‘ “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.” ’
Luke 15:31-32 NIVUK
I’ll never forget a dinner we hosted several years ago. Some good friends of ours were at our place with their child (who is now in secondary school, but she was pre-school at the time). While we adults talked, we sent the kids upstairs to play.
They started to play ‘Hide and Seek’ – a big favourite of young kids.
All of a sudden we heard this little Irish voice calling out to our daughter, 'Faith, is it alright if I hide in your wardrobe?’
It was so funny.
But for this small child, the joy wasn’t just in hiding, it was also in being found.
The younger son is experiencing this joy. His older brother is not. He is still furious and thinking that somehow he’s had a raw deal.
The father would have every right to scold him. After all, his retort was highly disrespectful and portrays a dreadful attitude towards his father and the work he does for him.
Yet his response is so gentle. So loving.
Let’s look at it.
He first mentions presence: his older son has always been with him. He’s never left. The father didn’t miss him because you can’t miss someone who is always there.
If you are bitter or bent out of shape because of someone God has accepted into His family, remember this one: you have had the blessing of God with you and in you. They have not.
Be glad they have it now.
Secondly, we see perception. The older son perceived he was being kept in meagre poverty by a stingy father. Nothing could be further from the truth! The only reason he felt poor was because he considered it impossible to draw down on the inheritance his father had already given to him. The father was absolutely correct – both legally and financially: everything the father owned was now in the older son’s name – it was his. The father seeks to correct his older son’s perception.
We also see position. The father told him that it was necessary to celebrate his brother’s return home for two reasons:
· He had been dead, but was now alive again. Not actually dead, of course. But he was figuratively dead. While he was in the distant land, he was dead to his home life and alive (of sorts) to his vida loca. Now he is home, his vida loca is dead to him and he is alive to his home life.
Paul teaches the same concept:
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:11 NIVUK
· He was lost and now is found. The word ‘lost’ used in all three parables is stronger than just a lost pen or a lost key. It carries the sense of someone being lost in battle or lost at sea. In other words, not just lost, but really lost – potentially forever.
You can see, then, why the father was so delighted that he was found.
There is such an important note here. There are two sons. Only one repents. Only one fixes the relationship he has with his father.
And that, I believe, is deliberate.
You see, the religious elite didn’t see the need. They had been offered the opportunity by John the Baptist, but they had rejected it. And this became the defining factor for who followed Jesus and who did not:
(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptised by John. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptised by John.)
Luke 7:29-30 NIVUK
They too were sinners. They too were estranged from their Heavenly Father. But when they looked in the mirror, they didn’t see it. So they didn’t repent. They didn’t come home.
Jesus told another, shorter, parable about this:
‘What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go and work today in the vineyard.” ‘ “I will not,” he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. ‘Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, “I will, sir,” but he did not go. ‘Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first,’ they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
Matthew 21:28-32 NIVUK
This shows that our Heavenly Father is someone..
Who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:4 NIVUK
What this tells me is:
It doesn’t matter who you are.
It doesn’t matter where you’ve gone.
It doesn’t matter what you’ve done.
It doesn’t matter who you’ve done it to.
There will be a warm welcome for you if you return home to the Father and repent.
At the time of writing, I read an article in the Daily Mirror about a teenager who played the EuroMillions lottery. The prizes for this lottery can be enormous as the whole of Europe can participate, but the chances of winning are tiny.
Imagine her excitement when she got an alert on her phone telling her that her numbers had been selected, and she had won a jackpot of £182 million. That is far more than a life-changing amount of money. That is an obscene amount of money.
She followed the instructions and called a phone number to claim the prize.
But there was a problem.
She had signed up for money to be taken automatically from her bank each week to pay for the ticket, but when the money was due, she had insufficient funds in her bank account.
She hadn’t actually bought the ticket. She hadn’t participated in the draw.
She had lost out on £182 million, for the sake of the £2.50 it would have cost to buy the ticket.
Being found by God, repenting and coming home to Him is the single greatest thing that could ever happen to you.
I urge you not to miss out on it.
Come home to Him. Today.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I do not want to spend another second estranged from you. I’m sorry for all the wrong things I’ve done. I don’t want to do them again. Thank you for loving so much that you died for me on the cross and rose from the dead to make a way for me to come back to You. I’m coming, Lord Jesus. Show me how. Amen.
Questions
1. In what ways was the older son estranged from his father?
2. How did the father respond to this? Why did he respond that way?
3. What will it take for you to come home to your Heavenly Father?
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