There are a lot of things I could have chosen to write about in this blog post. It’s been a VERY eventful week! Mountains have been climbed, soap has been packaged, and basements have been cleaned. All of that is great, and you’ll get a chance to read about it later — I promise! But when it comes down to it, there’s only one thing that really matters, and I’d be incredibly selfish if I didn’t share it with you. Last Wednesday, a guy named Alex Dowell from UC Boulder spoke some serious truth. Here, I’ll let him tell it, the same way he told it to group of students and Alaskans then:

(This is Alex’s written-out talk from last Wednesday night – not a word of it is mine! It’s just the best thing I’ve heard all week, and I want to share it with you. Hear me out, and read on!)

~

Hey! How’s everyone doing tonight? Welcome to the first weekly meeting of Cru’s Project November! Many of us in here tonight are members of the project, but not everyone. We’ve got a few locals of lovely Juneau, which is awesome.

Some of you have driven, flown, or boated literally thousands of miles to be here tonight. Some of you have maybe just come from a few miles down the road. Whatever the case, I am so glad you are here. I’m glad to be here, and I am excited to see how God is going to use this space over the summer—for all of us—to connect more deeply with God and grow to be more like His Son, Jesus.

Okay, suffice it to say we’ve got a wide variety of locations represented here. And because of that, we also have a variety of stories and backgrounds in this room tonight. And that reality will be important in just a moment. But first, let me introduce myself a little bit more.

Like our emcees mentioned, my name is Alex Dowell. I’m on staff with Cru, and I have been serving at the University of Colorado in Boulder, however my wife, Katie (back there), and I are transitioning after Juneau Summer Mission into a new season of life in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

For now, though, we have the privilege to spend our second summer in Juneau with the Project. We loved our time here last year, and we thought: before we transition to our next season of life, what better way to celebrate and serve one last time than in Juneau with all of you lovely folks?

But enough about me. Tonight, I want to talk about something I love to talk about whenever I  have the opportunity; that topic is the Gospel.

Now the moment I said that, I’m positive many different ideas popped into everyone’s head. And if I were to have everyone stand up individually and share what they think of when they hear “the Gospel” I’m sure we’d get many different interpretations and ideas. Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask anyone to do that.

Yet, I hope we see that while The Gospel is a common phrase, it isn’t always a shared phrase. That’s why I wanted to highlight the variety of our backgrounds, experiences, and stories, each of us may be coming from to be in this room tonight because that affects how we think of a word such as that.

Some people in this room, when asked: “What is the Gospel?” may be able to give the full 4 Spiritual Laws presentation, which is something very specific to Cru’s ministry. Others, when asked, may say, “Ehhh, something to do with Jesus and sins and forgiveness?” And many others would probably fall somewhere in the middle of those two. Others might even say, “Isn’t the Gospel a music genre?” and every one of you would be right… in your own way.

So, my hope here tonight is to bring all of us into a unified vision to answer that question: What is the Gospel? To clarify, this won’t be a comprehensive explanation—I can’t give you every element of the Gospel in deep detail through a 25-minute talk. Nor is this the only way to share or describe it. The Gospel is too rich, and complex, and mysterious for that. No, the hope is to bring everyone gathered here tonight into a clearer, shared picture of what God has done — and is doing through Himself, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Sound good?

Cool.

So, around 2,000 years ago, there lived this man named Yeshua Nsaret (Jesus of Nazareth). He most likely lived his first 30 years of life as a carpenter, and was a resident of one of the poorest regions of a nation called Israel which was under the rigid control of the Roman Empire, the nation-state powerhouse of that day and age.

But, over the final 3-year period of his life, this Jesus of Nazareth began teaching and displaying a message we know today as the Gospel. He also spent his time healing people of diseases and lifelong illnesses. He raised a few people from the dead, quieted a storm with his voice, and performed many, many other miraculous actions. Additionally, he recruited a small following of disciples (men who were learning to live life as he lived life by spending all of their time following him).

Now, as he was doing this, his following and fame began to grow in the Jewish communities that he visited, and he upset the established order amongst the religious elite — primarily the Priests, and a group known as the Pharisees. This occurred mainly because his Gospel message was so radical. Some of us may have become familiarized with it in 2017, but in the year 30 AD, this message was not common to the culture.

And as I thought of what way to share that Gospel message with you tonight, one story that grasped the radical nature of this message was the story of the Prodigal Son.

This story is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15 starting in verse 11. Jesus told this story in response to the religious elite complaining about his tendency to hang out with the most unsavory or unwholesome people of the Jewish community. Their paradigm was that you didn’t hang out around morally corrupt people, because morally corrupt people would somehow infect you with their moral uncleanness. So these Pharisees would disassociate and stay away from the poor, the broken, the immoral. Jesus was upsetting their paradigm.

It was the last of 3 parables (or metaphorical stories) Jesus shared with the people at this time — this story of the Prodigal Son — and it goes like this:

Luke 15:11-32

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. 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.”

“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. 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.

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Now, when this story is taught, there can be a tendency to focus on the younger son, or even the contrasting responses of the two brothers. And I want to touch on that for sure—because it is a reality of the parable that Jesus wants us to see.

But first, look at the way Jesus starts the parable. Who is the first character mentioned? The Father. It says, “There was a man who had two sons.”

Noticing this should help us re-orient our focus when we look at this story. Jesus could’ve phrased the parable so the two sons or even one of the sons were mentioned first. But He doesn’t.

That heading in your phone Bible or physical Bible that says something like, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” wasn’t in the original manuscript, or even the ancient copies. That was added much more recently to help us see breaks in the passages and narrative. Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City, described in his book Prodigal God how the Father is the main character, because he’s the one who maintains the power and control throughout the entire story and pushes the narrative alone. The first point I would stress when we look at this parable is that the Father is the main character in this story. The better way to look at this is the Parable of the Prodigal Father.

The sons are just responding to the Father’s decisions, being reactive to what the Father is doing.

To be “prodigal” is to spend money or resources freely and recklessly; to be wastefully extravagant. Now, while the younger son does this to his own detriment in the beginning of the story, he only does it after the Father has been prodigal towards him in the first place. Being in full control, the Father could’ve said “No” when the son asked for his inheritance. But he chose to give freely. And when the son returns, we see more of the Prodigal Father’s tendency.

So if we are to use this story as a metaphor, with the Father being God and the sons representing the different ways we as people run or hide from him or try to prove ourselves to him, the first point still applies. Our lives and our stories are not primarily about us. God is the architect with the power and control, we are merely making the choice of how we respond to him. Your life is not about yourself alone. He is the main character. And that is crucial to understand if we want to understand the Gospel.

Going back to the parable, look at what an amazing character the Father is.

When he saw his lost son — who rejected him, essentially wished him dead by asking for his inheritance early — he doesn’t deny him or force him away. The passage says He had compassion on him. Compassion literally means to “suffer with.” He saw his son in a painful, lost, and lonely position, and He suffered with him.

When God looks at you in your sin or your mess, he doesn’t judge you or wish you away, he has compassion on you, he suffers with you. That is crucial to understand if we want to understand the Gospel.

He sprinted to his son and embraced him before the son could finish his case for acceptance.

He put the best robe on him to communicate this: you are not a slave. You are an honored guest. He puts the ring on his finger, to emphasize he wasn’t just a guest, but this: You are my beloved son, my family. You are not a stranger.

He offered the fattened calf and a celebration in honor of his return to communicate to him: You are not worthless. You are worthy of great cost.

This parable demonstrated the heart of a loving Father infinitely more than it highlighted the sinful tendencies of the sons. Those tendencies are still present, and it would be a mistake to not see ourselves in both of these sons.

The younger son was lost in selfish pleasure and hedonism, whereas the older brother was lost in self-righteous service. He didn’t believe his younger brother was worthy of such a reception. And he was right about that. The younger son did nothing to deserve that. But what the older son failed to grasp was that his obedient service to the Father did not earn him any greater favor. Because his service was only about himself. It was a veiled selfishness.

Both were equally lost, and the Father moved toward both of them in equally necessary and personal ways. The Father leaves the party when the older son is pouting out back. And he doesn’t tell him to shape up or get over it. He meets him where he’s at. But while he showed tremendous grace to his younger son with truth, he shows tremendous truth to his older son with grace.

This story is about a Father who lavishes love and spends excessively on his children, despite of what they have done. Not because of what they’ve done.

That’s at the heart of the Gospel. That’s what Jesus wanted his listeners and us to see from this message: A Father who excessively spends what he has in order to reach his children with love and relationship.

In the parable, the elder brother failed to lovingly serve His Father. In reality, the Gospel shows us something better. It shows us our Elder Brother in the form of Jesus. The one who didn’t stay behind and sulk, but actually went out on behalf of the Father and rescued the younger sibling back into the family.

Jesus claimed nothing short of being the promised Messiah of Israel — the deliverer they had awaited for for thousands of years to usher in a new age of peace and prosperity. Some Jews believed him, while others thought he was a fraud. But where Jesus began to truly upset the balance was when he claimed to be one with the Father, existing since eternity, coming to redeem all of humanity for our rebellion.

The religious elite didn’t believe him, so they took him to the Romans on disputed charges, The Roman government decided, after brutally torturing him, to execute Jesus on a cross. This was one of the most painful ways to die ever invented.

He did this because in our rebellion from our Father, whether by reckless selfishness or self-righteous service, we have incurred a debt on our souls to God. And every one of us is responsible for the record of sin we have created through our desires and actions.

God is perfect and cannot have any sin in His Presence. This debt that must be paid does not exist because God is malicious and wants to see us struggle and suffer. No, it exists because He must maintain his constancy as an all-loving, perfectly good being. We all would probably say we hate evil and want it gone from the world, but we often stop short at the evil in our own hearts. We’ll make excuses for it or pardon our thoughts and actions as not as significant as the person next to us. All to give ourselves a pass.

But God is Justice, and He doesn’t give anyone a free pass. But you may say “Alex, that’s hopeless for us. God is perfect and demands justice for even the smallest of sins?” Yeah, and I would agree that is hopeless.

without Jesus it is hopeless.

So, before we see God as malicious, see Him as loving — for providing a way out for every single human. See Jesus as the obedient and loving Elder Brother who willingly took the cross and death for each and every one of us to satisfy that debt each and every one of us owed to God. Jesus doesn’t give up His life lightly or flippantly. You are worthy of the cost of God’s Son.

Jesus, being God, could absorb all of humanity’s sins onto himself and incur the wrath for sin, because he had no sin himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God balances his perfect Justice, with His Perfect Love, Perfectly in Jesus.”

But, the best part to the story is that Jesus doesn’t remain buried in the grave. Three days after he was crucified, to prove that He is God and capable of fully paying for our sin, He rose from the dead and appeared to hundreds of witnesses. He proclaimed that for those who would believe, salvation was now open to all in Him by faith.

In true Prodigal fashion, He gives everything — His very life in order for us to accept life with him for eternity, starting the very moment we choose to invite Jesus into our lives. This is not a fair exchange. Jesus gives, and gives, and gives, in order for us to receive infinitely more than what we deserve. He doesn’t consume or demand from us first. Instead, he spends excessively for us to be nearer to God.

And it’s in that thought that I want to challenge us to look at the Gospel in the context of Juneau as I bring this to a close.

Some of you here may know the history of Juneau, others maybe not as much. The history is long and complicated, but this area was named Juneau in 1881, and began to grow from that point forward because of the Gold Rush. Gold-bearing ore was mined by explorers and traders from the United States and others countries, and people began flocking here and all over the Klondike region hoping to make themselves wealthy.

By 1917, one mine alone — the Treadwell Mine on Douglas Island — pulled the equivalent of $1.7 billion worth of gold from the ground. They used the land and the people here, and once the gold was gone, most of them left. This was not giving excessively; these were not prodigal fathers. These were selfish consumers.

Nowadays, there’s a difficult balance because tourism is an important part of the economy of Juneau. However, it’s a similar pattern of people coming for short periods of time and taking and consuming from Juneau, instead of giving or cultivating growth in the people and community here.

Some of us in this room will only be in Juneau for the summer. Others have been here and will be here for years. If we want to grow as people who demonstrate the heart of a Prodigal God, my challenge would be to seek understanding from Him on how we can imitate His heart to give and give and give excessively for the sake of others here, instead of consuming for our own gain. The hope and prayer would be that we become prodigal towards a city like Juneau because the God of the universe has been a prodigal Father to us first.

We don’t love or act in any certain way because we hope to get something from Him. We recognize the Father is the main character of the story and we can only respond to His exuberant love by accepting it and sharing it with others.

And if you’ve never truly accepted that love from Him in the first place, you won’t be able to give excessively out of your own strength. The only thing you can do is surrender to God’s heart by trusting in his grace, which means simply this:

“I’ve done nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness, it is totally 100% a free gift God has lavished upon me at the expense of His Son” and now live by faith, by trusting that that is true.

You don’t look to your day-to-day feelings or your good works to know you are right with God. You look to a point in history when His Son, our elder brother, came into our story and brought us back into the family.

And as you are in the family, you don’t have to prove yourself. You get to enjoy love of the Father; all that He has is already yours! It is free and abundant to share with those around you. A Prodigal God creates prodigal hearts in his children. We have the privilege to be prodigal with the Gospel.