“Our Forgiving Father”—Luke 15
Part 4: Returning Home
Welcome: Thanks for reading my Passion Week blog series as we reflect together on Our Forgiving Father. Today in Part 4, we see Jesus’ portrait of a prodigal returning home to the Forgiving One. We put our ear to the chest of Christ to hear the heartbeat of God—the heartbeat of our Forgiving Father.
Part 4: Returning Home: Luke 15:15-20
The younger son recognizes what the elder son will not. Having spent everything, the prodigal son is in great need. Physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually he’s at the end of his rope. With a few vivid details, Jesus portrays the depths to which the son falls as he is initiated into the world of moral consequences.
“So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything” (15:15-16). Culturally, the Jews saw swine as unclean animals. To eat the food of pigs is to be reduced to a sub-human level. Even this was denied to him.
When We Come to the End of Our Rope, We Come to Our Senses
When he came to the end of his rope, he came to his senses. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father” (15:17-20a).
J. C. Penny, the famous millionaire store owner, also came to his senses when he came to the end of his rope. Penny was seriously depressed as a young man. He tells of being confined in a mental hospital suffering such severe depression that the doctors had given up on him. One morning, on hearing a commotion down the hall, he put on his bathrobe and found his way to the chapel where people were singing about putting their trust in the Lord. Penny was the son of a Baptist preacher. He knew all about Jesus and decided now to trust Him. His whole life changed, and from that point until his death at 95, the Lord was the center of his life. Lost and found.
The son is like J.C. Penny. He repents. He returns. He comes home.
But the crucial question remains. Was the woman I was counseling right when she said, “Some sins are so deep that even the love of God can’t touch them”? Is Clint Eastwood right? Is everyone guilty and no one forgiven? Does the Father really welcome sinners? Does He receive worldly sinners? Does He accept self-righteous sinners?
Yes! Of course He does! Being welcomed home with open arms is exactly what Christ’s parable is all about. Now is the time to put our ears on the chest of Christ to hear the heartbeat of God—the heartbeat of our forgiving Father.
Our Forgiving Father Pursues Us: Luke 15:20, 28
Head down, guilt stricken, the prodigal slumps home to the father. Head high, love motivated, the father sprints to his son, throws his arms around him, and kisses him repeatedly! So very different from the Middle Eastern expectation. Listen again to Ken Bailey’s interview.
“And what would happen if the boy came back home, penniless, hungry, and broken?” The Middle Eastern reply: “The father would certainly not run to him and receive him! The father would stay hidden for a while and make the son eat humble pie outside the gate of the village.”
This is not what occurs in Jesus’ story. The father, our Father, runs to his son. “Run” literally means to sprint to, to rush, and to race. He forgets his dignity. He forgets the insult and disrespect his son had shown him. He doesn’t care what others might think. He doesn’t care that his peers will call him an old fool. No! He picks up his flowing robe and races to his son!
But we see something even before this. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.” How? Why? Jesus is painting a picture of a father who listens to every noise, every sound. “A traveler. Could it be my son?” He is vigilantly on the lookout. He hears that sound and his eyes spy out the terrain . . . “He’s about his size, it might be him.” But crestfallen day after day, because yet another traveler is not his son. Until today. Today his lost son is found! Today his dead son is resurrected.
And he sprints to his son. In no other religion anywhere on the planet does one come to know God as the Racing One; as the Pursuing One.
He does the same with the eldest son. Listen, “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him” (Luke 15:28). In no other religion anywhere in the world does one come to know God as the Pleading One; the Wooing One.
When you blow it yet again. When that besetting sin gets the best of you for the umpteenth time. When spiritual defeat seems your constant companion. When Satan convinces you that the Father is tired of you. Return to your pursuing Father. To the Racing One, the Pursuing One, to the Pleading One, the Wooing One. He’s the Father we each long for; the Father Who wants us, welcomes us, forgives us as He pursues us. Return to the Forgiving One.
The Rest of the Story
This is great news. But the best is yet to come. Be sure to join me in Part 5 as we hear the most amazing words imaginable, “Welcome home!”
Join the Conversation
What is keeping you from returning home to the Forgiving One?
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