You Can Always Go Home (Luke 15:11-24)
Ernest Hemingway wrote a story about a father and his teenage son. In the story, the relationship had become somewhat strained, and the teenage son ran away from home. His father began a journey in search of that rebellious son.
Finally, in Madrid, Spain, in a last desperate attempt to find the boy, the father put an ad in the local newspaper. The ad read: "Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father." The next day, in front of the newspaper office, eight hundred Pacos showed up. They were all seeking forgiveness. They were all seeking the love of their father.
I think that all of us have, at some time in our walk with God, fallen from the path God would have us walk. Perhaps it was that you haven't been to church in some time, and it all started with one missed Sunday, then two, then three, then the next thing that you knew it had been six months or a year.
Maybe you fell into some kind of sin. Maybe it was something serious like sexual misconduct, or maybe something not as serious and you felt that church was the last place that you would be welcome.
Maybe you are like me. I went to church all of my life from the time that I was an infant, then in 1996 at the age of 37 I realized that I wasn't saved. I thought I was saved, but then brought low by a series of what seemed to be "unfortunate events". I came to the Lord that hot Friday evening in July 1996, and my life has never been the same.
Does it seem that you just don't have a relationship with God? Does it seem that God is far away from you? Does it seem that you have this hole in your life, and you don't know how to fill it?
Some of us have these feelings but for different reasons. Some that read this devotional today may not be saved, and have no relationship with God at all. Some of us here, on the other hand, may be out of fellowship with God because of what we have done.
This week, we will study the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and we will learn that as one redeemed by Jesus Christ, you can always go home...to the Father.--JH
Drop Dead
All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!" Luke 15:1-2 (HCSB)
It's critically important to remember the context of this story. In the beginning of Luke 15, those normally considered the scum of the earth--"tax collectors and sinners" had flocked in to hear the teachings of Jesus. In response, the Pharisees complained (murmured--NLT or grumbled--ESV) "This Man welcomes sinners, and eats with them!" Give this some thought: how many times have we ever heard "That man REALLY needs Jesus" or "you talk to that woman?" or "that person is the slime of the earth" or something similar?
In the first two parables proceeding the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the shepherd and the woman went seeking, illustrating the value of people. In this parable Jesus teaches us that you can always come home. This applies for those that have no relationship with God, and also for those that are saved but have backslidden into sin.
Then He said: "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood. (15:11,12)
To the Jew, what the younger son was asking for was unthinkable. The younger son would have been about 18 years old or so, and capable of living as an adult. In essence what the younger son was saying to the father was "I wish you were dead", as he wanted his part of the estate. At this point the Pharisees were looking down upon this young man; it was as though he told his father, "I want my money, so drop dead."
And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. (15:13)
Being that the younger son would have been given land and animals along with money, he would have sold all off to take with him on his journey. What did he do? He "wasted his possessions on prodigal living". Some Bible versions translate this using his money on "wild living", "loose living" and "parties and prostitutes". In fact, in verse 30 the older brother who stayed behind referred to the prodigal as spending his money on prostitutes.
By now, the Pharisees and scribes were looking down their noses at this young man. Jews have been always known for their ability to accumulate money, it's a gift that God has given them to survive persecution over the millennia. For this son to have wasted his entire inheritance on living like a playboy was, to them, unspeakable.
Into The Pig Pen
"But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want." Luke 15:14 (NKJV)
Not only did the Prodigal blow all that he had in the far country, but economic times were hard there. Hand outs came few and far between. He became physically hungry. I'm sure that he probably sold his designer robes for some burlap sacks just to eat, and even then he was starving. If him telling his father he wanted his money, and then squandered it weren't enough to convince the high-faluting Jewish elitists, then what he did next did.
"Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything." (15, 16)
To the Jew, there was nothing lower on the earth than swine. It was an unclean animal as laid out in the law, and if you were to touch one it was in the same ballpark as touching a dead person. It was infinitely worse to have a job feeding pigs, because you would be sustaining their lives only to have them carved up later to be fed to pagan people.
But then, we see that not only did he lower himself to that level, he wanted to eat the pods which the pigs ate. These pods would most likely have been pods that would have contained carob beans, which though having a sweet taste; it was commonly a food eaten in times of famine because it was plentiful. The beans would be removed from the pods like peas from a pod; the pods themselves are all but worthless as a food for humans.
At the end of verse 16 you will read "no one gave him anything." Here this young guy was begging after having great riches. One day feast, the next day literally famine.
Have you ever noticed that some people are leaches, and that they are only around when the going is good, the money is plentiful and the booze flows? As soon as the well runs dry, they just move on looking for someone else to sponge off of. I'll bet that some of his drinking buddies passed right by him and didn't give him a dime.
But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." ' Luke 15:17-19
Yet, though he was starving physically, he then found that he was starving spiritually: "But when he came to himself, he said..." This phrase carries a connotation of coming out of mental illness. If you look at Daniel chapter four you can see how Nebuchadnezzar came back to himself after being struck insane by God for seven years. It didn't take long in his state of downfall for this fellow to realize that the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the fence.
He knew that his fathers servants were treated better than he was being treated in this far off country. He walked off of the family farm with his nose in the air ready to conquer the world and all of it's lusts, but then the world knocked him down for the count.
He knew that he had some big time mending of fences to do. He had slunk down into a lifestyle that Jews detested, and while Jesus tells this part of the story the Pharisees were probably saying "Yeah, right. His dad will tell him to hit the pike after what he did, and with good reason. He degraded him and degraded God. He will get just what he deserves!"
This young man knew that he had done wrong not just to his father, but to God. The phrase "I have sinned against heaven" is a euphemism for "I have sinned against God". Often we want to try to place the blame on someone else for our behavior. Today, the prodigal son
Could he go home? He hoped he could do just that. He hoped, in his mind, that he could get a job as one of the hired hands at the farm, where he would have food, clothing and a warm bed at night. For as well as he lived before, he was brought low, to a level when living as a servant would be luxurious living compared to the pig pen.
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' Luke 15:20-23
It stirs my heart to see this part of the story. The son knew he didn't deserve to go home. He knew he had committed great injury to the heart of the father. The religious elitists looking on expected rejection, but instead something radically different happened--his father ran to him. In that culture, it was not common for an elderly Jewish man to run. To run, one would have to pick up his robe and his legs would show. This immodesty was the last thing on the prodigal son's father's mind. I'll bet that from the very day that his son hit the road that each day he would stand near his house and look for his son to return.
Then, one day, he saw a little dust trail off in the distance, and he knew that familiar walk. "It's him! It's him! He's come home!!" He runs to his son, hugs him and kisses him and is so glad that he's home! He knew that one day he would come home! He didn't care that his son was smelly and dirty. He saw his son, his skinny, beaten-by-the-world son and had compassion on him.
The son probably practiced his statement of repentance all of the way home: 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." But wait just a minute. If you compare this passage with the statement of repentance in verses 18 and 19, you will see that one phrase is left out: "Make me like one of your hired servants." Why? I think, like some of the Bible scholars, that his father interrupted him and wouldn't let him say the next phrase. You see, this man welcomed his son home as his son. Look again at verses 22 through 24:
"But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him (the best robe would have been the father's best robe, showing his welcome back into the family), and put a ring on his hand (a family signet ring that again showed him to be part of the family with full privileges) and sandals on his feet (slaves and servants often wore no shoes, again showing him to be restored) 'And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; (the fatted calf was one specially prepared for a party, and would be enough to feed a large crowd. Steak with good marbling is the best, most tender steak.). 'for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry.
To the father, this son was probably dead and now he sees as being brought back from the dead, he was lost and found. It was a time not just to be merry, which is not a proper translation, but instead to be overjoyed and even carries the idea of dancing.
You know, it's okay to dance for joy. You can see different examples of it in the Bible, David for instance. This would have been looked down upon by the Pharisees who were dead serious about keeping the Law and the perversions that they added to the Law making it a straitjacketed faith. For as much as they knew the For as much as they knew the Law, they missed the point of the Law.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:24-26 (KJV)
What is the point of the Law, the Ten Commandments? You can't keep the Law. If you are depending upon getting to heaven by good works, then you will not make it because you can't be perfect in your good works. They are all tainted by your sin.
When someone is saved it is because they have hit a crisis in their life. They hit bottom when they see their sin, and they look toward the Father in Heaven.
God comes looking for the lost, just like the shepherd finds the lost sheep or the woman finds the lost coin. God orchestrates events in our lives to bring us to Him, just like the prodigal son.
Maybe you look at this parable that Jesus told and see yourself. Perhaps you realize that your sin has found you out, and you are in need of Jesus Christ as your Saviour. You see, all have sinned, all have broken God's law. God's perfectly just, and he requires people to be perfect to enter heaven. But when we look at God's law, we realize that we fall short. We all have been disobedient children, perhaps not as disobedient as the prodigal but still disobedient to our parents and the degree doesn't matter. We've all lied, and if you lie just once you are a liar. And James tells us that if you break one of the laws you are guilty of breaking them all.
No one has kept God's law. Not one. And because of this we should be forever apart from God in Hell. But you see, God provided a way for us prodigals. He provided a way that he could welcome us, hug us, kiss us, give us a clean robe of righteousness and made us sons and daughters to Him. That way is through His Son, Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:8).
You see, Jesus died on the cross to take upon Himself the punishment that you and I should have to take forever in Hell. He didn't deserve it. But the joy that He looked forward to was in that we would be forever with Him in heaven.
We are just like the sinners that the Pharisees spoke of. We see our sin and are drawn to Jesus Christ just as they are because of that knowledge.
The story of the Prodigal Son, however, is for that son or daughter of God that has fallen from the path and seeks to be forgiven and made right by God. You see, God will always welcome back those that fall. He will often times do to us what happened to the prodigal son: he will bring us down to the place where all that we can do is look up to Him. He has been looking for your return just as the prodigal son's father had been looking for him. If you have strayed from God and sinned against Him and want to make yourself right with Him, go to God in faith today.
