Tag: Parable of the Lost Son

The Realities of Repentance

Old Testament: Hosea 9-11

Poetry: Psalm 79

New Testament: Luke 15:11-32

One of the toughest things to do as a parent is to let your child take a great risk, manage their own protection, or walk into a mistake.  There is a realization that your sway and shielding over another willed being is truly limited, even in the smallest stages of life.  You turn them loose, simply hoping they heed your instructions.  You let them crawl and explore your home, you put them on a bus for the school day, you let them sleepover at a friend’s house, and slowly but surely they become independent humans who make their own way from their own place.  While many who read this blog have walked their children through some or all of these stages in life, today, we will all take the perspective of a child, not the parent.

Through our study of Hosea paired alongside our slow walk through Luke 15, we have focused on the restoration of those who are lost and our responsibility to be ever-searching for those who have stayed or strayed away from the care of the Good Shepherd.  Today, we look more inwardly as we walk with the Prodigal Son, specifically looking at how each of us have wandered in our own right and making sure that we have come to the realities of repentance.

“Do not hold against us the sins of past generations, may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name;” – Psalm 79:8-9

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? … My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused” – Hosea 11:8

“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” – Luke 15:20

The first reality is that we have all squandered the blessing of God. Today’s Psalm is estimated to be written some 150 years after Hosea, as captivity and destruction set in. We see the lament of a nation whose possessions are long carried off, whose temple is destroyed, and their freedom now limited by their lack of resources.  God’s blessing can only extend to those who walk in His ways.  If we are seeking repentance or even identifying our need to repent, we need only reflect on the way we describe the blessings in our life. Do we see our wealth as our own or God’s?  Our time as our own or God’s? Is it our relationship, our ministry, our accolades, or God’s? If we are fortunate enough to be blessed even in a single area, we should not take it for granted, turning our back and hitting the road to make our own way.

The second reality is that all this world has to offer us is pig slop. While there is an overwhelming abundance of beauty on this earth, it is not found through any pursuit other than God. We often picture an endless rave alongside the Prodigal Son in his “wild living”, but not everyone of us is a party animal. Sometimes our pursuits for pleasure and meaning come in more temperant forms. In isolation from God, pursuing education, taking a leadership role, traveling the world, and many more noble activities are vanity and unfulfilling if they are not done with God at the forefront.  If we are filling our plates with these things, we will be left with food that is fit for swine, an important image when we think to Jewish dietary laws, an animal that is unclean because of its diet.

Finally, the third reality is that we must be mindful that God’s favor makes us belong, but it does not make us supreme.  The lie we have been sold for the whole of mankind is that we can be like God, knowing what is best for our own life.  We look to the older brother, who has a grievance that his younger sibling could be invited back so easily.  God forgives us all when we act as a maître d’ to His table, deciding who eats, and who sits where. Repentance is reconciliation to God and no other. While it is important to seek forgiveness from our brothers and sisters in Christ, it is not dependent upon it.  Thankfully, it is God alone who restores us to our place at the table, and we can only hope to scoot down to make room for one more who has accepted His invitation.

-Aaron Winner

Reflection Questions

  1. Do you realize how YOU were (or are) dead and lost? When/where has God seen you stay or stray away from His table?
  2. In what ways are you guilty of not giving God the credit He deserves for the blessings He has given? How could you take steps to repent and remedy this problem?
  3. What pig slop have you tried living on? How does it differ from what is available at your Father’s table?
  4. Where/when do you see yourself in the big brother’s resentment and wish for exclusion? How can you adjust your heart to reflect God’s instead – and scoot down to make more room? How can you extend the invitation to His table?
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Can You Relate?

THREE PARABLES—Luke 15

Thursday, December 22, 2022

There are so many layers to these three parables of Jesus, but today I want us to think about whom we most relate to in these short stories. Probably we all want to cross off the Pharisees.  You know, those guys who stand on the sidelines, quick to distant themselves from the sinful people in the world. “And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying ’This man receives sinners and eats with them’.”( v.2)   None of us is like them, right?  We are anxious to see all the sinners repent and enter the kingdom when Jesus returns.  Most importantly, we are not quick to criticize people who reach out to sinners, as they did.  They even thought it was their righteous duty to criticize Jesus because He ate with sinners.  Surely, we cannot relate to them.   

Parable One—The Lost Sheep

Jesus narrows in on the Pharisees’ pride in these three short stories.  It seems as though he specifically chose the first two parables to increase the ire of the Pharisees. Jesus’ first words,  “What man of YOU, having a hundred sheep…”(v3) stung.  How dare He compare THEM to a shepherd?  They were, after all, much above a lowly disgusting shepherd.  Their beautiful robes and position in religious society proclaimed their superiority.  Yes, really, the Pharisees thought they were much better than a shepherd was, and undoubtedly disliked Jesus’ comparison of them to a poor sheepherder.

Maybe, however, you relate most to the shepherd.  Of course, you would rush out to find that one lost sheep, even though you have more than enough other sheep (who by the way, are safely gathered together).  Think of a father, who rushes back into his burning home to save his one child who is still inside, even though his other children are safely outside.  Just like Jesus, you would pick up that child and carry him with great joy to safety.

Parable Two–The Lost Coin

The second parable serves to further increase the ire and grumbling of the Pharisees. Once again, their beautiful flowing robes and position got in the way of doing God’s work.  How dare He compare them to a woman, and, an obviously poor, careless woman at that!  But this woman, like the shepherd, has lost something extremely important to her. Perhaps you relate most to this woman who would not stop or sleep until her valuable lost coin was found. 

When Jesus uses this poor woman and shepherd as examples of God’s forgiveness, He is telling these Pharisees (and US), that this woman and shepherd represent God’s desire to seek lost sinners.  To end these two parables, Jesus shares a wonderful scene of great rejoicing in heaven among the angels when the lost sinners are found.  However, the Pharisees probably found it offensive to envision such rejoicing in heaven with sinners. Heaven forbid.

Parable Three—The Lost Sons

Traditionally, we think of this final parable as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  You know, the son who considered his father “as dead” and asked for his inheritance from him before the father had even died.  He wanted to go out and live the good life, away from his father.  Things did not turn out so well for him, and the prodigal son soon realizes that he made a huge mistake and decided to return home and beg for forgiveness.

“But the father said to his servant, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”  vs. 22-24

 This is a wonderful story of forgiveness, and probably the Pharisees think this story is tolerable because, after all, it is about a rich family, a beautiful robe, and a big party with music and dancing.   But hold on, the rest of the story was about to be told.

The other brother, the good other brother, was in the field working for his father when he approaches and hears the dancing and music.  He inquires and finds out the ugly truth.  His brother has returned to his father, and the party is for him.  Instead of going in and being happy that his brother was back home, the pity party began.  He reminded his father how good he had been; always served the father, never disobeyed, and certainly was not a son who wasted his father’s wealth on prostitutes. He made it clear that in his mind his brother is a sinner.  Once a sinner, always a sinner.  How could his father receive his brother back and eat with him? He could not let it go.

“He was angry and refused to go in.”(v.28)   Can you relate?

-Kayla Elwell

Questions for reflection:

  •  Whom did the other good son represent in this last story? 
  •  Can you relate to the resentment and anger the good son felt? Why or why not.
  •  Have you ever felt cheated, angry, upset, jealous, revengeful, or disappointed that you were not properly rewarded when others got recognition for lesser good works, or when others got forgiveness for messing up royally? Where do you believe that those feeling come from? A false sense of pride? A desire to get what is rightfully yours? Wanting to be better than others? Perhaps someone has hurt you deeply.  How do those feelings apply in this last parable?
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