"Shame on Us"

Scripture Passage

Luke 14:25-17:10; John 11:1-37

Scripture Focus

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” (Luke 15:31-32 NLT)

Observation

Jesus is the greatest story teller. In Luke 15, He tells three stories—The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Son—but they’re really all one story because they all carry the same message—the message of the joy of finding what was lost!

But like a coda in a musical composition…like overtime at a football game…there’s an unexpected addendum on the third story (or on the end of the whole story if there’s only one). And suddenly the story is not about the joy of finding what was lost anymore, but now the story is about the complete inability of some people to see the joy in finding what was lost!

The story of the lost son shifts to a new and unexpected scene—a conversation between the father, whose longing has been fulfilled in the return of his prodigal son, and the father’s firstborn—the elder brother to the son who’s come home. The elder brother is unhappy. He’s offended and not interested in reconciliation, least of all any celebration over his younger brother’s return. And the father is, I think, perplexed and hurt.

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” (Luke 15:31-32 NLT)

Perhaps you know this already, but Jesus tells this story as a rebuke to the religious establishment of His day—people who had no interest in the reconciliation of sinners and great interest in their own piety. In 21st century America, it stands as an indictment of the church—and of me, as a leader within that church. Shame on us for quibbling over the color of carpets and the style of music while the Father longs to see lost people reconciled. Shame on us.

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