William McComb was born in northern Ireland in 1793. We know very little about William McComb. We know that he was a bookseller in Belfast for a number of years and that he published several books of poetry, but that is about all we know . The reason I mention this obscure Irish poet is because he is the author of the hymn we just sang. Chief of Sinners Though I Be was written by McComb in 1864 and has been a favorite hymn among Lutherans ever since. The hymn contrasts the total depravity of the sinner with the unconditional love of our Savior. It rejects decision theology and presents salvation as a gift we are given. It points to Jesus as the one and only way for sinners like you and me to enter the heavenly life. This hymn speaks to the heart and core of our faith and so it is not at all surprising that it has been a Lutheran favorite for well over 100 years.
I wonder what caused William McComb to write it. What was the occasion, what was the inspiration, what was William McComb thinking about that caused him to consider himself a chief among sinners? What would cause a poet who sold books for a living to think of himself this way? Surely the streets of Belfast were littered with drunks, prostitutes, bandits, and various other unsavory people. I doubt there were many in Belfast who would have considered William McComb a chief among sinners like these.
Further, I wonder what causes people like you to sing such a hymn. Frankly the tune is a bit on the dirgy side. I can’t imagine this tune toping the charts on K-Love. So why do we sing it, why do we sing Chief of Sinners Though I Be? We are sinners to be sure. I don’t think there is anyone here that would deny the fact that we have fallen short of the glory of God or that we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. We even go so far as to say that by nature we are lost and condemned creatures who deserve eternal damnation. We are the first to admit that we are far from perfect… but are we really as far from perfect as say a terrorist, or a rapist, or an abortionist? Can we really claim to be a chief among sinners when there are people like that in our world?
I have no doubt you see yourself as a sinner, but do you really see yourself as a chief among sinners? The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did not see themselves as chiefs among sinners. In Luke 15 we read, “1 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him (Jesus). 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” It is not that the Pharisees and teachers of the law thought that Jesus should not welcome any sinners. They, like us, thought that Jesus should welcome certain sinners. I think the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would agree with us that Jesus should welcome people who have had an impure thought, people who have stretched the truth a time or two, people who have occasionally gossiped, you know people like us. But should Jesus welcome all sinners? That’s the question. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law didn’t think He should. What do you think?
Before you answer let’s take a closer look at a story Jesus tells in response the muttering of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. In the old King James translation, the story is identified as the story of “The Prodigal Son”. In our most recent English translation, the story is identified as the story of “The Lost Son”. I am of the opinion that “Lost Son” is the better title for Jesus’ story though personally I would prefer if we referred to it as the story of “The Loving Father” but I am getting a bit ahead of myself.
The story about the lost son is preceded by two other stories. First, Jesus told a story about a shepherd who celebrated when he found a lost sheep. At the end of this story Jesus says, “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”[1] Next Jesus tells a story about a woman who celebrates after finding a lost coin. At the end of that story Jesus says, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”[2] With these two stories Jesus is teaching us that the angels in heaven are filled with joy and celebrate when a sinner returns to the LORD. You might expect that the third story Jesus tells would conclude with a similar celebration. However, I will warn you now, how the third story ends, is entirely up to you.
Jesus begins the third story by telling us, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.” We will talk more about the older son in a moment, but right way we don’t like the younger son. The younger son could rightfully expect to get an inheritance from his father, but not until his father died. In effect the younger son was saying to his father, ‘I wish you were dead’. Our dislike for the younger son deepens after the father gives the cold-hearted brat his inheritance and we are told “13… the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” He went to a “distant country”. It almost seems like the younger son wanted to get as far away from his father as possible so that there would be no chance encounters between the two of them. The younger son did not want his old man to interfere with his “wild living” as he wasted the inheritance his father had worked so hard to provide. This wasting of his father’s blessings is why we call him the prodigal son.
The face of this prodigal son starts to resemble people we know, does it not? Our heavenly Father at great personal cost to Himself has provided us with an inheritance; He allowed the blood of His Son to be spilled so that we can washed clean of all our sins, He allowed His Son to be buried in a tomb so that we could be seated at heaven’s banquet table. Our heavenly Father has sacrificed a great deal to provide us an inheritance. Yet there are some people who have decided to distance themselves from the Father’s house, they, like the prodigal son, are wasting the Father’s blessings. When you hear about the ungrateful son who wasted the inheritance his father gave him, certain faces come to mind, don’t they.
We don’t like the prodigal son. That is why it brings us a certain amount of satisfaction to see what his wild living brought him. After wasting his inheritance, Jesus tells us, the prodigal son “15… hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” Feeding pigs was just about the worst job a Jew could do. Pigs are not only dirty, to the Jew they were unclean. Contact with a pig made one an outcast from the community. This prodigal son has sunk just about as low as he can go. People were treating pigs better than they were treating him.
Self-destructive behavior is one of those things that is easy to point out in other people but difficult to see in yourself. As he sat in a pig pen, the prodigal son final saw what a life apart from his father had brought him. He said to himself, “18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” No excuses, no justifications. The prodigal son does not play the victim card, because he knows he has no one to blame but himself.
Considering the circumstances, we are not surprised that the prodigal son would come crawling back to his father. And, unlike the pharisees and teachers of the law, we expect that the father will welcome him back, but the little pharisee inside of all of us wants the father to extract a pound, or at least a pinch of flesh first. But instead, Jesus tells us “while he (the prodigal son) was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The first thing that bothers us about the father’s reception of the prodigal son is how foolish the father allows himself to look. It was undignified for a man of standing, such as the father’s, to run about like an out-of-control child, it was undignified for him to allow his emotions to gush forth like this. The second thing that bothers us about the father’s reception of the prodigal son is it offends our sense of justice. The prodigal son seems to get away with it. Jesus tells us “22… the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” There don’t seem to be any significant consequences for his actions, no conditions, or stipulations. The prodigal son is simply welcomed home with open arms.
When you heard about an ungrateful son who wasted the inheritance his father gave him, certain faces came to mind. Try to imagine how you would feel if one of those people came crawling back to the Father’s house. Now, you might not mind if they came crawling, but what if they were welcomed back with open arms. What if everyone seemed to instantly forget how they had rejected the Father? What if everyone was willing to overlook how they had wasted the Father’s inheritance?
It is not difficult for us to understand the older son’s reaction to the reception his prodigal brother received. Luke tells us when the older brother found out they were celebrating the prodigal son’s return “28… The older brother became angry and refused to go in.” The older brother tells his father, “29… Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” Unlike the prodigal son the older son stayed behind to serve in the father’s house. But as it turns out it was not a joyful service. The older son thought of his service as slavery. He saw his service in his father’s house as a duty to perform or obligation to fulfill. He was not there because he wanted to be there, he was there because he felt he had to be there. Probably, there was part of him that was jealous of his prodigal brother. While the prodigal son was off doing God knows what he was slaving away in his father’s house, but at the end of the day all his service didn’t really matter; at the end of the day both sons were invited to the same party, and that more than anything else made the older son angry. Surely, he deserved better; surely, he deserved more than his prodigal brother. You see the younger son may have been prodigal, but the older son was proud.
Maybe there was a time in your life when you could easily identify with the prodigal son, maybe you still have prodigal tendencies. But I wouldn’t be surprised if these days you fnd it easier to identify with the proud son. I wouldn’t be surprised if you, like me, find yourself shaking your head at the prodigal people of this world. If between the two sons, you find yourself identifying more with the proud son, as I do, there is reason for you to be concerned. The proud son in this story represents the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. At the end of the story, it is the proud son who refuses to come into the father’s house. At the end of the story, it is the proud son who is lost.
Thankfully, this is not the end of our story. This story, that Jesus tells, is not simply about the prodigal and proud sons. This story, in my opinion, is more about the loving father than anything else. The father ran to the prodigal son because that son was a flight risk. The Father knew how hard it must have been for the prodigal son to return to the father’s house and the slightest resistance might cause the son to change course, so the father ran to his prodigal son before the son had a chance to run away again. The father knew his prodigal son was filled with guilt and shame and embarrassment, so the father wrapped his arms around his son and kissed him so that he would know he had been forgiven. The father knew the prodigal son would be haunted by the sins of his past, so the father wrapped a robe around him, put a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet so the son would never forget he was his father’s son.
The father loved his prodigal son, and he loved his proud son. The father saw that his proud son refused to come to the party. The father understood how unfair this must have looked to his proud son, so the father went to him. The father stood before his proud son and pleaded with him. The father humbled himself and pleaded with his proud son. The father listened patiently as the proud son irrationally complained about how unfair his life had been. The father offered his proud son all that he ever wanted and more; “31 ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’” “I have reserved a seat for you at my table and prepared a feast you to enjoy. Please, my proud son, come and take your seat beside your brother”, the father pleaded.
The story Jesus tells is not simply about the prodigal and proud sons. It is about the loving father. Jesus tells us this story to show us how our heavenly Father treats His prodigal and proud children. Jesus tells us this story to show us how much our heavenly Father loves us.
This man welcomes sinners. He welcomes prodigal sinners. He welcomes proud sinners. He welcomes you and He welcomes me. I don’t know what effect the story had on the Pharisees and teachers of the law, but I know what an effect it has had on me, and I suspect I know what effect it has had on you. Doesn’t the story of the loving Father make you want to sing another verse of Chief of Sinners Though I Be? Let’s do it. Join with me in singing verse one of Chief of Sinner Though I Be. (sing verse) Amen.
[1] Luke 15:7
[2] Luke 15:10