Grumblers unite! God is unfair.
How do you feel when someone receives generosity they do not deserve? Or what if it's something you deserve (like a raise or promotion at work), but someone else gets it instead?
Our sense of justice demands fairness, which is good. Unfortunately, however, we set ourselves up as judges of what is good / fair / just, and often find ourselves in disagreement with God over the topic.
Last week we heard how the Pharisees and scribes grumbled because tax collectors and "sinners" (a Jewish term for people they deemed far from God) were coming to Jesus and being welcomed by him (Luke 15:1-2). In response to the Pharisees' and scribes' reaction, Jesus tells three parables about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son, all with similar meaning.
Let's take a closer look at the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32) through the lens of justice and fairness. The result may surprise us.
The Younger Son
In this third parable a younger son (representing the tax collectors and sinners who are drawing near to Jesus) turns away from his father (representing God), takes his inheritance, and goes to a far-off land to squander it.
Interestingly, when the young son demands his share of the inheritance, his father acquiesced and allowed the son (who, given the fact he was unmarried, was probably a teenager) to make his own choice and go his own way.
God allows us to make choices he knows will harm us, because he honours our free will (compare, for example, 1 Samuel 8:7).
So the young son (tax collectors and sinners) goes and blows all his money on prostitutes, food, and festivity. The money quickly fritters away, leaving the young man (tax collectors and sinners) destitute. In desperation he hires himself out in the most repugnant of ways (according to his culture). He serves a Gentile, feeding unclean pigs who were eating better food than himself.
That's fair! He deserved that outcome!
The son comes to his senses. He realizes he has sinned against his father and his God, and there is a better life at his father’s, even if it’s only as a servant.
Similarly, the tax collectors and sinners were also coming to their senses. They too were realizing they had sinned, and there was a better life with God, even if it’s humbly as the lowest of the low in the kingdom.
The young son prepares a speech, but as he approaches home, the father (who has been watching for the son) sees him, throws all social conventions out the window (an older, wealthy landowner with dignity would always walk), runs to his son and “falls on his neck” - i.e. deeply embraces him.
He has already forgiven the son.
He cuts short the son’s speech, calls for celebration and for the finest clothes and a ring to be given to the son (v.22). The ring likely contained the father's seal, indicating the son had been reconciled and was welcomed back as a full member of the family.
That's unfair! He did not deserve that outcome!
Remember, the young son represents the tax collectors and sinners who were drawing near to Jesus. They were realizing a better way of life, repenting, and being welcomed into the kingdom not as servants or lessers but, according to this parable, as full members of God’s family.
That's unfair! They did not deserve that outcome!
These folks had done grave misdeeds against the Jewish people on behalf of the Roman Empire. According to the Pharisees, this kind of generosity is unjust, especially in comparison to those who lived their entire lives for God like them! If Jesus can’t see this then he clearly cannot represent God well. No wonder they grumbled!
The Older Son
Now enters the older son, representing the Pharisees and scribes. He is angry at his father’s grace and grumbles, mirroring the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes. He likens his life with his father to one of servitude without celebration, and, opposite to the grace and mercy of his father, seethes with self-righteous resentment. “I never disobeyed, yet you never gave me…” He cannot even bring himself to call the younger son his brother (v30).
Our sense of fairness and justice burns in agreement with the older son.
The father calls the older one “Son” with affection. He still loved the older son and wants the son to join in the celebration. God still loved the Pharisees and scribes and wants them to join his joy and celebration at the returning tax collectors and sinners who had been reckoned as dead but were now coming alive.
Let Me Tell You What's Really Unfair
How does this story make you feel? Can you understand why the older son was indignant? You should, because this is the way humanity operates. We want life to be fair, and so far the outcome of this story seems completely lopsided in favour of the younger son.
So let me tell you what's really unfair: GRACE!
Grace is completely unfair by our standards, because grace cannot be grace unless it's undeserved.
But if we're actually honest with ourselves, we may admit the issue for us is not the grace itself, but the fact that we feel the younger son needed it more than the older son, and others need it more than us. That person, that group, that part of society - they definitely need God's grace. Yes, yes, of course we need it too, but we have not squandered God's love like they have, right? They reallyneed it.
Here's the plot twist in this parable: both sons are lost. Both are spiritually bankrupt. But only one realizes it.
Wait, wait, wait! The older son can't be totally spiritually bankrupt, can he? He has given his life to his father and done so many good things!
Are we asking for the older son's sake, or our own?
All of us start out as either the rebellious son or the religious son (which is simply another way of rebelling against God). Weirdly, it seems the first type of rebellious people have less of an issue in recognizing that trait in themselves than the second type.
Which means, of course, when God's grace enters into the story, it destroys our sense of what is just and fair. As it should.
PAUSE and REFLECT: Do we grumble when God shows grace and mercy to another person who we feel has squandered their life? Would it bother you to see them have a place of honour (maybe a better one than you) at the final marriage banquet of the Lamb?
It is possible to think we are serving God, like the older son thought he was serving his father, yet still be in rebellion against the Father's heart for the lost. We want them to "get saved," but of course they shouldn't have a place of honour above us who have tried to follow Jesus for so many years. Right? Right?
Let me be completely blunt: You do not deserve the grace God offers you. Neither do I. His generosity is completely unfair by our standards, yet he offers it still. He is madly in love with us, and when we turn our path toward his house, he sprints down the road to meet us with tears of joy and celebration.
Praise God that Jesus is still inviting Pharisees and scribes like us to repent and accept the good news.
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Cover photo by Greg Willson on Unsplash