One day after praying for his lost son for a very long time, his prayer was answered.
But while he is yet “a great way off” the father discerns his form. Love is of quick sight. Not even the degradation of the years of sin can conceal the son from the father’s eyes.
He “had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck” in a long, clinging, tender embrace.
The father will permit no contemptuous eye to mock at his son’s misery and rags. He takes from his own shoulders the broad, rich mantle, and wraps it around the son’s wasted form, and the youth sobs out his repentance, saying,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
Watch the next action in this amazing drama of God’s love for returning sinners:
The father holds him close to his side, and brings him home. No opportunity is given him to ask a servant’s place. He is a son, who shall be honoured with the best the house affords, and whom the waiting men and women shall respect and serve.
I was acquainted with a loving model minister of religion. The nearest to an angel I have ever seen.
And then he committed adultery. But he was so disappointed in himself that he committed suicide.
Why did he not come to Father to receive pardon, love and a new outfit of righteousness?
The father said to his servants,
Luk 15:22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
Luk 15:23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
In his restless youth the prodigal looked upon his father as stern and severe. How different his conception of him now!
So those who are deceived by Satan look upon God as hard and exacting. They regard Him as watching to denounce and condemn, as unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there is a legal excuse for not helping him.
His law they regard as a restriction upon men’s happiness, a burdensome yoke from which they are glad to escape. But he whose eyes have been opened by the love of Christ will behold God as full of compassion.
He does not appear as a tyrannical, relentless being, but as a father longing to embrace his repenting son. The sinner will exclaim with the Psalmist,
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; Psalm 103:13.
In the parable there is no insult, no reminding the prodigal of the scandalous evil mess he made. The son feels that the past is forgiven and forgotten, blotted out forever.
And so God says to the sinner,
I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” Isaiah 44:22.
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7. “In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” Jeremiah 50:20.
What assurance here, of God’s willingness to receive the repenting sinner! Have you, my dear friend, chosen your own way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips?
And now, your substance spent, your life-plans thwarted, and your hopes dead, do you sit alone and desolate? Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart but to which you would not listen comes to you distinct and clear, “Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.” Micah 2:10. Return to your Father’s house. He invites you, saying, “Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Isaiah 44:22.
Do not listen to the enemy’s suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come.
When Satan points to your filthy garments, repeat the promise of Jesus, “Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37. Tell the enemy that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. Make the prayer of David your own, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7.
Arise and go to your Father. He will meet you a great way off. If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love. His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him.
Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it.
Even before the prayer is uttered or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.
Your heavenly Father will take from you the garments defiled by sin. In the beautiful symbolic prophecy of Zechariah, the high priest Joshua, standing clothed in filthy garments before the angel of the Lord, represents the sinner.
And the word is spoken by the Lord, “Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with change of raiment…. So they set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments.” Zechariah 3:4, 5.
Even so God will clothe you with “the garments of salvation,” and cover you with “the robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10.
Even while the soldiers sleep near the campfires, God wins the battle for them. He gives the enemy’s silver and gold to Israel, his dove.” Psalm 68:13.
He will bring you into His banqueting house, and His banner over you shall be love. (Song of Solomon 2:4) “If thou wilt walk in My ways,” He declares, “I will give you places to walk among these that stand by”—even among the holy angels that surround His throne. (Zechariah 3:7.)
“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5. “He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17.
And heaven and earth shall unite in the Father’s song of rejoicing: “For this My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
Thus far in the Saviour’s parable there is no discordant note to jar the harmony of the scene of joy; but now Christ introduces another element.
Luke 15:25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
Luke 15:26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
Luke15:27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
Luke 15:28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
This older brother has not been sharing in his father’s anxiety and watching and longing for his brother that was lost. This is why he did not share in the father’s joy at his brother’s return.
The sounds of rejoicing kindle no gladness in his heart. He inquires of a servant the reason of the festivity, and the answer excites his jealousy. He will not go in to welcome his lost brother. The favour shown the prodigal he regards as an insult to himself.
When the father comes out to talk with him, the pride and malignity of his nature are revealed. He dwells upon his own life in his father’s house as a round of unappreciated service, and then places in mean contrast the favour shown to the son just returned.
He makes it plain that his own service has been that of a servant rather than a son. When he should have found an abiding joy in his father’s presence, he thinks the profit that what generated from his circumspect life.
It is for this he has foregone the pleasures of sin. Now if this brother is to share in the father’s gifts, the elder son counts that he himself has been wronged.
He resents the favour showed his brother. He plainly shows that had he been in the father’s place, he would not have received the prodigal. He does not even acknowledge him as a brother, but coldly speaks of him as “your son.”
Luke 15:29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
Luke 15:30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
Through all these years of your brother’s outcast life, have you not had the privilege of companionship with me?
Everything that could minister to the happiness of his children was freely theirs. The son need have no question of gift or reward.
Luke 15:31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
“You have only to believe my love, and take the gift that is freely bestowed.
One son had for a time cut himself off from the household, not discerning the father’s love. But now he has returned, and the tide of joy sweeps away every disturbing thought.
Luke 15:31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
“This thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”
Was the elder brother brought to see his own mean, ungrateful spirit? Did he come to see that though his brother had done wickedly, he was his brother still? Did the elder brother repent of his jealousy and hardheartedness? Concerning this, Christ was silent. For the parable was still enacting, and it rested with His hearers to determine what the outcome should be.
By the elder son were represented the unrepenting Jews of Christ’s day, and the Pharisees in every age, who look with contempt upon those whom they regard as publicans and sinners.
Because they themselves have not gone to great excesses in vice, they are filled with self-righteousness. Christ met these faultfinders on their own ground. Like the elder son in the parable, they had enjoyed special privileges from God.
They claimed to be sons in God’s house, but they had the spirit of the hireling. They were working, not from love, but from hope of reward. In their eyes, God was an exacting taskmaster.
They saw Christ inviting publicans and sinners to receive freely the gift of His grace—the gift which the rabbis hoped to secure only by toil and penance—and they were offended. The prodigal’s return, which filled the Father’s heart with joy, only stirred them to jealousy.
In the parable the father’s rebuke of the elder son was Heaven’s tender appeal to the Pharisees. “All that I have is yours”—not as wages, but as a gift. Like the prodigal, you can receive it only as the unmerited bestowal of the Father’s love.
Self-righteousness not only leads men to misrepresent God, but makes them cold-hearted and critical toward their brothers. The elder son, in his selfishness and jealousy, stood ready to watch his brother, to criticize every action, and to accuse him for the least deficiency.
He would detect every mistake and make the most of every wrong act. Thus he would seek to justify his own unforgiving spirit. Many today are doing the same thing.
While the soul is making its very first struggles against a flood of temptations, they stand by, stubborn, self-willed, complaining, accusing.
They may claim to be children of God, but they are acting out the spirit of Satan. By their attitude toward their brothers, these accusers place themselves where God cannot give them the light of His countenance.
Many are constantly questioning, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?” But “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:6-8.
This is the service that God has chosen—“to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke, … and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh.” Isaiah 58:6, 7.
When you see yourselves as sinners saved only by the love of your heavenly Father, you will have tender pity for others who are suffering in sin. You will no longer meet misery and repentance with jealousy and censure. When the ice of selfishness is melted from your hearts, you will be in sympathy with God, and will share His joy in the saving of the lost.
It is true that you claim to be a child of God; but if this claim be true, it is “your brother” that was “dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”
He is bound to you by the closest ties; for God recognizes him as a son. Deny your relationship to him, and you show that you are but a hireling in the household, not a child in the family of God.
Though you will not join in the greeting to the lost, the joy will go on, the restored one will have his place by the Father’s side and in the Father’s work. He that is forgiven much, the same loves much. But you will be in the darkness without. For “he that loves not knows not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:8.