…for what it's worth

Beautiful.

Jesus ate with “tax-collectors and sinners”, the most reviled of first century Jewish society; people who had strayed far from God and knew it. They wanted to come back.

The Pharisees and scribes, who trusted that their law-keeping and tradition-following made them righteous “didn’t even know” they had strayed from God, and they grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them,” meaning “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of people these are, for they are sinners.” (~Luke 7:39)

Jesus replies with a parable, asking these self-righteous people if, having a hundred sheep, they wouldn’t leave ninety-nine to go looking for one lost one, and having found it, rejoice. Then Jesus makes the point explicit:
Verse 7: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Then Jesus tells them another parable, to the same effect. A woman with ten coins will go to a lot of trouble to find even one lost one, and rejoice when she finds it, right? Verse 10: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The third and final parable in this thread is one of the most well-known parables in the Bible, and for good reason – the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). I’ll summarize for the purposes of my own meditation.

A man has two sons. The younger son requests and receives his inheritance early from his father and goes and parties it up in the big city. He does what so many movies and advertisements encourage us to do: He “lived the life” (John 14:6), he “lived for the moment” (1 Peter 1:24-25), he “did what felt right” (Proverbs 14:12), he “followed his heart” (Jeremiah 17:9), and just generally screwed himself over (Ecclesiastes 2:1) until he had nothing left and envied even the pigs he was feeding to make a living, because at least they got fed regularly. Then he realizes that even his father’s servants eat well, and decides to go throw himself at his father’s mercy so that maybe he’ll let him become a servant.

His father sees him coming from a long way off, and in an act that could only come out of a heart full of love, this dignified old man, a property owner and head of a large household, lifts up his skirts and runs to meet his lost son. The son tries to make his plea, but immediately the father clothes him in splendor and throws a huge party, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate.” (Verse 24)

I’ll pause here to talk about this heartbreakingly beautiful image, which is God running towards his wayward children now returned to life, embracing them and celebrating their return. In the previous two parables, Jesus said that there is more joy in heaven over a single repentant sinner than a hundred who “didn’t need repentance,” and now he illustrates it again. This man, the younger son, has squandered his fathers wealth on trivialities. He has insulted him by essentially saying “I wish you were dead” in asking for his inheritance early. He has come back with nothing, in disgrace, looking to become a servant so he won’t begrudge the pigs their slop. His father’s response to this is to run to him, and with open arms, to accept him back not even just as his son, but in celebration, “killing the fatted calf.”
If you’re a Christian, this is you. God saved you, a sinner (1 Timothy 1:15), and when you despaired of yourself and came to him, he ran to you with those open arms. He welcomes you (Luke 12:32), dresses you (Revelation 19:13), cleanses you (Hebrews 9:14), and rejoices at your return.

Remember that Jesus is telling these parables to scribes and Pharisees. The father’s grace in the parable isn’t for them. The young man in the story has an older brother. That older brother hears music and dancing and comes to see what’s up. He gets the news from a servant and is infuriated enough to refuse to go into the party. His father comes out of the party to entreat him. The older brother’s response is that all these years he has served him, never disobeyed, and yet was never thrown a party, but when this miscreant son comes home, who has devoured his father’s property with prostitutes, his father kills the fatted calf! How is that fair?

But fair is not the point. The older brother needs the mercy of the father now as much as the younger. The father’s only reply, and the end of the parable, is this:

31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’

The older brother stands for all of us Pharisees, who claim we want justice. “I did well, so I deserve to be rewarded. He has been sinning all his life and now you will give him the same reward and throw a celebration to boot? That’s not fair.”
But like in the parable of the laborers in the vinyard (Matthew 20:1-16), it is God’s prerogative to distribute his blessing as he wishes. And the last will be first, and the first, last.
If what the older brother said is true, then he’s never really broken any of the rules. He has always obeyed the commands, and he believed it made him not only righteous before his father, but deserving of special reward. His sin, and ours, was that his heart was in the wrong place. He had developed a sense of entitlement.

O, soul, get this straight if you get nothing else! God looks at the heart, and is not fooled by external appearances. In the end, you will not be judged or rewarded solely according to whether you followed all the rules and checked all the boxes. The state of your heart towards God determines the value of your actions.
Obey the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-38).