Rogate Monday - Devotion in Exile

Lection for Rogate Monday
Numbers 8:5-26      Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Tax collectors in Jesus day were considered the worst of because Israel was under Roman rule, and sax collector were collecting taxes then for the enemy. And, everybody knew that they collected extra. They called it the tax, but it was more than the Romans asked for – they padded the bill above and beyond what they were supposed to collect – supplemental income above the very decent salary they received from which they were paid.

There were other people who were also known as “sinners” to the common populace, for example, prostitutes. Their life of sin was public knowledge.

On the other hand, there were some people who believed they were better than others. In Jesus day, these people would never have thought to make friends with such "sinners," for to do so would be like demeaning oneself with the undesirable dregs of society. 

Pharisees in Jesus’ day thought that they were better than common sinners. They thought they were righteous in regard to the law, after all, nobody saw them doing undesirable things, nobody saw them sin. To all outward appearances, Pharisees were pretty good people, but that was just on the outside.

Pharisees were self-righteous. They thought themselves better than others in regard to keeping God’s Law. In their arrogance, they looked down their noses at people who associated with those whose sins were publicly apparent, the dregs of society. They looked down their noses and snootily belittled Jesus, for He was one who did so.

Jesus confronts sin in this reading from Luke. Jesus' parable is simple. If you look at it, you see the sin of the one brother who blows his inheritance in loose living. Immorality is rampant in his life. We see the son squander all that he had been given. In fact, we do not even feel sorry for him when he finds himself in dire straits we think he deserves it for the way he lived, wasting what his father had worked hard to earn and simply gave to him. Maybe it would teach him a lesson.

On the other hand, we believe that the other son who was obedient to his father's will and stayed home and worked, he had every right to be angry for what the father did when his lousy, rotten brother came home. It was not fair, not right, that the brother who squandered all that was given to him should come home and have a party thrown in his honor.

The other brother had every right to be mad – we think! That brother who stayed home was just like the Pharisees who love to look down their noses and feel superior than those who fall into obvious sin and wallow in the worst of life. When they try to better their condition and get out of their sin, the Pharisees – and the second brother – would just as soon leave them in their mess. They do not want to rejoice in their repentance and help them, not even when those who had been lost in the worst sin try to turn their life around.

We see two kinds of sinners in this text. We see the brother whose very lifestyle was a complete lack of regard for what is right and decent. Then we have the other brother, Pharisee-like and self-righteous type, who thinks that the father owes him a party because he has been so good.

What is true is this, both are lost in their sins without The Father.

Are you the indulgent sinner whose every action is blatant and continued disregard for the Father's will?

Or are you the self-righteous type who feels they have done nothing wrong – or at least nothing deserving of the Father's wrath, that the father should pat you on the back and throw you a party?

You and I are not the blatant, obvious, immoral sinner type – we are the self-righteous, Pharisee type. We want justice doled upon the blatant sinners. We desire punishment for their manifest sinfulness.

Jesus forces us to look at our own life. We must look at our own thoughts and deeds. We are not perfect and righteous in the Father's eyes!!!

You and I cannot measure up to the demands our God has for us. We would like to have a relationship in which God rewards us for our behavior but the reward we deserve for our life and thinking is eternal separation from our Father.

In the parable, the father welcomes back the wayward and erring son with open arms… God the Father welcomes back all sinners, even those whom we would like to see punished for their life.

We need to reach out in love, just as the father in the parable did, to those who are lost around us. They are caught up in things which we see as despicable. We know that they are sinners.

We also know of the Father's love for them – a love which has been showered upon us. We have been loved by our Father so very much, that He slaughtered for us the spotless lamb – the Lamb of God – His very Son – as a payment for our sins.

The Lamb of God was slaughtered and set before us as a banquet feast of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

God the Father desires all the sons to return to Him.  He wants all people to come to the knowledge of truth and be saved.

There are some we would rather note see join in this party of celebration and joy, just like the second son. There are those we feel are not worthy of the celebration and the slaughter of the Lamb of God.

To be perfectly honest, none are worthy of the slaughter of that spotless Lamb – you, me, or anyone else. But the Father's love is all encompassing. The Father's love calls out to those whom we would consider beyond help. The Father's love calls out to the wayward AND to those who only appear to be more righteous.

God our Father waits patiently for the sons to return to His love, as does the wayward in our text. Too often our heavenly Father waits and some do not return.

Sons and daughters return to their Father's loving arms in repentance, in sorrow over their sins into forgiveness – where the Father's love embraces them and holds them tight.

You and I have been the wayward son at one time or another in our life. You and I have also been the self-righteous son.

In either case, it is only by the Father's love that we are called His children. Only because the Father gave His own Son on the tree of Calvary that we are His sons and daughter. You and I have been made heirs through Christ.

Our Father never stops pouring out his love to us. He calls us sons through Christ, and sons we have become. All the treasures and wealth of our Father are yours as His sons and daughters.

The Father's love forgives you of your selfish righteousness. The Father's love forgives you of all your sins, and calls you to be His sons and daughters. The Father invites you to come and join in the banquet feast and lovingly tells you, "everything that I have is yours."

Let us pray:    Lord God heavenly Father, you are always more willing to forgive and welcome back Your wayward children than we are to repent. Grant us repentant and renewed hears and minds that we might rejoice and live in Your grace now and forever. Amen.