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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Is there injustice and inequality in this life? Yes, of course! You've experienced it, and I've experienced it. Either at the hands of someone else or at our own hands where we have seen and endured inequality or undue justice. But what do we do with it…that inequality and injustice? What do we do with it especially when such inequality and injustice happens to our person? It's very interesting isn't it? Because it all depends upon how we view whether we deserve it or not.

Growing up in a family, you know as a sibling if your sister or brother, either younger or older, got away with something you didn't, you would quickly point out the injustice and the inequality. "It's not fair, mom and dad. It's not right, mom and dad." But after we have left home, whom do we appeal to? And what do we do with such inequalities and injustices?

Hence, the parable of the prodigal son. Now the very first three verses of the text talk about two groups of people both of the same mind who view what Jesus is doing as inequality and not right. What is that that Jesus is doing that they would view so harshly and negatively? Jesus eats with and draws and receives sinners. That’s what He does.

From their perspective, the Pharisees and scribes who are very religious people…it's not as if these people weren't…if you were to look at the sinners of whom they are speaking and look at the Pharisees and scribes of whom He is speaking, comparing the two, the sinners would definitely look far worse in their outward actions and lifestyle than would the Pharisees and scribes. So it makes sense. "God, why are You spending so much time with these sinners? Why don't You spend more time with us who are so religious and so concerned about things of God?"

In the parable of the prodigal son, you and I love to see ourselves as the prodigal son, the one received back by God, and rightly so, because all of us have been received back by God. Not just once in our life, but many times, and over and over again, as we come back to Him and say, "I have sinned against heaven and against You. I am no longer worthy to be called Your son."

Now unlike our earthly parents who would probably fold their arms across their chest, look us in the eye, and say, "Well how do I know you're not going to do it again? How do I know you're not going to turn around and show me again that you cannot fulfill what you are saying?" God the Father does not ask such things of you. He opens His arms and receives you back time and time again.

But isn't it interesting? In receiving us back so frequently, do we ever stop and say, "Wow! This being received back from God is … why it's kind of an injustice? It's not fair is it? Why should He receive me back when I don't deserve to be received back?" But we don't, do we? We don't think in terms of just dessert. We only are thankful, and that is a good thing, but the problem lies in this: when we receive in our person something that we perceive as being unjust or inequality, we cry out to Him, "Why, O Lord?" But let us receive such grace and forgiveness, which has no merit and no deserve, we only give thanks to God.

You see the younger son comes back and is received back, and the father receives him as such and says, "This son of mine was once dead and now is alive." And we can relate to that one. But the one whom we need to think about and consider is the older son, which we have a lot in common with.

Here is why: when the older son sees the younger son brought back, the older son sees the injustice. "Why should my father receive back this brother of mine who completely squandered his inheritance? Why should my father receive back this young man who completely ignored his father and me his brother, lived his life as if we didn't matter? That is not just, and that is not fair."

You and I cannot put down the older brother. He got it. He understands inequality and injustice, and he is right! For if there was a reason that that father received back the prodigal son, then the prodigal son would be received, not because of grace and forgiveness, but because of something within him. You see for grace to remain grace and forgiveness to remain forgiveness, there can't be any dessert for you, meaning you can't deserve it. If you deserve it, it no longer is forgiveness and it no longer is grace. It's the proper payment for your work.

In the collect, if you heard pastor pray it, it said that we only deserve His wrath and punishment. There is what we deserve. Hmm. So what do we do with injustice and inequality that we experience in our life since we will never be able to escape it in this world? It happens in school. It happens in jobs. It happens to us. And there is only one Person in control of it all, and you and I know who He is. It's God.

So why does God choose to allow injustice and inequality to occur in this life, and why does He then allow it to occur to you and me personally? We'll never know why. God does not reveal such mysteries to us, but He does reveal this in this parable. In verse 28, the older son is angry and refused to go in to the father's house and rejoice with the father. He is out back stewing. "This isn't fair. This isn't right. If he was really a loving father he would put him out on his ear. He would tell the whole village, 'This is how you handle forgiveness. You don't give it unless they deserve it.'"

But look what his father does. The father does to the older son exactly what the father did to the younger son. The father went to the older son. He entreated him. Now that is one difference. The father didn't go looking for the prodigal son as he was a whoring about doing all kinds of things of which we do not know. He waited for him there, but did not go looking for him. In the older son's case, he goes, and looks for him, and finds him, and entreats him. "There, there. Please come back," he says.

"Look, these many years," the older son argues with him. Here is the injustice, "I have served you. I've never disobeyed your command, and you've never celebrated me. You've never done anything to show me that you think I'm grand and perfect and wonderful. But when this son of yours who comes who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you're all excited, and you kill the fattened calf for him. And it seems as if there are no consequences for his actions."

Well are there any consequences? Lest you and I forget the consequences of our actions, let us be reminded of Paul's letter to the Corinthians in the epistle reading. God made Him who knew no sin to be your and my sin. There is the justice and the consequence of your and my life.

The older son has forgotten. The older son has become so hardened in his life of living out his faith, minding his p's and q's, and dotting his i's and crossing his t's, he has forgotten that he, like the prodigal son his brother, has been brought back from death to life, has been made to see who was once blind. And all he focuses upon is what he has done. And that is the temptation of you and me whenever we've received injustice.

When we've received injustice, we cry out, "I don't deserve this! This isn't right for me to experience this. There is no rhyme or reason for me to have endured this."

You look at the Cross with me, and you tell me where did He deserve my sin? Where did He deserve my punishment? The abandonment on the Cross the Father gave to Him, why did He deserve it? He was perfect, and I'm not. How dare I think I don't deserve such things!

But in the midst of all of this, whether it's deserved or not, the greatest inequality and the greatest injustice happened in His death for me. That is what Paul is saying. For our sake, God the Father made the Son to be sin, your and my sin, and all that goes along with it, the guilt, the shame, and the consequence, so that in Christ we might become … the righteousness of God? That is not just and that is not right, nor fair, nor good! But again, grace remains grace and forgiveness remains forgiveness when it's undeserved and unmerited, otherwise it's no longer grace and no longer forgiveness.

The younger son in being received back is overwhelmed with such forgiveness and grace. The older son has become hardened to that and forgot the great gift of grace and forgiveness. At times you and I are like the younger son who is overwhelmed with such grace and forgiveness, being received back by the Father, and at other times we think, Why do we need God? We're doing so well, like the older son and forget we too have been brought back from death to life, that we have been brought back from blindness to sight, deafness to hearing, frailty to strength. This is the gift of Christ being sin for us that we might become His righteousness.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.