One of Jesus best-loved parables reveals far more about Gods love than we might at first think.
Most Christians are familiar with Jesus parable of the prodigal son. A quick look at this parable reveals the example of a hasty young man who wastes his inheritance with lavish living while living in a foreign land (Luke 15:13). Matters are made worse when a severe famine grips his new homeland (verse 14). Desperate, he hires himself out to a man who lets him feed his pigs (verse 15). Hungry and humiliated, he decides to go home to his father, who receives him with open arms (verses 17-24).
But there is more to the story than thismuch more. Lets allow the story to take us back to the time when Jesus spoke what William Barclay in The Daily Study Bible Series calls The greatest short story in the world.
Another confrontation
It was another testy meeting between Jesus and the religious leaders of Judea, the Pharisees. In their midst were sinners and tax collectors who had gathered to hear what Jesus had to say. Noting the makeup of the crowd that was gathering, the Pharisees and religious teachers began muttering about the kind of company Jesus was keeping, saying, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them (Luke 15:1-2).
This wasnt the first time they had criticized Jesus and his disciples for associating with those the Pharisees considered being off-limits.
Hearing the same criticism later, pictured in Luke 15, Jesus again answered the Pharisees reproach. This time he chose to elaborate. He began by telling two parables: the first focusing on a sheep recovered after straying from a flock of 100, the second on one of 10 coins that had been lost and later found (Luke 15:3-10). Jesus explained each storys significance: the great joy that takes place in heaven when a person involved in sin repents of his or her lost ways and is restored to a right relationship with God (verses 7, 10).
The third parable was the culmination of his response. For many readers, this third parable focuses on the prodigal son. Perhaps thats the person they can identify with the most. And indeed, in this story Jesus does illustrate a young man who had lived a profligate, wasteful life-style and who comes to his senses.
But the word prodigal can mean several thingsnegative or positive: recklessly extravagant, characterized by wasteful expenditure, lavish, yielding abundantly, luxuriant or profuse (Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). The son was extravagant in a negative way, but the father was extravagant in a positive sense.
Christs parable also gives us a wonderful glimpse of God the Fathers tender, compassionate, even lavish love, as exemplified in the role of the father in the parable, for those who turn from their sins. As we examine this fathers actions, we can come to see how differently God views things than we do. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Freedom of choice
The father of the story complied without any complaint with his sons headstrong wish to receive his inheritance for immediate use (Luke 15:12)a request that was rarely granted in the Jewish society of Jesus day. The apparent ease with which the younger sons desire was granted seems to suggest that the father gave his children great latitude in making choices.
Likewise, we too are constantly confronted with choices. It is up to each of us to choose our way in life. This is a privilege our wise, loving Father allows us, on the one hand, even while encouraging us to follow his way on the other. Just as we learn through many of our self-willed choices, the son in the story also came to understand that the way he had chosen did not bring him the happiness he sought (verse 17).
The son rehearsed what he would say to his father when he returned. He had sinned against God and his father, and he was no longer worthy to be his son. He wanted to be made just as one of his fathers hired servants (verses 18-19). And so he returned home.
The father saw his son while he was still some distance away, and was moved with compassion (verse 20). Some commentaries suggest that the father had been watching and waiting for his sons return. Whatever the case, the elderly father did something uncharacteristic for the culture of the day: he ran to meet his son. Then he embraced and kissed him fervently, or many times, as the Greek verb also indicates.
As the son began to repeat the speech he had rehearsed, his father interrupted (Luke 15:21-22). Instead of allowing his son to offer his services as a hired servantone who, as William Barclay notes, could be dismissed at a days noticethe father did something remarkable. He called for the best robe (a sign of position), a ring for his finger (a sign of authority) and shoes (reserved only for freemen).
The father ordered the fattened calf to be killed and a party to be organized to welcome his son home. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found (verses 23-24). The father welcomed his son back with great emotion and joy, and restored his son to a position of honour, not to that of a hired servant. Its remarkable that our heavenly Father does the same with us.
Jesus reminds us through the fathers response that Gods ways are not ours (Isaiah 55:8). The father gently acknowledged to his older son that he was aware that he had always been with him, and that everything the father had was his older sons. But they had to celebrate the return of this brother of yours (a reminder of the older sons relationship with his brother). It was not just necessary, it was the right thing. The father had to do it. Joy was the only proper reaction in such a situation (The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, vol. 3, page 268).
When we repent, God restores us to the full honors due a child of God, regardless of our sins (Acts 3:19: 1 John 2:1-2). This is hard for human beings to grasp. But the lavish mercy and forgiveness of God, made possible by the perfect, willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ, are truly amazing. Indeed, one could say they are prodigal. Because if any point stands out in this parable, it is how lavish God is in his forgiveness and mercy.
The father in the story reveals the humanly incomprehensible love that God our Father has for each of us, and the earnest desire he has to forgive us and have a relationship with us. Far from being the story of the prodigal son, Luke 15 is more aptly the story of the prodigal Godone whose lavish, extravagant, luxuriant love for us can only amaze us on the one hand and give us great solace and comfort on the other.
Sources:
Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series, rev. ed. The Gospel of Luke. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975, pages 203-206.
Gaebelein, Frank E., et al., eds. The Expositors Bible Commentary, vol. 8. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984, pages 982-985.
Geldenhuys, Norval. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988, pages 405-413.
Morris, Leon. The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, rev. ed.. Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1989, pages 262-268.