A V 8 Moment

A V8 MOMENT
LUKE 15:1-3, 15-31

17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 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. 21 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.’ 22 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. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

In the name of Jesus:

There were a series of commercials for V 8 Juice which contained what are now known as V 8 moments. These moments were captured in the commercials when an individual, after eating a salad or some other vegetable, that he has an enlightened moment. Like a bolt of lightening from above it dawns on the person in the commercial that, instead of eating his fruits and vegetables, he could have had a V 8. This state of enlightenment comes to be known as a V 8 moment.
In our text for today, there are a series of V 8 moments. Truths which become evident after reflection, truths which change lives, truths which we need to consider, so may the Spirit through the Word this day give us such a moment!
The parable of the Prodigal Son is a well known parable. In this story, Jesus tells of a young boy who yearns to leave home. He is plain sick and tired of living under the same roof of his father, and so he requests his inheritance so that he can leave. He takes “what is coming him” and leaves home, free from being burdened and shackled by living at home. He wants his freedom and the bonds which tie him to his family cut and severed. And so he sets out, free to do what he pleases, free, answering to no one but himself, doing his own thing, in his own way, when he wants to do it. At first he thinks, “Now this is living!” But he soon grows unhappy. The son squanders all that he possessed. He becomes penniless and destitute; his only comfort comes from living like a pig. How ironic, in that in his freedom he probably lived like a pig and in the end he truly was living with the pigs!
And then comes the V 8 moment, kind of: ““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! 18 I will arise and go to my father,” like a bolt out of the blue, he comes to the realization of all that he gave up. His father’s hired servants have more than what he does now! But it is a kind of V 8 moment, because this young lad still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t truly understand how his father feels about him. He doesn’t understand nor comprehend his father’s love. This is why he goes on to say: “18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ Note his request, he asks to be treated as one of the hired servants! In essence, he asks for his dad to employ him on his staff. Kind of like filling out an application for employment and willing to go through a job interview! Certainly, this young man thinks, that his father will see the prodigal son’s value as a servant. But in saying this, the son shows that he still doesn’t really get it. He has no clue how his father feels about him. He is still in need of a V 8 moment!
For the father sees his son in the distance, and even before the son can approach his father his loving father approaches him! The father shows compassion on his son, he shows him UNDESERVED LOVE AND MERCY. Nothing the son has done or could do would make his father treat him this way. And so: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 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.’ 22 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. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Oh how we and how the citizens of planet earth need such a V 8 moment! For you see, we are like this prodigal son, in that we have squandered our relationship with God! Each of us has forsaken God and has lived as if God did not mean anything to us! We have failed to love God above all things, we have trusted in our own righteous works and have not feared God and His wrath as we should! All of us have sinned and have fallen from God’s grace.
But in our sinfulness we think, oh, I am different. We think, I am not as bad of a sinner, at least not when compared to my neighbor. I am not like so and so, who cheats on the spouse, or who tells lies and gossips. Surely God sees what a good person that I am, and He understands when I can’t live the way He wants me to. He understands when I speak ill of the person who wronged me, because he really had it coming to him. Or we say that God will excuse just this one time (that happens to turn into a habitual sin). Or we think that God is truly a God of love, so He will excuse me and forgive me because that is who He is. And in doing so we sin against God, we cheapen His love, and we reject His grace. What we need is a V 8 moment.
We need to see ourselves as God sees us. We need to understand and comprehend that we are truly unworthy of God’s love. We HAVE sinned; we HAVE fallen from grace, there is NO ONE right with God, not even one of us. Such is our sinful state that we are spiritually DEPRAVED. We have nothing to which would make us pleasing to God. We can offer nothing which would turn God’s heart towards us. We are truly a desperate people, a people desperately in need of God’s mercy and love. Repentance is a type of V 8 moment, not a one time lightening bolt event, but a continual recognition that we are spiritual beggars, in need of God’s grace. We need God to pity us, to not look at us because of our sins. The prodigal son comes to this recognition when he finally says: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The son says that there is nothing he can do; he falls on the mercy of his father. Here is truly his V 8 moment, here the son places his faith in his father’s love, and here he is forgiven and restored.
And the Good News is that God IS merciful. He HAS HAD mercy upon us and the sinful world. The prodigal son’s father is not moved by his son’s remorse, but is moved by his own love for His Son. In the same way, God is not moved to love us because of our sin, but IN SPITE of our sins. For the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, God loved us in Christ. And God was moved, in love FOR US, in that in His mercy and grace the Father sent His Son into this sinful world to BE sin for us. Hence, God placed all of our sin upon Jesus, regarding Him and treating Him as the greatest sinner that ever lived. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we would know God’s love for us in Jesus.
We, who were conceived in sin and darkness, have had God’s light and love burst into our lives in the waters of our Baptism. Here in Baptism God creates in us new hearts and gives us a new life in Christ. In Baptism God drowns our old sinful self, so that by daily sorrow for sin and repentance, our sinful self dies with all of its sin and sinful desires, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we arise anew to live before God as His children.
This is what Paul means when he writes in the book of Romans: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5).
And so God teaches us in the story of the prodigal son not only of our spiritual unworthiness and depravity, but of His great love for us in Jesus. Our life with God is not about how we seek God, but how God seeks us in Christ. God so loved us and the sinful world that He sent His one and only Son, to come down to our level, yet without sin. And while living for us, Jesus showed His love by climbing the cross, opening up His arms, and dying for us. In love He has defeated sin, Satan, and death for us. Our conversion in Baptism is our v 8 moment, when God places us in fellowship with Him. God calls us to live out this moment, each and everyday, so that living as His children, we might share the news of how all have become His children in Christ.
When the prodigal son and father’s relationship is restored, the Scriptures tells us that great joy breaks out in the household. The fattened calf is killed, and the celebration begins. And even now God calls us to share this News of His love and forgiveness in Christ with all. For when one sinner repents and believes in Christ, all heaven breaks loose in song! For Jesus says: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
May you share the News of Christ, so that angels will celebrate.
Amen