Prodigal Son | Part 2
Good morning Harvest! So good to be back with you again this week. I’m excited for this morning’s message as we continue with the parable of the prodigal son. I want to spend a moment bringing us up to speed after last week, to make sure we are all together in this.
A quick recap:
Luke 15:1-2 – “Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners, and eats with them.’” SO HE TOLD THEM THIS PARABLE. In response to the Pharisees anger at Jesus welcoming sinners into his company, Jesus tells 3 parables. The Prodigal Son is the 3rd of the 3.
There are 3 main characters in this story. The Father, the younger son, and the older son. At the beginning, the younger son comes to his father and demands that he give him his share of the inheritance so that he can live his life the way that he wants to. The father agrees, and the younger son goes to a “far country.” The implication here is that the son is a Jewish man, and that the “far country” is a Gentile country. So, he goes and very quickly loses all of his money on “reckless” living. Shortly after, a severe famine comes, and the son is desperate and hopeless, and seeks out a Gentile pig farmer for help.
At this point in the story, the son has reached rock bottom, and Jesus’s audience would have recognized this. A Jewish boy, begging a Gentile pig farmer for help. Remember also that pigs were considered unclean animals going all the way back to the Old Testament Law, which is what the Pharisees would have been following. Jesus of course knew that, and had carefully crafted this story with them in mind.
The son “comes to himself,” and determines to return home and beg forgiveness from his father. He takes action, leaves the far country and heads home. His father sees him coming from far off and takes off running to him to welcome him home. He puts a robe on his back and a ring on his finger, and throws a massive party.
The older son hears the ruckus, and asks one of the servants what’s going on. Upon hearing that the father had welcomed his younger brother home, the older son becomes angry, and refuses to go in to the party. The irony of course is that in refusing to attend, he is now the one who is shaming his father and breaking relationship with him. The father comes out and pleads with his son to come in, but we see an anger and jealousy come out, showing his self-righteous spirit.
As we looked into the sub-stories of each son, we talked about how we often can find ourselves in the midst of them.
The younger son went on a journey that ultimately led him to a restored relationship, but he had to go through a very specific process to get there;
A.. Attitude towards his father (12)
B.. Lost all he had through reckless living (13)
C.. Found himself in a desperate situation (14-16)
D.. Internal reckoning (17-19)
E.. Action towards repentance (20a)
F.. Admittance of wrongdoing (21)
As we looked at the older son’s response, we noticed some specific things about him as well:
A.. Comfortable at home, tending to his responsibilities (25)
B.. Anger about his brothers return/reconciliation (28)
C.. Pride and ungrateful attitude (29)
D.. Jealousy (30)
We came out of the story with 2 main thoughts as we closed:
1. People are never too far gone to experience the hope of salvation found in Jesus.
2. A self-righteous attitude can cause us to miss out on the beauty of fellowship with Jesus.
And again, maybe some of you resonated with one of the sons in the story. Maybe you know someone who is currently struggling like the younger son. While we all go through different seasons, we are reminded this morning that our God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. And the love we see from the Father in the story is the same love that we experience in our lives today. Let’s get into it.
Go ahead and open to Luke 15:11. We’ll observe the father’s response in 3 different parts of the story, and get a small glimpse into his character while we do.
Big Idea:
The Lord desires relationship with those who are distant from Him, and celebrates when they come home.
1. Allowed his son to leave (12b)
As a parent, we can kind of understand why the father would allow this, to a certain extent. When our kids are tiny, we are like super protective. We watch their every move, make sure they don’t stick their finger in the outlet, eat the kitty litter, fall off the couch…We are like super-parents. And then as they get older we loosen the leash a little bit. We let them take some small risks, still with some guidance of course, but we are a little more ok with the small falls and bumps and bruises, they learn a lot from the pain. And then they get into their teenage years, and while we want to keep that leash short, we allow it to get a lot longer after years of building trust and eventually we have to take the leash off and let them go, praying that what we have been teaching them along the way sticks, and they make good decisions.
So, we can understand on a certain level the father allowing his son to leave. But what many of us cannot understand is the calm and composure of the father right before he lets him leave. The son is in his father’s face, demanding his inheritance, telling his father that he wished that he was dead, and yet the father follows through with his son’s demands, allowing him to walk away.
When the son finally returns home, notice the father’s response.
2. His response in the moment (20c)
A. Saw him from afar – implies a hopeful expectation
He wasn’t just sitting on the front porch day after day watching the road, but he had this hopeful expectation that his son would return home. I’m sure there was a consistent looking out over his property as he was going about his day, but on this particular day he sees his son coming. His heart jumps. And he “feels compassion.”
B. Felt compassion
Compassion is the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” I’m sure there was a certain posture that the son was exhibiting as he walked up the road. Probably filthy, skinnier than when he left, maybe head down in shame and fear of his father’s response. His father sees him, and immediately feels deep within his soul a desire to alleviate his son’s desperation.
C. Ran
This would have sounded crazy to Jesus’s listeners, especially the Pharisees. In the Near East during this time, it would have been extremely undignified for an older man to run. If that wasn’t enough, in order for him to run he would have had to lift his long robe up, revealing his legs, which would have been shameful. But Jesus is emphasizing the extent to which the father went to welcome his son home.
D. Embraced him and kissed him
Picture this. The dignified older man embracing the filthy, impoverished, smelly son, dressed in dirty rags. But that filth did not matter. The Greek word used here implies that the father “smothered him with kisses.” In that time and culture, kissing was “an act of forgiveness, a pledge of reconciliation and peace.” Again, Jesus is emphasizing the extent to which this father went in welcoming his son home.
3. He overlooked his son’s wrongdoing, and celebrated his return (22-24)
This is so awesome.
Verse 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.”
And what does the father do. “Hey, you, servant of mine, come here. I need you to go and find my best robe, yes that one, the one I use for all the fancy parties. And I need you to get the family signet ring, grab some shoes and bring them to me. Oh also, go get the biggest calf we have and kill it, it’s time to celebrate.”
This is simply unbelievable. He moves quickly past the son’s apology, and forgives him immediately. Not only that, but by giving his son all of these things, he is demonstrating complete restoration into the family.
The signet ring was the one used to press the family seal into important documents. For him to wear that was a statement of his position of authority in the family.
Exodus 41:41-42 – “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.”
This was a cultural and traditional practice during that time.
The fattened calf would have fed a whole lot of people, implying that the father wanted to invite people to the celebration. I mean this was a huge ordeal.
By the way this celebration is real, like it really happens, in real life:
Luke 15:4-7
Luke 15:8-10
4. Encouraged the older son to join the celebration (31-32)
Notice a measure of patience that he has with the older son. He is practically slapping his father in the face by refusing to go in to the party, and talking down to him in his response. But yet the father keeps his composure and challenges his attitude, because he should be celebrating the return of his brother as well.
I don’t know about you, but when my children give me grief, it’s hard sometimes to keep my composure and exercise this kind of long-suffering patience. And I’m just dealing with disobedience and petty arguments between the 2 of them. They are 5 and 6. What this father is dealing with in his 2 sons, and his response to each of them shows us a lot about his character. I want to give you 4 of those characteristics this morning, and of course by now I think we’re all on the same page that the father in the story is God. Keep in mind also that the characteristics expressed in the story, are still true of God today.
So 4 characteristics of God that we see in this story.
Malachi 3:6 – “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob are not consumed.”
James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
1. Long-Suffering
“Having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people.” Have we not seen this in God from the beginning of known time? I mean how many times did we see him withhold his judgment on Israel in spite of their troubles? And is this not true for us today?
I brought you into my story last week, but the amount of trouble that I was causing in my life, yet God was patient with me. He allowed me to walk that path until in HIS timing I ran into His arms.
This is true of God for you as well. He allows us to walk certain paths, make certain decisions, and continually loves us through them.
2. Loving
The father in the story had compassion. Remember I mentioned earlier that compassion is a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” God is very aware of our distress, and wants desperately to alleviate it.
Romans 5:8 – “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
While we were still living in sin. While we were in a distant country living reckless and foolish lives, Christ died for us. While we were in our deepest moments of distress, God proved His “agape” love for us, His self-sacrificing love by sending Jesus to die for us.
3. Forgiving
The father didn’t blink before looking past the sins of his son, and restoring him to the family. To forgive means to “cancel a debt.” Think about what this son owed his father, I mean the list was long, but the father cancelled it. All of it.
In speaking of the New Covenant through Jesus, the writer of Hebrews says, about all people, “I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
Psalm 103:10, 12 – “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities…as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
God, through Jesus, cancels our sin debt.
Psalm 86:5 – “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call on you.”
And this leads us to the last characteristic for this morning.
4. Abounding in Grace
The father doesn’t stop at forgiveness. He restores his son to a place of prominence in the family. He gives above and beyond what he deserves. Abounding grace.
This truth should bring us to our knees in worship. God’s abundance is found all throughout Scripture.
2 Corinthians 9:8, 10 – “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that I all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”
Ephesians 1:3 – “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
The way that the father in this story responds to his sons is the same way that he responds to us today.
If you are like the younger son in the story, feeling lost and in a place of desperation, God has a hopeful expectation of your return to him. He is patient, and long-suffering, but he is ready to forgive you, welcome you home with open arms and celebrate. But you have to have the internal reckoning that leads to a desire to turn from sin, leave it all behind, and seek reconciliation with the Father.
If you know someone who is there, continue to pray. Pray hard for that person. Remind them of the character of God that we see in this story. How he loves them deeply and wants to forgive them and give them grace on top of grace.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is long-suffering. He loves us deeply. He sent Jesus to offer forgiveness of sins. And he wants to bless you with every spiritual blessing, above and beyond what we deserve.
