Welcome to Resurrection Parish as we start the second week of our message series, “Right on the Money.” Money is a part of life. We need it and we cannot escape it. Perhaps for that reason we have so many negative emotions about it. It turns out, Jesus understands money and its place in our lives. He wants us to get money right. That’s why he taught on it so much; more than any other topic. Jesus understood the real value and the proper place money should have in our lives.
Today we are going to dig down deeper into this topic by looking at probably the most famous parable that Jesus ever taught – the Prodigal Son. Specifically we’re going to look at what the parable says about money. It teaches us about two key ways we can get money wrong. Each of us is probably prone to one category or the other.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share your estate that should come to me’” (Luke 15:11-12a). First note, the man had TWO sons. Too often we just think about the one, “prodigal,” son. However, both sons are important for our message today.
The youngest son asks for the cash value of his share of his father’s estate. Essentially he’s telling his father “You are dead to me. My relationship with you means absolutely nothing beyond the cash value.” It is bracing attitude, and obviously an extreme one. Unfortunately, people choose money over people all the time. Friendships are broken, siblings are torn apart, and marriages are ruined over money. Sad, but sadly quite common, and not necessarily shocking.
The father accedes to his son’s request to divide his property. Now, while there was “money” in Jesus’ time, for most people they did not have much liquid assets. In this culture, at that time, his wealth was in property and livestock. He had to sell off part of his land to meet his son’s demand for money. To lose property in that culture was to lose status and honor. It was considered a dishonor and a disgrace. The father does it any way.
We all know what came next; the younger son took the money and ran. He then proceeds to live a life of partying.
When it comes to money, I guess you could say broadly speaking, there are basically two types of people. There are the spenders and the savers. You know which you are. Our culture rewards savers, as intellectually and even morally superior to spenders. At the same time everything in our culture encourages spending, in sometimes powerful even manipulative ways.
Turns out the younger son isn’t just a spender he’s a squanderer. To squander is to waste money in a reckless or foolish fashion. Soon the younger son burns through all his money. To make things worse, a famine hits, and he becomes desperate. He takes the lowest job imaginable for a Jewish person, feeding pigs.
While hopefully none of us have ever experienced such extreme poverty, most all of us have made mistakes when it comes to money. And we’ve experienced the consequences of our mistakes. Maybe it’s carrying a lot of credit card debt or car loans. Maybe its strained relationships. Maybe it’s a strained budget that precludes doing and having a lot of things we really want. Along with those consequences can come lots of negative emotions, like fear and guilt. Perhaps humility, but humility is not necessarily a bad thing. Just look at what happens next.
“Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food to eat, but here am I dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would one of your hired workers.” (Luke 15:17-19)
The younger son finally has the sense and the humility not only to return to his father but to restore his father as the absolutely essential person in his life.
We know what happens next, his father welcomes the prodigal son back home with great joy. While the son is greedy and loves money more than his father, the father is generous and loves his son more than his money.
If you have blown it with money. If you feel guilt or regret over how you’ve handle money to date a great next step is to return to the Lord and put him before your money,
especially by giving money away. The antidote to guilt and worry about money is giving (And we will be talking more about that later in this series). God does not want you to feel guilty about money. Conviction yes. Guilt no. Conviction is a desire to do better. Guilt just means feeling bad about our past choices and just getting stuck there.
The father throws a big party to celebrate the return of his youngest son. Often we stop the story here, but remember, this parable is really about TWO sons. “Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing” (Luke 15:25).
On learning the reason for the party, the older son refuses to go in and join the party. This is very disrespectful to his father. People would have certainly noticed his absence. Many of us might be sympathetic to the older son’s position. However there is a certain smugness, a certain self-righteous in his attitude. Money can be used as a scorecard and how you handle it equates not only to net worth, but to self worth. Spenders can be foolish, savers can be smug and self-righteous. And it looks that was this guy.
The younger son spent and squandered his money, while the older son earned and saved his money. But for both, money was more important to them than their relationship with their father.
A question perhaps for each of us to answer ourselves and in our own way: Are we savers or spenders? And in either case are we handling our money as if we don’t need God?