Luke 15:11 And He [Jesus] said: There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.”
V13 Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off to a distant country and there he squandered his wealth in wild living.
V14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need.
V15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
V16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
V17 When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare and here I am starving to death!
V18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
V19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.”
V20So he got up and went to his father. But while he 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.
V21 The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
V22 But 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.
V23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Lets have a feast and celebrate.
V24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.
V25 Meanwhile the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
V26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
V27 “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”
V28 The older son became very angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
V29 But he answered his father, ”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.
V30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
V31 “My son,” the Father replied, “You are always with me and everything I have is yours.
V32 But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
The elder son had not yet matured in love. He was still judgmental instead of compassionate. He was still consumed with jealousy, instead of love. He was angry at his brother’s safe return, instead of joyful. Eldest son’s inheritance according to Jewish tradition was a double portion. [Duet. 21:15-17] He would therefore have received two thirds and the younger son would have received one third of the estate.
He had received his portion of the inheritance along with his brother and would therefore suffer no financial loss at his brother’s return. He resented his father celebrating his brother’s return because he felt that his father favoured his brother, as his father had never offered to allow him to celebrate in a similar manner with his friends. Had he ever requested such a thing from his father? It all belonged to him anyway. He could have killed and eaten any lamb or goat he desired. His angry retort was that his brother had squandered all of his inheritance on prostitutes and wild living, while he slaved for his father. In truth, he didn’t have to work so hard. His father had many servants. He should have just enjoyed his status as a son. Instead he tried desperately all the years to earn his father’s love. He did not understand the depth of his father’s love. He couldn’t earn his father’s love and approval by works. His father had already loved him in his mother’s womb. He was his firstborn. No amount of slaving for his father could have added to that love. He still had to learn to receive his father’s unfathomable love toward him; and to love in that same unconditional, extravagant way.
So many of us try to earn the Father’s love and to please Him by works. Whenever we do so, we still tend to live by law instead of by the precious grace of God. There are two problems with that. Firstly, if we break one part of the law, we are guilty of the whole law. The law is impossible for man to keep. It is self-righteousness that makes us believe that we can be saved, or score points by our own works. God knows that His standards are too high for a fallen, sinful people to live by. That is why He sent His own sinless son to fulfill the law in our place. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, but remained sinless. When He hung on the cross to pay the price for our sins, the Father nailed the law and all its ordinances to the cross, wiping out the debt that was due by us. Furthermore, Jesus was made our sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. Secondly the only way back to the Father is by grace through faith and not of our own works lest we should boast. There is nothing that we could do to add to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. If we could, His suffering would have been in vain.
John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. All God ever wanted was for us to understand the height, breadth, length and depth of His love toward us, and to intimately know, through experience, the love of Christ [the anointed One and His anointing] that far surpasses all knowledge. Having come to know this love, we should love the Father with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths and our neighbours as ourselves. Our Father wants a loving family relationship. Is that too much to ask? As we mature in love toward the Father and toward one another, all the negative thoughts and feelings toward one another fall away. Jealousy, envy, covetousness, wrong judgment, anger, wrath, evil intent, vengeance, gossip and every other evil thought of darkness cannot stand in the presence of such love. Love never puts self first.
The younger son was self centered and uncaring of his father’s feelings. He was consumed with a desire for independence and wealth. He wasn’t willing to wait for his father to die before receiving his inheritance. He wanted that which was rightfully still his father’s. Not once did he take his father’s feelings into consideration. He was a taker, unconcerned about any one or anything beside himself and his wants. Wealth came easy to him. He did not work for it. It was given to him. Often easily gotten riches are just as easily squandered. There’s a saying: Easy come, easy go. This was certainly the truth in his case. As soon as he could get his greedy hands on the wealth, he put as much distance between his father and himself as he possibly could. He even immigrated to another country. By leaving his father’s presence, he walked away from his father’s protection, from his love, from his wisdom and from his guidance. As far as he was concerned, his father had no further use, nor place in his life. His father was as good as dead to him. He lived totally immorally and sinfully. Eventually he sank into the depths of sin and sin’s consequences followed.
Sin always has consequences. She tempts man like a beautiful, willful adulteress, gradually luring him deeper and deeper into sin. Then like the mythical siren, she lures him to the depths of the ocean of spiritual death and there reveals her true monstrous nature.
What started out ecstatically ended up catastrophically. When the money ran out, so did his friends. When a mighty famine came upon the country, he was forced to look for work to survive. The only employment that he could find was feeding the pigs of one of the citizens of that country. Being a Jew, this was the ultimate abhorrent thing to do. Pigs were forbidden as nourishment to the Jews and were considered abominable and even the pig farmers were utterly despised by them. Not having eaten for a while, he reached a place of near starvation and would gladly have eaten some of the pods that he fed to the pigs if he were allowed to, as no one gave him any nourishment. How far he had fallen. Once living in the lap of luxury in his father’s house, he was now a starving wretch, mingling with the despicable pigs and even willing to eat from their trough in a foreign land midst a foreign nation who cared nothing for him.
When at last he came to his senses, he remembered that even his father’s servants had more than enough to eat and were well taken care of. At that realization he couldn’t wait to get home. He was willing to be a servant in his father’s house. He did not return because he was concerned about his father. It wasn’t even because he loved and missed him. His reason for coming home was his empty belly. He did not expect his father to receive him as a son again. Not for an instant did he think that he was worthy of the same status that he had once had in his father’s house. He figured that his father had written him off just as he had done with his father. What he desperately wanted was to escape his dire circumstances and the depths to which he had sunk. He deeply regretted the consequences of his poor choices. No one enjoys sin’s consequences. The road back was a long, hard one, but desperation drove him on.
His father, on the other hand, had not forgotten him for an instant. Every day he would scan the horizon, hoping for his son’s return. His heart broke afresh every day that passed without news of his son. Any parent with a run away knows the heartache and anguish of having no idea where the child might be, nor if the child is safe and happy. One day the father was scanning the horizon, when in the distance he saw his son. His son was too far away to see his face, but he knew in his heart that that was his boy. His heart was filled with compassion. [Compassion is a very deep-seated emotion. The Word says Jesus’ bowels were moved with compassion for the people. It’s an emotion that is physically felt within your body.] He didn’t wait for him to draw nearer. He lifted up his robes and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. In those days in Jewish culture, people over thirty did not run. It was considered undignified as they would have to lift their robes, revealing their long underwear. The father was too joyful and excited to care about traditions. They were such trivialities in comparison to his son’s return.
His son had rehearsed a speech, but before he spoke one word, his father embraced him and fervently and tenderly kissed him. The son still bore the stench of the hogs entwined with his own unwashed body odor. None of that fazed his father. All that mattered to him was that his son had returned. In his father’s presence he found safety and security. He found wholeness and peace. Most of all he experienced his father’s immeasurable, non-judgmental love and compassion. How his own heart must have overflowed with love and gratitude toward his father. I believe that tears of repentance mingled with tears of utmost joy.
When he could get in a word, he asked his father’s forgiveness, but his father was already calling to his servants to bring the best robe, that is the robe of honour, to be put on him and to put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. These were very expensive items. Also a feast was prepared in his honour. His father’s reasoning was: Because my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found! What a glorious welcome home.
Jesus told that parable to reveal the Father’s heart toward His children.
There are no words to describe the love and compassion of the Father toward us. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Created to be citizens of the commonwealth of God, we have been living in a world of sin with sinful people, never having given a second thought to our heavenly Father as we reveled in our filth. Many sons will choose never to go back home and will die alienated from the Father forever. Others will procrastinate, not wanting to leave the land of sin and will die before they get there. For them the Father will wait in vain and His heart will break into a thousand pieces. On the other hand there are those that are on their way, having heard the Father’s desperate cry for them to return and still others have returned and are safely abiding with the Father under the shadow of His wings.
When we come home our heavenly Father runs to meet us. Fathomless, unconditional, non-judgmental love and amazing compassion drive Him on. He takes us into His arms and fervently kisses us and in His loving embrace our entire stench and filth of sin is squeezed out. He kisses away all of our shame and regret. He kisses away all our sickness and sorrow. He kisses away all our fears. In His embrace, our filthy robes of sin and dishonour are discarded and out of His treasury we are clothed in robes of righteousness and honour. The robes, like all the items, were purchased at a very high price. They were bought with the blood and suffering unto death of Jesus. Our feet that were wounded and filthy from the mire, into which we sank, are fitted with sandals of right standing with God. Spikes driven through Jesus’ feet on the cross purchased these sandals Our Father places a ring of authority [Gen 41:40-42] on our finger, allowing us to walk in victory over the wiles of the evil one and especially over the sinful nature of our own flesh. Our ring of authority was purchased when Jesus descended into hell itself and took back the authority from Satan. No greater love than this was ever lavished by any earthly father on his son.
A lamb was slaughtered for the feast at the prodigal son’s return. Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, was slaughtered for us, making a way for us to return home and feast in our Father’s presence. [1Cor.11: 23-26] Ten thousand angels rejoice at the salvation of one sinner. According to Zeph.3: 15 God rejoices over us with singing. Could you imagine that? It is an indescribable glorious welcome home! It is indeed a great honour to be in our Father’s presence. Let us honour our Father in return by abiding in the shadow of His wings all the days of our lives. There is truly no better place to dwell.