Jesus told 39 parables which are recorded in the Four Gospels. Counting up, I have preached on 35 of them during my time in North Springfield and all of those sermons are on my blog. In the coming months I will sadly not have time to complete all 39. This evening we are looking at number 36, a parable which is so significant that Jesus not only told the story but then later explained its meaning to his disciples.
Weeds are a very familiar problem to anybody who has ever tried to grow anything in a garden. Sometimes it seems as if the weeds take over from the flowers to the point that you stop trying to pull them out and just leave them to take over. I heard that is what the Japanese have been doing for centuries. So if anybody asks I tell them I am a practitioner of Japanese gardening.
If weeds are an inconvenience to gardeners, they are a disaster for farmers. Some weeds like darnel have poisonous grains. If they get into a field of wheat the whole crop can be ruined. That was such a serious problem that in Jesus’s time there was actually a Roman law specifically forbidding sowing of weeds in an enemy’s wheat field as an act of revenge. That may well have been the background to Jesus’s story of the weeds among the wheat.
24 Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.
Like many of the parables, this one is about how God’s kingdom grows. This is what life is like when God is acting as King. We tend to expect life to unfold in certain ways but sometimes our expectations our disappointed. His disciples were expecting Jesus their Messiah to act in particular ways, but that was not happening. This parable explains how God’s purposes sometimes work out different to our expectations.
It’s a parable about DELAY
26 When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.
27 ‘The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”
28 ‘ “An enemy did this,” he replied.

Jesus had come announcing “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” So why had God’s Kingly Rule not been fully established yet? Why hasn’t heaven arrived on earth? Why the delay?
Why are there weeds among the wheat? Why is there still evil in the world? Why haven’t all the evildoers been removed and punished? And why is there still sin in the community of faith? Both these questions have remained over the centuries. Not only has evil triumphed in the world. But the church has also been blighted by heresy and immorality and corruption, throughout history and even today. G.K. Chesterton wisely observed, “At least six times in history the church has gone to the dogs. But in each case it has been the dog that has died.” But why the delay? Why after 2000 years hasn’t the Kingdom of God come on earth yet?
Some people say it is because God is powerless to do anything to change things. Other people think the reason is that God doesn’t care. The parable of the weeds among the wheat gives us the true explanation for God’s apparent inactivity in the face of evil in the world and sin in the church.
‘The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
29 ‘ “No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. …
This is just good farming practice. Darnel (good old Lolium temulentum) is a species of rye grass which is host to a poisonous fungus. When it first appears it is impossible to distinguish the growing darnel from the genuine wheat. The only sensible thing to do is to let the weeds grow among the wheat until harvest time when you can tell the different plants apart and separate them by hand. So when it comes to evil in the world and sin in the church, of course God is still in control and of course God cares about all the problems and all the suffering. But all of that will not be sorted out in this life. Such things will have to wait until the great harvest at the end of the age.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
One day God will put right all the wrongs in the world and separate good from evil. Not yet. But this parable points forward to the day after the times of delay when there will be
DIVISION
In the poetry of the parable, the weeds will be separated from the wheat on the day of harvest. The weeds will be burned and the wheat taken safely into the barns. And in the same way, on the day of judgment God will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Stephen Travis called this “the great divide” and C.S. Lewis “the great divorce.” Jesus himself gives a literal explanation of what the parable reveals.
40 ‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Son of Man, Jesus himself, will be responsible for the judgment of humanity. There will be a two-fold separation removing not only “everything that causes sin” but also “all who do evil”. These are consigned to the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The parable was poetry but this explanation is not. Some people want to water down the prospect of judgment. Some people deny the existence of hell. But those words from Jesus himself are a solemn warning. For some there will be a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth for all evildoers. At the same time,
43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
This is the wonderful happy certainty of heaven. But there is a dark side to that hope. If we believe that there will be in some sense the blessings of heaven where the righteous shine like the son, then it follows that there will also be a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. All the Jews were expecting this great divide on the day of judgment. The Old Testament foretold it in so many places. All of Jesus’ teaching and especially His death on the cross assume that this day of judgment is coming. Those things only make sense if human beings are indeed lost without the salvation Jesus came to bring. There will be a day of judgment. We get exactly the same message in another parable which Jesus told later in Matthew 13, and the parable of the net ticks number 37 off my list tonight as well.
Matthew 13 47 ‘Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The net represents the kingdom of God. The fish represent human beings and the fisherman represents God and Jesus. These things are poetic. But again here following the parable of the net, the explanation Jesus gives is literal. God will separate the wicked from the righteous. Again in this parable, the people who are not saved will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. At least 15 of Jesus’s parables were warnings about the day of judgment, from the rich fool to the wise and foolish builders, from the rich man and Lazarus to the wicked tenants in the vineyard. But even if Jesus had not said so many other things on the topic, the two parables of the weeds among the wheat and of the net make two things very clear. Firstly, the day of judgment is certainly coming. And secondly, nobody can say, “it will all be alright in the end”. None of Jesus’s parables give grounds for any hope that everybody is going to be saved. They all warn of the reality of inescapable judgment. Which is no surprise, because of course, this theme of ultimate division is present throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. In a few weeks we will find it again in the second letter of Peter. Paul taught the same in many places.
2 Thessalonians 1 7 … This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed.
The day of great division is coming. The book of Revelation is equally clear.
Revelation 21 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. …
7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.’
Division is inevitable. Everything evil is going to be permanently excluded from the presence of the holy and righteous God. Billy Graham said, “Hell was not prepared for man. God never meant that man would ever go to hell. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels but man rebelled against God and followed the devil. Hell is essentially and basically banishment from the presence of God.”
Division is inescapably. We dare not ignore or soft-pedal all Jesus’s warnings about hell and judgment. The day of judgment is coming. Just before the death of actor W. C. Fields, a friend visited his hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, W.C. Fields reportedly replied, “I’m looking for loopholes.” Very sadly for many, there are no loopholes in the Bible. The day of judgment. In these times there may be a delay. but one day there will certainly be a great division. So, this parable of the weeds among the wheat calls everyone to make a
DECISION
Harvest day is coming. Everything that causes sin and all who do evil will be separated as the darnel is weeded out from the wheat at harvest time.
43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Jesus’s parables do not only inform people. They call us all to make choices. They demand a response. The secret of any parable is to understand the punchline. What is the response Jesus is calling us to make? Jesus explains why the farmer delays separating the weeds from the wheat.
‘The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
29 ‘ “No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” ’
The farmer is waiting until harvest time to separate the weeds from the wheat because he does not want any genuine wheat to be lost. This is why God is waiting until the day of judgment – to allow as many as possible to be saved. Again we will come back to this in a few weeks in the second letter of Peter. The delay is giving the opportunity for a miracle – for weeds to be transformed into wheat. The question for everyone is very simple. On the day of judgment, will we turn out to be true wheat or imposter weeds?
38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age,
At the end of the age, will we prove to be the people of the kingdom or will we turn out to be the people of the evil one? Wheat or weeds?
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Jesus ends with this joke. The way the farmer can tell the wheat and the weeds apart is that when they have fully grown, wheat has ears but darnel does not. Whenever God’s word is proclaimed, people are deciding for themselves whether they will be saved or whether they will be lost. Those who hear the message and respond to it will be saved. Those who reject all the opportunities to receive God’s love will remain lost.
For now there is delay – God is holding off judgment day so that as many as possible will be saved. But the day of ultimate division is surely approaching. So everybody needs to make their own decision. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Somebody once said that the parable of the prodigal son has been preached on from every angle imaginable except from the point of view of the fattened calf. So I thought I would remedy that omission tonight. But then I decided that instead it would be better to look at the second half of what is actually a double parable. The story of the first lost son is the first half. That wasteful prodigal son rebels and disappears into a far country where he ends up in a desperate situation. But he comes to his senses and heads home. He is welcomed by his loving father and restored to his position as a son within the family and everybody is happy. 32 … we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” ’ Everybody was happy, that is except the first son, the older brother. The parable of the first lost son, the prodigal, sets up the scene for this parable of the older brother.
Writing at the beginning of the 18th century, Matthew Henry commented, “By the older brother, here we may understand those who are really good and never went astray, who comparatively need no repentance.”
Perhaps like Matthew Henry you have a sneaking sympathy for the older brother. He was the goody-goody who stayed at home and kept the show on the road while his baby brother ran away to waste all his money having a good time. Perhaps you feel the older brother was entitled to feel a bit miffed by it all. If so, then you have completely missed the point of the parable. Let’s hear it through the ears of the middle eastern peasants who first listened to Jesus the poet from Nazareth. You’ll see why the whole story should really be called the parable of the two lost sons and the second part is the parable of the second lost son. Because the older brother was just as lost as the prodigal son, but in different ways. Firstly the older brother was lost because
He didn’t care about his brother
Think about it. He could have stopped his younger brother from going away in the first place. He could have intervened, but instead he did nothing. He never made any attempt to reconcile his brother with their father. As the older brother he had the responsibility of being the mediator in the dispute. He was as guilty as his little brother in the break up of the family. He may have been as happy to have his brother out of the picture as the prodigal was to get away. That’s why the older brother refused to join the celebration.
25 ‘Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”
28 ‘The elder brother became angry and refused to go in.
He should have been happy that his brother had come home – as happy as their father was. The father explained at the end, “we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” But instead the older brother was angry and resentful. He was obviously jealous.
29 But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”
The older brother was jealous and he was self-righteous. “I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” Look how much I have done for you! Look how much he has hurt you! Don’t I deserve more than he deserves? Shouldn’t it be me who is the guest of honour? The older brother felt he was being treated unfairly. He accused his father of favouritism. He really didn’t understand why the father and the whole community was so happy.
Did you notice how he referred to his younger brother? Not “my brother”, but “this son of yours”. The older brother disowned the younger. He denied their relationship. But of course in doing that he was also denying his own relationship with his father. The older son was making himself the outcast from the family. He wants to portray the prodigal in the worst possible light. “He has squandered your property with prostitutes”. We never heard that in the first parable. The older brother is exaggerating, maybe even lying.
If that is the kind of dreadful way the older brother always treated his younger brother, maybe we can begin to understand why the prodigal left home in the first place. His brother had driven him away. So many families have those kinds of problems. In one way it makes me feel sorry for the younger son. I can begin to see why he felt he had to take his inheritance and just get as far away from his older brother as he could for a fresh start. It could well be that the older brother was actually lost before the younger one was, although his story is the second to be told so I think of him as the second lost son. Not only did he not care about his brother, more than that,
He didn’t care about his father
The older brother had accepted his share of the inheritance, when he should have protested as strongly as possible and refused the division of the family estate. Instead he went along with it and stayed silent. His response to his father is insulting.
28 ‘The elder brother became angry and refused to go in.
You would expect the father just to send a servant to command the son to come inside. But that isn’t what happened. Instead “his father went out and pleaded with him.” Such amazing love, leaving his responsibilities as host and coming out from the party to find his son, in its way just as amazing as the father’s love in running to welcome the returning prodigal. He should have punished his disobedient son for refusing to go in. He could have just ignored the older brother completely and dealt with the matter the next day. Instead he approaches his older son by making gentle requests and not by giving orders. But this display of gracious love does not win his son over. Did you notice how rude the older son was to his father.
29 But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Even the prodigal son had begun his appeal with a customary polite title, “Father”. Instead the older brother uses no title and just says, “Listen!” “Look here!” How rude can you get!
“I’ve been slaving for you” he says. “I’ve been a good servant – now where’s my pay? Where’s my banquet to have with my friends?” Not the father’s friends – the older brother’s friends. Another insult!
“I’ve been slaving for you”. All the time, he had been working living in his father’s house with the attitude of a slave, not the familiarity of a son.
“I never disobeyed your orders,” he said. Which was obviously a lie because there and then he was outside the house insulting his father by refusing to go in to the banquet. He knew how much his father longed to have his joy complete by having his two sons together again and the whole family reunited after so long. But the older brother still said, “I never disobeyed your orders,” and what is worse, he actually believed that to be true. The really sad part of this parable is that it doesn’t have a happy ending. As far as we know the older brother never did go into the house and join the celebration.
The second lost son didn’t care about his brother, he didn’t care about his father, and
He didn’t care that he was lost.
He didn’t know what he was missing. Somebody has commented that, “we see a son whose attitudes and relationships are sadly perverted. His only redeeming feature is that he carries out orders.” The younger brother was rebellious and estranged when he was away from home. The older brother was rebellious and estranged all the time when he was still in the house. The prodigal’s rebellion lay in his greed and his request to leave the house and the family. The older son’s rebellion lay in showing his anger, and in his refusal to enter the house and be part of the family. The older brother was not the aggrieved party here. The older brother has just as much to repent of as the younger, if not even more.
This second lost son has a warped sense of joy. His younger brother had been lost but now was found. He had been dead and now was alive again. What better cause for celebration. But instead all the older brother wanted to make him happy was his own feast with his own friends.
The Egyptian scholar Ibrahim Said wrote about the older brother,
“He is no better than the prodigal son who took his portion and travelled into a far country. The difference between them was that the prodigal son was an “honourable sinner.” He was perfectly open to his father and told his father all that was in his heart. But the older brother was a “hypocritical saint”, because he hid his feelings in his heart. He had remained in the house, all the while hating his father.”
The first lost son, the prodigal rebelled. But then he came to himself and set off to his father. He was welcomed with love and forgiveness, not as a hired servant but as a beloved son. The second lost son, the older brother, lived all the time like a hired servant and didn’t want to live as a son with all its privileges but with all its responsibilities as well. The older brother never came to himself: he never came to his senses. Even as the loving father came out to him, showing such love to win him back, the second lost son insulted and rejected his father and his brother. The parable of the prodigal has such a happy ending – the son is lost but then is found. But the parable of the second lost son does not have a happy ending. The older brother was lost, and chose to stay lost. And he really didn’t care. So now for the punchline.
Who is the older son?
Let’s remind ourselves of the setting where Luke tells us Jesus told these parables.
Luke 15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.’
The Pharisees were complaining about the fact that Jesus the Messiah was spending his time with disreputable people, tax collectors and sinners. In response, Jesus told a series of parables all about things which are lost and then are found. First was the parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99 safe in the fold to search the countryside for lost one sheep, and brings it home rejoicing. Jesus explained the point of that story like this: “7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.”
Then Jesus told the parable of the woman who searched her whole house to find a lost coin. That story ends, 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”
These two parables of a lost sheep and a lost coin prepare the way for the double parable of the first lost son, the prodigal, and the second lost son, the older brother.
In both of these parables the father represents God the loving heavenly father. In their original context the prodigal son who was lost in a far country but then returns home represents the tax collectors and the sinners. That first lost son also represents lost prodigal sons and daughters in every generation who come to their senses and return to God, and receive the wonderful welcome of the loving father however far they may have fallen. The prodigal son shows us how to be saved. In the original context the parable of the second lost son is about the Pharisees. Like the older brother, they were angry about the loving welcome God was giving to the prodigals who were returning.
But the older brother does not just represent the Pharisees in Jesus’s time. Both brothers rebelled and both broke their father’s heart in different ways. Both found themselves in a distant country, cut off from their father, the first physically the second emotionally and spiritually. Each of us can be like one or other of those brothers at different times in our lives.
We can be like the older brother if we refuse to show the same love and forgiveness and unconditional welcome which the father does. We are like the older brother when we refuse to join in the celebrations when prodigals return to the family. Even the angels are rejoicing when a sinner repents. We can be like the older brother if we are ever jealous of other Christians, or critical or angry or bitter or judgmental towards members of God’s family. If we ever view another Christian as “this son or daughter of yours” rather than as “this brother or sister of mine”. If other people are God’s children, they are our brothers and sisters. We can be like the older brother whenever we take God’s love for granted and demand what we consider we are entitled to, rather than receiving God’s grace with gratitude and humble dependence. We can be like the older brother when we serve God like slaves out of duty and cold obedience, instead of like sons and daughters out of devoted love and joyful gratitude. We are like the older brother if we rely on doing good works and think that we have no need to repent because we fail to recognize that we are lost. Luke 15:31 is heartbreaking. 31 ‘ “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. All the time the older son was living in the father’s house as if he was a servant, instead of as a beloved child. The lost older brother gives a picture of what life can be like even for Christians if we don’t embrace life in all its fulness and the personal relationship with God which He invites us to experience with him.
These two parables are part of one great story, the parable of the two lost sons. The second makes no sense without the first. We could even say that the parable of the prodigal son is only setting the scene for the parable of the older brother. The two sons are both loved by the same gracious and compassionate father who shows great humility by going out to them to offer them reconciliation and forgiveness. The younger brother comes to his senses and repents and so he is restored to his home and his family. The older brother does not come to himself and he remains in his own eyes a slave and a worker in his father’s house. The second lost son never finds out what it really means to be a son. The prodigal was as good as dead, but he is brought back to life again. The older brother is as good as dead and he stays dead. The younger son is lost, but then he is found. The older brother is just as lost, and he stays lost. And that is not a happy ending.

“I wish you were dead!”
That is the striking way in which Jesus began one of his most well known parables. Because of course that is how his hearers would have understood the strange request made by the younger son.
12 The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.”
The audience would have been hooked immediately because such a request is totally unthinkable! A child cannot inherit until the parent has died. So the son really was saying, “I wish you were dead! Your money means more to me than you do. Drop dead!” What would the father do? Surely he would beat his son, or even cut him out of his will completely. These are the questions which those listening to Jesus would be asking. What will happen next?
We are probably very familiar with the parable of the prodigal son. But do we even know what the word prodigal means? This evening I would like to try to tell the story as Jesus told it and help us to hear it as those first listeners did. I want us to view the parable of the prodigal son through the eyes of the peasant farmers who heard Jesus the poet tell it. We will learn a lot about God, who is represented in the story by the loving father, and about ourselves as we are portrayed by the son who is hopelessly lost but then comes back home again. The story starts as
A son was lost
Of course, the son was lost long before he decided he wanted to leave home. Something must have been very wrong with his attitude towards his home and his relationship with his father already for him to make such an outrageous request.
12 The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.

Dividing the property would finalise the split which already existed within the family. The father shows amazing patience and generosity in doing what his son had demanded. But then the son goes further.
13 ‘Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
What the son did next was scandalous. He ignored his obligation to continue working his share of the land on the family estate and instead he sold off his share of the property to go travelling. This break in convention was an insult to his father and to his brother, indeed to the whole village.
No wonder the younger son ran away to a far country – somewhere where nobody knew him. As he had gone from buyer to buyer, each would have been disgusted and horrified at his behaviour. The whole community would have hated and rejected this foolish son. So he ran away “not long after that”, even though property sales in the Middle East in those days would usually drag on for months.
The second son was already lost, but things only got worse. Cut off from family and friends, a stranger in a distant land, he had thrown away everything which makes life worth living. For a while he had money, but then (he) squandered his wealth in wild living. After a few months of wine, women and song, the younger son was left with absolutely nothing. How lost can you get?
This parable gives us a vivid picture of what life is like for so many people in the world today: trying to find happiness in money and possessions and entertainments but all the time in a far country, alienated from the God who created them for a relationship with him. People who have said to God, “I wish you were dead”. People with the same self-centred attitude as the son who demanded his inheritance now – gimme, gimme, gimme.
But the son in Jesus’s story had to sink further into the depths before he would be ready to return home. We can chart his decline.
(he) squandered his wealth in wild living.
He threw everything away in an extravagant and wasteful lifestyle. By the way, that is what the word prodigal means. Some people think the title “prodigal son” refers to a returning son or a repentant son. What the word prodigal actually means is the wasteful, reckless, profligate, squandering son. Although he was lost long before he was wasteful and in some ways his extravagance was the least of his faults, not the greatest. But things went from bad to worse.
14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
“He began to be in need” is an understatement. He was so desperate that he ended up working for a citizen of that country, who by definition was a Gentile and not a Jew. That position would be as shameful and despised as that of Jewish tax-collectors working for the Romans. And the only work available was feeding the pigs. In Judaism, pigs are ritually unclean animals. Working with them would prevent the younger son from practising his religion in any way, not even keeping the Sabbath. Could things get any worse?
Well, things did get worse. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
He was absolutely starving. Whatever challenges we may face in life, the problems that foolish young man was experiencing were worse. No one could be further away from God than that wasteful son was from the father he had wished was dead. But there is still hope for the son.
“He came to his senses.” Literally, “he came to himself.” The son realised how foolish he had been. It doesn’t say at this stage that he was sorry for how he had insulted his father or for the way he had thrown all his money away. But at least he realised what a mess his life was in and that he had to do something about it. For all the prodigal lost sons in the world here is the starting point – to come to our senses.
So the son came up with a cunning plan.
17 ‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father
He realized the only thing to do was to go back home. There is the next step for all prodigals – come back to God. But the plan is more even brilliant than that.
18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.”
If he became a hired servant the son would keep his self-respect. He would retain his independent position in the town and not need to become a slave to pay his debts. He would work hard to earn money to pay back his father. At this stage the wasteful son wasn’t looking for forgiveness, or for reconciliation with his father. He just wanted a second chance and a way out of the dreadful mess he was in.
20 So he got up and went to his father.
Here is the first sensible thing the son has done in the story so far. He hadn’t just recognised all he had lost. He actually did something about it! He could have stayed and just wallowed in the pigsty, making the best of the very worst. But then he would never have discovered the incredible love his father had for him.
But the lost son didn’t stay lost. Instead he got up and went to his father. It is a wonderful thing when a person comes to their senses and realises they are lost in a far country far away from God. But too many people then start trying to figure out ways they could get into God’s good books, or how to earn God’s forgiveness, like the son’s masterplan of becoming a hired servant. Many people decide to try to be hired servants for God, loving their neighbours and giving to the poor. But God doesn’t need our ideas of ways to get back to him. God has a much more wonderful and amazing plan of salvation. All we need to do is follow the example of the prodigal son who got up and headed back towards his father. Only when he did that did the miracle happen.
The lost son is found
Jesus’s parable paints a wonderful picture of the amazing love of God. God doesn’t save us from ourselves to let us be his hired servants. He welcomes us as sons and daughters in his family.
20 So he got up and went to his father.
‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.
21 ‘The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

The loving father had been watching out longing for his son to come home, just as God is always watching out for prodigals to return to him. The father was filled with compassion as God is filled with love for us all. But then what happens next is a big surprise to everybody.
he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.
The father ran to his son. Wait a minute. In the Middle East, fathers of grown up children don’t run anywhere! For a start, it’s much too hot for folk of a certain age to go running around. But also it would be undignified. If there is any running to be done the father would send a servant to do the running. But in Jesus’s parable, “the father ran to his son.” This wasn’t just because he was pleased to see him. Remember how angry the villagers would have been at the son selling off part of the family estate. They would greet him with clenched fists. The father needed to get to his son and run the gauntlet with him before the rest of the town beat the son up or even killed him. The father needed to demonstrate to the whole community that he was welcoming the son home with open arms as a sign that he had forgiven his son.
he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.
The son had his speech ready. By now he had realised just how wrong he had been. He begins his confession,
21 … “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

All these things are true. But the father doesn’t need to hear them. His son had come home – that was all that mattered. And what a welcome he received.
22 ‘But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.

The best robe in the house was obviously the father’s own robe reserved for very special occasions. The ring would obviously be a signet ring, demonstrating that the son had been restored to a position of trust in the family estate, as a son and not a servant. Sandals were for free men, not servants. And the servants dressed him, because he was a son in the household and not an employee.
Finally the fattened calf is killed. That would be prepared for special occasions where the whole community would be invited. They have a feast with the son as the guest of honour, because the father wanted the whole town to know that he had forgiven his wayward son and had restored him to his former position in the family.
Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

The son had been dead and now he was alive – he had been lost and now he had been found. There is a beautiful symmetry in the Jewish poetry which we can miss in the translation. Everything which is lost in the first half is regained in the second.
Before goods were wasted in extravagant living – in the end they are used in joyful celebration. The lost son went away from his father, but then he returned again. Whereas everything was lost and the son found himself in need, everything was restored again. The son fell into great sin, even feeding the pigs, but this led to sincere repentance, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” From a place of total rejection where nobody gave him anything, the son came to a place of total acceptance as his father ran and kissed him as a sign of reconciliation. In the symmetrical structure of Jesus’s parable the most important line is always right in the centre of the poetry and it is there in verse 17. “He came to his senses.” That realisation of his need was the turning point in his life. As it is for every prodigal who comes to themselves and realises they are lost and sets out to return to God.
Of course this parable is not just really the wasteful prodigal son. It is supremely about the loving father, who represents God. The father saw the son when he was a long way off. We only need to take one single faltering step back towards God and he is already running towards us. God is watching and waiting and longing for each of us to return to him. The father was filled with compassion for his son, as God is for each of us. Not anger but overflowing love and mercy. The father threw his arms around his son and kissed him, demonstrating acceptance and forgiveness. This is how God longs to welcome all the wasteful prodigals.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

The parable of the sheep and the goats is one of the best known of Jesus’s stories. Sadly it is also one of those most often misunderstood. Starting with the fact that the title we generally use actually misses the central point of the story. It isn’t actually about sheep or goats at all. We should not gloss over the fact that this is the parable of the separation of the sheep from the goats. The heart of its message concerns
The certainty of judgment
31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

People get distracted by the different characteristics of those who are placed to the right or on the left. We can miss the central point that this parable is a solemn warning about the radical division that will come on us all when Jesus returns. All the nations will be gathered, and the Son of Man, Jesus himself, will sit on the judgment seat. The Good Shepherd will then separate those people who will receive a glorious reward from those people who will face eternal punishment.
The Bible teaches us everywhere that this time of judgment will have at least two aspects. It will include the righting of wrongs and the rewarding of faithfulness
Romans 2 6 God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
At the same time judgment will be about confirming relationships. The personal relationship with God which believers have begun in this life will continue into eternity. Those people who do not have a relationship with God will find that situation confirmed. Judgment is certain, and the parable also confirms
The reality of punishment
This is not the only parable Jesus told about the judgment which is to come. Last week we saw that theme at the end of the parable of the three servants and the bags of gold, the parable of the talents, where the worthless servant who hadn’t even tried to do business on behalf of the master was thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The week before we saw that same grisly fate awaiting the wicked servant who was not ready when his master returned.
In Matthew 13 in his explanation of his parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus said this.
Matthew 13 40 ‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Jesus also told a parable about a fishermen’s net. Matthew 13 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here is the unpalatable reality. The return of Jesus will lead to what C.S. Lewis called “the great divorce” and Stephen Travis called “the dark side of hope.” The wonderful promises of eternal rewards are mirrored by warnings of eternal punishments. In the parable of the sheep and the goats we read,
34 ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
If we believe there is some unfathomable reality behind that wonderful promise of a glorious inheritance for one group, there is no reason for us not to accept the tragic reality of the destiny of the other group.
41 ‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
This parable is all about separation and there is no escaping the plain meaning of the final declaration.
46 ‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’

We also learn about
The basis of this division between the sheep and the goats

34 ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

On the surface it sounds as though judgment will depend on the good deeds a person may have done through their lives. Even though some may not realise that they were doing good.

37 ‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?”
40 ‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

The parable teaches us that when we care for other people we are expressing our love for Christ himself. Somebody once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta how she could work with the untouchables and the sick and the dying? Her answer was that she sees Jesus in each one of the people she helps. So as she serves and cares for those who are dying she is serving and caring for Christ Himself. In some real sense, Jesus is living in other people. When we love them we are loving him. And the words to those on Jesus’s left tell us plainly that failing to love other people is a failure to love Jesus.
But some people misunderstand the parable on this point. It does NOT teach that the outcome of the final judgment will be based on whether we have or have not helped our neighbours. It could not mean that. The reality is that however many of our neighbours we have helped, we have not helped them all. There will have been some occasions when we could have fed the hungry and thirsty and we did not. There will have been strangers we did not invite in and those ill or in prison which we did not look after. If judgment was only about doing good deeds or not doing good deeds every one of us belongs both on the right side and on the left side. Every one of us would receive a reward for what we did right but also receive condemnation for the good deeds we failed to do. So where would the dividing line be? Is it about doing good more often than we fail to do good? Would one act of amazing love outweigh the rest of life failing to do any good at all?
This parable needs to be considered alongside all the rest of Jesus’s teaching. Like the parable of the prodigal son, who doesn’t do anything right but is still forgiven and welcomed home solely on the basis of his father’s amazing unconditional love. Like Jesus’s wonderful acceptance of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” Like the parable of the lost sheep. “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” In so many places Jesus teaches us that forgiveness and God’s gift of eternal life cannot be earned or deserved. They come from God’s grace, received through the channels of faith and repentance.
We need to consider the parable of the sheep and the goats alongside everything else we read throughout the New Testament about how we come to experience salvation.
John 3 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We are saved by God’s gift of his Son Jesus, as we put our trust in Jesus for eternal life. It is faith, not good works that matters.
When the jailer at Philippi asked, ‘… what must I do to be saved?’ Paul and Silas replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.’ (Acts 16:30-31) Paul explained salvation in Romans 10:9 like this. If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. … 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
We receive God’s free gift of eternal life by putting our trust in Jesus. Nobody is saved by doing good works. It is God’s grace that saves us, God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. It is Jesus’s death on the cross which provides a way for us to be forgiven and we receive those blessings by faith, by putting our trust in Christ. In the face of the other teaching of Jesus, and of the witness of the whole of the New Testament, some people still persist in misinterpreting the parable of the sheep and the goats. Bu it does NOT teach us that we can be saved by doing good deeds. Feeding the hungry and thirsty, welcoming strangers, and taking care of the sick and those in prison will not earn a place in heaven for anybody.
On the other hand, some people make the opposite mistake in interpreting this parable. Because of everything I have just said about us being saved by faith alone, some people think that we can then safely ignore the parable of the sheep and the goats. Some people wrongly conclude that doing good deeds doesn’t matter at all, and they forget about this parable. Those people are equally wrong.
The truth is that we are indeed saved by faith alone. But the great Reformation teacher John Calvin made this important point. “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” In other words, the good deeds which Jesus talks about in this parable are part of the evidence that a person does actually have the faith which is bringing them salvation. We love because God first loved us. If a person has received God’s gift of eternal life, they will want to express their gratitude by loving other people too.
The Letter of James chapter 2 explains the point like this.
James 2 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
If we have faith in Jesus we will express that faith in our actions. Paul explains how this works in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
So Ephesians 2 is absolutely clear that we are not saved by doing good works. But then the passage goes straight on to say.
Ephesians 2 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God saves us by his grace so that we can do the good works he has planned for us to do. Feeding the hungry and thirsty, welcoming strangers, taking care of the sick and those who are in prison. Showing God’s love to other people is not an optional extra for Christians. It is the way that we show to the world that God has saved us and that we are truly grateful for his amazing grace. If a person is not loving other people in the practical ways which this parable talks about, then they need to think very carefully about their position.
The parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats is a solemn warning about the day of judgment and in that also about the reality of the consequences for those who have not put their trust in Christ as their saviour. It does not say that we are saved by good works. but it does teach us that acts of love and charity will be the characteristic of those who are being saved. “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” And the parable asks each of us this vital question. On the day of judgment, when Jesus separates all the peoples of every nation, which side will you be on?

This week two entrepreneurs will go face to face in the final episode of what is astonishingly the 16th UK series of the reality television show, The Apprentice. They have been competing to become Lord Alan Sugar’s new business partner with an investment of a quarter of a million pounds in their own businesses. Months ago, 16 hopefuls originally entered the process and now after a series of gruelling challenges 14 have been fired. Only two remain – I won’t spoil things by telling you who. Which one has the best hope of turning a profit? If you have ever watched The Apprentice, keep it in mind as we think about the story Jesus told about a man who entrusted three of his servants with bags of gold and set them the challenge of making the best profit. Jesus is in Jerusalem in the final week of his life, telling a series of parables about how to live as his disciples and how we can prepare for the end of the age when he will return in glory.
Matthew 25 14 ‘Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
The race is on! While the master is away, who will make the most profit ready for his return? Notice that from the start that the three servants were given different amounts of capital to work with, “each according to their ability.” Life is like that. We don’t all start off with the same. Some people have advantages, others face challenges. The man entrusted the slave who he felt had the most potential with greater responsibility. These were big advances. It would take a day labourer half a lifetime to earn just one bag of gold. One slave was given twice that much and the third with five times as much, to see how much profit each could make while their master was out of town.
16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
The first two servants were successful. They doubled their master’s money. The third was not successful. He just buried the money to make sure it wouldn’t be stolen. So time passed by.
19 ‘After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
The day of reckoning came. The master returned. Which of the apprentices would be successful? Which would be fired?
20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.”
21 ‘His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

The servant had turned a tidy profit of 100 per cent by skillful and shrewd business. He doesn’t just get hired. He gets a promotion. Before he was put in charge of five bags of gold and that only counted as “a few things”. So being put “in charge of many things” is much greater still. But that is only part of his reward. The servant had proved to be good and trustworthy. So he also receives this wonderful invitation. Come and share your master’s happiness!

22 ‘The man with two bags of gold also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two bags of gold: see, I have gained two more.”
23 ‘His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

Although he had not been given as much capital, this second servant had been equally successful in business. He also made 100 percent profit and he is rewarded with the same promotion, from overseeing a few things to being put in charge of many things. And the same wonderful reward. Come and share your master’s happiness! We’ll return to this glorious reward in a few minutes after we have thought about the third candidate. Sadly he had been a miserable failure.

24 ‘Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

The third servant had made no profit. The issue was not that he had been unsuccessful. He hadn’t even tried. He was afraid of failure. He wasn’t prepared to risk losing what had been entrusted to him. So he just hid what he had been given. He hadn’t tried.

26 ‘His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 ‘ “So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.

The third servant gets fired. And there is an unexpected bonus for the servant who had originally been given the five bags of gold. Now he will have eleven bags of gold to work with, not for himself to enjoy of course but to use in business. Even more opportunity to make a profit for his master.

But what happened to the third servant? In the Apprentice the unsuccessful candidates just get fired. The servant who was too scared even to attempt to do business on his master’s behalf faced a gruesome end.

30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Jesus finished this parable on a solemn and sobering note of judgment to make the point that discipleship is a very serious matter. How we act in this life has eternal consequences. So what did the two successful servants do right and what did the third do wrong?
The first two men were commended for being “good and faithful servants.” J.B. Phillips translates this as, “you’re a sound, reliable servant. You’ve been trustworthy”. They had been bold and enterprising. Jesus is looking for disciples who are good, sound, reliable, trustworthy, who do their job well until he returns in glory. On the other hand, the third servant didn’t do anything at all. It wasn’t that he had tried in business but had failed. He hadn’t even made any attempt to do business using his master’s investment. He wasn’t prepared to take any risks. One of the points this parable illustrates is that following Jesus will inevitably involve taking risks. If we are following Jesus, sitting back and doing nothing is not an acceptable choice.
Jesus said this,
Matthew 16 24 … ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Again Jesus said in Matthew 10 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Following Jesus will always involve taking risks sometimes. Sitting back and not doing anything is not an option. This is true for individual Christians and also for churches.
David Prior wrote this. “It will be tempting, because we live in such a results-dominated society, to see failure as reprehensible and therefore to be avoided. One way to avoid failure is to call it a mistake—and then to try to eliminate any mistakes, to make sure we get things right and that we succeed. Many local churches base their activities on such priorities and virtually reject anything that is at all risky, because “we cannot afford to make mistakes.”
Following Jesus is inherently risky, for Christians and for churches. The third servant simply didn’t even try. The feeble excuse that the servant made might lead us to think that he was scared of failing and disappointing his master. Perhaps so. But another explanation is possible which in my view is more likely. I think that the third servant was actually more afraid of people knowing who his master really was. He was scared of being publicly associated with the master who had entrusted him with that bag of gold. That would correspond to disciples who are too afraid to let other people know that they are followers of Jesus. But you can’t be a secret disciple. Either the secret will kill the discipleship or the discipleship will kill the secret. Whatever his motives, the third servant was condemned because he didn’t even try to do business on his master’s behalf.
So what is this parable really talking about? The 2011 New International Version talks about “bags of gold” and the Good News translation is thousands of gold coins. The parable is about money and investment and business. How will the servants use the material wealth which the master has entrusted to them?
God has entrusted each of us with treasures, money and homes and possessions. Some have more, some have less. What matters is how we use all the treasures God has given to us, both those which we give to the church and those which we keep for ourselves to use. Are we using all these things for his glory and his kingdom? Or do we keep all our treasures to ourselves?
This primary meaning of the parable is about money. But this has been blurred for us because the Greek word for bags of gold here is talanton which the Authorised Version, the King James Version of 1611 and many English versions since have rendered as “talent”. This confuses us with the English meaning of the word talent as a particular aptitude, ability or skill. People immediately think that the parable is about how we use our natural talents, abilities and skills, in serving Jesus and the Kingdom of God. That is a perfectly acceptable second meaning to the parable although it is not the first. The original Greek never carried this implication. But it is true that God does also care about how we use the gifts and skills and abilities he has given to each of us. Are we continually using our talents for his glory in his service? Have we devoted our natural abilities and our training and our experience and our spiritual gifts to God and his kingdom. Or do we keep them to ourselves and only use them for our own benefit?
God has given us all treasures and talents and he has also given us time. Do we use the precious time we have for God and for his glory? Are we redeeming the time, making time to serve God in the church and in the world as well as making time to spend with God Himself?
And God has also entrusted Christians with his truth, the saving good news of Jesus Christ. Are we sharing the gospel any time, any place, with everybody we possibly can, boldly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord of all? Or are we just sitting on God’s truth, burying it to keep it safe, too afraid to let it be known that are followers of Jesus?
Treasures, talents, time and truth. Dick France taught me everything I know about Matthew’s Gospel and in his commentary Dick writes that in this parable the talents “represent not the natural gifts and aptitudes which everyone has, but the specific privileges and opportunities of the kingdom of heaven and the responsibilities they entail. The parable teaches that each disciple has God-given gifts and opportunities to be of service to their Lord, and that these are not the same for everyone, but it is left to the reader to discern just what those gifts and opportunities are.” Are we making the very best of the opportunities we have to use our treasures, our talents, our time and God’s truth for his glory?
This brings us back to the exciting topic of the rewards the master had waiting for the two reliable and trustworthy servants.
21 “His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Well done, good and faithful servant! We are called to serve God faithfully week in, week out. In our worship. In our service in the church and in the community. In our witness to the watching world. It is entirely possible to get worn out and weary and discouraged. Hear God’s message for Christians who have been serving Him faithfully through the years obediently and sacrificially. It is simply this. “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness”
We should persevere. Listen to this encouragement from the apostle Paul Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The parable of the bags of gold is all about the challenges and the costs of following Christ. We can be encouraged that Jesus talks about the rewards of following him on the many occasions. Remember Jesus’s words to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
The reward Christians look forward to is simply this – the approval of our Lord our God and Father. `Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness”
Our reward will be to be with God in eternity, to see God face to face and know Him even as we are known. GOD HIMSELF is our very great reward. Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Treasures, talents, time, and truth. This parable shows us that there is a fundamental division between good and bad disciples, between the saved and the lost. Are we good and faithful, trustworthy and reliable servants of God in all these areas of life? Jesus is coming back soon. We were talking last week about the need for us all to be ready for his return. When he does, will we get promoted or will we get fired? When we are each ultimately called to account there will be glorious rewards for disciples who have proved themselves to be good and faithful servants. Not so for those who refuse even to try.

It is a scene I have seen in Uganda and in Zambia and in Bulgaria. It is multiplied in many places over Eastern Europe and all over the global South. Groups of men, and sometimes women too, standing by the side of the road in the hope that a truck or bus will stop and offer them some work. They don’t know what kind of work it will be. In the fields or on a building site. Some work – any work – so that they will earn enough to feed their family for that day. If nobody stops they won’t find work and the family will go hungry. The strongest and the young are chosen first. They will get the full day’s pay. But the others, the old and the lame, stay waiting and hoping that that somebody will still chose them to work that day. If more workers are required employers will come back for a second bus load. For all of those people who gather, work is not a luxury or something to avoid, it is essential for survival.
This background to Jesus’s story hasn’t changed for some people across the world for 2000 years.
Matthew 20:1 ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
The landowner hires his workers for the day and agrees to pay them the going rate – which was a denarius a day. The Jewish workday began at 6:00 AM. This was called the first hour. The third hour began at 9:00 AM, the sixth hour began at noon, the ninth hour began at 3:00 PM, and the eleventh hour at 5:00 PM. The Landowner hires other workers through the day. Even when the day is almost over he takes on those who were left standing around all day, who could well have given up any hope of any work that day. At the eleventh hour – and that is where we get that phrase – the Landowner hires some men and agrees to pay them “what is right”. At the end of the day the time comes to be paid.
8 ‘When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”
9 ‘The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.
Now there is the surprise. A whole day’s pay for just an hour’s work! Well if those men were being rewarded so generously, no wonder those who had worked a whole day were expecting a little bit more!
10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 “These who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
Working in a vineyard was very hard work. It involved laboring on a hillside in the heat of the day with few breaks! We can sympathize with these workers. We can understand their complaint. Their joy turned to anger as they realized that they received the same pay as those who had worked for only one hour. As such, they were determined not to leave until they received “satisfaction” from the landowner. However this is only a symptom of the real problem. They were upset that the landowner had made the other workers equal to them.
13 ‘But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Indeed – they were jealous because the Landowner was generous! This is not a parable about workers’ rights. This is a parable about the generosity of the Landowner. Generosity which treats everybody the same however much or little work they have done. Generosity which is a picture of God’s grace. God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.
Grace makes us equal to everyone else. The workers’ complaint in verse 12 is interesting. “You have made them equal to us.” The all-day workers don’t complain about their own wages because they knew their pay was already generous. They’re upset because they wanted to be superior.

The word “grumble” is in the imperfect tense, which means that they complained not just once, but were in a constant state of grumbling. And they weren’t saying, “You have put us on a par with the late-comers,” Instead, they grumbled, “you have put them on a par with us.” In other words, they weren’t so much dissatisfied with what they themselves had received; they were also envious of what had been given to the others. They emphasize that they bore the burden of the work in the sweltering heat of the day. Compared to these upstarts, who only worked an hour, these workers thought they were worth a lot more.
But that is not the way grace works. Here is the marvellous truth about grace.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you more.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you less.
Like a gift, the only thing we can do with grace…is to receive it.
The 12 hour workers – in Jesus’s day
Jesus told this parable to challenge the attitudes of the Jews of his time and especially the strictest and most religious of all – the Pharisees. The Pharisees lived to the letter of the Jewish Law. For that reason they thought that God’s blessings were especially for them, and that the best places in heaven would be reserved for them. The Pharisees thought they were better than everybody else. Through this parable, Jesus was teaching the them that God’s generosity is not just for them, who had worked all day and borne the burden of the work and the heat of the midday sun. Instead God’s blessings are for everybody – even those who only make an appearance at the eleventh hour, when the work is coolest and easiest.
The end of the day workers – in Jesus’s day

We thought before Easter about the Parable of the Lost Sheep
Luke 15 “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.

Jesus said to Zacchaeus Luke 19: 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
In Jesus’s time what really annoyed the respectable Jews was the company he kept. Not respectable people like them – but the lost sheep.
Luke 15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.’
Matthew 9 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. 13 But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
It really annoyed the 12 hour workers that Jesus spent his time with outcasts and drop-outs. That God cared about such people just as much as He cared about those who had done their very best to live by the Jewish Law. But the gospel really is for the lost sheep, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the “sinners”.
1 Corinthians 6 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
These are the kinds of people God welcomes into His Kingdom! Those were the 11th hour workers
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The eleventh hour workers – today
Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in our salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.

In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. God specializes in saving really bad people. Some people listening to this may have some things in their background that they would be ashamed to talk about in public? Don’t worry. God knows all about it. His grace is greater than any sin.
ANYBODY can become an eleventh hour worker. By the grace of God – anybody can be saved. However wicked.
In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Phillip Yancey describes grace like this. “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more—no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much an infinite God can possibly love.”
If these are the eleventh hour workers, then who are the
The 12 hour workers – today
Anybody who thinks they can earn God’s favour. Anybody who thinks they actually deserve the blessings which God offers.
If it’s a wage that we want from God, the Bible says that our salary is already figured out for us. If we want to be rewarded for our merit, if we want God to recognise all our good work, then Romans 6:23 spells out how we will be paid: “For the wages of sin is death…” There is NOTHING we can do to earn or deserve God’s favour. But, if we want to receive what God wants to freely give us, then here is the wonderful promise of the second part of Romans 6:23 “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

12 hour workers today – Any Christian who looks down on any other Christian – who thinks, “I am better than you because I have served God longer, because I have been a minister or a missionary or a preacher or a Deacon or a Home Group Leader or a Sunday Club teacher.” Any Christian who thinks I am better than you because I know my Bible better, or because I have prayed more, because I have sacrificed more for Christ. Anybody who thinks like that is represented in the parable by the twelve hour workers. They thought they deserved more because they had worked harder and longer – but they were wrong.
12 hour workers today – Any Christian who is jealous of another Christian. If anybody thinks it is unfair that God lets prostitutes and tax collectors and “sinners” into his church. If anybody is worried those kind of people might spoil it for respectable Christians.
The eleventh hour workers and the twelve hour workers. Which of those groups are we in? Which brings us to the post-script to the parable.
Matthew 20 16 ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
The Pharisees thought they deserved the best place in God’s Kingdom. But that place was reserved for Tax Collectors and “sinners”.
Luke 14 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: 8 ‘When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, “Give this person your seat.” Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Are we 11th hour workers? Or 12-hour workers? We may think that we deserve a good place in God’s Kingdom. We may be surprised! It is the last who will be first – those who think they should be first will be last!
Matthew 20 16 ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

How many people have you given help to over the years? How many hours or days have you spent with people who were going through hard times or facing difficult situations helping them in practical ways? How often have you poured out blood, sweat and tears giving assistance to people in need? And how many of those people were not close family or friends, not Christian friends, but merely acquaintances or even complete strangers?
To put it another way – when were you last a “Good Samaritan”?
This parable is so familiar to everybody that its central character has become part of our language – the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to answer important questions.
Question = “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Answer = “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Next question – “So who is my neighbour?”
The answer is very simple. In the story, when a person finds himself in need, his neighbour is the one who helps him.
30 In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead
We don’t know if the victim here was a decent respectable man or a thief robbed by other thieves. All we know is that he needs the help of a complete stranger. And the person who helps him is not only a stranger but an enemy! Not a religious person like priest. Not a Levite. But a Samaritan. A descendant of the Northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, rather than the Southern Tribe of Judah from whom the Israelites descended. Different tribes. By the time of Jesus, different religions too. The Samaritans did not worship God not in Jerusalem but instead on Mount Gerizim. A Samaritan would be the last person a Jew would expect to help them. To a Jew, the idea of a GOOD Samaritan would be a contradiction in terms! Yet it is the Samaritan who happens to be going along the road and takes the big risk of getting involved. He is the neighbour. He helps the man who is in trouble.
33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
The Samaritan cared. He had compassion. And that led to practical action!
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
The Samaritan “took pity on him”. He had COMPASSION! And that led to practical action! And that action didn’t come cheap. Two coins was two day’s wages.
We can be good at feeling pity. Sometimes we are not so good at getting stuck in and our hands dirty and helping out! The Good Samaritan gave practical assistance to the man who had been robbed.
Jesus asks, 36 ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’
37 The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’
Right answer. So Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
That is what it means to love our neighbours. To help out strangers in practical ways in their times of trouble. To have compassion. To show pity and show mercy. To care! And Jesus calls us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves! Jesus made clear that this is the heart of the Christian life. To love people. To show God’s kind of love to strangers. Just like in the parable of the sheep and the goats. Feeding the hungry and the thirsty. Welcoming in the strangers. Clothing the naked. Taking care of the sick. Visiting the prisoners. Because when we do these things for other people we are caring for Christ himself, without knowing it.
God calls us to see Christ in each other, and to serve Christ through each other. Sometimes good Bible believing Christians can be too preoccupied with our Bible Studies and our prayer meetings to help other people (maybe like the Priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side leaving the suffering victim to die). Some Christians deserve the criticism that they are “too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use!” Gavin Reid – Anglican Bishop and Archbishop’s advisor on evangelism once wrote, “We can have too many Christian activities – we run the danger of organising ourselves out of being citizens of the same world as our neighbours!”
“I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger.
Thank you.
I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release. Nice!
I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
What good did that do?
I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
But I needed you.
I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I wish you’d taken me home.
I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.
Why didn’t you stay?
You seem so close to God; but I am still very hungry, and lonely, and cold.”

Who is my neighbour? Anybody I can show God’s love to! Anybody who needs my help! Our neighbour is somebody God brings across our path for us to help!
Part of the problem for many people is that WE need to ask “who is my neighbour?” because we don’t know who they are! We don’t know the people living next door or across the street from us. We may not even know their names. We certainly don’t know them well enough to know when they are hurting or to be able to offer to help.
We need to take the time to get to know people’s needs. Sometimes we think there are no needs in North Springfield. In fact there are MASSES of needs all across Chelmsford! There are always folk needing support in times of accident or illness. There are always people who are grieving. Loneliness, depression, stress at work, families torn in two. Debt or money problems. Fears. So many of our neighbours have so many needs – if only we will take the time to get to know them and to find out! Because God calls us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. And the starting point of that love is getting to know our neighbours well enough to find out their needs!
The New Testament approach to outreach was very simple. They preached the gospel. They announced the good news: Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, Jesus Christ is Lord. And alongside the preaching, they were healing the sick and driving out demons. The first Christians went around meeting people’s needs, helping them, loving their neighbours! The early church brought people to Christ by announcing the good news and by being Good Samaritans = by showing God’s kind of sacrificial love to complete strangers. One church sums that approach up in their simple vision statement. “Find a need and we meet it – find a hurt and we heal it”.
If each of us went out of our way to give real practical help to just one stranger or one acquaintance each year, and if even just one in ten of those people was drawn by those expressions of love into the church, that would bring more people to faith in Christ than everything else we do all put together. Preach the gospel. Love your neighbour. By THIS will all men know you are my disciples – by the love you show! The same kind of sacrificial love as Jesus expressed for us dying for us on the cross. Loving each other like that. Loving strangers. Being good Samaritans! Loving your neighbour as you love yourself.
God doesn’t call us to like our neighbours but to LOVE our neighbours. LOVE isn’t a feeling – it’s a command!
In Leviticus 19, where the original quote comes from, loving your neighbour means this:
Leviticus 13 ‘ “Do not defraud or rob your neighbour. …. 4 ‘ “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling-block in front of the blind, …. 15 ‘ “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly. 16 ‘ “Do not go about spreading slander among your people. ‘ “Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life. I am the LORD. … 18 ‘ “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
So what will us loving our neighbour look like in practice? There were three kinds of people in the parable. The robbers said, “What’s yours is mine and I’ll take it!” On the other hand the priest and the Levite said, “What’s mine is my own and I’ll keep it!” It was the Good Samaritan who said, “What’s mine is yours – we can share it!”
To love your neighbour as you love yourself means:-
To put his/her needs at the same level as your needs – to give their needs the same weight as your needs.
If their family are hungry and your family are hungry you share the food you have – you do not eat and leave them hungry. THAT is Good Samaritan love.
If they or their family are sick and your family are sick you share the medicine you have.
If they have nowhere to sleep and you do – you find them somewhere to sleep or you share your home with them. THAT is Good Samaritan love.
If they need to travel and you are able to help them travel, you help them travel. THAT is Good Samaritan love.
If your have a loved one who is dying and you are at their bedside as much as if it was your own loved one’s bedside. THAT is Good Samaritan love.
If their child is lost and your child is lost – you search for both children and not just your own. THAT is Good Samaritan love.
If they are in debt and you have money you help them with money.
If they face a problem you help them sort out their problem – however long that takes, however much it may cost you in time and energy and heartache and money.
Because THAT is Good Samaritan love. THAT is loving your neighbour as you love yourself.
And the people you help are not just your family, not just your close friends, not just your Christian friends, but rather the strangers you meet on the roadside. They are your neighbours simply because they are in need and you are in a position to show mercy to them and help them.
Love not just your friends but even your enemies, Jesus says. It was the age-old enemy the Samaritan who was the true neighbour to the man in distress. Loving your enemies as well as your friends. THAT is Good Samaritan love! THAT is what it means to love your neighbour as you love yourself!
I know that very many of you already ARE Good Samaritans. You already do give tremendous time and energy to help your neighbours. Many of you have always helped your neighbours in quiet unseen ways – as anonymous as the Good Samaritan in the parable who does not have a name. But the command to love our neighbours as we love ourselves will always bring a continuing challenge to all of us. This familiar parable is so memorable it has given us not one but two phrases which have entered into our language. The first is the fine example to follow – The “Good Samaritan” – the person who goes out of his way to help out. But the second phrase is the opposite – a bad example to avoid. “Passing by on the other side”. The priest and the Levite who both go out of their way to AVOID helping out.
Are we the kind of people who help out? Are we Good Samaritans? Or are we the kind of people who close our eyes to the needs of others and just pass by on the other side?
1 John 4:20 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (NIV) If we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)
1 John 3:18 1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
(Message) My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s put real love into practice!
Love your neighbour as you love yourself! Go and do likewise!

The parable of the persistent widow is a beautiful little parable about perseverance and prayer. It appears simple, but actually it is very profound and people often misapply it. Luke’s introduction explains what the parable is all about.
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
The parable is about keeping on praying and not giving up. Not losing heart. Disciples should “pray consistently and never quit”, as The Message puts it. Praying. Not giving up. Two themes – not one. People often think the parable is about persisting in prayer – just one subject. But actually that is a misunderstanding. The parable is about persistence, and about prayer. Let’s unwrap what Jesus is saying here.
There are two characters in the parable.
2 (Jesus) said: ‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.”
The first character is the judge. He is not a good judge. He did not fear God. And that is a bad thing. In 2 Chronicles 19 when King Jehoshaphat appointed judges he said this. 7 Now let the fear of the LORD be on you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.’
So the starting point for any judge in Israel was that they should fear God. That way judges would not give in to bribery or corruption. This judge did not fear God. That is bad. And he did not care what people thought either. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. It could be good that a judge would so committed to justice that we could not be swayed by public opinion. Or it could be very bad that a judge didn’t care at all about his reputation. However bad his judgments were, he just didn’t care that everybody thought he was unjust and unfair and corrupt. That was the case here – this is clearly one very bad and unjust judge.
The second character in the story is a widow. She keeps on coming to the judge with the same plea. “Grant me justice against my adversary.” This was probably about some financial matter. We don’t know what that was – it doesn’t matter. What is important is to realise that this widow was in a desperate situation. There are at least three reasons why we know that is the case. The first is that the widow kept on having to plead for justice. In the Law of Moses a widow should have received especial care and protection, but this was not happening for this widow. The bad judge kept on putting off making a judgment. Even more significant is the fact that a woman would not usually have been involved in legal proceedings at all. Law courts were a man’s world. The widow’s situation was desperate because she had no male relative to go to court on her behalf. She was having to fight for justice all by herself.
We can also read between the lines to understand why the widow had to keep coming back to get the judge to settle her case. This was an unjust judge. He was waiting for a bribe. If the widow had had the money to pay a bribe, she would have got her judgment quickly enough. But she had no male relative to fight her corner for her and she was too poor to pay a bribe. All the widow had was her persistence. She would keep on coming back and coming back until she got justice! And that is exactly what she does. In the end her tactics work. She grinds the judge down and gets the justice she deserves.
4 ‘For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!” ’
This appalling judge didn’t care about justice for a poor defenceless widow. And in the end he didn’t hold out for a bribe. He cared more about a quiet life. So in the end this bad judge did give this persistent widow the justice she deserved. That’s the story. But what does it mean for us?
6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
A parable is a comparison. To understand what the parable means we need to work out who the characters in the story represent in real life. The widow is easy. The widow pleading her case represents disciples, who persist in pleading their cause before God in prayer. But then the parable gets a bit problematic because the unjust judge in the parable represents God. It would be very unusual to tell as story which presents God in a bad light. So we need to see how the story works. In Greek philosophy it would be called a “lesser to greater” a fortiori argument. In Hebrew thinking it is arguing “from light to heavy”.
Listen to what the judge says, the Lord Jesus explains. … finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!”
Here is an unjust judge who doesn’t fear God or care about what people think. Even a judge as bad as that will give in and deliver justice, just because the widow is persistent in her pleading and never gives up.
In contrast God is a good judge. A perfect judge. He is not waiting for bribes. He does care about his good name and his reputation for justice. Throughout the Old Testament, God promises justice for all people and especially for powerless people like widows and orphans and refugees. From light to heavy, from lesser to greater, if even a bad judge would give justice, how much more would the perfect righteous and just God answer the requests of his people.
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
A bad judge delays and prevaricates. On the other hand God who is righteous and just would not wait and delay. He would bring justice swiftly. So this is a parable about God’s justice and faithfulness. When we pray we can be completely confident that God will answer our prayers and bring us justice and vindication swiftly. That is the obvious meaning of the parable.
But there are two more important things we need to learn. Because some people think this parable teaches us that God will give us absolutely anything and everything we ask for in prayer, just as long as we are persistent enough and don’t give up or lose heart. But that general application completely ignores the context of the parable. This is not a parable about the blessings which come when we persist in prayer. It is about persisting, and about praying, two important but separate things which all disciples need to do in certain specific circumstances.
From Luke chapter 17 verse 20 until the end of the chapter, Jesus was talking about God’s Kingdom coming. He was warning his disciples about how hard things would become for them in the coming days and how the Son of man would be rejected and suffer. Jesus said that in the days to come judgment would fall as suddenly as the flood had come in the days of Noah and as fire and sulphur had destroyed Sodom in the days of Lot. Days would be very hard.
Luke 17 30 ‘It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’ [36]
37 ‘Where, Lord?’ they asked.
He replied, ‘Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.’
The day when the vultures would gather was coming. In the days to come, life would be very hard for Jesus’s disciples. That is the context of the parable of the persistent widow. THEN Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Always pray. Don’t give up. Two things to do, not just one. This is not primarily a parable about the value of persisting in prayer in order to receive God’s answers for anything we might choose to ask for in prayer. This parable is actually about disciples standing firm in the difficult days which are going to follow. It is about the importance of not giving up or losing heart in the face of persecution.
The challenges of the last year have given us all plenty of opportunities to practice persevering and not giving up. I like the definition of perseverance from the noted theologian Dolly Parton. “I never stopped trying and I never tried stopping.” As Christians we should never give up or lose heart.
Then the parable has a second point to make about how we should cope with difficult times and this one is about prayer. However difficult life becomes, we should not lose heart but we should always keep on praying. The hope and the promise is for disciples who persist in crying out to God, And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
That is when we most need to persist and persevere in prayer – in times of distress. We shouldn’t expand the parable into a universal promise that any and every prayer will be answered just as long as we persist in prayer. That is a wrong understanding of the parable.
The reason we know that Jesus had this more specific focus in mind for the parable, rather that a more general application, is because of the punchline in verse 8.
8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. 8 However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’
Yes, this is a parable promising God’s faithfulness in answering prayer. But here’s the sting in the tail. Will the Son of Man find faith on earth? Will he find disciples who are really trusting God in times of trouble. Will his disciples show the same kind of faith as that poor desperate defenceless widow showed? When the going gets so tough that the tough have long since packed up and gone home, will disciples still be persevering. Will they still be persisting in prayer? Or will we just lose heart and give up?

Being as old as I am, over the years I have collected a few friends who are quite famous. I once asked one of them, who once visited our church here, what was the secret of her success. She replied with refreshing honesty, “a talent for blatant self-promotion”. She learned this, she said, from her university studies which were basically a “a degree in showing off”.
More and more it appears that what people need to be successful in this upside-down world is not great talent or skill or wisdom, but rather this talent for blatant self-promotion.
This is entirely the opposite of what God requires in his right-way-up Kingdom in an upside-down world.
. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
In the last few weeks we have looked at two parables Jesus told. The parable of the Great Banquet, where the guests were making ridiculous excuses instead of enjoying the wonderful feast. Jesus followed that with the parable of the lost sheep, which we thought about last week. He then went on to tell the parables of the lost coin and the lost son, the prodigal son, which we will save for another time. But according to Luke’s Gospel, Jesus told all these stories at a particular dinner party.
Luke 14:1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.
And it was at that dinner party, just before Jesus told the parables we have looked at, that he said the words we read this morning.
Luke 14 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Those who humble themselves. I heard about one minister who had a wonderful sermon on “humility” but he never got round to preaching it because he was always waiting for the day when there would be a large enough congregation to properly appreciate it. I don’t know enough about humility to preach a sermon on it – so this morning I simply offer some reflections on the things Jesus taught about humility.
Humility is seeing ourselves as we really are before God. Humility is NOT false modesty.
A great professor was once called as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, “What are your qualifications as an expert witness in this case?”
The normally modest and retiring professor replied quietly, “I am the greatest living expert on the subject under discussion.” Later a friend gently chided the professor for his uncharacteristic answer. He replied, “What did you expect me to do? I was under oath.”
Humilty does not mean pretending to be modest. Humility means seeing yourself as you truly are, God sees you.
On a visit to the Beethoven museum in Bonn, a young American student became fascinated by the piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the museum guard if she could play a few bars on it; she accompanied the request with a lavish tip, and the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and tinkled out the opening of the Moonlight Sonata. As she was leaving she said to the guard, “I suppose all the great pianist who come here want to play on that piano.”
The guard shook his head. “Padarewski [the famed Polish pianist] was here a few years ago and he said he wasn’t worthy to touch it.”
Humility means seeing yourself as God sees you. Compared to other men and women we may seem to be doing fine. But compared to the greatest, we get a more truthful measure of ourselves. And compared to God Himself, compared to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are less than nothing!
William Temple said, “Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.”
The apostle Paul saw himself as God saw him.
I am the least of the apostles. – 1 Corinthians 15:9
I am the very least of all the saints. – Ephesians 3:8
I am the foremost of sinners. – 1 Timothy 1:15
So Paul wrote this to the Philippians
2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
God’s salvation is not given to the great and the good or the powerful or the successful. Mary’s song of praise, the Magnificat reminds us that God turns the established order upside-down.
Luke 1:51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty
Only the humble will receive God’s blessings. The door of life is a door of mystery. It becomes slightly shorter than the person who wishes to enter through it. So it is that only the person who bows in humility can cross its threshold.
A.W. Tozer (1897–1963) said this, “Because Christ Jesus came to the world clothed in humility, he will always be found among those who are clothed with humility. He will be found among the humble people.”
Jesus is our example and our standard and our goal.
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,7 but made himself nothing,taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
If Jesus made himself nothing and became a slave, Christians should be prepared to do the same. We must be prepared to take the lowest place.
In John 13 we find Jesus, about to break bread and pass round the cup by which we still remember Him today. His disciples were so busy jostling for position, trying to get the best place next to Jesus, that they had forgotten one simple preliminary – something which you will realise on the dusty roads they have in places like Palestine and Africa and India is not only polite but necessary. They all still had dirty feet. Nobody had done the slave’s job, physically unpleasant and socially demeaning. Nobody had attended to washing their feet. So we see Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in the upper room on the night before He was crucified, doing the job of a slave, washing His disciples feet.
John 13:13 ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
There is a simple message which I first heard a very long time ago from missionaries who had come back from Africa. Ministry is not rendering a service, but becoming a servant.
Actually this is a message we all need to hear. After 35 years as a minister I still need to hear it. Deacons and Home Group Leaders need to hear it. Everybody who wants to serve Jesus Christ in the church or in the world needs to hear it. Everybody who is seeking to follow Jesus Christ the Servant King needs to hear this truth.
Ministry is not rendering a service, but becoming a servant.
Not just doing a job. But becoming a servant, even becoming a slave. The Bible uses the words servant or slave a staggering 967 times! God even describes some of the most important heroes of faith as My servant Abraham, My servant Moses, My servant David. The apostles in Acts preached about “God’s servant, Jesus.” Remember these words of Jesus.
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” Mark 10:43-45.
I struggle sometimes when I see some of the so called “great” Christian leaders in this celebrity-obsessed generation. Many of the church leaders of today are not well-known for showing Christ’s humility. The growth of megachurches, the popularity of events like Spring Harvest, the cash value of book sales and the spread of the internet, all play havoc with a pastor’s humility. Whether at the local, or the national, or the international level, the lure of fame and success often appear to triumph over the desire for Christ-likeness. With many “great servants of God” the desire for greatness overcomes the desire for servanthood. It is a mystery to me how anybody can believe that Christians can shape the church or the wider world without the fruit of humility. Of the many “great” Christian leaders I have observed, so few of them naturally choose to take the lowest place!
Over the years I have been privileged to meet a number of “great” Christians. Having tea with Bishop of Nebbi and then Archbishop of Uganda Henry Orombi was one such special occasion. But perhaps even more memorable than that was a meeting more than 40 years ago with John Stott. He was indisputably a great Christian preacher and teacher and leader. But more than that, he was probably the most humble and Christ-like man I have ever met. God was able to use John Stott mightily because he was humble! We must always serve with humility. There is always a temptation for people, to become proud of their service. “Aren’t you glad you’ve got me in your church God. Aren’t you pleased you put me to serve you in this place for such a time as this. Aren’t I useful to you!” If ever any of us begin to think like that, remember what Jesus said in
LUKE 17:10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”
The great preacher and pastor F.B.Meyer said this. “I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other, and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower: that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.”
We are to become servants of all – because that is the example our Master Jesus Christ has given us.
John 13 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Slavery is not glamorous. Not exciting. Not even pleasant. It’s hard work, long hours with no reward. But we do it because Christ has set us an example which we should follow. And not just missionaries and ministers, but ALL Christians should follow that example. The example summed up in that prayer of Richard of Chichester:

Lord give us the grace to serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To toil and not to seek for rest
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To labour and not to ask for any reward
Except that of knowing that we are doing your will.

That is what it costs when we stop just rendering a service and really become a servant! We all need humble actions. The servant heart which turns the other cheek and joyfully goes the extra mile. But even more, we also need humble hearts. We ALL need humble hearts.
And Jesus gives us a simple practical test to see how much progress we are making in humility.
Luke 14 12 Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
D.L. Moody said, “A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.”
God challenges us all to humble ourselves
1 Peter 5:5 All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”
Put on the apron of humility, to serve one another (Good News Bible)
So let us learn How to serve, And in our lives Enthrone Him;
Each other’s needs To prefer, For it is Christ We’re serving.
This is our God, The Servant King, He calls us now To follow Him,
To bring our lives As a daily offering Of worship toThe Servant King.

If there is one job I would not have wanted to do in the Middle East in New Testament times, it would have been job of a shepherd. It was DANGEROUS. In the heat of the sun, or the rain and the wind. In the cold nights, out in wild without shelter. Then there were the wolves, and the lions and other fierce animals. As well as the robbers and bandits. Think of Wild West cowboys rather than shepherds today.
And all the time a shepherd was working with sheep – not the brightest of animals – sheep which will get themselves trapped on a cliff side, or fall into a gully or get trapped in a stream or in a thicket of gorse – or just wander off and get themselves lost!
That is the background of the parable Jesus told about a shepherd who sets out to rescue his lost sheep.
Luke 15 4 ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
We are the lost sheep, Jesus is the Good Shepherd
Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd – just how much it cost Christ to die for us
John 10:11 11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … 14 ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
In describing himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus was making a great claim! Because every Jew knew that there was only one Shepherd for the nation of Israel – God Himself. Psalm 23 – The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But there was another less well-known passage in the OT which portrayed God even more clearly as a shepherd who sets out to search for his lost sheep.
Ezekiel 34 11 ‘ “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 … 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, … There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture. … 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak,
The Good Shepherd not only looks after the 99 in the fold but also goes out to search day and night for the one lost sheep. “I myself will search for my sheep.” “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.”
This was Jesus’s mission. Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. To seek and save the lost!
And let’s remember that every one of us is are only here today because Jesus came to find us when we were lost. When we were hiding away from God, God came and found us!
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found! Was blind but now I see.
I was lost but Jesus found me! There is no hope of being saved until a person realises that he or she is lost. Until we accept we are sinners. God did not send His Son Jesus Christ into the world to save those who think they are righteous. Jesus says Himself that He “came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Even today, the Good Shepherd is still looking for those who are lost, longing to bring them home.
Luke 15 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
All the people around us are still lost sheep
More lost than ever! So many problems in families, in relationships, with finance. Difficulties in employment. Injustice as the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” gets bigger everyday. Inequalities in opportunity, in prospects, in health and life expectancy.
We usually don’t realise just how lost people are today
Put your hand up if
• You grew up in a Christian home
• Went to church when you were growing up
• Had some other links to church when you were growing up (BB, GB, YP etc)
• Always believed in God even though you never went to church
Is anybody left without a hand up?
Most of our neighbours and friends would be – because most people in Chelmsford don’t have meaningful contact with any church!!
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
And God commands us to reach out with his love and his saving truth to these lost people! A few weeks ago we thought about the parable which Jesus told just before this parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the Wedding Feast. Remember all the silly excuses people made why they couldn’t come to the banquet. But the host was determined that as many people as possible should be there to enjoy the celebration.
Luke 14 21 … Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”
22 ‘ “Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.”
23 ‘Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
Our God is a God who is determined that his house should be full! So he sends his servants out to seek and save the lost – even in the streets and alleys, even in the roads and country lanes. And he sends US out! At the beginning of the year we thought about the Great Commission and the promise that Jesus is with us always.
Matthew 28 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
That command is for EVERY follower of Jesus, in every place in every age. Make disciples. GO!
WE must seek and save the lost!
Luke 15 4 ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
The Good Shepherd LOOKS until he finds !! He searches high and low, up and down, everywhere. That was what Jesus spent three years doing.
Matthew 9:35 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’
God cares just as much about people who are lost in sin today. The harvest is plentiful – but the workers are few. God still needs ALL OF US to be his workers to bring in the harvest of souls. God needs US to seek and save the lost.
Too many churches have drifted into the Little Bo Peep strategy.
“Little Bo Peep, she lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them.”
But we can’t sit back and wait for the lost to come to find us! The heart of the problem of people who are lost is that they don’t know they are lost. Many of them don’t want to be found! People who are lost without God don’t find him for the same reason that the burglar didn’t find the policeman. He wasn’t looking to find the policeman. He was too busy running in the opposite direction hiding from the policeman!
We can’t just sit back and expect the lost to come back to God by themselves! Here’s a very short poem by Gordon Bailey, called “How far?”
How far would world communism have progressed?
If all they had done is stick “You need Lenin” posters up outside the Kremlin?
The shepherd goes OUT and LOOKS for the sheep! God has NOT commanded us just to sit around and wait until those who are lost knock on our doors and ask how they can be saved.
Matthew 28:19 As you GO, make disciples of all nations, baptising them … 20 and teaching them …
John 20:21 Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
We are SENT. We must GO. Whatever dangers the shepherd faced, however uncomfortable the journey, his mission was to find his lost sheep. And he wouldn’t give up until he found it! Go – seek and save the lost!
Since the first lockdown last March most of our old ways of reaching out have closed down. Toddlers. Café. Drop In. Even our contact with young people on Sundays has fizzled out. It will be months before any of these activities can start again, and then it will take a long time to build them up. We did manage to continue our Christmas card deliveries, and we did have visitors to our Christmas Zoom events.
But we will need to find new ways to reach out into the postmodern post-truth society of the 21st century. We have already started to explore some of these new ways using the internet, video and social media.
Our Services on Zoom are also posted on Facebook and YouTube, as are our prayer reflections. We know that many visitors are watching them, including some from around the world. An old school friend who now lives in the midlands got in touch the other day because he had found our services on Facebook.
Our new little book “More of The Difference Jesus Makes” has been great to share our stories with neighbours and friends. And we are going to put some of those stories on to video so they can go out on Facebook and YouTube as well.
My book Prepared To Give An Answer has helped many of you to feel more confident in talking about Jesus with your friends and neighbours. It tackled some of the most common questions inquirers ask about the Christian faith. I am going to turn parts of that book into some videos in the next few months as well.
We need God’s guidance for HIS ways to reach today’s lost sheep. There is a true story of a missionary overseas who arrived in a city and hadn’t a clue how to reach so many these unfamiliar people with the gospel. He prayed for a way to make a few contacts who he could begin to talk about Jesus with, and he was led to put a tiny advert in the classified section of a newspaper offering mail-order Bible studies. He received literally THOUSANDS of requests – so he had to start actually writing some Bible studies and posting them out! That’s one way to plant a church! What new ways of sharing our faith will God lead US to do in the months ahead?
The Good Shepherd went out to find his lost sheep. Have you ever lost anything and had to search for it? Mercifully we never mislaid any of our children for more than a minute or so. We did once lose a dog. In the New Forest our first Golden Retriever Tara ran off chasing a deer. We called and whistled but she didn’t come back, so we began to search for her. It was a very distressing time. We would have stayed in the Forest searching all night if she had not eventually reappeared after about half an hour. But our desperate concern to find our lost dog was only a faint shadow of the concern which Jesus the Good Shepherd has for his Lost Sheep.
North Springfield needs Jesus. God the loving shepherd who searched for us and found us and saved us sends us out to continue His mission to proclaim Jesus to the world.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save what was lost. (NIV/NRSV)