My friend, Steve Brown, has written a new book: Hidden Agendas (Dropping the Masks that Keep
Us Apart). In it he talks about the prodigal son story in Luke 15, where
the younger son demands from his father his share of the inheritance. When he
gets it, he goes out and loses it among Gentiles (a major taboo for a Jewish
heir).
Jesus tells us that, when he’s at a point of total
desperation, he conceives a plan to go back to his father and plead for mercy.
As we have seen in our study of this story, the disingenuousness of his plan is
observed in the words of his speech before his father. They are nearly
identical to Pharaoh’s plea before Moses and Aaron when the brunt of God’s
plagues was fully felt. In other words, he’s back to conning his father. And
yet, his father interrupts his speech and lavishes on him unthinkable gifts. Remember
the Greek word for gift and grace is the same word – charis.
Brown takes us to the party where the fatted calf is killed
and the wine flows freely. He says, “Imagine the taste of that wine.” Now remember,
to the Jews wine was the symbol of life and joy. So what does the wine mean at
the party? What is the father saying to his profligate son? He is saying, “You
once were dead, but now you are alive. You once were in mourning but are now
full of joy.” It seems like everyone is grasping the significance of the wine
but the elder brother. He won’t come into the party. He won’t taste the wine. He
won’t allow himself to share in the grace just like the principle targets of
Jesus’ story, the Pharisees. Brown says, “Imagine that everywhere that younger
son would go, even back to the pigpen, he would remember the taste of that
wine.” Everyone at the party who allows himself to drink and celebrate would
forever remember the taste of that wine. And as they would remember it, they’d
share anew in the joy and life of the Gracious One.
But you know the sad reality? The church today is filled
with elder brothers. The church is filled with those who can’t bring themselves
to come in and taste the wine. They say it’s not right. It’s not responsible. That
sin’s too great. It might spill over to others and cause them to stumble. That’s
one of the sadness’s, but you know the other? We who have tasted the wine are
prone to forget its sweetness. We are prone to do what Luther warns us about.
We are prone to revert to the old Adam who forgets the grace and clings to his
own goodness.
With all that in mind, this Sunday we will return to the
Joseph story, Genesis 45, and see again the phenomenal measure of God’s grace
distributed to us in Jesus. In a message entitled “Another Look at Joseph”,
Genesis 45:16-28, we will look at one of the clearest biblical portraits of God’s
grace to us. In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:
- How is grace by definition “one way”?
- What does the question, are you saved, really mean?
- Whose command is Joseph following in his treatment of his brothers in verses 17 and 18?
- How long have his brothers and father believed him to be dead?
- In verses 17 and 18 what are his brothers being saved from?
- What is the meaning of Joseph’s words in verse 20?
- What is the significance of the values mentioned in verse 22?
- What is the significance of the garments Joseph distributes in verse 22?
- What is it that revives their father in verse 27?
- How are the wagons and the cross alike?
