The Parable of the Lost Son

God's Attitude towards lost people

The context of this story is found in Luke 15:1,2. "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, 'This Man receives sinners and eats with them.' " . In response to this criticism, Jesus tells three stories which all reveal something of God's great love for lost people, and His great joy when they return to Him. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to understand that God loves sinners and they should despise and reject those who want are considering turning back to God.

The story of the lost son is the last of these three stories. It is quite well known. I recommend you read it yourself here. I will summarise the story.

A father had two sons. One day the younger son comes to the father and asks for his share of the father's inheritance. The father divides the inheritance between the sons. Then the younger son goes off and wastes his money on wild living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine came to the land and the son ends up feeding pigs - a despised and lowly occupation especially for a Jew. The son comes to his senses and realises he would be better off with his father again - even if only as a servant. So he goes back. While he is still a ways off, the father sees him, runs to him and kisses him. The son can't even finish his confession of guilt and unworthiness, because the father is so delighted that his son has returned. So he honors his son, restores him and throws a big party for him to celebrate his return.

When the older son hears about this, he is really angry. He feels the father is being unjust with him. After all, he never left home, he worked hard, and he never was given even a goat to enjoy himself with his friends.The father urges him to join the celebration, explaining that the younger son was lost and now is found, was dead, but now is alive.

The Meaning of the Parable

We need to understand that when the younger son was asking for his inheritance, he was really wishing for his father's death and expressing impatience. It was like, "Hurry up and die. Get out of my way! I can't wait to really live life." This was a terrible insult towards his father, who after all had taken care of him and given him life in the first place.

This reveals pretty much the common attitude towards God in many people today. People want the blessings God provides, but they would rather there was no God to tell them what to do. They don't want to honor and obey God. They want independence from God and his laws. Perhaps you have felt this way. I know I have at times. This "me first" attitude is at the root of what the Bible calls sin.

Anyone living independently of God's Word and Presence is like the lost son in this parable. Whether you live as a drug addict or as a high-powered executive of a major corporation - without God, you are lost. Anyone who in his heart rejects God's Lordship is lost.

The Father in the story was obviously a well-to-do landowner who possessed animals and servants. He was no fool. The younger son could obviously have learned much from his father, but he despised all that, and left. He went looking for short term fulfilment in casual sexual relationships, parties and things like that - much like what many of the youth of America and the western world generally are doing today. It is a fact that sex is never free. Whoever you sleep with generally ends up getting your money. If you waste your money and love on someone who doesn't care about you, you will end up either constantly craving more and enjoying less, or so hardened that in the end nothing matters to you anymore. This is not the way to enjoy the abundant life God wants you to enjoy.

What Can we See About the Father?

The Father could have just refused the son and put him in his place with severe discipline. Instead, he allowed him to go. In the same way, God allows us to go off and depart from Him, if that is what we want. He doesn't force us to stay. God is only interested in love that really comes from the heart. This just isn't possible unless we have a real choice and God takes a real risk of experiencing our rejection of Him and His love.

The problem with leaving God is that we cut ourselves off from the source of life. We may carry with us some of the blessings God gave us - talents, money, abilities, relationships, knowledge and so on, but eventually even these, cut off from the source, eventually dry up leaving us with nothing. This is what happened to the son in the story.

Wastefulness

It wasn't just that the son did sinful things. It was that he wasted his possessions. When we depart from God we are wasting part of our life, part of our potential. God has given every person lots of potential. What we do with it matters a lot to God. This principle is revealed also in the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Pounds, found in Matthew 25 and Luke 19 respectively.

To a Christian, God has already given everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:4), every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), salvation (Romans 10:9,10), the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and lots more. Thousands of promises can be appropriated by the believing Christian. O.K., what are we doing with them. When we go off and waste hours, days and weeks in the kind of living not in line with that of a dedicated disciple of Christ, we are the losers. This is one reason why I think we should be wary of computer games, which can consume valuable hours every day and draw our hearts away from the Lord, even if they are not overly sinful in nature. God wants us to major on Jesus and being like Him, and not please ourselves. Every one of us has to make that choice. But investing our lives in the kingdom of God is very wise, since only God's Kingdom remains in the end.

As Christians, we can waste our lives doing things that are not 'the best'. For example, we can listen to Christian entertainment music for hours instead of seriously getting into listening to preaching and teaching, and getting out and moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can talk and hang out with our friends about stuff that isn't going to take us anywhere, or we can press in and really touch God and our generation too! Does this sound too heavy? Well, remember, you are free to do what you want to do, but you have to give an account in the end. Do you want to be mediocre for Christ or really make an impact in this sinful world? Its up to you to choose.

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