“I Forgive You. I Welcome You.”
1. Confess Your Sins
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:13-16)
When you hear these words, “confess your sins to one another,” what goes through your mind? What do you feel? Are you fearful? Are you thinking, “Impossible. I cannot do that.” Both our passages this morning teach us the power of confession. Confession and prayer bring healing. Confession and repentance are essential for living in grace and living out grace. Through confession, we step into the light. We allow Jesus to see us. We face the truth. We come out of hiding. Confession involves a risk. We make known our sins and struggles. We dare to be known as sinners. But we are afraid. How will God react? Will God really forgive me? How will people react? Where do we get the courage to confess? Jesus gives the answer in Luke 15.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Lk 15:1-2)
Jesus identifies with and embraces the sinners, those who are lost. The religious leaders did not like this. They wanted Jesus to be like them, think like them, and do like them. They could not live out grace, not for Jesus nor for the people coming to Jesus. So Jesus told them three parables of lost things and lost people. See how he ends the first two parables:
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. … Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Lk 15:7,10)
When we confess, we come out of hiding, and we can live unashamed because God covers us. When we repent, turn back to God our Father, He says to us, “I forgive you. I welcome you. Let’s celebrate with joy because you were lost but now you are found.” Jesus drives this point home with the third parable of the lost son.
2. The Younger Son
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. (Lk 15:11-12)
For the people and culture of that time, this is a shocking, impossible request. Asking for his inheritance means the son wants his father to die. He is saying, “Father, I hope you die, but because you won’t die, can I have my money now.” What appears to us as a simple request is actually a curse. He openly, publicly—before the entire community—cursed his father, humiliated him, insulted him, embarrassed him. In his heart, he had murdered his father.
What was the father’s response? He could have chased him out of the house, disowned him, but instead, we see grace. He did not respond in kind. He did not retaliate. He loved the son, gave him his inheritance, and let him go.
Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. (Lk 15:13-16)
This son was lost because of his own choices. This is his own doing. He wished his father dead. He chased after pleasure. He followed his passions. And he ended up in this lost place. He has reached rock bottom. Remember pigs are unclean animals for Jews. And here he was, a young Jewish man in the pigpen, and the pigs’ food looks pretty good. He’s alone, isolated, separated from family and friends.
Like this son, we are also lost. Jesus wants us to understand the severity of sin. Sin is not just a mistake. It’s not just doing something bad. Sin is wishing God was dead. Sin is rejecting God, rejecting his authority and Lordship over us. We are pleasure-seekers. We are wired to pursue joy, well-being, happiness, but we want to do so, live life, on our own terms. We think God just spoils everything. So in this pursuit of pleasure and happiness, we make bad choices that lead to wrong behaviors and sin. This produces guilt, which leads to shame.
That’s how we know we are lost. We have this bothering sense of guilt about something we have done wrong. “I did bad.” We play this self-condemning message of shame over and over in our heads. “I am bad.” Some become enslaved, addicted, to bad and sinful habits. They hate what they are doing. They hate themselves for doing it. They know it’s wrong but can’t seem to stop. Others give up in self-despairing resignation. “I can’t change. That’s just the way I am. Take it or leave it.”
Even Christians can be lost from God. Jesus called it “little faith.” “You of little faith. Why are you afraid?” We no longer pray or read God’s Word. We don’t practice love towards one another. We are not thankful for what we have and what God has done for us. We want more. Yes, we’re lost … because we’ve left God. We are lost because we are not focused on God anymore, but only on ourselves.
Because of guilt and shame, we decide to hide. We hide our feelings. We hide in our relationships. We act like things are okay. We tough up and power through. We hide in all kinds of activities that cover up what is really going on inside of us. We live a double life. We become isolated from others. And isolation leads to separation. We become separated from God and others. We end up alone like this young son. “No one gave him anything.” There was nobody there to help in his place of deep desperation. He was alone, isolated, and separated from others.
Stumbo in his book calls this the Shame Cycle. When we hide and live in isolation and separation from God and others, when we are hurting, in pain, we seek refuge and comfort in pleasure again. The guilt and shame increase. We hide more, feel more isolated, and become more separated. And so we become enslaved, imprisoned, in this self-perpetuating cycle of shame. If we continue in it long enough, our sin no longer produces guilt or shame. We become numb to the guilt and shame. We try all kinds of things to escape this cycle. We try harder. We punish ourselves. We try to avoid pleasure and sin. We try to be perfect. But nothing works. The solution is elsewhere.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ And he arose and came to his father. (Lk 15:17-20a)
He came to his senses. With honesty, he faced himself and the truth of his situation. “I am stuck and I cannot rescue myself.” Honesty begins when we admit we can’t save ourselves. We choose to face the pain. Honesty brings us to the place of confession and repentance. This breaks us out of the Shame Cycle and brings us into the Grace Cycle. We realize that we need God. We need Jesus. We need others. We confess. We repent. We turn around, turn back, and go back to God the Father.
3. The Father’s Response
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Lk 15:20b-24)
Think back to the last time someone cursed you, insulted you, hurt you, wished you were dead. How did you respond? It is justice we expect, not mercy. It is rewards, not grace. You must earn your way back into my favor. It’s condemnation, not forgiveness. It’s punishment, not a celebration. But look at the extraordinary response of the father. Jewish men did not run, especially not wealthy men. They walked with dignity. They did not show physical compassion to other men, much less to a wayward son who wished them dead. He saw him from far away. He was obviously on the lookout, hoping that his son would return. He ran, embraced, and kissed him. He gives, shows incredible love.
The son confessed. He took the risk. He dared to be known as a sinner. He dared to be a sinner. His honesty, vulnerability, his confession led to repentance.
And the father’s response? Instead of angry words or reprimands, we find an embrace and a kiss. The father dresses him with the best of clothes — a sign of full acceptance. He puts a ring on his finger — a sign that he trusted him in a remarkable way. He puts shoes on his feet — a sign of being a son, not a slave. He calls for a feast and a celebration — a sign of full reinstatement into the family and community. The father forgives the son. He welcomes him back into the family. The son again belongs. He is no longer isolated and separated. He is restored to fellowship, to the community.
How will God respond to our confession? Sometimes we are so stuck in the cycle of shame, we feel so ashamed and worthless that we can’t see the Father who loves us with unquenchable compassion, with extraordinary love, and amazing grace like we have never experienced before.
We must ask ourselves the question: Do we believe that God is safe? Safe in a way that He can be trusted with the worst of who we are. Jesus tells us that God the Father is truly safe. His love and grace are great enough to see through all our stuff and see who we really are. He sees us. He knows everything about us. He forgives us and restores us to fellowship, communion with Him, and others.
And this is the beauty of the Grace Cycle. Confession and repentance bring forgiveness and healing, and forgiveness leads to intimacy with God and others. Intimacy is trust and vulnerability in a real, open, close relationship with God and others. There is nothing hidden anymore. No isolation and separation. In honesty and confession, we are able to say, “This is who I am.” This is the power of confession. It transfers us from sickness to health, from being ashamed to being unashamed, from being lost to being found.
Because our God is the Father who forgives and welcomes his rebellious, bitter, foolish, wayward children. God the Father forgives and welcomes us because Jesus, his Son, has paid for all our sins. Jesu covers us with his blood, with his robe of righteousness. And so He opened the way for all of us to return to our Father’s loving arms, to the Father who says, “I forgive you. I welcome you. Let’s celebrate with joy because you were lost but now are found.”