Are We the Prodigal?

Last sermon – focused mainly on the older brother who is angry at his brother’s return, showing how the Lord meant this parable to be an illustration of the Pharisees’ reaction to Jesus’ work saving sinners.

This time I would like to focus primarily on the prodigal son.

The younger son asks his father to give him his portion of the inheritance due him. He says, “Give me what is mine.” The truth is, whatever he is claiming is his does not belong to him yet! Typically, a son would receive his inheritance at the time of his father's death.

The fact that the younger brother instigated the early division of the family estate showed a rebellious and proud disregard for his father's authority, not to mention a selfish and immature attitude. Like so many impatient young people today, the younger son desired to be free from parental restraints, and desired to have his father's inheritance "now." He was looking for something else than the security of home and the company found there. He was forsaking everything for pursuit of pleasure.

In verse 13 it says, "And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living (or wasteful or riotous living).”

There's an old saying, "Be careful what you ask for, you may get it." That seems appropriate here. Many times, what we ask for is not necessarily what is best for us. For this young man, moving to a "far country" with his inheritance promised pleasure, independence and freedom. But ultimately, after a while, it delivered only misery, failure, and humiliation. For this young man, the famous quote rings true, “Sin will take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

This is what sin does to us. We always think that we know what is best for us! If it feels good, it must be good right? There are so many wasteful and riotous things that we can get involved in this life (drinking, drugs, fornication, etc). No matter how hard we try to fill ourselves with pleasure, we will never be fulfilled. The only thing that can truly fulfill us is a meaningful close relationship with our Father, which is what the prodigal son will learn. Living in this life without the Lord is a life without meaning, without direction, without hope.

When we decide to sin, we are telling the Lord that what He has done for us is not good enough! We need something else! We may not say this with our words, but our actions are telling the Lord that we would rather do it our own way, and just as the prodigal son, the Lord will let us do things our way so we can learn that we are wrong, and that were better off doing it His way.

Hopefully we never get to the point that the prodigal son was in before he came to his senses! With his wasteful living, he soon depleted his possessions. His poverty was complicated by a famine that struck the country. In desperation, he hired himself to another to feed his pigs. This would be most degrading to a Jew, for pigs were considered unclean - cf. . With great hunger, he would have gladly eaten what was given even to the pigs. All of this led him to come to his senses; to remember how good things were for him when he was with his father. He thought to himself, even my father’s servants have it better than I do know. This changed him, and he resolved to return!

The most humiliating moments that I have had in my life have been when I have come to the realization that I had messed up; that I had sinned against someone and against God. I can empathize with the prodigal. How heart wrenching it must have been to muster up the courage to go to his father and to confess what he had done to him and to God. This is how we need to respond to our sin! We need to be willing to come with a broken heart, in repentance realizing that we in no way deserve the forgiveness of our Father.

The Father’s Response?

I am always amazed at how the father responds to the prodigal in the beginning and end of the parable. In the beginning, He gave him what he asked for and let him leave. He’s not your typical Jewish father. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, he’s saying in essence that he is tired of waiting for the old man to die. It would have been an appropriate response to take the young man to the gates of the city and stone him to death. This type of parental disrespect was not tolerated in Old Testament times. The law, in , told parents what to do to their rebellious children. But the father does not do this. He gives the son what he wants, and lets him learn the hard way that his decisions are not wise and that he is wrong in what he asked for.

The response of the father at the end of the parable is even more surprising. You would expect that the father would respond the way that the older brother did, with anger at what the younger brother had done, but the father responds completely different! The father doesn’t ask the prodigal what he had done with the inheritance he was given. He didn’t ask what terrible sins he was committing. He was thrilled to have his son back! He was looking for his son to return. He sees him, runs to meet him, kisses him, and throws a party for him!

Thank the Lord that he is merciful. God is looking out for us and rejoices when he sees us coming in His direction! He is looking forward to forgiving us when we return! This is how the Lord is with us. He knows that we sinned, he knows exactly what we did, but he promises us that when he will forgive us, and that he will remember our sins no more. When we return to Him, there is rejoicing in heaven, and there is rejoicing among the Lord’s people!

So in closing I ask the question: Are you the Prodigal? Have you turned your back on the Lord, telling Him that what He has done for you is not good enough?

Is there a sin that you are struggling with that you need help to overcome? Do you need the prayers of the people of God?

If you are living in sin and desire to be right with the Lord, the parable of the prodigal son shows us the great compassion and mercy of our Father in heaven. No matter how wasteful of a life you have been living away from the Lord, He desires that you come to repentance and to be in fellowship with Him.

If you are not in a relationship with the Lord today, you are missing the most important thing that there is to experience in this life.

The father in this parable tells us that the prodigal was dead, but now alive at his return. When we are in sin and don’t come to the father for forgiveness, we also are dead; spiritually dead. Also, just being here does not make you right with God. You still have your sin; you are dead and separated from God.