Q3, S04 Family Celebration
Question 08:
Can You See My Kingdom as a Home?
This quarter we are considering three questions that all focus on the kingdom of God. The question for this group of sessions is: Can you see my kingdom as a home? Remember that as we look at these questions, we’re imagining the kingdom as three spaces in a home: the front yard, the home, and the backyard. In the front yard, imagine a seed being planted to grow into a large tree that shades the home. Inside the home is a table with a prepared meal. Outside, around the back of the house, is a garden or farm—large enough to run as a business with servants or employees.
The parables we will look at in this section focus on the home. What does it mean for the kingdom to be a place where a family lives? How should this affect the way we view God? How should it affect the way we view ourselves? What is it about the kingdom of God that invites the comparison with a home and a table for sharing a meal?
Tool: The Home & Table
The tool for this group of sessions is the home and the table. The home represents joy, celebration, and family life, and the table is the focus of these kingdom activities. The parables that deal with the love of the family—and the father in particular—are describing family life in the kingdom. This is the heart of kingdom living. The table is the perfect metaphor for living with joy and love for God’s family. Love and family are critical words that define the inside of the home. As you examine this group of parables, watch for what the metaphor of the home and table reveals about God, his kingdom, and what it means to live for and with Jesus.
Quarter 3, Session 4: The Prodigal Son
WILL YOU CELEBRATE WITH ME?
Passage
Luke 15
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ eighth question: Can you see my kingdom as a home? Jesus told a few parables to explain why he associated with people who were repulsive to the religious leaders of his day. Through these parables, we find that Jesus’ heart is to share a meal in his kingdom with all of his children—including those who have gone after immediate, sinful gratification and those who resist coming to the table because they are standing in judgment of other people who are invited.
Key Question
Is there anyone you would be hesitant to welcome into a kingdom meal? Why might this be difficult for you?
The Home & Table Tool
Do you see our Home and Table tool being played out in Luke 15? With whom? How so?
The Prodigal Son
When was the last time you felt out of place? We all encounter situations from time to time where we feel awkward, where we’re convinced we don’t belong. We don’t know all of the social norms, or we get the impression that everyone else at the event is younger, or cooler, or more successful, or more elite in some regard than we are. Like a high school dropout at an academic conference, or a middle-aged small town dad at a hipster coffee shop, or a man who finds himself on a women’s retreat, we can all imagine what it’s like to be somewhere you don’t quite fit in.
What do you do when you find yourself in these situations? The easiest thing to do is slip away. But if you’re confident in the person who invited you to the event, you can believe that the host asked you to come for a reason. That even if you don’t see exactly how you fit in, you’re actually wanted. You do belong.
On the flipside, we can also imagine what it’s like to see someone else in a place where they don’t belong. It’s easy to judge other people in situations like this. Who do they think they are? Why do they assume they belong? We might not say these things out loud, but we know what it’s like to ask these questions in our heads.
The parables in Luke 15 show us that Jesus’ goal is to get us to join him. To enter into a celebration with him. The reality is that we’re all invited. It’s difficult sometimes to believe that we belong. It’s also difficult to believe that everyone else who is invited belongs. But if we are going to be part of God’s family, his kingdom, then we have to gain the father’s heart of getting all of his children to sit down to a family meal together.
1. Read Luke 15. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
The Goal: A Family Meal
What is the goal of this parable? In other words, as we look at the father in the story, who seems to represent God, what is he trying to accomplish? On the level of the story, he’s trying to get his family to all sit together at the same table. The point is, his family is being broken apart, and he’s trying to get everyone together again. Success looks like everyone sitting together around a table, sharing a meal. At this dinner the father throws to celebrate the return of his son, everyone is enjoying each other, sharing together, acknowledging and appreciating that they have been provided for.
This is a major value for all parents. We just want our family to be on good terms with each other, to be able to sit down and enjoy the life that God has given us. Everything that pulls us away from each other threatens this dynamic. But in this parable, the family dynamic of a celebratory meal is exactly what we see the father fighting for.
2. Where do you see the father’s heart in this parable as it relates to his desire for his two sons? What does he want to see happen, and how does he work to make that a reality?
3. In light of the father’s goal here, are there any adjustments we need to make to the way we reach out to people? In other words, what is the goal of your relationships?
The Younger Son Leaves
As the parable begins, the younger son decides that the thing he likes best about his family is the stuff he enjoys by being part of it. So he asks his father for his inheritance, his stuff. And he goes off to try to enjoy it in the way he wants to. It’s easy to try to imagine just how the younger son spent his inheritance and what it looked like for him to hit rock bottom. But think about what this did to the family he left behind. This son destroys the family meal by disappearing. He’s no longer at the table. Those who are left behind no longer get to enjoy the family meal with him.
But the father’s disposition remains the same: he continues to invite the son in to the family and the dinner table. He doesn’t have to rethink anything, nor does the son need to regain any ground with the father. The father cares so much about that son that he goes running to welcome him. It’s like the earlier two parables, where the shepherd goes to find the lost sheep and the woman searches everywhere to find her lost coin. The father’s disposition is to welcome, invite, and celebrate.
This is how things work in the kingdom of God. Just as the prodigal always had the opportunity to return, so every sinner always has an invitation to rejoin Jesus, regardless of anything they have done or have left undone. There will always be younger sons leaving and then coming to their senses. What matters is that the father was disposed to run and welcome his lost son. His welcoming, celebratory posture meant everything.
When we are wounded by other people, it’s so hard to continue to be welcoming. When people differ from us or fall short of our standards, it’s hard to celebrate their inclusion in the kingdom banquet. Jesus actually told this story because the Pharisees were bothered by the people Jesus was eating with. But through these parables, Jesus explains that the kingdom is exactly the kind of place that welcomes people in. The only way the family can be restored is if someone goes and welcomes those who have been estranged. The family would not have been reunited if the father had not kept the invitation open to his son.
So often we try to wait until we have everything back together, so we end up never actually coming back. But this parable shows us that the table is always open. It’s not about getting everything together before we return. What matters is recognizing the disposition of the father to welcome us, and then accepting his invitation.
4. Do you see any of the younger son in yourself right now? What about in the past? Or in the life of someone you’re praying for? How so?
5. Is there anyone you would be hesitant to welcome into a kingdom meal? Why might this be difficult for you?
The Older Son Resists
Once the younger son returns, we find that he’s not the only one who destroys the family meal. The older son ends up destroying the family meal in the opposite way. He refuses to join his younger brother at the table. No one else measures up to what he believes is required to earn a seat at the table, so he refuses to celebrate the return of the prodigal, and in doing so, he refuses to sit at the kingdom table.
We tend to be skeptical of the other people at the table, and we’re hesitant to join them. It’s so easy to slip into this mentality. We can become quick to believe that we belong at the table, and slow to accept anyone else. But by refusing to sit at the table with the prodigals, we are actually excluding ourselves from the table. So the older sons are lost as well, even though they’re still in the house. In the parable of the lost sheep, the sheep is lost outside of the house, and has to be tracked down. But in the parable of the lost coin, even though the coin remains in the house it still must be searched for.
The father’s disposition toward his older son is the same as towards his younger son. He welcomes and invites the older son back to the table as well. The key for us is recognizing that everyone always belongs here. There is always an invitation. We’re not truly loving the father if we aren’t able to love our brother. We can’t join the father at the table without sitting and eating with the other people the father has brought to the table.
6. Do you see any of the older son in yourself right now? What about in the past? Or in the life of someone you’re praying for? How so?
7. Spend some time in prayer. Thank God for the invitation to join him at the table. Pray that you would not resist the family meal either by leaving the table in search of fleeting pleasures or by refusing to sit at the table with others you consider unworthy.
Key Question
Is there anyone you would be hesitant to welcome into a kingdom meal? Why might this be difficult for you?