Luke 15:11ff11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
Notice with me that this verse indicates that one son wasn’t favored over another. Both sons received the same share of their father’s estate. The property was divided equally between them. When the younger son asked for his share, the older brother also received his. Mind you, it was an affront in that culture, as it would be today, to ask for an inheritance before someone passed on. It was harsh, cold, offensive…but the father in this story complied. If anyone had a “right” to be hurt or angry at the youngest son, it was the father in the story. He was the one whose son disrespected him, who basically “disowned” him, who set out to live a different life away from the father and in a manner that would typically have taken place after someone had passed away. The father easily could have felt as if his youngest son viewed him, the father, as already dead. By taking his inheritance and leaving, the young man was turning his back on his father and all that relationship had afforded him. He was cutting ties.
It must have been quite an inheritance because verse 13 tells us that the younger son went to a distant country and there, he squandered his wealth. It wasn’t a small amount of money that he received. He spent it all frivolously on what the text calls “wild living.” I don’t know what comes to your mind when you think of wild living, but we can imagine all that is implied. Maybe as he spent money on his lifestyle he thought, “I can make more money after this season in my life, but I am only young once, so I am going to live it up while I can and then work to rebuild my wealth.” Perhaps he didn’t think about the fact that his resources would run out quickly. He was definitely living for the moment and not thinking about the future, but the future comes quickly, doesn’t it? It is always unpredictable, and it is often unkind.
14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
Being in need has a way of causing folks to get resourceful in a hurry.15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
That had to be the worst job ever. How many of you think you have worked a worse job than hanging out in the pig pens? Can anyone beat that? (Talk to me after church.) The fact that he would rather work for a stranger, feeding slop to pigs than consider going home, tells me his heart was either still too proud to admit he had messed up or he was ashamed of what he had done and didn’t think he could face his father.
Pride can really mess a person up. It can delay a person’s recovery and make it a lot harder to start again. How long did he work in the pig pen before making his way home? I think I would take one look at the pig pen and say, “I’m out.” We don’t know how long he did the work, but he did it. Verse 16 says that even though he went to work, he stayed hungry. He found himself jealous of the pigs because at least they had food to eat. You would have to be pretty desperate to be eying pig slop and think, “I’ll bet that tastes good.” The Scripture says he needed food, but no one gave him anything to eat. Maybe he had to work for two weeks before he could get a paycheck. Maybe because of pride, he stayed hungry.
If it wasn’t pride, it was shame. Shame can overwhelm people to the point where they think they don’t deserve to recover from what they have done. They believe they don’t deserve another chance, that they don’t deserve a fresh start. People who live in shame live unable to see the possibility for a different life. People cloaked in shame think the possibility of restoring the bridges they have burned is impossible.
The prodigal son either had a breakthrough or a breaking point. Look at verse 17: 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
There came a point where the young man realized he couldn’t continue down the path he had chosen, or he was going to die. He was starving to death! Something had to change. With whatever ounce of physical strength he had left, he would use it to make the journey home.
It is this section of the story that leads me to believe that the young man was mostly dealing with shame. I say that because we see that his view of himself changed. He didn’t view himself as a son any longer. He couldn’t picture life as a son. In his mind, his actions had caused him to suffer a demoted status. He might go home, but he didn’t think it was possible for him to go home as a son. He could only picture himself as a servant. As a son, he had demanded the inheritance from his father and had wasted the resources. Now he would return to be a hired servant and work for his keep.
Listen, when we deal with shame, we have a hard time thinking anyone could view us the way they saw us before we messed up. It didn’t occur to the prodigal that the father never changed his opinion of the son.
Do you think people struggle with this mentality when it comes to their relationship with God? Do you think they truly know how God sees them or how He feels about them? Or do you think they assume he is mad, that he is angry, or that He expects them to jump through hoops to be restored? Sadly, I think it is quite often the case.
Covered in pig slop, he started out for home. He must have been thinking, “What a mess I have made of my life.” But what he was thinking about himself was entirely different from the thoughts his father was thinking toward him. That’s often the case, isn’t it? We often struggle to think the thoughts about ourselves that God thinks towards us. The Bible tells us God thinks thoughts of peace towards us, thoughts that envision a hope and a future for us (Jeremiah 29:11).
When we stray from God, when we stray from His plans, I assure you He is thinking, “I can’t wait until my child comes home. I turn messes into miracles. I turn trials into testimonies. I turn botched and bungled lives into blessings.” That is the “all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes. We only get to see those biblical principles played out when we bring Him our failures and guess what, “He can’t wait for us to do so.” Somebody today needs to get a revelation that God is thinking differently about you than you think He is.
God is just like the father in this story who never quit scanning the horizon, waiting to see his son appear. Look at the next part of the story. “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.
The son didn’t expect that. He didn’t see that coming. Any preconceived ideas he had about how his homecoming would be were quickly turned upside down. The father’s reaction was spontaneous. He didn’t hesitate. He sprinted toward his son. He was overjoyed to see him. Even thought he was covered in pig slop, even though his clothes were dirty, even though he had lost a lot of weight due to not being able to eat, even though he didn’t have the same youthful spring in his step that he had when he left the father’s house, the father recognized his son. He may not have looked the same on the outside, but the father knew it was his son, well, because he was his.
That prodigal son had rehearsed a speech on his way home, and he couldn’t get it out fast enough. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
Something that became clear to me as I reviewed this very familiar passage is that it is obvious that the prodigal son didn’t fully understand the dimensions and depths of the father’s love. If he had, he wouldn’t have left home in the first place, and he certainly wouldn’t have hesitated to come back. The father’s love parallels the unconditional love of God. The minute one of his children turns away and takes steps to distance themselves from God, that is the very second the father starts porch sitting, starts porch watching. It is the very instant that the father looks and longs for the return of his child.
I know the love I have for my own children. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t hope to spare them from. There isn’t any blessing I would withhold from them, and there isn’t anything that could happen that would alter my love for them. This wasn’t a time for speeches, but it was a time for celebration!
22 “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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
That is a pretty intense and dramatic statement…From death to life and from lost to found! That is how the father in the story viewed the situation. Notice, too, that the father didn’t say, “Why don’t you go take a bath and get the pig slop off of you, then cut your toenails and trim your beard, and then we’ll think about celebrating you.” He didn’t say, “Once you look the part, we can rejoice that you have come home.” He didn’t say, “Once you look like my son, we will celebrate your sonship.”
I think a lot of people think that would be God’s response if they decided to come back home, spiritually speaking. I think they believe they have to look the part, act the part, play the part or at least part their hair and put on a certain air to be acceptable to God. It isn’t about any of that. It is simply about the way God feels about his children. God’s love for us overcomes all of our shame, all of our guilt and dirt, and all of our failures. Yes, God wants to transform us, but transformation follows celebration.
The best robe the father had went on that stinky, sweat-stained, emaciated man. The best robes were reserved for honored guests, and the best robe was now draped on him. His filthy frame was accessorized with a ring. The ring was a big deal. It indicated sonship and carried with it the authority to approve financial transactions on behalf of his father. Someone who had squandered his father’s wealth was going to be trusted again to conduct business again on behalf of his father. Woah!
And sandals were put on his dirty feet. This was important because slaves, servants went barefoot. People who were liberated wore shoes. The shoes indicated their freedom. The father was quickly communicating sonship, not servant or slave status to his boy. Even with all he had done to his father, the father was communicating to him that he didn’t owe his father a debt. The young man didn’t have to grovel his way back in. He didn’t have to work his way back in. He was in! What a picture of grace! What a picture of our Heavenly Father!
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
He hadn’t shared his father’s concern over the younger brother’s absence. He didn’t think it was fair that his brother could do what he did and then just waltz back into his father’s good graces. He refused to attend the party. His father had to literally leave the celebration and go beg his other son to come to the party. In that culture, that kind of behavior wasn’t tolerated. Refusing to attend a family celebration would be cause for great discipline. It was seen as very disrespectful to the father. Now we have two sons who have both disrespected their father.
The celebration was about the prodigal returning home, but the older brother made it about himself.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.
Interesting choice of words, don’t you think? “All these years I’ve been slaving for you…” Like the younger brother, the older brother also had the mindset of a slave. Two sons, at two different points in the story viewed themselves as slaves instead of sons. How tragic. That older son lived in the father’s house. It was obviously a good situation. The father was wealthy. The father is portrayed in the story as a caring and compassionate father. In the father’s house, the older son was deeply cared for, yet he viewed himself as a slave. How did his view of sonship get so out of whack?
He also believed that he somehow merited his father’s love and grace through his effort, through his work for the father. The younger son who had left, knew he had blown it. He knew he had rebelled. He knew he didn’t deserve his father’s love and grace, but the older brother thought he deserved the father’s generosity toward him because of all he had done for his father. One son was estranged by living in rebellion away from the father while the other lived estranged from the father because he was trusting in his own perceived goodness and works to gain his father’s favor. Neither of them could believe the father loved them just because they were his.
Let me be clear…There’s never a moment when God doesn’t love you, and there’s never a moment when God loves you less.
Do you see? Both boys were sons, and yet both incorrectly saw themselves as slaves. The older brother went on to say this to his dad: 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!’
“This son of yours…” At this point in the story, the older brother didn’t even consider the prodigal his brother. I wonder where he got the information about his brother being with prostitutes or if he was just surmising that is the kind of wild living that took place. Maybe his younger brother had told him of his wild plans before he left. Regardless, he accused the father of withholding something good from him even though he had been diligently working for the father and blessing the brother who had left in rebellion.
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
Did you catch that? Everything the father had belonged to the son. He hadn’t been withholding anything from him. If he wanted a young goat to slaughter and have goat tacos or shredded goat or barbecued goat or however you guzzle a goat, he could have had it. The father wasn’t withholding any good thing from the son but because the son didn’t have a proper view of sonship, he never accessed all that was available to him! He never made use of all that he had at his disposal just by virtue of being in the father’s house. He never appropriated all that was his just because he was a son. As one theologian put it, “His story reveals the possibility of living in the father’s house and failing to understand the father’s heart.” (Morgan) That, my friends, is tragic. Do you think that could be true for many believers this morning? Do you think it is true for you?
The father then went on to reiterate the reason for the party in verse 32:
32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Let me draw this message to a close with some final thoughts. The younger son who demanded his inheritance and left, lived for the moment, and missed out on the love and grace of the father. The older son who stayed home but who lived with a slave mindset, also missed out, at least in part, on the love and grace of the father. One went away. One stayed home. Both forfeited the extreme of love the father desired to express. Two sons. Both missed what was available to them. Both misunderstood the heart of the father.
Listen, whether you have wandered away, no matter what you have squandered away, no matter how you think you have disrespected God or what you look like to Him, He hasn’t changed the way He feels about you. That younger son searched for happiness and fulfillment in the things of the world only to realize that everything he needed was back home in the father’s house. One thing I want you to be sure about today is simply this: You can always come home.
To those of you who have viewed your relationship with God like the older son did, who have missed the heart of love the Father has for you, who have misunderstood all that is available to you in Christ, who have thought you had to work to earn God’s love and lived spiritually impoverished, to those of you who have viewed yourself as a slave rather than a son or daughter, God’s love for you is infinite. He loves you just because you are HisI hope today you are gaining a revelation about your status as a son or daughter of God.
God has a message for people in both category. Here it is:
To those who have walked away: Come home to the Father’s house.
To those who have never left: Be at home in the Father’s house.
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