The Blessed Squanderers

 

Part 1 – The Prodigal Son – Failing into the experience of grace in God’s Household

 

 

… If we do not appreciate God's grace, and if we work for a reward, or a wage, no matter how we think we serve him,  we will not touch his heart or produce anything profitable for Him.  To touch His heart, we have to see His grace, and for this, what we need is not success after success, but the kind of failure where we absolutely "bottom out"….

 

 

 

Two Statuses

 

In Luke Chapter 15 and Chapter 16, we see two "squanderers."  In Chapter 15, there is the parable of the prodigal son, who squandered his inheritance.  This is a famous parable.  In Chapter 16, there is the unrighteous steward, who squandered his master's possessions. This is a parable that is not as well known among Christians.  However these two stories are connected. 

 

As believers, we have received a great salvation. In this salvation we have two statuses, described in these parables.   We see our first status in Chapter 15.  Here we see that we are sons in the Father's house.  In Chapter 16, we see our second status as stewards in our master's house.  The first parable focused on the position of sonship, the inheritance and our place in God’s family.  The second focused on what has been entrusted to us in God’s Household.  On one hand our salvation is an inheritance to us for us to enjoy. On other hand, God's possessions that have been entrusted to us. We enjoy the Lord through our inheritance, and we serve the Lord through our stewardship. These two things go together, just as the parables in Chapter 15 and 16 go together. 

 

Two Masters

These chapters also stress that as those in God’s household, we have the possibility of serving one of two masters.  Either God is our master, or "mammon" is our master. At the end of the parable in Luke 16, the Lord concludes that no man can serve both of these masters at the same time.  He can only serve God, or Mammon.  If he tries to serve them both, he'll end up hating the one and loving the other. 

 

Most of us wonder what it means to serve mammon.  How can we know whether we are serving mammon?  If we look at the entire picture presented to us in these two parables, we will have the answer.

 

A Squandered Inheritance

In the parable of the prodigal son, the son asked the father to give him his share of his inheritance. When he received it, he went off and squandered it in riotous living.  Eventually, he wasted it all and had nothing left of what his father had given him.  He had to go work for one of the citizens of the country, feeding his hogs.  He became so destitute that he longed to be fed with what the hogs were eating.  At this point, the Bible says he "came to his senses." 

 

The prodigal son began to remember where he had come from. He thought of the servants in his father's house. Even they had better food than what was now available to him!  He was ashamed, but he realized that the best place to be was in his father's house.  He would go home, even if it meant he would only be a servant.  He did not believe his father would receive him.

 

 As he began his journey home, he rehearsed the speech he was going to make to his father. He was going to confess his sin.  He would announce that he was unworthy to be called a son. He would say that he was willing to work for food like one of the servants.  Instead, the father saw him from a long way off and ran to him. He embraced him, put his best robe on him, and brought him back to the house.  He gathered his servants. He ordered them to kill the fatted calf and to prepare a great feast. He rejoiced because the one who was dead, his son, was now alive and had returned!

 

The Father’s Grace

Through this parable the Lord showed the Father's heart toward his children.  He will never reject his sons.  This son squandered his entire inheritance until there was absolutely nothing left. He thought he was unworthy to maintain a position in his father's house. He thought he would be lucky if he could just work in exchange for some food.  But instead, the father came and gave so much more.  With the Father there is always unlimited grace!  Even though the son had spent everything, there was still much more for him to enjoy when he returned.  The father didn't rebuke him.  Rather, he lavished him with the riches of his house. 

 

Consider what an appreciation that the son must have now had for his father, and for his father's house.  He must have been overwhelmingly grateful for the father's generosity.  So much grace was shown to someone so wasteful and undeserving as himself!

 

The “slaving” Older Brother

This is the part of the story we are most familiar with. However, the Lord goes on to say that there is another son, the older brother. He saw what happened with the prodigal son, and was angry.  He said "Father, I've been here slaving for you all this time, and I've neglected none of your commands.  Yet you've never had a feast for me." Notice his language.  He said he had been slaving.  This reveals that he also had a wrong view.  He considered that he was a slave and his father was a slave master.  He wasn't there enjoying his father's house, he was "slaving" in his father's field.  He also said he had not neglected any of his father’s commandments.  He thought he was very good!

 

However, when his brother came home, he was exposed.  In actuality, he was bitter and miserable.  This misery was brought about by his perspective.  He said that he had been slaving and keeping the father's commandments, yet the father had never held such a feast for him.  This reveals that he considered that his work was something that should be rewarded.  He thought he had “earned” a feast, when the other son had not.   In his mind, it was unfair that his younger brother should be now enjoying a feast.  He had not worked, had lived in his own pleasures, neglected his father's interests and squandered everything.  Why should he have a feast?

 

Serving Mammon vs. Enjoying Grace

The attitude of the older brother shows a picture of what mammon is.  Remember the main point that Jesus concluded these parables with.  No man can serve God and mammon, for he will love the one and hate the other.  What is mammon?  Mammon is another word for money.  Yet Jesus is pointing not to money alone but the principle behind it, which is this:  "I work, I should earn a wage.  I should have a reward for my work."  The older brother thought he had worked so hard as a slave that he had earned a feast.  This reveals that he was serving mammon.  Serving mammon makes you a slave in your own mind.

 

Mammon does not care for you.  If you are someone who serves mammon, everything you have is something you earned. If you stop working, the mammon will not be kind to you, but will stop supplying what you need and you will be "out."  This was the older brother’s concept of how things worked.  He couldn’t understand why his brother had received a feast after spending all his father’s possessions without even working for them.  He had slaved all this time, keeping all the commandments.  He thought that if he stopped, his father would no longer take care of him!  How many Christians have this kind of concept about God? 

 

God is not at all like mammon:  God is the Father, running to receive His son, no matter where he has been.  Even though a son may waste and squander everything, this Father is waiting for him to “come to his senses.”  When he starts to head home, God runs to him and receives him.  He opens the riches of His house, making the whole situation into a feast to enjoy!  This is grace, and this is according to our Father’s nature.  At the end of his experience the prodigal son really learned one thing.  His situation was not something he had earned or deserved. It was something given to him freely in spite of what he was and what he did. He was his father's son, and his father was grateful that he was simply alive in the house.  This was enough that the father said "we MUST rejoice!" (vs. 32).  This is the experience of grace, and this is who Our Father is.  

 

The older son thought that he was serving his father by slaving for him in the field, keeping all his commandments.  Actually, he was serving mammon – serving for a reward, a wage. Of the two sons, who do you think enjoyed the father’s house the most?  This shows us that someone who has never failed might not be one who can really appreciate God's grace. 

 

We all start out as servants of Mammon, because we don’t truly know the Father.  We serve mammon because of what we think our Father is.  We think of Him as a harsh master.  But after numerous experiences of squandering, failing, but experiencing His embrace when we turn back to Him, we learn.  If we do not appreciate God's grace, and if we work for a reward, (a wage), we will not touch his heart.  To touch His heart, we have to see His grace.  What we need is not success after success.  We need a kind of failure where we absolutely "bottom out" and experience His receiving embrace. 

 

 

 Continue to part 2