The Prodigal Father
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Twenty-one years ago, I marked my first Father’s Day without my father. It was only a couple of weeks after his death, and so the pain that year was significant.
Through the ensuing years, the pain has subsided, but the sense of loss is still real. I still miss my father, and I suppose I will miss him right up until I see him in heaven again one day.
I’ve told you all some things about him during the past couple of years, but I want to share something today that bears on the parable we will be studying this morning.
My father was a generous man.
He was generous as a business owner, and he was generous in his personal life.
His employees knew they could count on him not just to be fair, but to go out of his way to help them, whether it was giving them extra time off beyond their vacation time, providing bonuses even when times were tight, or slipping a struggling parent a couple of hundred dollars before Christmas so they could buy their children Christmas gifts.
In his personal life, he demonstrated generosity by inviting my grandmother to come and live with us when I was a little boy. He helped one of my uncles many times throughout his life, even when it was clear that my uncle might never get his life together. He did the same thing for me more times than I could count, even into adulthood.
I hope that generosity is one of the traits that I learned from my father. But today, we’re going to talk about a father whose generosity makes that of my own father pale in comparison. Today, we’re going to talk about the prodigal father.
Now, this word, “prodigal,” comes from the Latin, prodigus, which means lavish. You will recognize it from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke, chapter 15, where we get a picture of the modern meaning of the word — to spend money freely or recklessly.
Let’s take a quick look at this parable to see that picture, and then we’ll take a closer look at the real, primary subject of the parable, the father.
And He said, “A man had two sons. “The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. “Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. “And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.” ’ “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. “And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. “And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. “But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’ ”
Now, we can all agree that the younger son in this parable took a prodigal approach to life after he had received his share of his father’s inheritance.
Verse 13 tells us that he squandered his estate with loose living. His older brother, who might have heard from friends about his brother’s exploits in a foreign land, said in verse 30, that the young man had devoured his father’s wealth with prostitutes.
Whatever the younger son might have spent his money on, the point that Jesus was making in His description of that man’s life was that he had spent himself into a position where he could no longer support himself when a famine hit that land.
He had finally hit rock bottom and, as we see in verse 17, “he came to his senses.” In the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke, this was an expression of repentance. We hear his repentant heart in the speech he had prepared for his father.
“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
He was ready to admit that he was a sinner.
This is important, because Jesus told this parable and the two that appear earlier in Chapter 15 in response to grumbling by the Pharisees and scribes who were following Him at the time.
Look at verse 1.
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
You see, the religious leaders of Jerusalem were offended at the company Jesus kept. They were offended that he spent time — and even shared meals — with people who were considered the lowest of the low in Israel.
But the common theme to all three of his parables of response — the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the one we know as the parable of the prodigal son — is one of rejoicing over what was lost having been found.
A shepherd rejoices over finding a lost sheep in verses 4-7. A woman rejoices over finding a lost coin in verses 8-10. And a father rejoices over the return of a lost son in today’s parable.
The pharisees rejoiced in their own righteousness, but the heavenly father rejoices over the repentant sinner. That’s what Luke wanted us to understand by laying out this portion of Jesus’ ministry the way he did.
There are many ways to teach this parable, but the context that Luke provides in verses 1 and 2 gives us the real frame of reference as to what Jesus was talking about.
The younger brother represents the tax collectors and sinners — people who were listening to Jesus’ words and turning to him in repentance for their sins.
The older brother represents the Pharisees — people who were proud that they had kept the letter of the law, though they had done so only because they looked forward to some reward for having done so and not out of love for the Father. And like the older brother, they held in contempt others who had failed in public ways to keep the law.
And the Father represents God.
So let’s take a look at this prodigal father and see how the “reckless” way he dealt with both of his sons is like the reckless way that God deals with all we sinners.
First, look at the younger son’s demand: “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.”
This would have been a highly unusual request — perhaps even a shocking one — in the culture of that day and place.
Under the Jewish and Roman laws of the time, the younger son would have been eligible to receive one third of his father’s estate at the death of his father, and the elder son would have received two-thirds. But neither had any right to that estate while the father lived, and it would have been considered wise for a father to deny such a request if it were made.
But we don’t even hear that this father hesitated. He simply divided his wealth between the sons.
And then, the younger son left home, which would have been even more shocking to those who heard this parable as Jesus told it.
That’s because sons during this period of time were expected to stay home and work with their fathers and care for them in their old age so that they would be around to give him a decent burial when he died.
So, the picture you should have in your mind is of a son who disrespected his father by demanding his inheritance and then cut ties with his family by taking the money and leaving home.
The people hearing this story from Jesus would surely by now have been wondering why in the world this father did not discipline his wayward son, and they would have been flabbergasted by the idea of him opening up his pocketbook and giving in to the young man’s demands.
The father was acting with reckless abandon regarding this son, but what we’ll see is that his recklessness was just beginning.
So, the son went away. He lost all his money and then found himself in the middle of a famine and took a job feeding pigs, and soon he was starving to death. And then, he repented and decided to return home and offer his services as a servant, since he no longer had a right to consider himself a son of the father with whom he had cut all ties.
He worked out a confession in his head and planned to offer it to his father as a sign of his repentant heart.
But what we see in verse 20 is that he didn’t even get the chance to make his apology before his father welcomed him home.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
Here is a picture of this disrespected father waiting in hopeful expectation for his wayward son to come home. He saw him from a long way off.
And so, the people who heard this parable from Jesus might have thought to themselves, “OK, now the father is going to demand the respect this young man failed to show him earlier. Now, he will demand the public apology for the very public offense that had been committed against him. Now, surely he will wisely demand that his son prove himself before opening the doors of the household to him.”
But that’s not what happened. Instead of feeling anger or resentment toward his son, the father felt compassion for him, just as God feels compassion for sinners who turn to Him in repentance.
The Pharisees felt offended by the sinners whom Jesus entertained, but God felt compassion for them.
And the compassion of this father in the parable was evident. He RAN to the son. He embraced him and he kissed him.
Running would have been unusual and undignified for an older man in this time and place. To do so, he would have had to tie up his tunic in his belt, and that would have left him shamefully exposed.
Besides, men of this time were often judged by the way they walked. A slow and dignified walk signified a man of status. Running signified someone who was impulsive and even out of control.
Even in his demeanor toward this returned son, the father was demonstrating recklessness; he was prodigal in the very way he showered his compassion.
But the recklessness of his compassion wasn’t yet finished.
The father interrupted the son in the middle of his speech — before he could even ask to be admitted to the household as a servant — and gave his household servants a series of commands.
“Bring out the best robe and put it on him.” This was the sign of someone who was being brought into the house as an honored guest.
“Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.” The ring was a sign of authority, and the sandals a sign of freedom, because slaves didn’t wear shoes.
“Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.” People of this era didn’t often eat meat , and a calf that had been fattened was being saved for some special occasion. To kill it for an unexpected celebration would be a great extravagance.
But extravagance is exactly the picture that Jesus is painting for us here. And it’s exactly the thing that sinners receive when they turn to Jesus in faith.
We are welcomed into the family of God as sons and daughters, not as servants. We are promised fine, white robes of linen in heaven. We are promised a feast in heaven to celebrate the union of Jesus Christ and His Church.
In the same way that the father of this parable was prodigal in his compassion and celebration, our heavenly Father is prodigal in His compassion for and celebration of lost sinners who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.
In the first half of this parable, Jesus told of this great, reckless compassion of God.
And in the second half, he rebuked the Pharisees for not having the same compassion, the same love, for those whom God loves.
But even in this part of the parable, we see a father who was reckless in his love, a father who was prodigal in showing compassion for his children.
The party was going strong by now, and the older brother had come back from the field and heard the festivities, but instead of joining the celebration, we see in verse 28 that he “became angry and was not willing to go in.”
So, his father once again broke social norms. As the host, he would have been expected to stay inside and entertain his guests and wait for the older son to come to his senses — to repent — just as the younger one had done.
But just as he did with the younger son, the father went outside to meet the other son, and immediately, the older son proved he could be disrespectful, too.
“Look! I’ve served you all these years, and I’ve never disobeyed you, and yet you have never given me a goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”
Even the older son’s way of addressing his father was disrespectful. “Look!” he said, not, “Father.”
And then, he revealed that he’d been working for his father not out of love for his father, but in hopes of getting something in return.
And then, he refused to acknowledge the younger son as his brother, calling him “this son of yours” and implying that his father shared in that son’s guilt.
Surely this kind of disrespect would earn the older son a rebuke.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, this prodigal father treated his older son with prodigal compassion, just as he had done with the younger one.
“Son,” he said, addressing the man with a compassion and respect he had not been shown, “all that I have is yours.” In other words, you could have killed the fattened calf whenever you wanted.
He didn’t respond by rebuking the son for his disrespect. He didn’t employ the paternal power and authority that was his within that culture.
Instead, as he had with his younger son, this father chose to be generous to a fault. He chose prodigal generosity.
He chose to mingle mercy with compassion and love. He chose to celebrate the lost son who had been found, the brother who was dead and now lived. And he graciously invited the angry older son to put away his bitterness and join the celebration.
Jesus left it to the imagination of those who heard this parable to decide whether the older son accepted this invitation.
But it is clear that most of the Pharisees whom that character in the parable portrayed chose not to accept the implied invitation.
Jesus was inviting them to celebrate the repentant return of sinners to the household and the table of God.
And he was inviting them to come into the house, too. He was inviting them to recognize their wrong ideas about God and about their relationship to Him.
But they were confident in their own righteousness. They loved their esteemed positions in society. They loved to, as Jesus put it later in this interaction with them, “justify themselves in the sight of men.”
But God doesn’t look at all those external things. God looks at hearts. God knows the hearts of men.
And God knew that in their hearts — in their thoughts and in the privacy of their homes — they were sinners, just like everybody else.
He was calling them into a relationship of love with Him, but they wanted a transactional relationship.
They followed His commandments, expecting that they would be well rewarded for having done so. But the reward of heaven is only for those who repent of their sins and turn to Jesus in faith.
And these Pharisees — these older brothers from the parable — could not stomach the idea that sinners and tax collectors could simply be admitted into God’s family that way, and so they conspired to have the Romans crucify Jesus so that He would stop preaching this message, this good news.
And as He hung upon that cross, Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all mankind — tax collectors, sinners, and Pharisees alike — so that all who believe in Him could be saved from eternal punishment for their sins and could instead be blessed by the prodigal Father in heaven with eternal life as sons and daughters who have been reconciled to God.
He is generous to a fault. He mingles mercy and compassion and pours them out as grace, “a grace that is always unmerited and undeserving.” [Trevor J. Burke, “The Parable of the Prodigal Father: An Interpretative Key to the Third Gospel (Luke 15:11–32),” Tyndale Bulletin 64, no. 2 (2013): 236.]
The question that remains today is this: Who are you in this story?
Are you the prodigal son who has come to the prodigal Father and been shown grace and mercy that he never could have imagined?
Are you the prodigal son when he was starving in the pigpen, at the end of his rope with nowhere to turn?
Perhaps you are the self-righteous older brother, the one who clearly didn’t love the father but only looked at him as a means to an end.
Wherever you might find yourself in this story, know this: The table is set for a great feast, and our prodigal Father in heaven is waiting at the door, watching and waiting to run out to you and welcome you as a son or daughter.
His generous offer of salvation is yours to claim. Will you accept it today?