“It’s Not Fair” – “Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a Variety of Ways) – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
The gospel, the good news of liberation and freedom in Jesus, confronts our misunderstanding of Scripture, Christ, grace, and faith. If Christians more fully demonstrated the good news of the gospel that Scripture illumines, Christ exposes, grace captures, and faith embraces, might we know in mind, soul, and spirit God’s unconditional love and thus experience personal liberation and freedom in Jesus?
By placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, one knows they are loved by our God of unconditional love. God begins to make you a brand-new person, from the inside out. Listen to the words of Robert Farrar Capon,
You’re worried about permissiveness–about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. …
While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue–that music, dancing, and a fattened calf are, in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: “Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.”[1]
Our misunderstanding of Scripture, Christ, grace, and faith is functionally demonstrated by saying “it’s not fair” and “it’s always and ever about her”. We need to lean into God’s unconditional love which is about equality not the circumstance. Hope is the anticipation of the future as the fulfillment of God’s purposes.[2] The future is not yet, but hope requires that we believe it to be. The gospel confronts the absence of hope.
Scripture. Scripture tells the story of salvation and what salvation looks like.
Christ. Christians know that their salvation from despair, loneliness, and eternal separation from God is not accomplished through “stuff,” financial security, or merit. Only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. This is Luke’s message with the prodigal son: the Father’s love for the brokenness of the younger son is scandalous.
Grace. Christians know that they cannot take any credit for their salvation. Because of the scandalous grace of God, we are in God’s grasp and God will not let go. The gospel confronts our merit-based thinking. Belonging to God, our salvation, is based on the unmerited favor we receive from the One who created us, redeems us, and sustains us. Only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. We cannot take any credit for our salvation.
Faith. Christians know that there is never enough evidence to prove that Scripture tells the story of salvation; that only belief in Jesus Christ, the One who knows us the best and loves us the most, can save us from ourselves and all the false saviors. Our calling to God is not just one more thing on our “to do list.” You were created to become like Jesus and made to participate in God’s mission.[3] The gospel confronts our disbelief. And we cannot take any credit for our salvation. Each of us must recognize the full sufficiency of faith.
The gospel confronts our misunderstanding of scripture, Christ, grace, and faith. Our conscience tells us these things. Peter J. Gomes former Plummer Professor of Christian Morality at Harvard Divinity School writes, “Conscience is that little bit of God implanted in us, that part of ourselves made in the image of God that tells us what we know to be true and good, to which, in our better moments, we aspire.”[4] In Christian terms, conscience is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.[5]
Let the gospel confront your brokenness, merit-based thinking, disbelief, and self-centeredness. Begin to experience the fullness of God’s love for you and your reconciliation with God in whom your identity is rooted. Be overtaken by prodigal loving.[6] Amen.
This sermon was preached on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, 30 March 2025 by
the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary at
Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright © 2025
Steven M. Marsh
All Rights Reserved.
[1]Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three, Christianity Today, Vol. 30, No. 7.
[2]Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 133.
[3]Adapted from Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 320-322.
[4]Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 134.
[5]In the six paragraphs above, I was challenged by the thinking of Patricia K. Tull, David A. Davis, Leigh Campbell-Taylor, William Greenway, Richard F. Ward, D. Cameron Murchison, and Adam J. Copeland in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 76-78, 78-79, 80-82, 83-85, 85-86, 87-90, and 90-92.
[6]Adam J. Copeland in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume2, 92.
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