Parable of the lost son
In Luke 15 Jesus tells three stories to illustrate how much God loves people, seeks them out and rejoices when they turn to him. One is about a shepherd seeking a lost sheep, one is a woman searching for a special coin that was lost. The third story is the story of the Lost Son.
Luke 15:11-32 NLT
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. [12] The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. [13] "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. [14] About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. [15] He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. [16] The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. [17] "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! [18] I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, [19] and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant."' [20] "So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. [21] His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.' [22] "But his father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. [23] And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, [24] for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' So the party began. [25] "Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, [26] and he asked one of the servants what was going on. [27] 'Your brother is back,' he was told, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.' [28] "The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, [29] but he replied, 'All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. [30] Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!' [31] "His father said to him, 'Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. [32] We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!'"
The Story.
This is a story about a wayward son who wants to find his own way in the world and totally wastes everything he was given. It is a story about a self righteous son who couldn't grasp the Father's love. And it is a story of a Father who is willing to love and forgive, to bring hope and restoration.
What do we learn about God?
The father in this story represents God.
1. One of the things I notice is that the Father lets the son go. He actually gives him the value of his share and lets him loose into the world, even if it broke his heart.
He doesn't force the son into relationship. Instead, he lets him exercise his free will and lets him go. This must have been incredibly hard. It is difficult as a parent to let your children go, when you know the dangers ahead. But God does not force us into relationship. When we choose to go our own way, he lets us go.
2. The father is waiting for the son to return.
When the son chose to return, the father was there, ready, watching, waiting. God wants us to return to him, but does not force us to return. However, when we come to God, he is there waiting for us and watching out for us, ready to embrace us. God wants to be in relationship with us and he is there waiting for us when we choose to return to him.
The father was filled with love and compassion for his son. He was not concerned with what had passed, only that his son was again with him. God is waiting for us to come to him. He is filled with love and compassion for us, and when we return to him, he celebrates that return. There is no recrimination, no reminding us of what we did, just love, forgiveness and the chance to start anew.
Psalm 117
Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth. [2] For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord ’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!
Ps 100:5
For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Eph 3:18
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Luke 24:47
It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, f beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’
Romans 4:5-7
David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: [7] "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. [8] Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”
God is ready and willing to embrace us and not count our sins against us. His forgiveness is complete.
What do we learn about human nature?
There are two sons in this story. Both of these sons needed redemption
Son 1 was self righteous and his attitude was full of pride.
It is clear from the story, that he believed his acceptance was all about what he did and how he behaved. His attitiude was one of pride and disdain for his brother. As a result he could not handle that the father had forgiven the second son and he became jeaous and sulky because he thought life was unfair.
There is a lesson for us here:
How do we respond when it seems that we are the ones who have been working hard, but someone else gets the party and the recognition, for what we believe they have not earned?
We've worked hard, we haven't fallen away. In truth, we can become like the older brother who is only focussed on what he has done, and has missed the truth. If we find our value in what we do, rather than who we are, we toatally miss the truth of God's great love and forgiveness, and his joy for those who come to him.
The older son says "all these years ...." he was so caught up in what he did that he could not see the need for grace and forgiveness.
Son 2 had been sinful, but repentent.
Yet he did not fully appreciate the extent of the father's love. He wanted to come home, but he felt unworthy. He was prepared to be a servant, rather than a son. The father greats him and restores him to sonship. The Father in this story is not in need of an extra servant. He is wanting restoration, total restoration for his son.
We can fall into the trap of missing the point. We feel so bad about our past, that we do not believe we are good enough to be "sons" in the family. Instead, we expect to be treated like a servant in the hope that it will be slighlty better than what we have now.
But the Bible tells us that we are forgiven, utterly and totally. Our sins are remembered no more.
Ps 103 - as far as the east is from the west
Our sis are forgiven etc.
Psalm 103:12 NLT
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
God is not holding our sin against us, yet sometimes we are!!!
What sins are you holding against yourself that God has already forgiven?
What other truths do we see in this story?
There are many other things that we can draw from this story. The one I want to highlight is the position we have in God. We are "sons" of God. We have been given position in the family.
The first son was all about works and earned position. He missed the point that position in the family was not earned. It was not about works, it was not about what he did. We are born into family and that is what gives us position. The works were important, the family business had to be run and run effectively and efficiently, but his position in the family was not reliant on what he did.
Position is not about how good we are and what we have done. Our position is because of what God has done. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. This new birth is by the Spirit. We enter God's family by rebirth, through the Spirit, and we become members of the family with the position and the rights and responsibilities that go along with that.
Neither son fully understood their position. The first son thought it was all about what he did, his works and his "goodness." He totally missed out on the good things that go with the position because he was trying to earn his way. The father says that he could have asked at any time for a party, yet he never did? Why? He didn't understand the heart of his father.
The second son also thought it was about what he had done. He did not understand the power of forgiveness that the father had for him. His position in the family was not changed because of what he had done. He was still a son. He had been born into the family.
John 1:12-13 NLT
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. [13] They are reborn-not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
1 John 3:1 NLT
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him.
We are heirs of God.
Romans 8:15-17 NLT
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." [16] For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. [17] And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Everything that is God's is at our disposal. We are heirs, we are God's children, and what we have or have not done does not change our position.
How well do we understand the position we have in God?
Which camp do we fall into?
Are we concentrating on earning our position instead of embracing the position we already have through grace?
Jesus tells us that we can ask God for whatever we will, in his name and it will be done. The father was happy to give the first son a party but the son never asked for one because he forgot his position.
Are we like the second son, feeling like we don't deserve the position because of the lifestyle we led?
So we don't ask God because we don't think we are worth it. We are children of God. Our position in him does not change. We are his children, born into the family by rebirth, through the love and grace and mercy of God.
We can ask ourselves:
What attitudes, or perceptions about God do I need to address in my life?
What does God say about me and my position in his family?
I encourage you to search God's word and find out what he says about us, and who we are. We are children in his famiky, loved and forgiven. We have access to God, and to all that is ours because we are positioned in him.
What is my next step?
What will I do this week to challenge the wrong perceptions I carry about God?
Challenge: Who does God say I am?
Who will I share this story with?
Be open to who God might be leading you to, to share his love and grace with them.
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