11 -12Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.'
12 -16"So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
17 -20"That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father.
20 -21"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'
22 -24"But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time.
25 -27"All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.'
28 -30"The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'
31 -32"His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"
Luke 15
we learned this at rock harbor this past week and i just had to share! i know a lot of us have heard this story plenty of times in our walks with God but they were really challenging us to look at this story from a new perspective by really diving into the context of the story. first off, we find the son asking his father for his inheritance. in that time, sons would get their inheritance after their fathers died. for the son to ask this, it would have been like him saying, "Would you just die already so I can have my money?" now we can sort of gauge how the jews felt back then when Jesus was telling this story. for a son to even mention this would be cause for stoning but the father goes and does it anyway. now another thing was that, the son couldn't use this inheritance for spending because it was land, so he had to sell it. the thing is, the people he sold the land to couldn't use it until the father dies so the logical thing for the son to do was to sell the land at a discount. so we see this picture of a son asking his father for his inheritance and then selling his land for cheaper than what it costs. he goes off and spends his money on worldly things and his brother even makes a reference to prostitutes and things like that. he ends up having to work with pigs and we have to remember that to jews, pigs are unclean and untouchable so he's working at the lowest of the low. he even hungers for the pigs' scraps. that's how far he sunk. he finally came to the realization that even the slaves on his father's estate were fed better than him and misunderstood his father's love. he felt that he didn't deserve to even come back as a son but come back as a slave and he felt that his father would actually accept this. it says "when he was a long way off," this means that the son was in public and what does the father do? he ran to his son. now for a man the father's age to be running would have been considered foolish and stupid. for a man to run like that and be put in that posture would be embarrassing but the father runs to his son anyway! the father embraced his son and kissed him, all the while people are jeering and putting the son down for leaving on such disrespectful terms. the father pretty much shields him and is saying by his actions that this was his son and that he is publicly restoring him. still misunderstanding his father's love, the son asks his father to let him be a slave. the father disregards his request and tells the servants to bring the son clothes and a ring and sandals for his feet. the sandals are important because this was a sign that no way was the father ever going to treat his son like a slave. back in that time, slaves were the ones not wearing any sandals. the father then invites the majority of the town to come and feast because his son has returned home! this is how it is with God. no matter how much we do, no matter how much we wrong Him, His love is never ending for us. He takes us back every single time no matter how much we shame Him. now we turn to the older brother. the older brother is angry that the father never threw a celebration for him but does throw one for the younger one after he shames the entire family. the father tells him that everything that he has is the son's. but this isn't the time to sulk and be jealous, this is time to celebrate. i think for us, we have to know not to take God's love for granted. we need to learn how to celebrate when people accept Jesus into their lives because it is a wonderful occasion. one other important thing to notice from this story is that the father let the son do what he wanted. he didn't stop the son. he let the son make his mistakes. it's the same way with God! He lets us do what we want because in the end we always come back to the same conclusion, that God is good. and He willingly takes us back. He celebrates and rejoices because we return home.
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