him says, "Come on home. Your parents want you so much. Come on home." "I'd like to come home, but I don't really know what their attitude would be.

00:30:37.000 - 00:30:52.000

I don't know what they'd say. I don't know what would happen." "Come on home and find out." "No, I don't have guts enough for that. But I'll tell you what. Tell Dad that tomorrow I'm going to be taking the train

00:30:52.000 - 00:31:10.000

that goes along the southern edge of the ranch. And you know where the apple orchard is. If Dad is willing for me to come home, tell him to hang a white cloth on the big tree in the corner of the orchard.

00:31:10.000 - 00:31:30.000

And if I see it, then at the very next stop, I'll get off the train and come home." And it was agreed. And the next day the young boy got on the train. And as it moved out of the station, the click and the clack of the wheels,

00:31:30.000 - 00:31:45.000

the click and the clack of the wheels began to say to him, "Will they forgive? Will he forgive? Will I be wanted? Will I be loved?" And now the train came closer and closer to the ranch,

00:31:45.000 - 00:32:03.000

closer and closer to the place where the moment of truth was going to be known by all. And the wheels are going click and clack and click and clack. And will he forgive? And will he love me? And will he receive me? And the tension that is building up within the boy is so tremendous

00:32:03.000 - 00:32:16.000

that an older man, a sensitive older man across the aisle sees it and says, "Son, is there something wrong?" And the boy tells him what has happened. And he says, "Sir, I've gotten to the place where I'm afraid to look out that window

00:32:16.000 - 00:32:32.000

to see whether there will be anything on the train." The older man who understands says, "Would it help if..." And the wheels are going click and clack. "Will he forgive? Will he love? Will he receive me again?

00:32:32.000 - 00:32:51.000

Will his heart be open? Will it help if I... if I look out the window and tell you what I see?" And the boy said, "Please, please," and he turned away. And the click and the clack of the wheels filled his heart and filled his mind.

00:32:51.000 - 00:33:11.000

And he knew that now they had arrived at the place. And he felled a hand upon his shoulder. And the voice of the older man said, "Son, look." And he turned and he looked.

00:33:11.000 - 00:33:54.000

And there spread over every tree in the orchard, bedsheets everywhere. And you know, as sure as God covers apple trees with blossoms in springtime, as sure as springtime itself is the promise of love, just so certain is the welcome of the God who says to all the world's prodigal,

00:33:54.000 - 00:34:20.000

"Come home." Let us pray. I'm going to ask that every head be bowed. I'm going to ask that every eye be closed.

00:34:20.000 - 00:34:50.000

I want to pray this morning especially for those of you who want to come home. And so now, when every head is bowed and every eye is closed, if you want me to pray for you, would you raise your hand? Yes.

00:34:50.000 - 00:35:05.000

Would you put your hand up wherever you are if I see them? In the choir, are there any hands? I see them. In the balcony?

00:35:05.000 - 00:35:20.000

Hands? Let us pray. Oh God, I don't pray for these people, I pray with them. It gets so lonely out here.

00:35:20.000 - 00:35:37.000

It gets so lonely being so far away. And we want to come home. And we don't want our passion or our pride. We don't want our ignorance or our insolence.

00:35:37.000 - 00:36:03.000

Father, we don't want anything in our lives that would separate us from thee. You've seen our hands. You see into our hearts. So right now, we confess before thee our sin.

00:36:03.000 - 00:36:42.000

And we offer to thee ourselves. Take us, wash us, set us on our feet again, and give us the strength to walk proudly as the children of a Father who forgives. And we pray this in the name of our elder brother,

00:36:42.000 - 00:37:04.000

who does not stand in pride, but who stands beside us in lowliness and meekness of heart, and gives us welcome home. And the Lord bless you and keep you.

00:37:04.000 - 00:37:36.000

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give to you who come home his peace. [BLANK_AUDIO]